Memphis Democrat September 20, 2000

This week we had to say goodbye to long time visitor Lyzyrd, who is going to spend time with her family in upstate NY and intern Tamar, who is going west to track wolves in Arizona. We wish them luck in their endeavors. But in the middle of this week we got a slew of visitors.

Dusty and Raven, a mother and daughter from Albuquerque, NM, came back to Dancing Rabbit. They were some of our earliest visitors, two and half years ago. Dusty planned and created our herb garden. After a few days, Raven had to return home to not miss school and Dusty's partner Maureen joined us.

We have two new interns. Mark arrived from Minneapolis, MN to work on construction. Kelifern arrived from Santa Cruz, CA to be a general intern. She is spending six months interning at communities around the country as part of an independent study project for her college degree.

Many of these folks arrived just in time for a contradance party. We moved all the furniture out of the timberframe to create a dance floor. The band included a guitar, trombone, fiddle and hammer dulcimer, and Rebecca from Sandhill called the steps, even making up an original dance for the party.

A few days later, we focused on the outside of the timberframe. A crew of folks led by Tony worked from 8am to 5pm to put a finish coat of plaster on the entire front of the building. There's only the small east wall left before we can declare the outside of the building done.

Alline, Cecil and I had a laughter-filled lunch in Rutledge, with Mary Walker, Irene Mayfield, and Shirley and Shirlene Chancellor. Cecil provided the peach pie and we all admired a new diamond ring.

Cecil and Jeffrey worked the cookshack at the Dog and Gun to benefit the Rutledge Community Center. They were joined by Celina Erikson, Mary Walker, Irene Mayfield and the Egglestons.

For our Saturday tour, we were visited, again, by Alvin Adams of Kirksville, MO and two of his friend visiting from Wisconsin.

We are enjoying watching the progress of foundation for the old church Brenda and Michael Roe are moving onto their land. We look forward to seeing the building drive up on a truck.

Please mark your calendars for October 1st. We are having an open house that afternoon, as part of a celebration of the anniversary of the purchase of our land.