Memphis Democrat
November 9, 2006

Hello everyone. Ted here at Dancing Rabbit with this week's news. We've developed a shorter rotation of folks who write this column since some have left for the winter, but Tony is stepping in now, so you'll see his column next week.

With our visitor season over and our last Saturday tour of the year given this past weekend, it has started to feel like the quiet season here at DR. The temperatures have also been well below average for much of the past several weeks, making it feel closer to winter than it really is. The cold nights we've had have tapered our garden produce off sooner than we'd hoped, so we're seeing the last of the greens now, and the last few salads, though we've planted both in our greenhouse for winter eating, and they're just starting to put on their true leaves.

It helps to pay frequent attention to the forecast, I've found. In Ironweed garden we've been trying to let our second crop of Chinese cabbage mature as much as possible to maximize our kim chee makings. In doing some research on Chinese cabbage, I've found that it is known as a half-hardy brassica, but I couldn't find any solid guide on what the lowest temperatures it can handle are. Tentatively we'd decided to harvest the good heads if the forecast said anything lower than the mid-20's. Early last week the forecast said there'd be two nights around 25, then it would be back above freezing. The two nights came, we covered the cabbages, and all was well. Then around dusk on the third day, when I was expecting a warmer night (but hadn't checked the forecast again since several days before), I got word from Tom that it was supposed to be down to 19 that night. Whoa! I hadn't known in time to harvest the good heads according to plan, and it was already below freezing out, so the best I could do was to cover them for the night and hope. As it turned out, they survived with damage only to the outer leaves (which we don't use anyway), but I recommitted to being more careful.

Alyssa, who spent six years as a professional midwife in Oregon before moving to DR, got a new birth video and showed it Sunday night. It was made in Russia and focused on the spiritual side of pregnancy and birth, documenting 11 natural births in a variety of settings. Though it wasn't the typical fare for movie nights at DR, it drew the largest crowd for a movie in recent memory. I found it both beautiful and also emotionally moving, given my recent participation in Aurelia's birth, and Sara and I talked and revisited parts of our own experience late into the night.

Tuesday night we had a great party after our community supper. For several years for Halloween (or Hollerween, as we call it down in the holler here at DR) we've had a "progressive fiasco"; I can't remember how that name came about the first time (in 2001, when I was an intern), but it is essentially a traveling party, where we spend 15-20 minutes at the house or tent of each rabbit who wants to host, moving parade-like from one to the next. Each offers various treats and beverages and sometimes will have an activity as well. It is great fun to see people comfortably settle right in to whichever place they find themselves. Along with bobbing for apples and pears (I discovered pears don't float, which makes for a wetter experience...), a bonfire, spooky charades and a couple dance parties, one of the highlights of this year's event was the gathering in Tony and Alyssa's new house, where each person got a written phrase out of a bowl, and we collectively made a spooky Halloween story that relied on both the stock phrases and each contributor's imagination. With friends from Red Earth, Sandhill, and elsewhere aboard, and with a nearly full moon, we had a fantastic event that went into the wee hours. Notable costumes included the ghost of Amy and Juans' wedding, a bedraggled garden fairy, election propaganda, the March Hare, and a walking crossword puzzle (successfully played out by the fifth stop). Can't wait for next year!

The windows in Tamar's house received the last pieces of trim required before the floor and finish plaster get installed. Trim work is far more than a carpenter's task for Tamar. Each piece is carefully chosen for its color and grain, and though it was a long steady effort, the finished product is an art piece, and incidentally probably gives Tamar's house the highest concentration of labor and attention for the smallest floor space in all of Scotland County! Tamar had already stomped several batches of finish plaster during good weather the weekend before last, and then she and Thomas went out to collect fresh cow manure, which is a choice plaster addition despite its redolence. Sunday Tamar and Brian mixed up several test batches of plaster with varying levels of manure content and applied them to the walls, so that as soon as the floor is installed she'll be ready to plaster with the best mix, after which she can at long last move back into her fabulously refurbished abode just in time for winter.

Tony B. and Alyssa's new house made some significant steps closer to being ready for winter as well. Early in the week they blew their cellulose insulation into the ceilings, which meant a warmer experience than we expected when the party stopped there. The later part of the week focused heavily on plastering all the walls. The two homeowners finished the loft plaster on their own; later in the week I joined a plastering party-in-progress with Alyssa, Jennifer and Suzanne hard at work on the south wall. Saturday morning they hosted a second group of students from Truman State and made good progress on the north wall. Tony's parents and nephew arrived for a visit Saturday as well, and whisked the two hard workers off to Quincy for a much-deserved day of rest.

With election day nearly here, Rachel and Tony have been hard at work making get-out-the-vote calls and we've planned a voting party for Tuesday morning, with some of us walking, some biking and some driving to vote in Rutledge and then spend a little time hanging out at Zimmerman's cafe before heading home to await election results with baited breath. All of you readers out there, wherever you may be, and whatever your party or opinion, please be sure to exercise your right to vote and help guide your state's and country's direction in whatever way you see fit!

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