Memphis Democrat
April 07, 2008

Tony here with the news from Dancing Rabbit and the Rabbit-land area. Probably our most exciting news of the week happened on Kurt's birthday. Kurt turned 57 on Wednesday and we had a great time as Alline made cake and badges for everyone that said Happy Birthday Kurt. But the big excitement was having the Rutledge Fire Department stop by to help us put out an uncontrolled grass fire that burnt almost 10 acres on our land. While there were rumors that Kurt's birthday candles had started the fire, the truth was that a brush pile being burned got out of control and swept northward onto some of our CRP ground. No one was hurt and no significant damage done but lessons were certainly learned. We are very appreciative of our local volunteer fire department for their help in getting the blaze under control.

Our newest resident Jeff arrived this week. Jeff visited us last year but is just beginning his residency now that the weather has warmed up. Welcome Jeff. Genevieve came back from a month away on the east coast and shared a ride from Quincy with Jeff. In an odd coincidence both Jeff and Genevieve had their luggage lost by the airline and greyhound but the luggage has now made it safely as well.

We had a number of fun evenings this week including a sing-a-long on Friday with Dan, Meadow, and Gen on guitar and a dozen or more of us singing. We also had a game night include such parlor games as charades and pictionary or the DR innovation of charadinary which involves one person acting seen only by one person drawing and the rest trying to guess (or in the reverse order for picturades). There was were plenty of puzzled looks but plenty of laughter as well.

Laird from Sandhill came over to help us by facilitating a couple of challenging meetings. We are very lucky to have other experienced communitarians and skilled facilitators at Sandhill and Red Earth Farms to provide some outside support when we need it (and we of course return that support in kind).

There were a number of pulled muscles in necks and backs this week as people launched out of their winter hibernation and got active for spring. Luckily everyone seems to have healed quickly and they are back out and about in their gardens, orchards, construction sites, and what not.

In other fire related news, some Rabbits were busy taking down an old building in Rutledge to reuse the wood this week and were planning their next trip when they got word that the house had burned down. I guess we are keeping that fire department hopping.

We're in rolling in to college class tour season as the local colleges try to get in a visit to DR now that the weather has warmed up and before school is out. We had folks from Wash U last week and journalism students from Truman this time. This Saturday there is rumors of 2 or even 3 classes coming out for a visit on top of our normal Saturday tour which is the first normal tour of the year and promises to be a big group. We hope to see you there!

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