Memphis Democrat
November 1, 2001

Its been quiet around, but very homey. Kurt has been working construction with his friend Kent in Shelbysville. Susan and Erik returned from picking up their belongings from CO. They returned with a 24' foot Ryder truck, which has been the moving vehicle of a high percentage of members. Tony went to Tucson to go to the board meeting of a nonprofit he is involved with. It is called the Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) and it has an office at Sandhill Farm. But before he left his parents stopped by for an afternoon. They were on their way back home to Michigan from CA and figured we were on the way.

Speaking of the FIC, it puts out a magazine called "Communities." The magazine came in this week and a big crew of folks headed over to Sandhill to prepare it for mailing.

Another fun work party was making apple and pear cider for winter and for now. It was delicious! Our food has been outrageously good recently. Tomatoes and peppers are ripening in the house, so we have fresh summer vegetables even as the wind blows over the frosty ground outside.

Speaking of wind, brrr. It was hard to keep our heads with that incessant wind. But we did lots of things to stay warm and happy, like playing games, carving pumpkins and having a rocking dance party. Now we have our stove properly assembled and the wood can keep us warm, too.

At the last meeting, we joyfully approved Megan to stay as a resident for one year. She joined us as a garden intern in April. She's been a resident since July when her internship ended and she wanted to commit to staying a year so she can dig into some exciting projects. I hear there are art projects in her future.

Before Tony left he successfully finished the modifications to our little diesel Jetta. It now has two fuel tanks. One has coolant flowing along the lines and through the tank to warm it up when the car is running. This allows us to start the car on petrodiesel in the winter and switch it to biodiesel when the fuel warms up. And in the summer we can start the car on biodiesel and then run it on pure vegetable oil when it warms up enough. Pretty exciting. We have to thank the fellows at the Rutledge Garage for patiently helping us with the modifications.

To finish off, we got an email from Cecil, who is currently in the United Kingdom. He made his own version of the Harper's Index, only he called it the Cecil Index. I've excerpted a little for your enjoyment:

* number of male choruses sung with, during rehearsal: 1

* average age of member of male chorus: 65

* number of times medley from "Paint your Wagon" sung by male chorus, with me participating: 1

(Good thing he caught the Memphis Players' version in '98) Have a good week y'all.

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is a nonprofit and a residential community that demonstrates ecological sustainability in Rutledge, MO. We have tours the first and third Saturday of the month at 1pm and the next tour is November 4th. Please call first at 883-5511.

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