Memphis Democrat
June 11, 2007

It's already mid-June and summer still has not kicked in. We've had a whole series of mild and sunny or overcast days. It's been a nice relief in a lot of ways but feels kind of strange at the same time. Are we even going to have summer this year I wonder? The cooler weather has been great for growing cabbages, brussel sprouts, and other brassicas and for those lucky people who managed to get their peas started early this spring, there have been a lot of fresh peas. Raspberries and mulberries are just starting to get ripe--soon it will be berry season. Thomas says he's been seeing a lot of turtles laying eggs.

We had a small group of visitors here for the second week of their visit--Sarah, Toby, Nassif, and Karen. A number of Rabbits had guests as well and a new group of work exchangers for the Milkweed's Mercantile arrived so it has been a bustling social scene lately . Brian had a friend named Jenn visiting and BJ's friend Merry came for a visit. Merry has been here before and hopes to become a resident in a year or so. And Dan, Clair, and Diane all arrived this week to start their work exchange. They all seem very hard working and fun and it is great to have their positive energy around. Alline came back from the Book Expo America in New York City with loads of free books--advanced reader copies from the publishers. And Tamar came back from her visit with Jeffrey's mom in Atlanta.

I missed most of the social events of this week--I've been sick with a pretty vicious cold. It's all I can do to keep my garden watered and try to get better. Tamar, Sara, and Alyssa have been helping me find medicinal herbs to make into tea and lending me homeopathic medicines--it's great having so many knowledgeable and caring folks here.

Thomas reports that the annual overhaul of the commie bike area is complete. Rory took on reorganizing and cleaning it up and he and Thomas have been fixing a lot of old bikes. There are now ten working bikes for folks to use. This Friday is the critical mass bike ride in Kirksville again (at 5:30--meet in the square) and a large group of Rabbits will be participating. A bunch of folks went to the Rutledge flea market Saturday morning in separate groups by bike or by car and all met up in the market. I don't know if they found anything good, but I did hear they ate a lot of Texas Tators and funnel cake.

On Saturday a quilting ministry group of about fifteen women from Moberly came for a tour and stayed to do some quilting with women from Dancing Rabbit. Alline hosted the event with lemonade, fabulous home-made coffee cake and cookies. The women donated us some beautiful quilts and clothing. I was not able to attend but luckily I did get to sample the coffee cake.

We watched a really good movie in the common house on Sunday night--Stranger than Fiction. Tony and Alyssa had rented it on Netflix and decided to share it with the group. Quite a few of us have netflix accounts and it is great getting to watch other people's movies. On Wednesday night Dan and Brian hosted an eighties movie night--the first movie showing was "Weird Science." This week they will be showing "Goonies."

Jason came back from Oklahoma this week bringing his sweet and sunny five year old son Noah. Noah will be around for a month--we're looking forward to spending time with him. I'm sure Torin will be happy to have somebody his own age around to play with.

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