Memphis Democrat
August 7, 2003

Alyson here, filling in for Rachel, who's off visiting friends in California.

This week has seen some major changes in our eating groups. Here at Dancing Rabbit there are several different ways that people get their food and cook it. Most of us are members of an eating cooperative called Cattail. Some people eat on their own or with their spouse. And this week a new coop was born, after months of planning and hard work, which you all have read about in this column. Welcome, Bluestem! Five DR members, Tom, Tereza, Bob, Andra, and Penn, have now begun cooking together and eating meals together, and in a few weeks they hope to be able to do so in their completed kitchen and dining building.

The day that the Bluestem members ate their last dinner with Cattail, we had a huge all-Rabbit feast, attended by every single person here at DR. Everyone dressed up formally, and there were loud hoots and cheers as people we'd only seen before in their work clothes came to the table wearing tuxedos and cummerbunds! We celebrated being together, sharing the gifts of the land together, and the diversity of options that is growing at DR.

After dinner, we carried our chairs over to the Common House, which now has rafters above it, and staged a "No-Talent Show". Our all-popular emcee was Bear, the hand puppet, created by Andra. One of our visitors, John Ivens, a psychology professor, played us a piece on his clarinet. Jeffrey recited a poem from a Shakespeare play. Thomas, Lindsey, Doug, Tanya, and Maggie performed a hilarious skit, including an intermission dance performance. Andra and Penn waltzed for us. And as a finale, after dark had fallen, Tony lit a special stick on fire at both ends and performed some amazing stunts for us, twirling it and tossing it high above his head and then catching it between two other sticks.

These past couple of weeks, our canning season has started in earnest. Cattail processes a lot of the summer's vegetables and fruits so that we can eat our own food through the winter. Our solar drying racks are filled to capacity, and we've got people canning tomatoes, sauerkraut, green beans, pickles, jams, and other goodies every morning. It's great to see those jars lining up on the shelves.

A big thank you to Sheila Berkowitz for calling us to offer some things left over from their remodeling. Tom and Tereza went over and picked up a window, some wood, carpets, tile pieces, and other items. Tereza reports that Ernie the dog is extremely cute.

At DR we make all our decisions by consensus, which means that everyone's opinion is taken into account in the final decision. There is no voting, and therefore no "losers". The person who guides us as we make our decisions is called a facilitator. This can sometimes be a really hard job, following the threads of the discussion and trying to see where the group seems to be headed, then "greasing the wheels" so it's easier to get there. We decided we would like to set up regular trainings to help more people feel skilled enough to take on this job. On Sunday Laird came over from Sandhill and we had a special meeting about consensus so we could begin preparing for these trainings. It's great to have Laird's help since he's a very skilled and experienced facilitator.

This week I found out that due to a very rainy summer and fall in Siberia, I won't be going over to do a project I'd been planning for September. I work with an organization that's trying to help Russians protect their environment. This year they asked us to bring over some specialists in strawbale construction to show them how it's done. Since it's too rainy there, we are thinking of bringing the Siberians here instead, to visit DR and Colorado and see some examples of "green construction". I hope it works out! I'm sad to miss the trip to Russia, but glad that now I'll be able to attend the Rutledge Fall Festival!

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