Memphis Democrat
April 11, 2002

We weathered the first big influx of the Spring. We welcomed 6 interns and residents, bringing our population to 21. Bob, who will be working in the garden joined us from Texas, where he is a sail maker and hang glider. Tanya came on board as a Village intern, meaning she's helping all over the farm. She is from Colorado and one of her recent gigs was picking olives in Italy. Penn is our other Village intern. He came to us from Mississippi and plays a mean banjo. Gare is spending the spring with us as a resident. He lives in Yellow Springs, OH where his wife teaches at Antioch College. Skyhouse is hosting two residents to help them finish their big house. Jane is from the UK and she has the most delightful accent. Erin traveled here from Ontario, Canada. I know I'll like her already because during her tour on her first day here she came across a few of us examining a rabbit skeleton we had found, and she jumped right in.

We took advantage of all the fresh energy with our annual land clean. All of us spent the day cleaning, deconstructing, and sorting around the farm. We filled up our truck and trailer with old farm debris to go the landfill, and have another whole load waiting to go. It was very satisfying to see us accomplish so much so fast.

Some of the fruit and nut trees came in that we ordered. Thanks Mark and Penn for planting them. That was just a warm up, because we have a whole bunch more coming from the state nursery.

Alyson hosted a letter writing night. Many of us wrote letters to our representatives asking the government to continue to fund Amtrak's cross country routes. They are considering moving to just regional service on the coast and around a few hubs. If you ride Amtrak, maybe you'll consider writing a letter, too.

With the influx of new musical talent, we couldn't wait to have a singalong. Penn played the banjo and Tanya strummed the guitar. New people bring new songs for us to learn and we enjoyed the opportunity.

Don and his growing team of helpers have whipped the garden into shape. The beds and seedlings look great, and the onions are already starting to come up. Yummy!

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is a nonprofit and a residential community that demonstrates ecological sustainability in Rutledge, MO. We have Saturday

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