Memphis Democrat
September 30, 2004

This weekend 14 of us stuffed ourselves and lots of gear into rental cars and headed down to Johnson's Shut-ins for the weekend. Many of us had never been to the Ozarks and couldn't get enough of the trees, rocks and clear water. We splashed around in the shut-ins, floated the river, rock-climbed, hiked, and ate really really well.

Those of us who stayed home went to Sandhill Farm's annual Sorghum Festival. Besides the usual face painting and sorghum-on-ice-cream, we had the opportunity to see their new steam boiler. Lots of folks come to Sandhill to help them with their harvest and we were really happy to see that former member Andra came up for a visit. It was great to see her smiling face and I heard a rumor she might be hanging around northeast Missouri for a bit.

Laura hosted a storytelling night. People gathered around in the common house to stories of mistaken first impressions and their favorite folks tales. It was a pleasure curl up with my mug of warm soymilk and hear Laura's quirky retelling of an old folk tale.

Tom has been slowly but surely taking down the old Childers barn so that we can reuse the wood. He needed some of the siding to use on the back porch he is building on the common house. I went with him to help and got to see the beautiful old timbers. The new back porch will house the wood-fired hot water boiler that Solrey is installing. And I heard that Penn stayed up all night in a marathon burst of work to finish the kitchen. It looks great!

The cool nights and geese heading south have been a reminder that fall is here and cold weather is on the way. Dan's house has been making steady progress toward being ready for winter. Two of his walls are bermed with dirt and with the help of Bob, he built a retaining wall out of used tires pounded full of dirt. Talk about hard work! He also had the holes dug for the footings of his porch.

This week will be the seventh anniversary of when we bought our land and eighth anniversary of settling in Rutledge. I feel incredibly lucky that we ended up here, in such a friendly, beautiful place. I look forward to sharing the changes we have made during our annual Open House on October 9th. This past year has been a big one for buildings. I hope to see y'all there.

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