Memphis Democrat
July 14, 2005

Day to Day Life
Memphis Democrat Column -- Jacob's Travel Logs

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I've been minorly preoccupied with the passing of the mid-year point in the past couple weeks. I'm always amazed at the way time passes here at DR. It feels sometimes quite slow, and sometimes blurred in its haste, but never quite linear. It is already time for planting fall brassicas in the garden, though it seems just recently that we finished getting all the spring planting and transplanting finished. The near complete lack of substantive rain in the past month has been increasingly stressful on the garden. Summer squash can be difficult to grow here because of the heavy presence of cucumber beetles, squash bugs and stem borers; throw in weeks of hot, sunny weather with no break, and those poor squash plants start to croak. Last year we had many more squash than we knew what to do with; this season it seems we'll treasure each one. Plenty of other garden denizens are doing beautifully, though, especially the nightshades. We've just harvested our first tomatoes in the past week and are anticipating loads of peppers and eggplants. Summer eating is here!

The past couple weeks here have seen a few fun events, and a whole lot of hard work. We had the pleasure of visits from former interns and residents. Aaron, who was an intern the same year I was in 2001 and now works at strawbale construction in Colorado, returned for 10 days or so, pitching in to help plaster Milkweed cottage and help Ironweed construct its back porch, among other things. He let on that moving here is one possibility, so there was an ongoing heavy lobbying effort during his stay, and we hope to see him again. Another former intern and resident, Jillian, came for a lightning-quick visit from the West coast with her friend John, and though we wanted to keep them here much longer, we were glad to have a couple days to catch up.

Rachel led a bird walk after Sandhill Dinner last week, which I wasn't able to attend but heard was much enjoyed by all who did. Her academic work and birding hobby have made her very much the expert around here, and she fields all kinds of bird questions with aplomb. If you've never seen her bird behavior play acting, often with Tony's cooperation, you should ask her about it some time. Sandhill also kindly invited rabbits over for berry picking, offering berries or other goodies in exchange for help in harvesting their bounty. I was sadly unable to attend, stuck as I was with Erik and Suzanne in Kirksville with a dead starter in our truck, but it sounded like good fun to me. Many thanks to our friends along the road who have helped us at one time or another with vehicular repairs!

Rachel, Tereza, Laura and Suzanne made it to Memphis for a morning of visiting with our friend Lorraine, whose lemonade I've heard is quite good. The Johnsons returned from a week's journey with all the materials to host a margarita party one afternoon, complete with salted rims, lots of ice (a rarity around here), more tortilla chips than I've ever seen consumed in one hour, and bowls of tasty homemade salsa, the garlic content of which was, well, ambitious. No vampires came calling for several days. They also brought back their kayaks, which figured prominently in a trip of 20+ rabbits and Sandhillers tubing on the Chariton River. We had a great time, and I didn't see too many sunburns. As a result we've also got a renewed supply of tubes for swimming on our pond, which is an absolute necessity on these hot days. Most of the tubers followed the event with dinner and a movie in Kirksville.

The Milkweed's new woodshop continues to go up at an astounding pace. Last week saw the roof go on, the walls stuccoed and the gable walls installed. We thought it would be an ambitious task to complete the building in the two months they planned for, but all my doubts have vanished. It is always a pleasure to see what a group of us setting our collective minds on a project around here can accomplish.

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Memphis DemocratJuly 14, 2005

Memphis Democrat
July 14, 2005