Memphis Democrat
August 4, 2005

Rachel here, reporting on another exciting week at Dancing Rabbit. Things are changing fast around here, and it has been hard for me to keep up with it all. Perhaps the change in the weather has let us all return to normal speed, and then some. I walk by Kurt and Alline's place several times a day and each time I do there's something new. They have erected a windmill between their house and their new woodshop. They also built themselves a constructed wetlands and now have a shower with running (solar-heated) hot and cold water.

Kent has been coming to visit to help Kurt on his construction projects. I guess a neighbor of his planted too much sweet corn, so Kent brought over a pickup load of it. I love sweet corn, and could (and did!) eat 5 or 6 ears in a sitting. But even I am beginning to slow down. It's been terrific to be able to eat and preserve as much as we could handle.

Tomatoes are also finally starting to come on, probably helped by that lovely rain. All the produce makes it easy to make really good food. On top of all that, Cecil received a pasta maker from his parents for his birthday and has been regaling us with fresh linguini and spaghetti. Yum!

Our newest resident , Nathan Brown, showed up this week from Washington DC. He is living in the downstairs grain bin apartment and is getting himself settled into his new life. We wished Ted luck on his month-long adventure that includes stops in Japan and the whole eastern seaboard of the U.S. Amy also left to visit her family in the east, and to bring her boyfriend Juan home with her to live at Dancing Rabbit. Several of us are heading east during the next few weeks for various reasons and we intend to meet up in New York City to visit with the subjects of the TV show filmed here, Johari and Vito.

We've had lots of nice visitors and friends come through in this last week. Teryani and Jonathan led a workshop in a style of interpersonal sharing called the Zegg Forum. Rob, Trina and their son Elijah from Taos, NM visited and we hear they may be coming back. We also gave a tour to intrepid students from Truman's Joseph Baldwin Academy in the 100 degree sun. And that is just a taste of who visited us!

Last but not least, I had a lovely visit with the folks at the Knox County Rotary Club. They invited us to speak about Dancing Rabbit and our experience with getting filmed for the TV show. They were very welcoming and curious, and I appreciated their hospitality.

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