Memphis Democrat
June 28, 2009

Greetings from Dancing Rabbit. News of the Rabbits being brought to you by Liat this week. For those reading who do not live in Missouri, its been a very hot week with temperatures soring in the mid 90's. I find that in this type of weather my friends and neighbors begin to wake up early and start working in the early AM hours and many chose to take a siesta (afternoon rest) during the hottest part of the day. Water bottles are definitely a must have for those working outside jobs. It feels like as soon as you drink water it percolates through your skin in the form of sweat. In looking at the weather report for the coming week a high of 79 degrees sounds pretty nice.

Mary Beth, Tom, Brandon, Alline, Rachel, and myself spent last weekend in Wisconsin at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair. Thousands of people were there sharing and collecting knowledge about solar and wind power, natural building, and eco products, books, and organizations. I feel like I must have talked with at least five hundred people about Dancing Rabbit. It was fun both to share my knowledge and to network with people working on environmental issues.

The biggest news from the village is that road work has finally begun. After months of rain and muddy paths, it was finally dry enough for our neighbors to bring in their big machinery and start to dig our roads. They started early in the week by removing the large dead elm tree that greeted people in the front entrance of the community. They also had to remove a few smaller trees within the village which were in the path of the ditches on the side of the road in order to control future rain and reduce erosion and mud. After plowing the top of the roadways, there are large piles of top soil which many of us are excited to add to garden beds and earth berms.

There have been many new faces around here. First off, Ziggy is back from New Jersey and he brought his sister Nicole home to visit Dancing Rabbit. The Milkweeds friend Anthony is also visiting; from what I hear, he is a top-notch chef and is making scrumptious meals. Kristin's friend Audrey joined us for the weekend and seemed to enjoy herself; she taught a few people how to burnish clay into a smooth hard surface. Jennifer had a new wexer named David. He is from North Carolina and I am sure will make it into the news in the coming weeks. Also, I had a handful of guests here this past week. Paxus, Tobias, Sara, and Phoenix (many who live at Twin Oaks community in Va.) came out to North East Missouri because they have been planning a wind festival called "Villages in the Sky" and wanted to check out this area as a possible location for the gathering. While here they met up with the three intentional communities in the area, locals at Zimmermans, and Realtors in Memphis. Looks like we are not their ideal spot, and they are now checking out a location in the Ozarks. Also the Radford family has returned for a few weeks. Annie, Sierra, and Angela switched out their Tipi for a tent.

For those who are not aware, there was a woman named Ella Ewing who lived seven miles from Dancing Rabbit. Her fame came from the fact that she was eight foot, four and a half inches; officially the tallest woman of her time (she died in 1913). The reason I am mentioning this in our news is that a few of us rabbits recently met Betty Wiley, a local who wrote a book about Ella's life and history. In reading excerpts of the book, it is fascinating to know the story of this woman, and to know that much of her history took place in our backyard. If you look her up online, there are hundreds of web pages with information about Ella Ewing.

As always, many projects have been in the works. No doubt work has been done on the many houses being built this year. I helped Ted and Jan get the roof on Jan's house, its almost ready for straw bales! Peter recently brought a wooden kayak he has been building to DR and has continued his work here. April is creating some sort of sculpture from pieces of an old piano which was disassembled a month or so ago. Also, a few people brought their goods to our new local farmers market. There are two a week, one in Memphis on Tuesdays from 4-7pm and another in Rutledge from 9am-noon. I feel like as the season progresses and more plants in the gardens are producing food the amount of people selling and purchasing will greatly increase. Right now strawberries are trickling out (today I found only two ripe berries), but Mulberries and raspberries are in high yield.

There continue to be many birthdays. Both Alline and BJ celebrated theirs last week, and Aurelia's is just around the corner. BJ and friends threw an awesomely hot dance party after potluck. It was such a warm evening that groups of people were constantly headed out to cool off at the pond. Aurelia has been celebrating her birthday a bit early with one set of grandparents visiting this week and the others arriving in just a few days.

Before signing off, I want to out out a few announcements for items we are currently looking for. As the the person who is in charge of the common house furniture, I am looking for a few COMFORTABLE CHAIRS for our library. Many of ours have seen better days and are looking to be replaced. Also, our DINNING TABLES get more wear and tear than the average table is built to handle and even though we are a handy bunch of "fix it types" some of our tables are at the point where fixing them requires more than a few new screws. And lastly, we really enjoy using used inter-tubes from truck and tractor tires to float on in the pond. If you have some that are patch-able we would happily use them as float toys. So, if you live in the area and have comfortable chairs, dinning tables, or large inter-tubes that you would like to donate to us please call and let us know.

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