Memphis Democrat
August 14, 2003

Alyson here, filling in for Rachel again. Well, after living here for over a year and a half, I finally made it out to the famous Rutledge flea market, also known as the Dog and Gun Exchange. I'd heard all about it from other Rabbits, of course, but nothing could really prepare me for the vast rows of booths selling everything you can imagine, or for the traffic-jams of ATVs cruising the lanes between them. I used to live in Eastern Europe, and it was a lot like the bazaars that many cities over there hold once a month. So I felt right at home, and enjoyed bargaining with the salespeople. I got some great deals too.

This week our Common House crew--Kurt, Liberty, Tom, Penn, and our contractor, Kent--put up most of the rafters and some purlins, so we can now see the full shape of the building. It's built with a combination of lumber we salvaged from old buildings, and wood that we rescued from "slash" - unwanted logs from trees that had been cut down over by the Mississippi. So sometimes the crew is lifting big raw beams into place, and other days they're taking the nails out of old seasoned wood. You should see the size of the beam they just put up over the entrance! Tamar, who's managing the DR crew, just got back from her vacation and when she saw the progress they had made, she just said, "Wow."

We were paid a visit by a photographer named Justine, who's traveling around the US and making artistic photographs of communities like ours. She hunted around for the perfect spot on our land, with the perfect light, then directed us where to stand and sit so that the picture would be just right. It was fun to have her "sculpt" us for the lens. We can't wait to see the final results when she sends them to us. Eventually she plans to create a book of all her community photos.

These days we're trying to work out our pet policy for Dancing Rabbit. Since we share all the land in the DR Land Trust, and since we all live very closely to each other and share our lives a great deal, we want to make sure we can agree on how to handle the little furry ones in our midst. Pets are one of the issues that many communities struggle with the most, since many people have strong feelings about them. Our ecological guidelines give us even more to think about. We're taking our time as we work out the policy, to make sure it's something we can all feel good about.

But it's not all work and no play! Maggie, Liberty, and Audra got out Skyhouse's ping-pong table and set it up outside the trailer. It was greatly enjoyed that night, and when it got too dark to play, folks moved inside for a spontaneous dance party. Often in the mornings or evenings we can get enough people together for a game of ultimate frisbee, a kind of cross between basketball and soccer. Tony, Maggie, Thomas, ex-intern Betsy, and I are planning on going up to Milwaukee for a tournament this weekend. Wish us luck!

Let's see, this week Colie and Tereza headed to Michigan for a festival, Lindsey finished her residency and went to write her thesis, Tanya headed off for a job with Americorps after her work exchange ended, Thomas went to Illinois to spend his birthday with his family, Alline arrived home from visiting her parents and leading a Sierra Club trip with Kurt at Lake Tahoe (Kurt got back last week), our new resident Phil arrived, Doug's parents came for a brief stay, and we had some interesting visitors... sometimes in the summer it's hard to keep track of who's coming and who's going!

A big thanks to Clayton and Janet Dilavou for inviting us over to pick peaches off their big tree. We dream someday of having more peaches than we can eat, too...

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