Memphis Democrat
October 1, 2007

Hello. Toby from England here with news from Dancing Rabbit.

Saturday's Open House was a great success. Over 150 people came by to be shown round the village in groups of twenty or so. Jennifer sat folks down by the swing chairs and explained some of the ways we try to live a more sustainable life here, then we took them round to see a few of our buildings and projects. First up was Skyhouse, the six-bedroom straw bale building with its straw/clay plaster walls, rocket-stove and greenhouse connected to the southern wall. Down to see Dan's beautiful garden complete with furry Asian gourds, and the foundation of his new house, made from bits of Kirksville Airport's old runway. Round the corner, Ironweed showed off their cob kitchen with a very clever stove designed by ex-resident Penn.

For those waiting for news on that stove, well, Ted and Tamar fired it up late last week and, although there was some draw, the cob wasn't completely dry and there were what Tamar called "smoke-related issues". After ogling the Ironweed kitchen, visitors were then led up past Bob's garden and the Carleton's house to the complex framing that will eventually be the first commercial building at Dancing Rabbit: next year Milkweed Mercantile will become a bed and breakfast, restaurant and shop. The tour ended in the Community Building, with the showers, kitchen, offices and restrooms that most of us make use of daily; in the Great Room visitors could buy Amy's cookies, Tamar's nature photographs and reused tee-shirts screen-printed with our very own moonlit logo.

We enjoy the questions that people ask us during these tours. After showing one group round I was asked: "do you have a leader"? No, we don't, and it does still amaze me just how well a bunch of us can get by building and living in this community, coming to agreements and developing policy without ever having had anyone in charge. We're all in charge here, and we all make decisions together, although, unlike in earlier times here, there are now a whole bunch of committees (about twenty of them!) and other groupings that make scores of little decisions day-to-day without any formal input from the rest of us. Only this week I learnt something that came as a shock: all committees are open to any of us to turn up to observe. That seems a pretty amazing policy to have; I look forward to seeing how it works in practice during my stay here.

Not satisfied with just one major event this week, we're now busy preparing for next weekend's reunion, celebrating the 10th anniversary of establishing Dancing Rabbit. A few guests have already arrived, including Mollie, who lived here last year and arrived from Portland, Oregon carrying a stack of chocolate Dagoba bars. Every vegan variety they make, apparently. Meanwhile a few folks have been busy finding, sorting and framing photographs covering the decade; they're now hung on the walls of the Community Building. I've only here been here four months, and it's humbling to see pictures of so much work being done here to help make this place what it is.

Sunday saw work on our new pond come to an end. A bunch of students from Truman State, here on a visit as part of their 'Expanding Environment Consciousness' course, spent a couple of hours spreading straw over the reseeded dam-side, finishing just two minutes before a great downpour left them all soaked but happy. My wife Michelle, who's been managing the pond project, will be hugely relieved once all the paperwork's completed later this week, as she and I now need to concentrate our energy on getting our Yome (Yurt/Dome) erected in time for the birth of our first child.

We've enjoyed having soon-to-be-resident Donna visit, with her abundant energy and enthusiasm. She's hoping to join Jennifer on our fundraising and development efforts, and is looking forward to learning - the easy way - how to conserve water and electricity: if you use too much of either of those resources here at Dancing Rabbit, they just run right out until it rains or shines, and you helped make that happen. Donna's friend Myra came along too, and with her help we've learnt a few things about how we can make the village more accessible to wheelchair users. Myra came with Khan, the Australian Shepherd service dog she's training. Mostly we've had to carefully ignore him to help with the training, but before Myra left she gave us a demonstration of what service dogs can do, which includes picking up socks, letting someone know the phone is ringing, and fetching help. Or 'doing a Lassie', as we like to put it. Where's Timmy?

Earlier in the week, Jan organized her own Open House, complete with incense, Jazz soundtrack and chocolate-coated peanuts. She really has managed to get the entire contents of that moving truck into Bella Ciao, her 9' x 12' house. Honestly, I've never seen anything like it. She's done a fantastic job. After a couple of days figuring out the floor plan using Post-it notes and graph paper, she has everything piled in there, and the room kinda feels like it's bigger inside than on the outside. Living in small spaces is something many people here choose to do, and I hope it works out for Jan.

And finally. The chicken pox has gone! Life for a few people can now return to what counts as 'normal' round here! Hip hip hurrah!

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