Turkey and Ping-Pong ...

Thanksgiving was a very busy day !!

... an announcement at the rise of Meeting for Worship, reminded community members that the 17th annual doubles ping-pong tournament would commence at 10am and continue until the evening with the championship match after supper. Teams gathered in the the Barn and reviewed rules and had their first glimpse of the tournament brackets and whom they would be matched against. Two tables were setup for this double elimination tournament. Matches consisted of the best-of-3 games. Teams with a single loss were moved to the "Less Fortunate Bracket" (read losers) to continue play. A second loss there and a team was eliminated from the tournament. Twenty teams competed in this year's competition.


Earlier in the week I had the pleasure to practice with one of our Korean Friends in Residence student, Jiseok, and he and I quickly decided that we would make a good team for the tournament. We ended up with a bye for the first round, and were able to win our first two matches.


I left the Barn about 12:30 to get pictures of the setup in the dining room and be available at 1pm for my daily job ...

... which today was dinner setup: to fill water pitchers, light candles, and dish out the mountains of food into bowls and onto platters for our sit-down dinner for about 100.
It was quite an amazing sight to experience such an organized community effort and then to enjoy a wonderful meal with the Pendle Hill family and Friends.


After dinner tournament play continued. Competition was quite fierce and winning became more difficult with each subsequent match. Jiseok and I were sent to the "Less Fortunate Bracket" after the loss of our third match. Play continued and matches were played as teams appeared in the Barn. Everyone had different jobs during the day, so sometimes we had to wait a bit for a match or allow matches with players who were available to proceed. By 6:30pm we were down to the last two matches. Folks were getting hungary again (??) and/or the kitchen was close to shutting down for the day, so we'all decided to break for a lite supper and then finish the tournament afterwards. Jiseok and I had made it to the semi-finals by winning all of our matches up to that point in the loser's bracket ... We played hard and were victorious in the loser's bracket and then went on to play in the championship match against the undefeated team in the winner's bracket. We had played them earlier in the day when we lost in that bracket.

During the 17 years of ping-pong here at Pendle Hill, one family, the Guindons have dominated the tournament. All members of the family are quite accomplished players and as paired teams it was no wonder why they had been at the top for so many years. I believe it had been at least 5 years since a team in their family had not held the title.

Jiseok and I had another outcome for the evening ... after a well played best-of-3 match, we defeated the team that had bested us earlier in the day, and came out on top in two games and were declared the Champions for the tournament.

This was the first time in all these years that a trophy was awarded to the winners. It was in celebration of Pendle Hill's 80th anniversary that Jiseok and I were awarded the first Ping-Pong Tournament trophy ... a piece of cord-wood with details etched and burned into the face, with a wish-bone and ball on top.

Preparing for the Feast

I can't believe my last post was over 2 weeks ago ... time sure does pass quickly here at Pendle Hill ... busy with learning my new job, lots of events and activities to attend and now we begin this week to prepare for a Thanksgiving Feast.

I answered the call for a "Service Opportunity" this evening after a wonderful meal of pasta, maranara and clam sauces, sauteed mushrooms, and Ceasear salad. An opening in the evening daily jobs required an extra hand in the kitchen doing "Post-Pots", cleaning the large trays, pots, colanders, spatulas, wooden cutting blocks, and other kitchen equipment used to prepare the meal. I rose to the occasion and joined Hanna at the large triple sink. This was my first time on Post-Pots as I have usually been assigned a daily job after breakfast of loading or unloading the dish washing machine with cups, plates, flatware, etc. It was a nice change and I had the opportunity to interact with the cooks as they began preparations for our Thanksgiving Feast on Thursday.

I don't know the count for the number of people attending our celebrated meal of gratitude, but the count must be a large one, as I watched the kitchen staff dress and stuff 210 lbs of free-range organic turkey ... 7 - 30 lb. birds to be exact. Here are a few photos ...







I'm not sure when or for how long the turkeys will need to roast, but I do know we are going to need a mountain of mashed potatoes and a boat load of gravy to go with. Of course, a vegan/vegetarian option is always available with every meal.

My evening followed with attending a lecture by one of our visiting British Friend in Residence and her talk on Nurturing the Spirituality in Children, based on her work and writings in England.

Another quite full day here at Pendle Hill.

