Memphis Democrat
February 5, 2004

Hi everyone. This is Alline for Dancing Rabbit.

Every summer all the Rabbits say things like "this winter, when things are slower, I'm going to do such and such." I haven't quite figured out just who has all this free time in the winter, with the exception of the gardeners. Don's been seen lately playing a lot of computer games, and Bob has just finished reading all of Barbara Kingsolver's books. He recommends them, by the way! As for the rest of us, things haven't slowed down much.

The conversation with Bob about books prompted me to ask Penn what he was reading. He just finished two non-fiction books on Guatemala (where he spent some time learning Spanish) and has just started David James Duncan's "The River Why." Rachel walked in next, so I asked her what she was reading. "Geo-statistics," she replied. That girl sure knows how to clear a room! She did mention that she'd loaned Tony a copy of Michael Pollan's "Botany of Desire" (which has received rave reviews) to read on his way to meetings in Tennessee. After that I began searching for other items for the column, sorrowfully abandoning a literary theme.

Tamar is enjoying the snow, much to the chagrin of the folks here who prefer the summer. Snow just makes her so happy - she'll walk into a room and announce "hey, y'all, it's SNOWING!" Saturday she slid up to our front door on her cross-country skis to ask if Baloo (our dog) could come along on an adventure with her and Maya (her dog). They all came back happy and exhausted.

Tereza and Tom left for a few weeks in Michigan. Brrrrr! Sounds like an odd place for a winter vacation to me, but they'll be visiting Tereza's mom and helping her get settled in her new house. Before they left, Tom was a flurry of activity - literally running everywhere. I'd see him out my window running one way to his house, then a few minutes running back the other way. It must be his winter training program. He had a big smile on his face.

Chad's parents Glenda and Edwyn Knepp stopped by for a visit and a tour. We enjoyed seeing them and had fun showing them our house and hot tub. We especially liked imagining what the Farm & Home folks must have thought when Kurt and I went and sat in stock tanks to determine which size we wanted (we can picture them scratching their heads, muttering "Don't those people know those tanks are for COWS? Must be from California...). After the tour, Chad and Alyson joined his parents for a trip to Iowa to visit Chad's brother.

Skyhouse (Jeffrey, Tony, Cecil, Alyson and Jacque) had a mini retreat where they discussed their building, their job scene, interpersonal dynamics and lots of other good stuff that makes for smooth running of an organization. Rachel took all of our recycling into Kirksville (yeah!), Stefanie has been baking and entertaining (three cheers for her chocolate-chip banana bread!), and we all received silly notes from Laura (who will be returning in March), which we all appreciated.

Work continues on Ted and Sara's house. They're kind of like the post office - neither sleet nor snow nor dark of night will keep them from their task. Most recently they installed green fabric throughout the interior. Not as a decorating scheme, but merely preparation for when the blown cellulose is brought in. A belated happy birthday to Ted's father, by the way!

Work is wrapping up on our Community Building, and Kurt spent the weekend working on our house. He worked on the electrical circuits and replaced many of the extension cords with plugs and plug covers. What a concept! He's VERY excited to have something in our house absolutely completely done.

We set a new world's record for short meetings this past Sunday, which made everyone but Arjen happy. He uses our meeting time to work on thermal curtains for his house, and his sewing time was cut short. Better luck next week!

Dancing Rabbit in a non-profit organization demonstrating ecological sustainability. We are not currently giving tours, but you can read more about us at http://www.dancingrabbit.org. Our phone number is 660-883-5511.

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