Memphis Democrat
March 3, 2008

Hello from Toby at Dancing Rabbit with this week’s update.

I’ll be honest here: I’m sick right now, or “not very well” as we’d say in England, and I hope that doesn’t come through too much in these paragraphs. There’s a lot of it about. There were only four people at the Sunflower eating co-op’s dinner a few nights ago. I must say I’m finding the weather pretty bizarre right now. Yesterday took things right off the spectrum as your local mild-climate representative. Up in the seventies during the day, in the evening the temperature fell ten degrees in as many minutes, and things got “a little blowy” to boot. Crikey.

Last night my family spent the night as guests in a beautiful house at our neighboring community, Sandhill Farm, causing me to ponder a little on the whole ‘natural building’ thing that we’re into. ‘Kharma’ has what’s “usual” for round here: massive exposed beams, old wooden furniture, and hand-decorated fabrics lining the walls. I’m often pretty blasé about this stuff but, and I guess this is a by-product of being a bit spaced-out by a cold and having had a lot of time to lie motionless and stare (a new experience as father of an infant), last night I really took it in, appreciating each pitted beam and batik wall-hanging. What with all the wood paneling, I was reminded of ‘Grove Park’, the mid-nineteenth-century farmhouse in Devon, England, that my grandparents lived in and where I spent many summers as a child. My mum’s parents lived, in the latter part of their lives, in what used to be the saddle-room (now breakfast room), harness room (bedroom) and dairy (kitchen), and the horsy bits were very wood-paneled indeed.

I’m sure memories of Grove Park are a big part of why I feel so at home in houses like Kharma, and many of those here on the farm. After my beam- and batik-appreciating session I noticed the white plastic coat-hangers in the wardrobe, and realized how garish they looked compared to the rest of the room. There was nothing else made of plastic in the room apart from the alarm clock, and even that had a color-scheme more in tune with the rest of room. So I don’t know... I’m never quite sure what it is about plastic and other man-made materials that bothers me - whether it’s the look of the thing or just the obviousness of their being-made-of-out-naughty-stuff but my body and soul sure appreciate being around not much plastic at all. It’s rarely just the eco-friendliness of things at places like Dancing Rabbit that appeal to me. There’s just something ‘right’ about it. Or many things. Guess I’d better make me a wooden case for my laptop computer next.

Brian, following in Liat’s help-me-live-in-a-school-bus footsteps, held a little discussion on Wednesday evening to get some ideas for the cob house he’ll be building starting this summer. He’d already talked to a few people, but wanted to have a group discussion to get additional ideas. As you can read on his blog at small-scale.net, he’d been debating whether to use standard dimensional lumber or pole wood for his ‘living roof’ (meaning he’ll have stuff growing on it): “I was leaning towards dimensional lumber since I figured it would be easier to work with, and it would keep the living roof design more uniform and easier to build. However, I did not like the idea of depending on milled lumber. I thought it would be much nicer to find wood poles here on the land and incorporate them into the building instead. But I was intimidated by the prospect of using lots of uneven pieces of wood. How would that complicate the living roof?” Mark from Red Earth Farms threw in the idea of a ‘reciprocal roof’, which can be made using pole wood, however uneven. Each beam both supports and is supported by the others beams in the roof structure: no internal support structure is needed. The result reminds me of building a fire out in the woods, where you stuck a few twigs upright, leaning them against each other. Except that it’s all a bit more exact with a reciprocal roof because it matters more that it doesn’t collapse on you. I’m sure the coming months will see many a reciprocal roof being made from pens, pencils, knives and forks during lunchtime building discussions.

On Saturday, Meadow provided a delightful hour of songs and music for the babies of the village. Aurelia and Adam from Dancing Rabbit, and Nina and Alyson’s pre-born baby from Red Earth Farms all came along with a parent or two to gurgle, squeak and wiggle along to various infant-friendly songs. A bunch of happy-pants around the piano, to be sure.

Out on the land, the red-wing blackbirds are back, and the Tree Team have started pruning the fruit trees, to encourage them to put their energy into making yummy apples and pears for us rather than just becoming Bigger Trees. Liat’s bus project is coming along steadily, with a long list of tools and other resources she can beg or borrow from other rabbits filling the pages of her spiral-bound notebook.

The poles for new resident Amy Radford’s tipi have arrived today by freight from way over yonder: she’s looking forward to getting her new home up so she and her family will have more space to hang out in.

Our new ‘Eco-Progress Task Force’ had their first meeting early in the week. It’ll be working to help us figure out just how eco we’re being, individually and as a community, and how much we’re improving. It’ll also be helping us share ideas and contacts for helping each of us do that bit better. Stuff like how to source local wood, and where to buy organic seeds. We’ll have occasional ‘salons’ for face-to-face chat, and we’ll put some information up on our internal ‘Wiki’ website thing too.

Two FedEx trucks arrived here within a minute of each other the other day. We figured there must have been some confusion. I mean, it’s debatable enough having all this stuff delivered to us in petrodiesel-powered vehicles without this sort of carry-on (and it’s just a debate; I have no opinion, having never sat down to think properly about the issue). When we asked the woman driving the first truck what was up, she said, “Well, I sure don’t know how he got ahead of me!” Clearly some sort of competitive FedEx thing. Wow. And not the answer we were expecting.

Calling all Scotland County residents! A few folks here have asked me to tell you that there’s now a ‘Freecycle’ email list for our county. From the website: “It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills.” Basically you get a load of emails telling you who’s got stuff you can have for free (if you collect it), and you’re welcome to offer likewise. We use our own email list and weekly meetings for this all the time, but we’re pleased to be part of this wider network too, and encourage you to look into it.

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