Memphis Democrat
July 30, 2007

Tony here with the Rabbit news report. Last time I never got to sports so we'll start there this time. Thomas got permission from Kurt to put up the basketball hoop on the new Milkweed Mercantile foundation which is almost the perfect size for half court basketball. Suddenly everyone was out shooting baskets and playing b-ball. I never realized how many really tall guys we have here until they were out on the court.

But Basketball has not replaced Ultimate as the top DR sport. We had a great game last Saturday with a big turnout including folks from Red earth Farms, Apple who is visiting long term at Sandhill, and Daniel who is doing labor exchange from Twin Oaks. It was a beautiful day and a great game. If only all Saturday afternoons could be so cool.

Daniel and I spent most of the week working on Skyhouse's new greenhouse and got it finished just in time for him and Ivy to head back to Virginia. Skyhouse is already plotting our spring seedling plantings and we haven't even hit the peak of this year's tomatoes! Not to mention our dreams of free solar warmth pouring into the house on those sunny winter days.

Brian published his first installment of his Dancing Rabbit TV video weblog (aka blog) this week. This first one is an overview of Dancing Rabbit with future episodes to be on more detailed subjects like organic gardening, renewable energy, or natural building. You can see the video at http://drtv.dancingrabbit.org -- share it with your friends and make us famous!

Diane's guest Pam brought some great card games which we played Saturday night. We had a fun but mellow game of Apples to Apples followed by an incredibly raucous game of Pit. Pit seems to be designed to simulate the trading floor of the commodities exchange and involves everyone simultaneously yelling out numbers of cards they want to trade. The goal is to get your hand to be all of one type of grain (eg corn, wheat, barley, etc.) The trading is so loud you need to ring a bell to indicate you've won. We added a new twist when we gave the bell to someone not playing who was instructed to run or hide when someone tried to ring the bell. Hilarity, of course, ensued.

Jennifer came back from her three weeks at Omega Institute looking centered and joyous. Sounds like she came back with a number of new yoga techniques to share with the rest of us. Juan went up to visit his mom in Minnesota for the weekend.

Amanda (aka Panda) returned from her Mom's wedding in southern California somehow travelling via Milwaukee. Soon after, she celebrated her "half birthday" with a small group of friends over for homemade ravioli and a sampling of fine Milwaukee brews.

On Sunday night, Brian, Diane, and Claire threw a big popcorn tasting party with popcorn flavored a dozen different ways. Flavors included French Onion, BBQ, Cajun, Sushi, and Cinnamon and Sugar. We all tasted and rated each variety and an overall winner was tabulated. Cinnamon and Sushi came in third and second respectively but the big winner was the most non-traditional of toppings. Tamar had whipped up a "dipping sauce" made from cashew-macademia nut butter, cocoa, and sugar for people to "dip" their popcorn in. To me it tasted more like frosting so its not too surprising that it won as it would have tasted just as delicious on cardboard as popcorn.

Alline came back from her brother's funeral and she and Kurt turned right around to go to Minnesota to be with Kurt's dad who was recently diagnosed with cancer. They went with all our caring and supportive thoughts in this challenging time.

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