In need of your own time away for quiet reflection and respite ?? Consider joining us for one of three New Year's retreat workshops ... http://pendlehill.org/workshops/themes/newyear ... I would welcome familiar faces anytime.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

Its the weekend !!

It was quite nice to relax and enjoy a crisp, sunny fall day without thinking technology ...
In the afternoon, I got on my bicycle and rode into Media, PA ... the closest town about 2 miles from our community. What I wasn't used to were the hills ... ugh! ... although the ride into town was overall uphill, so the ride home was rather fun ... many roads have no bike lanes which I am not used to, so I have to be extra cautious and on the lookout for potential problems. It took me about 15 minute returning and a bit longer to get to my destination.

With several groups meeting here this weekend, lunch was quite full ... we ate in shifts or waves and the scratch-made pizzas were amazing ... dinner was a bit lighter in numbers, but equally delicious ... herbed cous-cous, Spanikopita, and roasted carrots and cauliflower ...

Pendle Hill does not normally do desserts, but on the occasion of a birthday, they bake something special ... last night the celebrated person had requested and we all enjoyed brownies with a raspberry whipped cream ...

Later in the evening we had a party in the Barn ... a Pinata, snacks, games, music and a fun time.



This morning after a wonderful start of polenta, frittata and tomatilla salsa, I volunteered to fill a spot in the dish room on clean-up. I plan to attend Meeting for Worship at Providence Friends Meeting, one of the oldest Quaker Meetings in the area ... they celebrated their 325th anniversary last October ... its located in Media ... so here's a photo and historical note from their website ...

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Considered the oldest faith community in Media, Providence Meeting was noted in historical records in 1684. Quakers first met in the homes of settlers. The first meetinghouse, a log cabin, was built in the year 1700. The current structure was completed in 1815. First known as “Thomas Minshall’s Meeting,” the name was changed to Providence Meeting in 1700.

Today, Providence Meeting is a vital, growing faith community of over 200 people. Worshippers meet weekly on Sunday mornings in the unprogrammed Quaker tradition.
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Godspeed ... and enjoy your weekend!

Mental Chaos ...

I finished my first week of work at Pendle Hill as their IT Manager in training. What can I say ... WiFi, SysWAN, router, .iso, Clonezilla, Windows Server 2007, re-boot, drivers, network server, infrastructure, fiber optics, RJ45, Ethernet, printer installs, PC installs, troubleshooting, new software, more new software, hardware, jump drives, disk images, Kerio, email, Bonjour, Visio, ...

OK, perhaps you get the picture ... perhaps not? I was on an exponential learning curve as it peaked skyward each day, hoping to have a bit of the day's knowledge and instruction gel before the next day. It was exhausting, it was fun! I am SO excited to be in this place, this very special place called Pendle Hill.

This coming week is the 80th anniversary for this experiment in intentional spiritual community and we will have programs, speakers, worship, singing, amazing meals and over 200 guests in our community to help celebrate.

I am glad the weekend is here ... I need the mental break from the steep learning curve and near non-stop workings in my head trying to get a grasp of all-things-technological.

It was a great week ... the students, the staff, the other resident community members all make me feel very welcome ... I'll rest, relax and prepare for another fun, exciting week ahead. Did I mention that I haven't yet seen the other 50% of my job ... communications and marketing ... website management, newsletters, promotional flyers, layout and design, audio recording of guest speakers. That starts next week, as does my community chores ... daily tasks each of us do to keep the community functioning ... I have work in the dish room 2 mornings after breakfast and a lunch setup on my schedule for next week ...

I've only been to the store twice since arriving ... its weird walking through the store and not needing to buy anything ... the only food purchase so far has been brownie bites last week and this evening a bag of Oreos ... great to raid the "Katie" frig downstairs to get a cold glass of milk to go with ... Yum!

Wednesday's Silent, Simple Evening Meal

Our dinner meal on Wednesday evening is different from the others in the week.
A simple meal is prepared. Today was white beans cooked with tomatoes, whole grain rice, and steamed greens, ... bok choy I believe.

The first 20 minutes of this meal we eat in silence. The silence is broken by a designated member of our community with the ringing of a small bell and then a poem or other words to ponder.

I had a very busy and mind-expanding day of technology, so this quiet meal was welcomed and appreciated. Thanks Pendle Hill for another wonderful day!