Welcome to the July issue of The March Hare! Everything in
Berkeley is quickly winding down. We're taking care of our
last few ties at work, packing, and getting ready for the
trip back east. Aaron and Halle' are planning to build a
small fall nest in their old college town of Normal,
Illinois, to be ready for the birth of little Jack or Shira
(EDD Nov. 26). And Rachel Freifelder will be traveling with
us for a month before she settles in Santa Cruz.
On August 15, seven Rabbits will pile into two vehicles
(and a trailer hauling our stuff) to look at the three most
likely areas where DR might settle. Carbondale, Illinois, is
still high on our list, with its varied terrain, mild
climate, nearby university, good farmland, and possibly cheap
land near town. We don't know many people there, but it's a
good place (bioregionally speaking) for an eco-town.
We continue talking about possibilities of combining
forces with Sandhill Farm, near Rutledge, Missouri. We might
be able to build on the edge of their property while buying
land adjacent or nearby, reducing our startup costs. We could
share businesses, labor, and community activities with
Sandhill, a stable and experienced community. Land around
Rutledge is good farmland and is cheap, cheap, and did I say
cheap?
Finally, we've recently heard about 150 acres for sale
in eastern Tennessee, near Lake Norris and Knoxville. This
land has hills and flat spots, is affordable and has water,
and is surrounded by like-minded folks. Our neighbors would
include three land trusts, an earth literacy center that
holds workshops on "ecological design" and the like, and an
organic farm. Wow!
As the seven Dancing Rabbit members pack our
bicycles and futons into the moving van, we realize that our
eleven months of living together as a group in Berkeley are
what have finally allowed us to make the Dancing Rabbit
vision into an active pursuit of place. An essential factor
that allowed us to move this quickly was the support of
Sennet Williams and the GreenPLAN community. Sennet has put
many hours and much heart behind his dream of an urban co-
operative dedicated to self-governing, radical
environmentalism, and the support of forming rural eco-
villages. Having Dancing Rabbit headquarters at Skyhouse,
one of the five co-operative houses at GreenPLAN, has allowed
us to live in a larger community while saving money, having
meetings, and doing outreach for Dancing Rabbit.
So, as we prepare for our move to the midwest, we want
to thank Sennet and the folks at GreenPLAN for their
generosity and support. We've even named our first Dancing
Rabbit subcommunity "Skyhouse Community" to commemorate our
time here in Berkeley.
Finally, DR would like to give a big thanks to Leor
Jacobi of Vegan Action for donating a great silk screen of
the DR logo and all the paint to make our very own Dancing
Rabbit t-shirts! We're having a lot of fun and getting very
messy experimenting and learning this new art form.
Hopefully, in the future we'll have t-shirts and posters
available to anyone who wants one.
Intentional Community Bookstore