Memphis Democrat
April 26, 2007

Suzanne here for Dancing Rabbit--the sun is out again and it's hard for me to remember any of the things that were bothering me when it was cold and grey. We have emerged from the long tunnel of winter and life is good again. Well, I truly did enjoy winter a lot--up until February that is--when I begin to hate it. By April I was going crazy and dreaming of moving to a warmer climate. Now that the season for gardening, ultimate frisbee and swimming in the pond is here, I'm happy again.

Spring is the time for prepping garden beds and planting seedlings and this year Sunflower food coop, of which I am a member, is starting to garden. Sunflower has only been in existence for one year and last summer we had too many other details to figure out to put energy into starting a cooperative garden. This year we are going to be gardening in a variety of spaces--the herb garden, my garden, and Jennifer's garden. We are also going to begin leasing and preparing a larger space in the annex garden for a more permanent Sunflower garden. So, we have a lot of work ahead of us to prepare all of our various garden beds. Michelle got back from her trip to England on Monday--she will be managing Sunflower gardening this year and has been busy in the herb garden all week.

This year it seems like we have lots of gardening energy at Dancing Rabbit. Ironweed's garden is looking great this spring. I am so jealous--they have already prepared most of their garden beds and planted tons of seedlings. This week they planted potatoes. Amy , Juan and Tony are doing a lot of gardening for Skyhouse this year as well. Monday afternoon, as part of "Ye Olde Barn Raising Society" a group of us helped them to move several bales of straw from the machine shed to their garden where they can use it, and at the same time reorganized some of their building materials to look neater and take up less room. There is now a lot of extra room in the machine shed and Skyhouse's garden is filled with straw for mulching. Speaking of straw, Sunflower could really use some so if you have any extra please leave a message for us at 660 883 5511.

Bob's garden is coming along nicely --he finished fencing in his newly redefined warren, mulched all of his beds, and planted lots of greens. Rachel and Tony burned the small prairie garden on Rachel's warren this week to reinvigorate growth there.Tom and Tereza started planting seedlings in Bluestem's garden. And new resident Dan Durica, who arrived on Tuesday, is going to be gardening in Bluestem's garden as well. He has already transplanted all of the grape vines and seedlings he brought with him from Madison, Wisconsin.

I seeded Bella Ciao's yard with perennial native wildflowers this winter and the seedlings are just now starting to come up. I can't tell at this stage which are weeds and which are wildflowers so I examine them daily hoping that the little leaves sprouting up are wildflowers and not ragweed! And Jennifer and the kids have been working on starting a flower garden for the Timberframe--Jennifer is tired of looking at piles of firewood and wants to create some beauty to surround her.

Kirksville had it's first Critical Mass bike ride on Friday. Nathan and Rory from Dancing Rabbit and Cassie Phillips of Kirksville organized the event and it was a great success. Nathan, Rory and Amanda rode all the way to Kirksville and back to participate. 36 people in all turned out for the event and some folks met afterwards for a vegetarian potluck. Critical mass is an event held in cities around the world where cyclists come out and cycle together to promote alternative modes of transportation and to raise awareness of safety issues facing cyclists. Participants meet at a set location and time and enjoy the security and companionship of traveling as a group through the city. This can cause a disruption of motorized traffic, but the general philosophy of participants is that cyclists aren't blocking traffic; they are traffic. Critical mass bike rides will be taking place on the third Friday of every month in Kirksville. Meet at the square at 5:30 pm!

On Tuesday afternoon, Tamar and Sara held a natural building workshop in Kirksville as part of Kirksville's Earth Week events. Afterwards, a lovely dinner was provided for them by Truman students, John, Erik and Sam. That evening Rachel was a key note speaker on the subject of natural building. And on Saturday Rachel, Jennifer and Nathan went to Kirksville again to teach dance kinetics and contact improvisation to a small group of dancers at Truman. Tamar, Amy, and Juan were there on Saturday as well--they set up a table to talk about Dancing Rabbit and hosted another building workshop demonstration.

Alline was away all week at the Coop America Green Business conference in Chicago. We missed her here but I'm told that she had a fantastic time, met lots of interesting people and learned a lot. I can't wait to hear all about it. And Tony left this week with folks from Sandhill to attend Laird and Maikwe's wedding in Albuquerque.

Another of our new residents, Brian Liloia, arrived this week from New Jersey. His dad gave him a ride and stayed with us for a few days--it was fun getting to meet him. Sparky returned at the beginning of the week as well. She is returning as a resident in her acquaintance period for membership. She will be doing work exchange for Kurt and Alline as well.

It has been great having all of this new resident and work exchange energy around. Rory, Amanda, and Jason have been making great progress building a wood shed with Kurt. Part of the intention of the project was to teach the work exchangers building techniques, so it has all kinds of fun features you wouldn't ordinarily expect in a woodshed. It looks so fine with it's shingles and roof and little windows that several of us have inquired whether we can move in.

Jason took over maintenance of our vehicles this week. This is a task that we have been having a hard time filling over the past year and it is very exciting to have somebody take it on who is not only willing but knowledgeable and interested in car maintenance. BJ has been busy doing meta shifts with the Johnson kids. New resident Jan put together my bike this week. It has been in a box ever since I moved here two years ago. I'm really not much of a bike rider, but I brought my bike hoping somebody else would be interested in riding it. Jan was motivated enough to dig it out and put it together and it is great to see her riding around the village. It looks so fun I might even try it.

And speaking of getting around...Aurelia took her first few hands-free steps this week. Soon she is officially going to be a toddler!

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