Memphis Democrat
March 8, 2007

This is Suzanne--I for one did not appreciate going back to cold weather after a few tantalizing days of spring. I have been itching to do so many outdoor projects. I have my house and warren to design and lots of garden beds to create. Tree team and land management have lots of fun work to do this spring--planting, pruning, mapping, and maybe even swale-building. I'm sure Kurt is itching to start construction of the bed and breakfast. Well, Kurt isn't actually waiting. I see him out working with wood no matter how biting the wind is. Last week he finished making an island for his and Alline's kitchen. Thomas, Rory and Nathan didn't wait for good weather to get started building their new mouldering toilet either. They went out on one of the coldest and windiest days to haul wood for building it. And one day this week I came back to Bella Ciao to find Nathan and Rory chopping up a whole bunch of pallet wood for me. I had been complaining about how much I was dreading doing that task and a couple of days later, presto, it was done. What an awesome surprise.

All of Skyhouse's members are traveling this week--Tony is in California, Cecil in New York, and Amy and Juan left for a three week multi-purpose trip with stops in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Toronto. Jennifer and Tamar went on a trip this week to pick up the kids in Oklahoma. Having the kids back makes it seem like spring is here. The noise level in the common house has increased dramatically, but then, so has the level of fun. We had a trading blanket this Saturday in honor of their return. Everybody brought treasures to swap for other people's treasures. My favorite part was hearing Torin describe the small rocks he brought to trade in elaborate detail ("this rock is brown with a white circle and black specks and two lines across it.") I had just cleaned my house for spring and was glad to find homes for some cool things that I no longer need and to pick up some new things (some of which I didn't really need either truth to tell.) The new things I acquired take up less space then the old things though, so it's all good. Perhaps they will come to a future trading blanket.

On Friday Red Earth Farm's newest member, Mark Mazziotti, arrived. Mark is from California and is passionate about natural building and ecological design. It is exciting to see Red Earth Farms' community grow and it feels like an addition to our community as well. It is one of the really good things about having three communities in this area that whenever one community grows we all benefit. Dancing Rabbit is set for a population explosion this spring--new residents (or work exchangers) who are arriving this spring include Dan, Brian, Jan, Donna, Jason, Beatriz (BJ), Ali, Rory (who is already here), Amanda, and Toby. Sparky is coming back as a resident applying for membership. And Kurt and Alline and Ironweed are still selecting work exchangers for the season so we can expect even more folks this season. It's going to be a pretty dynamic year I think, that or a really crazy one!

Sewing night was at Judy's house this week. Alline, Michelle and I were there and Judy made us all a delicious apple crisp. The wind was blowing so hard that night I thought it would blow the house down. Michelle is teaching me how to knit socks using two circular needles--it is taking awhile but I'm finally getting the hang of it. This week Michelle taught Kim how to knit --although, as Michelle puts it, "it was more like Kim taught herself to knit and I supervised." Judy was making a quilt with beautiful embroidered squares in the middle. Alline had fun reading all of Judy's books on crafts.

Tamar is continuing to teach her yoga class on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Tamar is a natural teacher and I'm glad she has decided to offer this class. She is planning to take an official teacher training class sometime this year. We now have a regular eight participants and sometimes even more. If this keeps up we will outgrow our space. It's time to build a yoga studio! I am loving the class--I find that it does wonders for my state of mind and for my physical flexibility. I had been having a lot of problems with stiffness in my back and am finding that the stiffness is disappearing. We don't have a gym at Dancing Rabbit or a lot of access to physical fitness classes--and one of the things I am realizing is how important it is to find creative ways to meet our physical fitness needs (beyond splitting wood and building!) I dream of the day when we will have an actual recreation center here--a place with space for basketball and racquetball and aerobic classes--with a climbing wall for Tom and Tamar. A place for yoga and martial arts like tai chi, qi gong, and judo. A place to hold contra dances and dance classes and tumbling classes for kids. A place to play ping pong. Until that time, we make do with the space that we have and it is amazing just how many purposes our common house fills.

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