Memphis Democrat
July 27, 2009

Hello from Ted at Dancing Rabbit with this week's update.

Despite the continuing mild weather, tomatoes and squash have been rolling through our kitchens, and we had our first large quantity of salsa with one of our food coop meals the other night. What a pleasure! And just as we'd hoped, Aurelia is enjoying snacking on tomatoes growing as a shade crop around our greenhouse at home.

I spent much of the week focused on the project of moving our power system from our house, where it has resided for five years, over to the Ironweed kitchen. The kitchen was long intended as the final home for the system, though the move had been delayed several years. I'd actually spent a lot of time gathering the necessary materials and working to trench in the transmission lines with Tamar last Fall, so aside from having to remember how it was all supposed to work and where I'd stashed everything I needed, it turned out to be a smooth implementation.

Micah, who was an early season visitor in 2008, arrived with his wife Tammy to stay a few days enroute to a family reunion, and I'd agreed to host him. He is heading for certification as a photovoltaics installer, and so brought enthusiasm for the task at hand. He was invaluable as an assistant, and stuck with it with flashlight in hand to help me through the day of the move to the point of turning the power back on in its new location. No whammies! It worked. Now I'm on to tying up all the loose ends of the project and trenching in the rest of the lines to other buildings.

Ma'ikwe also got power online this week out at her army tent, just in time for various friends and family to start arriving next week for "house camp", a month during which she's hoping to make great strides on getting her house put together. A fridge for cold beverages won't hurt in keeping the crew happy. The central posts of her house's frame, 20 foot behemoths, went up this week with several gatherings of people out at her site. Her roofing is ordered, and bales on hand for the walls, though her crew intends to use the house-size pile of bales next to the site for a walk-in movie theatre screen this coming weekend.

Liat got a new porch at Aubergine, complete with an intricately woven canopy of twigs and branches and several planter boxes of wild grapes to grow on them and create a leafy refuge. I can't wait to sit under it.

Jan's house got wired last week, and is scheduled for straw bale walls to go up early this coming week, which makes three new houses in the new neighborhood that may be inhabited this winter, and adds a whole new dimension to the village.

Mark at Red Earth next door is also running some workshops these days as he builds, with one on straw bale notching this past week, and one on adobe floors upcoming. We haven't established an official school of natural building here yet, but it sure feels like one this year.

Our new grassy paver road, installed early this past week, has already sprouted a fine green hair of buffalo grass with the twice-daily waterings by various volunteers including the indefatigable Morgan, who signed up for every evening watering last week. Another few weeks and we'll be able to walk on it.

Despite the obstruction of the fenced-off road area in front of it, Alline and Kurt successfully opened the doors of the Milkweed Mercantile Saturday afternoon. Many Rabbits helped carry in and set up merchandise, and for the first time we have a display window in the village, with beautiful embroidered handkerchiefs just in time for ragweed season, among other offerings. Congratulations, Milkweeds!

An intrepid crew of rock climbers, including some members, residents, work exchangers and even visitors, headed down to Columbia early in the week for a day of climbing. They returned unscathed and perhaps a little rosier from the thrill of defying gravity. I was sorry not to join them, but one can only do so much in a week.

Lastly, I became an uncle again this week as my brother's wife birthed twin boys Talisker and Odin in northern Virginia. The boys arrived a couple weeks early, and are temporarily under close care. Our thoughts are with them and I can't wait to meet the little ones.

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