Memphis Democrat
May 27, 2004

So much is going on, it is hard to remember it all! We had lots of visitors this week. Trish's parents came up from Saint Louis for the day. My friends from Truman State University, Dawn and Garret spent the night. They helped me with my research and Dawn taught a yoga class the next morning. Ken Henderson (or as we call him, Ken the Baker) of Memphis came for the Saturday tour and left us with lots of yummy bread. Thanks! Cleo, Craig and their son Adrian are visiting Sandhill from Twin Oaks community in Virginia. They came by for a little visit and led a singalong.

Thomas came back from his visit to Pekin, IL with his girlfriend Nicole and lots of new furniture for the common house in tow. Nicole was an intern several years back and we're glad to see her again. We also have two really neat visitors from Oklahoma, Lorri and Everett.

Construction is continuing at a pace. Skyhouse has put the final coat of sealant on their beautiful wood floor in their kitchen. Ironweed and Dan are making good progress on the foundations of their buildings. Kent, the contractor who helped us build the common house, came by and graded the courtyard area with the topsoil pile from digging the foundation. Alyson seeded it with a short native grass called Buffalo Grass. We're going to put wildflowers in front of the mural and we're figuring out where to plant the fruit trees next spring.

Jayd came over from Sandhill and led some lessons in swing dancing, which was tons of fun. Laura organized a storytelling night around the theme "misunderstandings." As usual, it was funny and interesting. I'm out in my research fields every day checking on the baby birds (they sure are cute!). The strawberries are coming out of the gardens in a steady stream. There's nothing like a fresh-picked ripe strawberry! It's exciting to see the peas flowering and the beans poking out of the ground.

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