Memphis Democrat November 8, 2000

Hi everyone. It's Alline again, subbing for the Rachel Katz who is still away doing a little business and a lot of visiting with friends.

What a week it's been here at Dancing Rabbit! Friday night we grabbed the Sandhill folks and went bowling in Memphis to celebrate Michal's birthday. Everyone dressed up in their crazy finest. Ah, Halloween!

Saturday we joined our friends Dan and Nancy Kelly at their organic apple orchard (Blue Heron in Canton) for a harvest party. Fantastic music was provided by Ron and Lou from Gorin, who played guitars and sang, and Larry Ayers of Knox City on fiddle. There was a wonderful potluck that had us undoing the top buttons of our jeans, and freshly-pressed apple cider. Nancy led everyone on tours of the orchard while Dan led tours of their new monster cider press. Can't wait to see that thing in action! We also picked up a couple jars of Nancy's amazing apple butter as holiday gifts for the folks back home. I sure hope they share!

Sunday the fun continued, as Sandhill hosted Rebecca's brother Larry from Boston (and the lot of us) at roller skating party in Kahoka. It's so much fun to play music that you love and skate under the disco ball!

Monday was intern Laurie's 25th birthday. She composed a special poem for the occasion. Her presentation was impressive - after leading us outside, she did a dramatic recitation while accompanied by intern Debra on a drum and intern Minna on ...sparklers! After she finished her reading, we lit fireworks leftover from July 4th. Then we all went inside for birthday cake. Laurie even gave us the choice of chocolate of vanilla frosting - she had made some of each!

Our interns are definately getting the knack of cooking for large groups. Mark debuted his killer soon-to-be-world-famous Spanish Rice. Tim and Minna made burritos that would knock Martha Stewart's socks off. And Laurie and Debra made pizza that we're begging them to make again (and again, and again). Speaking of wonderful food, Don our (amazing) gardener has been bringing in stunning vegetables. The other night we had the most glorious spinach salad ever. The leaves were the size of my hand, and were a luscious shade of green. Popeye never had it so good! Don's also been working on cold frames, and expects the harvest to continue all winter.

On other fronts, Susan and Cecil returned from their travels (yeah!). Jeffrey and Jess are away at the National Association of Student Cooperatives big get-together in balmy Ann Arbor, Michigan. Jeffrey is leading a seminar, and Jess is selling books for Community Bookshelf.

Kurt and interns Mark, Tim and Minna continue work on the chimney and stairway in Kurt and Alline's house. They're moving in any day now!