Memphis Democrat
July 11, 2002

We had two birthdays to celebrate, Cecil's and Tom's. And we celebrated both of them on the fourth of July with a canoe trip down the Des Moines river. We had a lovely float in the afternoon down to Keosoqua. Then many of us stayed around Keosoqua and Fairfield, Iowa to eat, watch movies and view the fireworks.

We have two new interns this week. Jillian came to us from Chicago and she will be the Food intern. She doesn't just get to eat all day. She is hosted by our food co-op to help in the herb garden and with the food processing, and to do special projects like create a Dancing Rabbit cookbook. Our other new intern is Karly, who arrived from Texas. She has joined the growing crew in the vegetable garden and she brings plenty of experience working in gardens and greenhouses.

Kit, who is a Truman State student and was an intern last year, returned to live here for a month this summer. Her partner in crime last year, Emily, surprised us with a visit, all the way from Omaha, Nebraska. When she and her friend Liz showed up for the weekend it felt just like old times.

My friends Michelle and Dan visited us on their way moving from Washington DC back to California. They lived in DC for two years while Michelle worked for some bigwig judges including Supreme Court Justice O'Connor. It was fun to hear the inside scoop of what it was like to be in DC during these most interesting past two years.

Cecil again proved himself as a fabulous cook. He brought back delectable delicacies from China and cooked them up for a community meal one night. The food in general has been pretty exciting these days, as each few days there is a new vegetable from the garden. (Cabbage! Zucchinis! Carrots!)

Also the black raspberries have been ripening and have joined the mulberries as a common ingredient in dessert.

Tamar has been putting in long hours sanding, oiling and installing the trim on the windows of the timberframe. Kurt has been busy plastering the downstairs of his house and one of the bedrooms in Skyhouse looks nearly finished.

Meanwhile I've been out combing the roadsides for interesting native wildflowers so I can collect their seeds when they are ready. If you think have something unusual growing on your roadside or in your field, feel free to let me know.

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is a nonprofit and a residential community that demonstrates ecological sustainability in Rutledge, MO. We give a tour every Saturday at 1pm. Please call first before coming by, at 883-5511.

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