Memphis Democrat
December 12, 2002

Hi everyone! This is Alline filling in for Rachel who is away on a special assignment. (She's not really, I just always wanted to write that).

The highlight of our week was our annual retreat. We're trying something new this year. Rather than meet for a week straight and drive ourselves crazy with meeting fatigue, we scheduled three days now and another three days in late January when everyone returns from holiday travel. This proved to be a great idea - energy and enthusiasm were high, and the ideas and cooperation were flowing!

We kicked off the long weekend with a series of progressive house warming parties. There has been so much construction going on this fall that we all wanted to take a closer look at the results. Susan and Erik were our first hosts on Thursday night, providing hot mulled cider and warm homemade donuts in their cozy home. Friday night we gathered first at Gare's, the upstairs portion of of the converted grain bin. He didn't serve any food (which is probably just as well, as he isn't know for his culinary skills) but DID show a rather amusing holiday DVD. Next stop was downstairs to see what Don had done to his place (quite nice!) and then down the hill to Penn and Andra's little straw bale cabin. There we scored some delicious ginger cookies. Yum. Last stop was Tamar's home. She served chocolate-chip cookies, and has sponsored a contest to name her house. She promises a fabulous (but as yet undisclosed) prize for what she considers the best name. No winner yet, but we'll keep you posted.

Friday morning we gathered in the downstairs of Skyhouse. What a treat it was to be there, toasty warm, all able to sit comfortably in a circle. Kurt came home from work in Illinois a day early, so we were all in attendance. Alyson, Susan Brown and Don had worked hard to not only provide a nice space to meet in but also ways to break the ice and continue to work on our relationships with one another. We discussed our hopes and dreams, our fears, what we want to accomplish here at Dancing Rabbit and in our lives. Whew!

Saturday I participated in the Christmas Bazaar in Memphis and Rachel attended a nature conservation meeting, so we missed the village walk and discussions on meeting and communication styles. However, we heard lots of good feedback.

Sunday, our last day, we chose to tackle our biggest challenge to date: building a common house. Laird from Sandhill facilitated the morning session, and we did a lot of brainstorming and small discussion groups in the afternoon. We were pleased to find that we have a lot more common ideas than we originally thought, and the project doesn't look quite so daunting as it did before the meeting.

Our former intern Jillian returned from Chicago to cook for us during our retreat. Not only did we get to eat her great cooking for three days, we get to hang out with her for the rest of the week, too.

In other news, Tony, who is a Michigan boy at heart, has been out skating on our pond every day. Some days, however, we notice he skates closer to the edge than others. Rachel stands on the bank and wrings her hands as the ice moans and creaks, but Tony is happy as a clam.

It's time to go throw another log on the fire. Until next week!

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is a nonprofit and residential community that demonstrates ecological sustainability in Rutledge. We are not giving tours again until spring. Please call before comeing by, 883-5511.

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