Memphis Democrat
January 11, 2007

Greetings again. Juan here reporting on another week at Dancing Rabbit.

Our strangely warm winter has continued with high temperatures in the 40s and 50s for most of the week. After a few days of cloudiness early on, our solar panels enjoyed plenty of sunshine as well.

Nevertheless, some rabbits took a page out of the Ant and the Grasshopper and used the warm weather to prepare for colder times. Much firewood splitting and gathering took place for our wood-fed stoves and water heaters.

Tuesday night saw our usual tri-community potluck held here at Dancing Rabbit - the first one of the year! Three kinds of desserts, bread, deviled eggs, and two different potato dishes were among the tasty foods we enjoyed with our friends from Sandhill and Red Earth Farms.

Wednesday night, Skyhouse hosted Pete, Rachel's advisor and friend from her days at Truman, for dinner. He brought us a bottle of white wine and partook of Amy's and my specialty - seitan (wheat meat).

Towards the end of the week, the fun and social activities continued. Thursday night was sewing night in the living room of Skyhouse. Our neighbor Judy joined several rabbits in working on knitting, crocheting, and otherwise manufacturing objects of warmth.

Friday saw a rare game of Winter Ultimate. I must have taken my jacket off ("Gosh, I'm warm") and put it back on ("Wow, that wind is cold!") a half-dozen times. The strange shifts in temperature did nothing to slow the game down, although some of us are out of practice at running after being away. Our "Common House Cinema" played host to a showing of an animated film called "Howl's Moving Castle" by well-known Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki. There was even a large group of folks who went into Memphis on Saturday to go bowling.

The weather forecast keeps showing highs in the mid-40s in the coming week. I, for one, am worried that just around the corner, the temperature's going to drop like a rock. But if it does, we'll be ready. In the meantime, we'll keep putting the mildness to good use.

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