Memphis Democrat
January 25, 2007

Well single digits sure does keep you busy stoking the fire, but we have managed to stay warm her at Dancing Rabbit. I'm not sure I've seen a stretch this long and cold since I moved here 10 years ago, but I guess we're just paying for those balmy December days.

To keep warm, we had a quick contra dance before our community potluck on Tuesday where Betsy Ayers came and called and her friend Don played with the DR musicians. We sure heated up our common house with 16 people twirling and sashaying. The only injury seemed to be sore face muscles from smiling too much.

Nathan's cousin Rory is back at DR. He was a visitor last year (as well as a Sandhill intern) and is looking to be hear at least through the summer. Its great to have him back.

On Sunday a group of us headed out to Mary and Roger Walker's for a Super Bowl party. There was some great food and some great pre-game music with Cecil, Roger and Roger's kids. None of us really had a team to root for but Alline decided to make things interesting by betting 5 bucks on the game. Once she found someone else willing to bet she could cheer on the Bears. She came home poorer but didn't seem too heartbroken that 'her' team had lost.

On Friday night Brian hosted a small tea party at his place, the lower half of the converted grain bin apartment. Folks stopped by for some hot tea by candle and fire light.

Ted, Sara, Aurelia, and Suzanne all headed down to Columbia for the weekend to see some old friends and to check out a workshop on Nonviolent Communication. Nonviolent Communication is a method for communicating feelings and hearing concerns from others that can help resolve conflicts more easily. We've done some of it here in the past but there is always more to learn so folks wanted to take advantage of a presenter coming to Columbia.

Brian's dad, Ken, is visiting from Atlanta for a few days. Brian assured us his dad was pretty 'rugged' and he wouldn't have trouble with the weather here. So far so good.

In honor of the cold weather we took an Ice Walk on our creek on Monday. Rachel, Brian, Ken, and I walked up our little creek, checking out the ice formations and the wildlife tracks. There were places where the ice was thin and we broke through but underneath was another layer of ice with an air gap in between. Not much liquid water to be found out there on our little seasonal creek. My favorite part might have been the tracks where a deer had clearly slipped on the ice and skidded 3 feet!

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