Memphis Democrat
March 27, 2003

What a busy week! The nice weather encouraged everyone to get outside and get busy. Tamar and Thomas spent a day pruning all of our fruit trees. We've been planting some every year and we love watching them grow. Tom, Susan, Penn and Thomas headed over to Downing for a day to try and finish up the barn demolition project they started last fall. Each time they bring home a trailer full of wood. Even though the weather was warm, the maple sap was still flowing, and Alyson did the last sugaring run of the season. It was a short season, but we'll be very thankful for whatever maple syrup gets made.

Bob and Cecil have been spending hours surveying around "town." Our land is owned by a land trust, and we each have a lifetime lease on the areas where we build our houses or do agriculture. We've been kind of faking the boundaries and sizes for the last few years. But as we grow, it gets more important that these things are clear.

Stephanie left for Honduras for a few weeks. She joined a group of doctors and builders who are doing humanitarian work down there. Kurt and Alline spent a few days with their friends Kent and Mary Jo. Kent and Kurt went out on the job site swinging hammers. Alline and Mary Jo got busy on a quilt.

This winter Andra bought a sock monkey puppet kit from Zimmerman's Store. Since then she can often be seen during our Sunday meetings working on some sort of puppet or another. This week it looked like she was making a bear. I can't wait until we are treated to a puppet show.

This was the first week of our visitor season. We usually have two individuals or families visit Dancing Rabbit for a week for most of the warm season. Our first visitors were Ma'ikwe and her five year old son Jibran. They visited us from Michigan and they have decided to come back for six weeks starting in June to explore moving to Dancing Rabbit. Many will miss Jibran and his large collection of Legos in the meantime. Then Jim Moore arrived from near Mexico, MO. He came bearing many gifts that were gratefully received.

Our special guest this week was Jamie, who works at the clinic up in Memphis. She joined us for dinner and then gave a presentation about blood pressure that was very well attended. She taught us about the causes and dangers of high blood pressure and then showed us how to check each others' blood pressure with the equipment she brought along. And I discovered we have a very healthy group of people here! We enjoyed her demonstration and appreciated her good humor with our jokes and silliness.

There was great turnout at the Rutledge Fire Department benefit dinner. We had to congratulate Cecil, as president of the board, on his advertising efforts, and praise all the chefs for the delicious food. It is great to see everyone come out to support such an important public service.

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