Memphis Democrat
June 30, 2005

This is Suzanne writing about the first truly hot week of summer. On the day of the summer solstice, June 21st, Red Earth Farms signed the papers to finalize the purchase of their new land and hosted their first Land Day party that evening. People from both Dancing Rabbit and Sandhill came over to celebrate what we expect will be the first of many happy occasions.We went for a walk around the land, swam in the pond, drank black currant ade and homebrews, and sat around a campfire toasting marshmallows and talking until the wee hours.

Ted's parents Ann and Kieran were visiting from Richmond, Virginia and Ann noticed what a perfect arena the sloping hills would make for an outdoor summer theater. They hope to come back next summer to see us perform Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. Guess we had better start practicing--it sounds like a great idea!

Preparatory to the party, interns Julia, Joe, and Zach worked with Red Earth Farms and Ted to build a new bridge over the creek that runs between our two communities. The logs of the old bridge had rotted through completely last week. The new bridge is both sturdy and a work of art.

I did a lot of berry picking this week. Rachel has been so busy with field work that she generously offered to let me pick her black currants. Tereza and I cleaned the currants and then Dan made them into wine, using Sandhill's recipe. On Tuesday a bunch of us will help Sandhill pick their currants in exchange for wine,berries or jam.

This week at the Milkweeds Cinema Alline hosted the beginning of the Forsyte Saga, a BBC dramatic series with many episodes. Several of us are already hooked after only the first few episodes. Amy was so impatient to know what happens next she borrowed the dvd set and watched several episodes ahead of the rest of us! Kurt hosted poker games the same nights as the show for those not into romantic drama. This looks to be a popular ongoing dual event for the next few months.

We had a little too much drama this week-- Laura fell and broke her wrist and Penn and Tamar rushed her off to the Memphis emergency room. Laura says that the doctors and nurses were all really nice. It was a pretty painful break and she will be wearing a cast for several weeks. Luckily she did not need surgery. Her parents were here visiting at the time and it was great for her to have them around for support. We hope that her wrist heals quickly and cleanly. Penn is helping her to keep her garden weeded and watered in the meantime.

Watering the gardens has become a critical need after several days with no rain. We are getting desperate enough to do a rain dance. Where are those summer storms when you need them? The heat and humidity is sapping a lot of people's energy.

You might think the heat would stop us from playing Ultimate frisbee. In fact, the games have only intensified. We wait until 8pm when it is cooler to play and then use a lighted frisbee so we can see after dark. We played four nights this week. No, we aren't obsessed with Ultimate!

Kurt and a crew of folks working with him broke ground on his new workshop this week. They got the concrete foundation poured and the framework up in two days despite the blistering heat. Simultaneously, a second crew was working on the outdoor plaster for the Milkweeds cottage. Aaron Ross, a former intern, is here visiting and helping the crew. He now builds strawbale homes professionally in Boulder, Colorado. We are all happy to see him back and hope to talk him into moving here one of these years.

Andrew came back this week at long last--he had an enjoyable visit with his family. He lost his glasses within the pond the first couple of days he was back and has been diving ever since in hopes of finding them. He has not had any luck yet, but he did find Ted's sunglasses which had been submerged in the mud an entire year. The sunglasses were somehow still in pristine condition.

We celebrated Alline's birthday bright and early Thursday morning with coffee, cigarettes and cinnamon rolls. Only a couple of us are actually smokers but it was fun for the novelty of it. And, Alline's cinnamon rolls were delicious.

Jeffrey's dad Andy is here visiting this week and he has been helping Jeffrey build a new bedframe, and working on Kurt's workshop. We also had visitors Hermes, Maureen and their young son Aidan visiting from Austin, Texas, and visitor Lionne from St. Louis. Both were short visits but we enjoyed meeting them.

We are planning a float trip on the Chariton river on the 7th of July and are short a few innertubes--if anyone has any spare intertubes to donate please give us a call.

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