Memphis Democrat
April 4, 2002

Hi everyone! It's Alline filling in for Rachel, who is still visiting with her family in New York.

I thought at first that this would be a fairly short article, as it seemed to be a calm, serene week at Dancing Rabbit. But once I started investigating I found out that there had been a regular blizzard of activity here on the farm!

Kurt returned from four days down in Newark where he has been doing cabinetry and other carpentry work for Kent Kattleman. Kurt has a great time while he's there. He learns a lot from Kent, gets to play with power tools and enjoys, in his words, " playing with kids my own age." By the way, Kurt's birthday is Tuesday, April 2nd. Happy Birthday, honey!

Don has been working like a man possessed on the entryway rennovation of the trailer. Whoooeee! We now have coat and shoe racks galore. Unable to restrain himself to the front room, he's also added shelves in the kitchen (room for all of our cookbooks!) and lots of towel hooks in the bathrooms. If gardening season doesn't start soon, we may have a whole new house. Hmmmm, now there's an idea!

Susan B. and Alyson went to Mike and Brenda Roe's to pick up this month's supply of canned veggies - the Roes kindly let us use their root cellar - and while there got a tour of their new church/home. The rest of us are green with envy, as we've been trying to imagine what the stained glass looks like from the inside, and how they're going turn the space into a home. Susan and Alyson report that it is really beautiful, and that the plans for rennovation sound terrific.

Speaking of Susan B. and Alyson, the two of them joined me, Tom, and Sol and Cedar from Sandhill for a jaunt into Memphis for the nursing home auction. For a bunch of folks who initially thought it looked unpromising, we sure filled up the back of the truck quickly! We all got what we consider to be 'treasures', from my footstool, to Alyson's stove (!) to the rocker that Sol and Cedar purchased for late nights with their soon-arriving baby. We had a lot of fun seeing people we recognized, even if we're embarassed by not being able to put the faces with names until hours later…

Erik has been working busily on keeping our vehiclies running, and is doing an incredible job. As he works quielty behind the scenes, we don't often get to thank him as much as we ought to. So THANKS, Erik!

Jeffrey and Tamar returned from fun-packed trip east. They visited Tamar's family in Massachusetts and celebrated Seder with them, and were also in Atlanta to help sing 'Happy Birthday' to Jeffrey's mother. Last but not least, they spent time in Chicago where Jeffrey's father Andy lives. Andy left some museum passes for Tamar and Jeffrey under a brick in front of his house - sounds like secret agent activities to me! Now that she's back, Tamar's looking forward to getting back into fiddle lessons and gardening.

Mark and Megan picked up Tamar and Jeffrey from the train station in La Plata, but first spent the sunny day in Kirksville. They stopped by One World Video (across from the post office) where they rented two movies. They really like the deal that Alan (one of the owners) has going - if you rent two movies, he'll throw in a third for free. The catch? Alan gets to pick out the free one. This way we get exposed to great movies that we've never heard of, and Alan gets to share his expertise. Very fun!

Rainbow came back from a trip to Virginia and announced that she'll be moving there in a month. She's radiantly happy to have found what feels like a 'real' home to her, and while we'll miss her, we're happy, too. Our friend Nancy Kelly of Blue Heron Orchard in Canton drove Rainbow here from the Quincy train station. It was a pleasure to see Nancy again, and to receive the delicious home-grown eggs and baby greens from her farm.

We hosted 14 enthusiastic students and two enthusiastic professors from Knox College in Illinois. Susan W. gave the tour (her first!) and the students asked wonderful, insightful questions. After lunch they helped Don in the garden and took a walk down to the creek with Tom to look at some of our prairie restoration.

Whew! See what I mean?

One last note - we LOVE to have visitors and guests, and enjoy showing folks around our growing village. However, as we host several hundred visitors a year, we are unable to give tours to drop in visitors. Please, please call before coming out! Our first Saturday tour of the year is this Saturday, April 6th. You can call us at 883-5511 to let us know you're coming. Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is a nonprofit and a residential community that demonstrates ecological sustainability in Rutledge, MO

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