Our Anniversary at DR

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary.  I'm actually very excited to be celebrating a milestone in such a place.  We've both spent the last week asking some of the couples what they do when they want a date.  Some of the answers - play music at the pond, walk into Rutledge (which we did this morning for a delicious non veggie breakfast.  It's a shame the Mennonites who run Zimmerman's have an aversion to selling tobacco) or catch a ride to Kirksville for a movie.  Tom the Monk took over Iz duties for our breakfast hike, and him and a wexer named Julia are going to split the evening between them while we have beer and pizza at the Milkweed. 

I guess I haven't told anyone...anything, really, in about 6 days.  I guess I should bring you up to speed. 

Isaiah is finally starting to adapt, I think.  I spent some time talking to Tony today, and he mentioned to me that he's enjoyed seeing him learn how to interact with the other children here.  I think that means that they like him.  :)   He really endeared himself to the community during last weekend's no-talent show with a rousing rendition of Itsy Bitsy Spider, during which he had to inform Mac 'no, you are not gonna sing. You need to put the guitar down and sit next to mommy'.  No stealing the show from that little guy.   :)

Work parties have been a lot of fun.  I swung a sledgehammer for an hour or more, but all to no avail - could NOT get the concrete slab to crack - Sandy walked up and broke it in like three hits.  WTF?!?  Turns out there's a trick...I still don't know the trick.  Yesterday we spread humanure around in the orchard, and I think it was Monday I learned to make plaster from sand and clay and cow poo (OLD cow poo) and helped replaster part of Ironweed's kitchen.  We cut out on today's work party...I'm not a fan of hole digging, and a fence line is going in around the grey water pond.  At least we had a good excuse.

The rumor is we will have THREE WHOLE DAYS of sun before the grey comes back!!  I couldn't be more excited!!!  But with the passing of the cold and wet came an extraordinary amount of wind.  So much so that it split one of our tent poles.  With technology being what it is these days, we will have a replacement before we go to sleep tomorrow, but I do have a bit of concern that our duct tape job won't make it through the night, particularly when the temperature drops and we want to put the rainfly back on.  We've got it tethered to trees on either side of us at the moment, but we will have to take the ropes down if we want to seal it up.

I have made some connections with some wonderful people here - people that I never would have gotten to meet if we hadn't made this trip.  Everyone here is wonderful and supportive and warm and caring, and already I feel like we have been welcomed into the community.

We have made the decision to have a residency interview.  We have to write a letter of intent that explains what we love about DR, what we think our challenges will be, how we hope to support ourselves, and what we think we can add to the community.  From there we will have a discussion with the Membership and Residency Committee, along with any residents, members, visitors or wexers who want to attend.  The committee will make is recommendation, and that recommendation will be open for comment for two weeks.  If there are no unresolved concerns at the end of two weeks, we're IN!

My current concerns - our living situation.  We have talked with several people, and there will not be anything available to rent until approximately August.  I'm sure we have help with some renovations and speed that up a bit, but if we want to be here, we are going to have to tent for some length of time.  Everyone assures me that it will not be 40 and rainy in July, I don't know if I exactly believe them... :)  Okay, I believe them, but I just don't know how willing I am to sleep in a tent.  Isn't this tornado country? 

So, any comments, questions, thoughts or concerns from my friends?  What do y'all think about tenting for most of a summer?  Anyone ever do it?  Anyone ever do it with their kids? 

The most important thing I want to get across right now is that I'm happy.  Really, deeply, wholesomely happy...and I almost feel like that makes the decision for me...