Memphis Democrat
April 17, 2003

Hi everyone! This is Alline filling in again for Rachel, who is on special assignment in New York this week where she and Tony are celebrating Passover with her family.

Speaking of Rachel, she's the cover girl on the latest issue of Communities Magazine. It's a shot of our gal Rache in a field of very tall prairie grass with a great big smile (Rachel is smiling, not the grass). The issue is on ecovillages, and we're also thrilled, proud and excited by the fabulous article about Dancing Rabbit penned by Steph. There's also an excellent article on urban ecovillages by our former member, current board member, and friend Jacob Stevens Corvidae. If you'd like a copy of the magazine, you can order one by calling the FIC at 660-883-5545. They're $6.00 each, which includes shipping/handling.

Steph returned tanned and even more fluent in Spanish from her service trip to Honduras. She especially liked what happened when she'd enter a hardware store with four big, burly but non-Spanish speaking construction workers. The store personnel ignored the men and spoke directly to Steph. It's always nice to be taken seriously (and not "little ladied"). Next time you see Steph, ask her how to say "hacksaw, retainer ring and O-ring washers" en Espanol.

Andra, Tamar, Tony and Rachel attedned a training session for the Stream Team. Co-sponsored by the Conservation Department and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, it is a cadre of volunteers around the state who regularly check local streams. They'll do water testing at our local creek, plant trees, and more. While I suspect it's mostly an excuse to play outside in the water, they claim it's quite scientific.

The big news in Penn's world is his excitement over catching the mice who were living in the wall above his bed - he was positively gleeful when he made the announcement.

In less deadly news, the Bluestem Food Co-op's garden is going like gangbusters. Every morning, surrounded by a chorus of meadowlarks, robins and blackbirds the Bluestem Bunch (Susan B., Tom, Penn, Andra, Gare and Bob) get to work. A big swath of land has been tilled and is being planted, and the sod has been removed from where the kitchen will eventually stand. Work on the foundation begins soon, weather depending. And the work transporting of the usable wood from the barn demolition site in Downing continues. Whew!

We often see Bob and Cecil out surveying our village. Cecil does the measuring and Bob "holds the stick" and provides both moral support and good ideas. It's fascinating to watch as they transpose their findings to a map and to see Dancing Rabbit on paper, officially.

Friday night after an especially intense meeting we had a dance party. Nothing like dancing to work out those tensions!

Saturday we hosted an amazing college group from KU. Not only were they a lot of fun, they helped de-nail wood from our fallen-down barn and asked lots of great questions. They also joined in our big sing-along on Saturday night. We hope some of them are inspired to come back in the future.

We had a visitor named Katie who plays the viola. There has been lots of music this week - including Sunday night when Katie (on viola) and Tamar (on violin) were working on a beautiful piece. I don't know the name of it, but it's the one that Ken Burns used all through his Civil War documentary. I kept expecting to run into Mary Todd Lincoln in the hallway.

Saturday afternoon featured a bridge game with Cecil, Jaque, Jeffrey and Gare. I don't imagine they had tea and crustless cucumber sandwiches, but they DID have fun.

Kurt says he's enjoying half of the lovely spring weather. The other half is going in his pocket to be used in August. Interesting concept...if only it worked!

Dancing Rabbit is a non-profit community demonstrating ecological sustainability. Our first tour of the year will be this Saturday, April 19th at 1:00. Please call us at 883-5511 if you are planning to come. Our website can be found at http://dancingrabbit.org.

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