Memphis Democrat
October 20, 2008

Ted here at Dancing Rabbit with this week's news.

As we wend our way through October without having seen a convincingfrost yet, I continue to muse on the oddness of this year's weather. Tuesday morning, before any frost had been forecast, we awoke to discover patchy frost in the grass. Venturing into the garden to investigate the damage (we'd been planning to cover the sweet peppers and harvest a mess of basil and the last of the tomatoes before the cold forecast for later in the week), I found nearly everything covered in a layer of ice, and knew it was all over. I quickly harvested all the nearly ripe fruits, hoping that their water content would have protected them from actually freezing, and that if used quickly they'd still be good.

By later in the day, however, it appeared I didn't know as much as I'd thought. Even the basil, that most frost-sensitive of herbs, escaped with only some singed leaves, and is still growing out there now. The best I can figure is that ice can form at temperatures above 32 degrees, but won't kill sensitive plant tissues until it breaks below that barrier. Perhaps you atmospheric scientists out there can set me straight. Meanwhile, I'll continue to savour the summer plants as the days get cooler and cooler, and wonder when we'll see a true frost. Not that I wish to hasten it! But we do need some of those garden beds for garlic planting...

The cooler weather seems to have sped things up around here, as though we all needed to be more active to stay warm. A number of villagers bought new wood stoves in the past few months, so those folks have been kindling the short, not-too-hot breaking-in fires to condition their stoves for the truly cold weather. Sara and I sent the plate steel top for our brick stove to a local welder for reinforcement with angle iron in an attempt to prevent it from doming when hot and to increase the stove's efficiency. We'd likely be a lot cooler in the meantime if not for our trusty greenhouse, which excels in Spring and Fall at keeping our house toasty warm on sunny days without any need for supplemental heating.

over-large, with a footprint of perhaps 10 or 12 feet square, but we nonetheless packed as many as eight plasterers in there busily smearing and troweling. The two also took advantage of having emptied their house for the plastering to rent and employ a floor sander, and last I saw they had their bed set up in the grass outside, complete with night table, to allow time for the urethane on the floor to dry. With the moon past full, they'll be well set for star gazing whilst falling asleep!

We don't always conform to the traditional work week around here. Ziggy, his current work exchanger Karen, and a variety of other volunteers kept plugging away at preparing the roof of the cob hut for its waterproof membrane, laying on first muslin and then cardboard before calling out the troops to lift the 30-foot-square, 400 pound sheet of material up onto the roof and unfold it. When it was all over, Ziggy breathed an audible sigh of relief that his days of protecting the cob walls from weather were finally at an end. Next up-- the living roof.

Not to be outdone, Kurt and a mighty team of Rabbits began the process of plastering the exterior walls of the Milkweed Mercantile with a professional plasterer hired for the task. People crawled all over the building Saturday and Sunday, hefting buckets of sand, lime, and portland cement into the plaster mixer with cellulose binder, then loading it into the plaster blower, and all the while managing the hoses and following the sprayer with many gloved hands massaging the plaster into the bales to ensure good bonding. It was a long slog, but the first layers are on, and we can no longer see the bales. The plasterers will return for round two in a couple weeks.

Amidst all this progress, we've had a seemingly exceptional number of folks visiting and passing through. Amy's mom is visiting, Matt's mom arrived today, and Ziggy's dad is expected this week, among others. Matt and Jeff hosted two work exchangers this week, Tim and Kayla, who helped the earth bag dome reach window and door height. Several other families and friends dropped by for a tour or to visit.

Bear, Alyssa, and Zane returned from a week-long journey to Kentucky to visit Bear's family and experienced a mini family reunion. Bear's mom also works in the Cincinnati schools, and so Bear and Alyssa performed a bit of impromptu Dancing Rabbit outreach, speaking to a high school class and showing some clips from DRTV, Ziggy's series of film documentaries about different parts of DR life. You can see them too, if you haven't already, at http://drtv.dancingrabbit.org/.

Sara, Aurelia, Jan and I spent all day Friday in Kirksville on a typical ride-sharing, multi-purpose trip, dropping off the community recycling, running numerous errands for ourselves and others, thrift store shopping, enjoying a meal off-farm, and picking up a trailer full of manure from the Truman farm. Jan was kind enough to spend a few hours with Aurelia, so Sara and I even got to take in a movie at the theater, which we've only managed twice since we became parents. Despite the rainy weather it was a good day and a nice departure from work at home. Having then spent much of Saturday either unloading the manure for Ironweed's garden or running around playing Ultimate frisbee, however, I don't feel quite as peppy as I'd like for the week beginning. I have chosen a physically-oriented life, though, and even when I'm tuckered out, I remember how glad I am to be doing it. I guess I can rest a bit this winter!

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