The crowds are starting to roll into Dancing Rabbit town, and we're getting so busy it feels like we're trying to herd cats. After a somewhat quiet winter, we find ourselves with 10 to 20 folks here for a weekend of tree planting, visitors stacked up like cordwood in every nook and cranny. It's exciting to have so many enthusiastic faces around with lots of energy for projects. We've got a number of people seriously interested in membership, so look forward to bios of new members, hopefully as soon as next issue!
And boy, do we have projects. So far this spring we have planted 25 fruit trees and vines and over 500 forest trees. We've cleaned out an old barn and are turning it into an outdoor kitchen, so we can feed folks this summer out near the construction site. There's a wood cook stove in place, and we're building counters and cabinets out of salvaged wood. We plan to have our alternative energy system over there to run the fridge, some lights, and maybe even hot water. The outhouse is complete and we're starting a solar shower. We built a sturdy dock for the pond (it holds a dozen people before capsizing--we tested). All this just to prepare for the real construction projects--two straw bale cabins!
Of course, there's no way we could embark on all these ambitious plans without the help we've been getting from friends, visitors, and especially interns. We've got seven interns coming this season and you can read a little about each of them. There's even visitor help with this newsletter: Rachel Zamore writes about her stay at DR, while frequent visitors Lauren Spain and Jacob Stevens respectively laid out and provided graphics for this newsletter. Thanks to all for their help!
Also inside are the results of much of our winter's work of getting our systems and structures in place. Cecil gives a nice overview of our legal structures in Making the dream a legal reality. And Tony puts some thoughts together about land use planning in A Dancing Rabbit Pattern Language.
And all of this is just the beginning. It feels like we have an exciting and wild ride ahead of us this year. Big projects, lots of people-it's all starting to come together!
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