Memphis Democrat
May 3, 2007

Ted here at Dancing Rabbit with an update on our goings-on.

The pace of our collective schedules got a bump up this past week with the arrival of our first group of visitors. This group is somewhat unusual in that it has a large proportion of kids, with five of them age 18 months to teenager accompanying their parents in experiencing life at Dancing Rabbit. The Johnson kids have clearly loved having some playmates of their own ages on hand, but we've also been reminded how significant a transition it can be for folks with kids. It is a challenge to attend workshops on consensus decision-making and alternative power or cob and strawbale construction when your child expects a nap or snack at a particular time according to his or her home schedule. I'm not sure whether I'm noticing more because of the number of kids visiting or if being a father now myself, maybe I'm just more attuned to issue. In any case, it is a good reminder for all of us of the many ways that we need to provide support for those making the switch to Dancing Rabbit life.

The weather, of course, added its usual influence to the mix, welcoming our new visitors with a deluge and days of cool clouds and showers, so that wet tents and sleeping bags seemed to be the norm and added to the jumble of new things to figure out. Despite the weather, Ironweed was able to host an alternative construction workshop at its kitchen-under-construction that took in the various disciplines of light clay-straw insulation, cob construction, and earthen plastering. All participants ended the day muddy, but had gratifying progress to show for their labors, with the chicken coop wall nearly finished up to the loft floor, half of the strawbale wall's exterior plastered, and much of the loft's floor insulated. As the saying goes, many hands make light work, and while I'm not convinced that hefting buckets of cob or plaster will ever make light work, it certainly does speed the process up to have so many helping hands. We hope that our visitors will depart with some useful new skills under their belts in return for their efforts.

As all of you wild mushroom hunters are well aware, mushroom season is in full swing, and whispered tales of luscious morel repasts keep me searching for a spare hour to go out and hunt some of the tasty denizens of the forest floor myself. One of the tasks keeping me too busy to get away, though, is the process of inoculating new shiitake and oyster mushroom logs this week. Dancing Rabbit plans to build a new pond north of the village this summer, and so Ironweed was able to harvest some great oak logs from the site for our every-other-year effort to keep ourselves in fresh mushrooms. Several rabbits came down on a couple of days to help with drilling the holes in the logs, plugging them with sawdust spawn, painting over the holes with wax, and hauling the logs to the shady spot under an old oak in the holler where they live lined up over the ephemeral stream that runs when it rains and keeps their feet moist. Here's to the magnificent diversity of fungi! And to my friends for sharing some bites of their own morel harvests.

Monday night a bunch of rabbits journeyed to Sandhill for a celebratory dinner for Laird and Maik'we, who were in town for one night following their marathon wedding festivities in and around Albuquerque, NM, and before heading off the next day for a six week honeymoon in Spain, Italy, and Greece. As much as I love Spring in northeast Missouri, and have more to do than time to do it in, that is a journey I'd be glad to tag along for! We wish them a wonderful and relaxing trip, and look forward to hearing all about it. Tuesday night's community potluck was a satisfyingly large affair, with a giant circle in the courtyard beforehand. With Sandhill's Mayday gathering not far off, and more work exchangers arriving weekly, we're rapidly leaving the bundled nights of winter behind for warm weather festivities and summer population numbers, and I couldn't be happier. New arrivals to DR this week included Alicia, a Milkweed work exchanger for the month of May, and David, another potential Milkweed worker and experienced green builder who actually spent several days helping on the Ironweed project and was instrumental in getting so much plaster work done. Thanks, David, and thanks, Milkweeds, for sharing!

With the rain clearing to leave beautiful summery days in its wake by week's end, a couple ultimate frisbee games manifested as surely as the leaves erupted from their buds on the trees, followed immediately by the first of many cool-offs at the pond. Thomas led tree planting Saturday on a corner of our land where we're attempting to limit some major erosion, and separately led a land walk in this wonderful season before the grass grows so high that a land walk is more like wading than walking. Alyssa led a troup of visitors over to Red Earth Farms, our neighboring community, for a tour there, and before the day was finished many a first sunburn of the year had been achieved. Nathan added swing dancing lessons to evening visitor activities that included a meet and greet, question and answer session, and a viewing of the 30 Days episode filmed here in 2005. Finally, we all took part in a talent/no talent show Saturday night, with a lively and animated selection of song (including my favorite, "Cookshift Blues" by Professor Whisket and the Kitchenettes), dance, and spoken word that produced an abundance of laughter and cheering until well past Aurelia's bedtime.

All the rain and warmth seems to make the grass think it has free licence to overgrow paths, fences, and every other obstacle, so now I'm off to sharpen my scythe and practice my grass taming, in addition to prepping beds in the orchard for onion transplants and the last of the potatoes. A very productive and enjoyable week to you all from Dancing Rabbit!

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