Memphis Democrat
October 19, 2006

Ted here at Dancing Rabbit reporting this week's news to you.

The third time's a charm, as the saying goes, and with our first frost this year it was so. We had two frost scares prior to this week, when the temperature was forecast to be in the mid 30's, which we have learned to translate to the low 30's for our locale. They were so borderline as to leave surface frost on the leaves of plants that weren't hardy, like tomatoes and peppers, but not to freeze them through, so that they thawed and lived on to ripen some more fruit (albeit at a snail's pace, in the case of the peppers, since the weather was still generally cool). Early this week, though, with the forecast speaking of the upper 20's, we knew we wouldn't be spared, and so engaged in our most thorough "final" harvest of the season, harvesting all the green peppers and taking all the green tomatoes we thought we could ripen or cook green, and all the ripe fruit as well. We covered the salad and Chinese cabbage, and with sadness but also some relief said goodbye to our 2006 summer garden.

That was of course only the beginning though, as we had then accumulated a great deal of produce that needed processing. First we processed the Chinese cabbage, turnips, and daikon radishes, cleaning and slicing them and setting them in buckets of brine to begin their fermentation into the Korean pickle known as kim chee. This week we'll add the garlic, hot peppers, ginger, and scallions that complete it. The timing is good, since we're currently working through our last quart of last year's kim chee-- it really lasts, nourishing us throughout the year. Throughout the rest of the blustery week, we kept ourselves warm over the wood cookstove in Bluestem kitchen as we canned apple sauce and juice and hot pepper sauce, made pesto, bottled a grape and a cherry-blackberry wine, and started a hot pepper wine in a base of tomato juice. Bluestem's steam juicer is a highly versatile workhorse of the harvest season, and I recommend one to anybody who does lots of food processing. The electric dehydrator also worked when we had enough solar power to run it, drying tomatoes, herbs, and hot peppers.

In other news at DR this week, Thomas treated us to some more of his "rustic puppetry", as his puppet persona set up in the cozy sitting nook in our newly-rearranged common house great room and recited us a poem, first in German and then in English, called "Song of Winter". The contrast between the solemn material (and wintery weather) and Thomas's impossibly comic puppetry illustrated well Thomas's versatile character. Many of the puppets employed by Thomas are handmade by our friend and former DR resident Nicole, currently living back in Buffalo, NY (come back, Nicole!). All of which once again demonstrates to me that homemade entertainment can't be beat. You had to be there to see it, and it won't be rebroadcast...

A group of five bicyclists on a journey from their native Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) to Mexico gave us a call on short notice hoping for a place to camp for the night. We don't usually accept drop-in visitors (generally lacking the facilities and time and energy to host them) at DR, but a tradition of Canadian interns and our staunch support for non-motorized forms of transport made their plight hit a few soft spots, and we welcomed them for the night, glad to provide a little safe haven for venturesome travellers on such a wintery night. We hope they find warmer weather before long on their trip southward.

One a similar note, PJ "Scooter" came by for a day or so on a cross-country journey on his vintage Vespa scooter. A friend of Amy's, he was wind-worn but amiable, helping out with various tasks around the village. Numerous patches on his jacket attested to the many states he's been through on his journeys.

Tony and Alyssa finished installing their light-clay/straw insulation (which some of you may have seen in progress on our Open House tours a couple weeks ago), got much of their soffits and facia put up, and prepared to install their chimney, leaving them several steps closer to a warm house for the winter. Doors and windows are currently going in. Their work ethic is a wonder to behold.

Friday evening (a double wammy of Friday the 13th in the month of October) we watched "Gremlins" to set the mood for a spooky Hollerween (our Dancing Rabbit version of All Hallow's Eve). I never have had much of a stomach for horror or scary movies, and while the comic campiness of this movie made it a little more palatable, I had no trouble following Sara home not long after she went to put Aurelia to sleep for the night, where we watched something a little more suitable to our tastes. Those who stayed enjoyed the movie, though, and I can verify that there were hoots of laughter as I left.

Juan and Amy left for their six week honeymoon in Argentina (where Juan's family is from), and we hope they'll have a wonderful time and bring back lots of photos and stories to tell. Tereza hosted an impromptu gathering at her house with Tom, and it was a joy to squeeze in with 20-odd other folks in small quarters. We get good practice at that sort of thing in our many small buildings here. Former resident Steph blessed us with a visit of several days as well, updating us on her various pursuits and visiting with her many friends here. We're always so pleased to see her, and scheme ways to get her back here more often.

Finally, I spent the majority of my weekend with former DR and Red Earth member Tim first lowering and disassembling his wind turbine, which Ironweed has purchased, over at his house at Red Earth Farms, and then transporting it to Bluestem's garden (just to the north of Ironweed kitchen where our power system is destined to live), where we reassembled and raised it successfully. It was exhausting work, and a lot for me to learn in a short amount of time, but with all the high winds we've had the past two weeks, I was extremely satisfied to see the tower join the DR skyline again. It is rated at 1000 watts of output at 28mph wind speed, and will come on-line just in time to let us dry some of the remainder of our summer produce with our dehydrator, pumping out the power on these windy, cloudy days when our solar panels don't produce much.

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