The little electric CitiCar is a hoot! I swear there are golf carts larger than it is. Can you imagine driving this around the city? Our friends found it for sale last year, brought it home and have been fixing it up with help from other friends. It will soon be making regular trips to our town with our friends behind the wheel.
Every year, there is a project to be completed. In previous years, it has been installing a composting toilet, building an arbor, putting up the solar shower. The project for the year was putting up an array for recharging the battery of the CitiCar using solar power. It will also be backup for the electrical systems in the strawbale greenhouse, where some of the only paypaya trees in Wisconsin currently grow.
The kids had a great time catching up with friends they only get to see once a year. Even though some of them hadn't seen each other in about 360 days, they were all running around together playing within about 30 seconds of arrival.
We always picnic at a park in the woods near our friends' home. The kids play bumper cars on the tire swings, jump over the little creek and whack at a pinata. To our eternal amusement, the candy always is collected in old Johnny Walker Black Label bags. Adults lounge around, play frisbee or (new this year) horseshoes, swing on the bench swing and nap in the shade.
Not for the faint of heart is the outdoor shower heated by the sun. As you can see, strategic towel placement may be necessary when taking a solar shower, but it works and is quite fun. It is a refreshing way to clean off during a summer day. If you have never taken a shower outside, try it sometime. There is nothing quite like it. Pulling the handle unleashes the light rain to sluice off dirt and sweat on a hot day as you look out onto the vivid summer world and hear the birds in the distance. I wonder what the neighbors would say if we installed on in our back yard? 
All from scratch, the food is fresh and delicious. Fresh garden salads, fluffy pancakes, delicious bread, fresh cinnamon rolls, just picked raspberries and more satisfied our hunger and tasted all the better for the conversations we enjoyed while eating them. Lisa has a true gift for desserts and this years lemon-raspberry trifle and chocolate torte were no exception, though the classic mocha cake was missed. Check out her new cookbook for inspiration! Speaking of cookbooks, this is another good one. One of our Reunion friends has recipes in it and introduced us to it a few years back. 
The farm setting is beautiful with abundant flowers and greenery. There are large beds of perennial flowers mixed in with herbs, and the vegetable gardens spread out on either side of the raspberry patch. This year, the squash and gourd vines were taking over thanks to a five year old's enthusiasm while planting. It speaks volumes about our friends that instead of ripping out the excess vines spreading everywhere, they simply built structures to hold them and improvised twine supports to take them over the sidewalk. 
Imagine chatting with old and new friends in the outdoor cantina after a wonderful dinner, sipping blackberry sangria and listening to live music played by a local quartet as night settles, the fireflies dance and lightening flashes in the distance. It was simple perfection that is not simple to pull off. I love my friends for taking the energy and time to organize this every year.
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