Jamboween and Workday!

There is so much going on these past few weeks that I'm combining events in the blog!  On the 19th we had our Jamboween - a great fall party that includes Elderberry folks, Potluck Farm folks and lots of neighbors and friends.  The Potluck Farm community started this tradition 29 years ago, and it has grown and gotten better every year. The weather called for rain, but it held off until midnight.  We had our usual band (the fabulous Gravy Boys), cider making, bonfire, pumpkin carving, potluck meal, pig picking, hayride and more.  Awesome evening!

And today, we had a very productive workday!  We are restoring an 1894 log cabin that is on our property, and a lot of folks spent time today cleaning it up on the inside to prepare for new chinking.  Others helped with cleaning our common house (The Hive) and doing some weeding.  We were going to fire up the wood-fired pizza oven for lunch, but the weather was iffy, so we made pizza in the Hive.

Lovely Oct Workday!

At Elderberry, we have workdays twice a month, and today was a beautiful day to be working around the community.  We had a visitor here - Tim - and he is a skilled person, so we put him to work on a job that requires skill!  Over the past year, we added a stairway to access the 2nd floor of one of our old barns, and a safety railing was needed.  So three of the gents worked together on that.  We also repaired a board on the old log cabin, did some final painting on the mailbox structure, did some weeding and landscaping work, and cleaned in the Hive (our common house).  Very productive day!!!

Ross and Mike gathering tools

Lucy, Jeff and Anne - and weeds!

Joyce was a weeding machine today (with a seriously evil tool!)

Ross led the effort to replace a board on the log cabin

All the barn doors open today!!

Tim working on the safety railing for the barn stairwell

Nancy was sorting rocks for Mary's latest art project

Meg - finding a way to contribute even with her knee problem!

The crew that working on cleaning up the Hive today

Linda, Karolyn and Jon all helped with finishing the painting of Elderberry Station (our mailbox/golf cart/bike structure)

Jon has the courage to paint in a white shirt!!

Mike on the newly accessible second floor of the barn

Tim, Ross and Mike - they finished the safety railing - yea!!!

Hawaiian Luau

Hawaii celebrated 60 years of Statehood this past month, and Elderberry celebrated with them. The thing we probably do best at Elderberry is throw amazing parties.  And the Luau was no exception! 

The celebration starting on Friday night with the lighting of the tiki torches at all the common house doors, and the arrival of Elvis (with Krispy Kreme donuts) to watch Blue Hawaii in the media room.

The partying continued on Saturday with Hawaiian food, rockin' decorations, dancing, games and general silliness.  Everyone got a lei with the traditional "Aloha" and "Mahalo" (thank you) kiss (well, not everyone got a kiss).  Karolyn took the photos, but she was also drinking Karen's coco-rum punch, so some might be a little blurry!  Vonda created a Hawaii quiz and the prize was a little basket of shells.

This party was totally NANI  (Hawaiian for FANTASTIC).

Elvis Has Entered the Building

Jeff meets the King

Dick hanging out with The King

Jon, Ross and Meg, entranced by celebrity

Karolyn has about 100 cookie cutters (maybe more - I kid you not).  I love the little guitars and palm trees!!!

Decorations were a hoot!

hoʻolauleʻa!!

The Tiki Bar - great Hawaiian libations!

Several people hung out at the beach!
Michael and Margery enjoyed their beach time!

Stewart and Karen being coco - NUTTY

Karen and Karolyn with their coco-run drinks

 

What a colorful crew!!

Jim blowing the conch to announce dinner (he really can do this!)

Hawaiian FEAST

Colorful table of friends

Dessert was Karen's pineapple coconut cake - scrumptious!

This is a game where everyone got to shoot darts by squeezing a toucan gun
to spit the darts across the room into a volcano!
Barb won the prize for getting all the darts in

It's HULA!!!  Joan taught everyone how to hula (she learned as a kid)
Actually, hula is the Hawaiian word for dancing, so any dance will do!

ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING