Memphis Democrat Column from June 26, 2008

I am writing my column early this time around (on Thursday) since I am leaving for Columbia tomorrow morning. Our second granddaughter, Maya June Callaway-Biermann, made her debut at 7:34 am this morning. She is a healthy eight and a half pounds and both she and her mother are doing very well. Michael and I will be in grandparent land for a week. With the heavy rain the past couple of nights, I'm surprised we aren't all growing gills and fins here at Sandhill Farm. The level of our ponds were temporarily higher, but our upland location keeps us from having much trouble with flooding here. Kevin drove into Quincy yesterday morning to drop some folks off at the train and rain into knee-deep high water over the road near Colony that caused him to have take an alternate route. The dry weather this past week allowed us to get our second round of sorghum transplants in, plant our field beans, and do all the necessary tractor work that was pending. I noticed that our neighbors the Goods were going full tilt with their haying at the same time. It was fortunate that we did have the dry interlude. We were also able to get a lot done in the gardens. We have had an active visitor scene the past three weeks. Ayoshka, a Swedish woman, came on June 16 to spend a week with us after she finished a three week visit at Dancing Rabbit. She is a yoga teacher. A couple from Alton, Illinois arrived the same day and were here until June 19. Mike has his own computer business and Julie is a researcher at Southern Illinois University. On June 20, a young French Canadian woman, Arielle, arrived and she will be at Sandhill Farm until July 12. She has been travelling in Mexico and the United States this year before she returns to her university studies in Montreal. A former member of Twin Oaks Community, Emily, is now here and will spend the next couple of months with us. Emily has been here before as part of a Twin Oaks sorghum crew, so she is not a stranger. She is also a good friend of Apple's. Emily is now a graduate student at the University of Oregon in Eugene. We also had a visit from past Sandhill member, Lindsey, who is living in Berkeley, California these days. She spent a week and half with us and "Miss Lindsey" livened up the place in her usual fashion while she was here. She has started her own business in the Bay Area, doing specialized landscape pruning. Doug has still been here during this time and left yesterday to return to Jacksonville, Florida where he lives. He is hoping to get a berth on a ship and be out to sea again pretty soon. Before he left, he staged a fireworks extravaganza for us on Monday night. It was to celebrate Renay's birthday, the expected birth of my granddaughter, and also just for fun. Renay celebrated her twelfth birthday (which was actually on June 20) with a party at the Memphis pool yesterday. She was joined there by some of her classmates from school and then they returned to the farm for more swimming, supper and a sleepover. Sierra, Angela and Cynder from Dancing Rabbit came over late in the afternoon for the festivities. We all feasted on the excellent supper prepared by Apple with help from Emily and Arielle. We finished off with Gigi's fabulous strawberry cheesecakes with ice cream on the side. Stan is on the road in eastern Kansas doing organic farm inspections this week. We expect him home again next Tuesday. Laird and Ma'ikwe returned from their trip east Monday evening for a short stay. They were at the National Cohousing Conference in the Boston area, where they were presenters, ran the FIC bookstore and staged a benefit auction for the cohousing association. Laird and Ma'ikwe also worked with a cohousing group in Brooklyn, New York. They are now in Albuquerque packing Ma'ikwe's possessions in preparation for her move with her son Jibran to Dancing Rabbit in July. They will also be visiting Ceilee and his family in Las Vegas before returning to Missouri.

Sandhill Farm

http://www.sandhillfarm.org

Laird's Commentary on Community and Consensus http://communityandconsensus.blogspot.com.html

Stan's Agricultural Blog

http://www.thefec.org/blog/11