The last three months at Dancing Rabbit have seen a frenzy of
construction activity in an attempt to get everyone in a warm
place for the winter. We’re all pleased to say that no one
is still in a tent at this point. (It’s a good thing too,
‘cause it’s getting COLD.) Cecil and Steph are both
now residing in Skyhouse, Gare and Don have moved into the Grain
Bin, Susan and Erik have moved into their house, Penn and Andra
have moved into their cabin (after some adventures that are detailed
in Andra’s article in this issue), Bob has moved into the
trailer formerly known as “Alyson’s trailer”, and
Alyson has temporarily moved into the Timberframe while she awaits
the completion of her room in Skyhouse.
Now that Don and Cecil no longer live in the trailer that serves
as our temporary common house, we’ve taken over the whole
trailer as common space. In the room where Cecil once made his
home, there is now a library, which is currently also getting
a lot of usage as a phone booth and committee meeting space (not
at the same time, though). A guest room and canned-food storage
area have been fashioned out of Don’s old digs. The odd little
“room” that used to serve as a guest room is now home
to filing cabinets and one computer, giving us quite a bit more
elbow room in the teeny office across the hall.
During the first week of December, we had the first of two parts
of our annual retreat in which we discuss DR’s vision and
our plans for the coming year. Alyson (with some committee help)
organized and facilitated the activities for the first two days,
and managed to keep most of us entertained and productive. (We
like the game “A Big Wind Blows”…) On the last
day of the three-day retreat, the community tackled one of the
issues that has been hard for us over the last six months: whether
and how to build a common house. At this point we’ve decided
to begin construction on a common house this year, with the hopes
of having it usable in the late fall or early winter of 2003,
and having it completely finished some time in 2004. We still
have a ton of decisions to make before any actual construction
begins, but that’s what winter’s for, right?
Former Cattail intern and current Long Island nanny Jillian returned
to Dancing Rabbit to cook yummy vegan food for Cattail during
the retreat. We all enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with
a good friend and cheery companion. (The outstanding cuisine didn’t
hurt either.) The only bad thing about Jillian’s visit was
that is was over so quickly. You can read more about Jillian in
her article in this issue to get a better feel of who she is and
how Dancing Rabbit has affected her.
We’ve celebrated lots of holidays over the past few months,
many of them involving singing, dancing, visits with our neighbors
at Sandhill, and…jigsaw puzzles. Yep, jigsaw puzzles. Some
sort of puzzle-mania seems to have struck Dancing Rabbit, with
every festive occasion, rainy day, sunny day, and day ending in
“y” being used as an excuse to break out another puzzle.
We’re plowing through puzzles faster than a snow plow through,
well, snow. And speaking of snow, I’m going to go look at
all the animal footprints in the snow, just like Rachel suggests
in this issue’s Nature Corner.
The Rabbits at our December 2002 Winter Retreat
Intentional Community Bookstore