Memphis Democrat
July 10, 2003

Boy, is it hot! The only thing that really cooled us down was the fourth of July float trip on the Des Moines River. Adding together Sandhill folks with us, we had 31 people floating from Keosoqua down to Bonaparte. It was a beautiful day of bald eagles and fireworks. The canoe trip is partially a celebration of Cecil and Tom's birthdays. For every birthday Alline has made scrumptious chocolate cake. I tried to tell her it was my birthday too, but she wasn't buying it.

We didn't want to stop celebrating, so the next night folks had to choose between going to the demolition derby in Memphis and a dance party in Skyhouse. I heard the demolition derby was great fun, but we never found out who had to kiss the pig because of the rainstorm. The dance party in Skyhouse doubled as a sneaky way to get the gravel underflooring tamped.

But we've been working through the heat, too. Several more walls went up on the common house. Thomas starting building a little round house called a wigwam. Sara and Ted had their foundation dug at the same time that Skyhouse had their cistern dug by Horst plumbing. Bluestem co-op put the siding and ceilings up on their kitchen and they hope to be eating in it at the end of the month.

It's been an incredible week for nature-watching. On the same day we saw two separate prairie kingsnakes, one swallowing a small rabbit and the other a mole. The kids have been picking up small frogs left and right. And for my research I've been peeking in the nests of kingbirds and field sparrows. Those baby birds are cute!

We've had some nice folks come by. Don Tague, from Gorin, stops by occasionally and bring us the Wall Street Journal after he's read it. Then it gets dog-eared from all the readers over here. Thanks! A young woman named Mandy who used to go to Truman moved up to Minneapolis and works for an organization called Source that does arts and services for youth. A bunch of the folks who work there were on their way back from an event in Illinois and stopped by to take a tour. And Lindsey is another former Truman student who was an intern here last spring. She's now in graduate school up in Milwaukee and has come to live with us for a month and interview us for her Master's thesis. It's so nice to see her smiling face around the farm again.

I had a terrific time hanging out at Lorraine Kapfer's house with Colie, Maikwe and Jibran. We played games, ate yummy Pull-Aparts and visited the two recently born horses with their mothers. I hope we can have a Scrabble date again soon.

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