Memphis Democrat
June 17, 2004

This has been such a fun week! Besides the usual games of Ultimate Frisbee, and music in the evenings, there has been some special fun. Alyson and Jade held another swing dancing lesson, and plan to do so before every Sandhill dinner for the next several weeks. That was only a warm up for the big dance event. My friend Gretchen in Saint Louis was holding a big party for her 30th birthday, with a band and a contra dance caller. Eight of us rented a van and headed down to the St Louis area for the weekend. The party was great fun and we danced the night away! Ex-resident Trish is working at an organic farm several miles away and she met us at the party. We stayed at the house of another friend who works at the Shaw Nature Reserve. The next day, after a lovely brunch, we headed over to Trish's place. She lives in a refurbished log cabin from the 1850's in a wooded ravine. She took us on a hike up to the bluffs about the Meremac River. It was beautiful!

Amy's favorite game is called Cranium. It is a board game that combines elements of charades, pictionary, trivial pursuit and more. We played men versus women and had a great time humming songs and acting like famous people. Another night Sara organized folks to paint signs. Next time you come by, you might see new signs that say things like "Parking" or "Community Building" crafted by the more artistic among us.

Speaking of artistic, Ted and Sara bought some glass pieces from Payne in the Glass in Memphis. They used them to make a mosaic on the wall of the upstairs of their house. I haven't seen it yet but I heard it is gorgeous.

We were all very happy to welcome Arjen back for two weeks, especially Stefanie. He is working on documenting the nesting of a bird on the coast of Oregon for the summer. I hear that it is hard work with long hours, but it brings in almost enough money for he and Stefanie to live here for the rest of the year.

We also are having a very sweet visitor named Madelyn from western Illinois. Her parents first heard about Dancing Rabbit when they were in Rutledge for the flea market. Her whole family came for a tour and 15 year-old Madelyn decided that she wanted to come for a week visit. She has been working hard helping everyone out. Her first day she helped Amy and Tony build a cat-run for Amy's two cats. They are traditionally indoor cats, but Amy is living in a very small house. So they built a fenced in area with a little catwalk to the window, so they can come in and out as they please.

The tour was packed this week. I don't know who all the kids were, but I knew a few were the grandkids of Oren and Celina Erickson. Oren patiently followed the tour, even though he must have seen everything enough times he could give the tour himself. Or not everything, because there are new things popping up all the time. Dan put up the two block walls of his house this week, with the help of Tom and Jeff. It went up in just about a day and took another day or two to finish the stucco and cement.

Thomas went for a little trip to help out our friends Kent and Mary Jo with some painting. He came home sick and we hope he feels better real soon.

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