Memphis Democrat
September 22, 2008

Tony here reporting on the rabbit news. The big news this week was a visit from the Superhero Bike Ride. Twenty-four caped and masked superheroes descended on Dancing Rabbit as the first stop on their annual community service bike ride. For the next few weeks the riders will be making their way around north and central Missouri stopping in cities and towns to provide whatever help is requested. Past projects have involved everything from picking up trash to painting a small-town general store to moving the contents of a city museum to its new location. The group plans to help with repairing flood damage in Kirksville and a Habitat for Humanity project in Columbia while also making time for whatever service projects fate brings their way.

While at DR the Superheroes helped with a variety of projects such as mulching trees in our conservation land, helping Tamar plaster Sparky's house, putting strawbales in the Milkweed Mercantile, and raising solar panels onto the roof of Jennifer's home. They also spent one day each at Sandhill Farm and Red Earth Farms helping kick off the sorghum harvest as well as helping with other tasks around the two communities.

But Superheroes know how to have fun as well and they joined us for our Friday community dinner followed by some games as well as sending a contingent to the Rutledge Fall Festival for the parade. They even made time for an ultimate frisbee game on a field, only slightly shrunken by their tents and bicycles. As well as as being a ton of help, it was great fun having them and we wish them well on the rest of their ride.

The Rutledge Fall Festival was Saturday and the rabbits turned out in force to help out and take part in the celebration. Jan and Annie and I helped set up the tents on Thursday evening and others helped out on Saturday setting up tables and chairs and moving tray after tray of desserts. Alline also volunteered at the raffle table and I helped out announcing prizes and the back-seat driver contest.

The day was kicked off with a big parade that included one of the volunteer fire departments trucks, some antique cars, some beautifully restored antique tractors, and a whole crowd of bicyclists including rabbits and superheroes. Candidates for local elections were out as well and it was nice to get a chance to meet them and shake their hands.

The kids seemed to have a blast in the kiddie tractor pull and the other kids games. Thanks to Brenda DeMarce for organizing them and for the folks who brought the tractors and gave train rides. The bigger kids and adults had their turn as well with the backseat driver contest. Rabbits made a good show of their communication skills as they managed to navigate the course at high speed, only running over a handful of cones.

Thanks so much to all those in Rutledge who made the fall celebration a huge success and have always been so welcoming of us into their community.

The weekend also saw visits from people's families. Sara's parents Letti and Steve were down from Chicago for the weekend and Meadow's relatives Jo and Rob were out from Poughkeepsie, NY. What luck to arrive on the weekend of the fall festival.

The roof on Ziiggy's cob house got an overhaul this week. We put up the rafters of his reciprocal roof a few weeks ago but he was not happy withthe configuration and felt that some of the rafters were a little slim to bear the eventual load of the soil in the living roof. So he cut some new rafters from trees at Sandhill, and in a morning a group of 6 or so took down the old rafters and put up the new ones, this time getting things centered properly on the building. In a reciprocal roof each rafter rests on the previous one in a spiral until the last rafter comes around to support the first. It can be hard to picture it or understand the physics but once you see it in person its an impressive site.

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