Memphis Democrat October 18, 2000

We were doubly luck to have an ecology class from Drake University in Des Moines visit us for the weekend. Partially because we had a fabulous time with them, playing charades and doing choral singing together. But also because their instructor was an old friend and one of the original visionaries of the community, Dave Hauri. We enjoyed having Dave's wife and two children here and it reminded us how much we miss having children around the place.

Our last intern for the year showed up: Tim, recent graduate of Ramapo College in New Jersey. He will be working on construction. And there's been plenty of construction happening. Kurt got the windows and doors into his building, with the help of a large crew. Folks got together to winterize the Skyhouse building, too. Jacob and Minna took advantage of the warm weather late in the week to put some finish plaster on the outside of Allium, the load bearing cabin. We hope this mix of plaster will last.

All that frost forced a frenzy in the garden. Don led a bunch of folks to harvest everything that isn't frost tolerant, and then to canning or drying as much as possible. The house smelled strongly of celery all day. Then a crew came together to divide up the canned goods for the winter by month and haul them to the Roes root cellar. (Thanks Brenda and Michael.)

One day while Susan and I were on a walk, Oren stopped his truck to ask whether we could help move his new couch into his house. We enjoyed the opportunity to see the new look in the Erickson house and the two items they gave us: a yellow recliner and a floating chair for the pond. I haven't seen Susan out of the recliner since we got it home.

Cecil and I joined folks for lunch in Rutledge. We enjoyed the company, but missed Irene Mayfield, as she was off fixing broken appliances at the cook shack.

We were graced with two fabulous performers this week, who stopped here on their way across country. Alicia Bay Laurel wrote a best-selling book called Living on the Earth in the late sixties based on the skills she learned living on a commune. She just rereleased the book and is traveling the country telling stories and singing songs about that time. She performed here because Alline contacted her about selling her book through Community Bookshelf, Alline's book business.

Then we were visited by old friend, and my client through my music booking business, Allette Brooks. She joined us for just a short 24 hours and performed her folk music at the Alternative Community Center in Kirksville, to a packed crowd.