Here in Oak View we’ve got a few more raised bed boxes to build and some drip lines to install, and then we will have completed our garden infrastructure.  We had a good crop of onions and garlic from the winter, and the tomatoes, chile, melons, tomatillos, squash and five kinds of heirloom beans are all growing, and the fruit trees are almost ready to harvest.  We keep learning about soil, seed-saving, and watershed-wise methods of growing food.  Thanks to a trip to the Channel Islands with local friend Eric Hodge, we’ve been making lots of ceviche and fish tacos with the slabs of fresh white sea bass he caught spearfishing. 

 Visitors this month included Maree Crabbe from Australia; John Jensen, his wife Raquel from Long Beach, and their Australian friend Chris; several of the Abundant Table Farm women; and the BCM board for a meeting.  Elaine and I were both interviewed by seminary students about “alternative ministry.”  We’ve been reading and discussing the history of the Russian Revolution in preparation for her trip to the Ukraine in October.   The last third of the month was taken up by U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, where we worked with Word and World colleagues to facilitate a Sabbath Economics track (for more info. see www.ussf2010.org).  We also participated in a Mennonite Church U.S. Interchurch Relations conference in Wichita.

Celebrations: Ruby Adelia (left with sister Monrovia) was born to Matt and Susannah Prinz in Oakland, CA on May 24^th!  2010 Bartimaeus Institute alumnae Chris Grataski and Melissa Shank were married on June 20^th in Huddleston, VA.  And Canadian elder, peace movement veteran, friend and fellow Mennonite Hedy Sawadsky (right) turned 80 on June 15th.  Congratulations all!  

Prayers: A couple of our friends continue their struggles with cancer.  Emmett Jarrett of St. Francis House (left) in Connecticut has ended his second round of chemotherapy, and is in palliative care.  He and his daughter are editing a book entitled Broad Street Blues; a Reader in Radical Discipleship.”  Murphy Davis of the Open Door Community in Atlanta is beginning her fifth infusion of chemo in her long battle with indolent lymphoma.  She will be homebound for the summer, and in this process until early fall.  Please continue to pray for both Emmett and Murphy.  Please also remember Australian friend Jonathan Hirt, who is facing back surgery.  

We wish you a blessed summer.