Plague – half the community is sick

This is the down side to sharing.  Living closely to each other we occasionally can do nothing about passing on infections.  The last week has been pretty hard for the community in general.  i got off easy.  i was only down for part of a day and i did not have diarrhea nor was i vomiting like many of the folks here were.

Fortunately, this virus which has hit over 50 members, guests and visitors in the last week does not typically last more than a couple of days.


Perhaps our nemesis looks like this

And what strikes me most about this unfortunate situation is our collective resilience.  With all these people sick, only one meal has been missed (which we could have gotten covered if the ailing cook has just asked for help a bit earlier).  Hundreds of shifts: tofu, dishes, child care, garden is this crazy heat, shipping, wood working, chairs weaving, auto maintenance, bike maintenance, cheese making. food process, seeds gathering, seed packing, cow milking, bread baking and granola making, orchard, ornamental flowers, Louisa, CVille and Richmond buses and many more – are all running at nearly normal capacity.  People who are not sick are doing some extra work so people who are can rest and get better.

What is especially impressive to me is that even though the community is no longer linking hammocks production to quota, and even though our current production goals are lowest of the year, because we have sales that members know we can make if we make more hammocks – even with these ailments and incapacitated workers we are still producing more hammocks than our goals.