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For current material from our online Newsletter, The March Hare, and our weekly updates see http://blog.dancingrabbit.org.

Rabbit dens: under construction! * Thanks readers! * Life in a fishbowl * Member Bio: Ted * Ecovillage map * Sustainability, and hard work * Recovering wilderness on the prairie * Nature Corner * Chicken to go

Rabbit dens: under construction

All the folks here at Dancing Rabbit have been hard at work over the past few months. There's been gardening, harvesting, canning, construction, winterizing (we've already had our first two frosts of the year), planning, research, going to meetings, and about a million other things. The construction boom of last year continued into this year: in the past six months there have been four new construction projects begun. One of those is the Community Building (or Common House as nearly everyone else here calls it). The Community Building is coming right along (see photo below). Since the last issue of this newsletter, the framing has been finished, the roof is on, the trim is up, the exterior walls are up and stuccoed, and all the exterior doors and windows are in place. We've already had some community dinners, celebrations, and meetings in the "Great Room" which was, well, designed specifically for that purpose.

Community Building crew up on the roof

Some big social changes have happened too. Bluestem Co-op members are eating in their own kitchen now, and Susan and Erik, Kurt and Alline, Thomas, and Chad had already been eating on their own, so we don't all eat together every night. It's taking some getting used to--you can't just assume you'll see everyone every day, so information sharing can be more difficult. There are quite a few "new" faces: former interns Steph and Jillian have returned, as have frequent visitors Bob and Dan. Two more residents, Stefanie and Arjen, are expected sometime soon as well. It's very exciting to see our population growing, even as it's getting colder.

Photographer Justine Kurland came and took many pictures of people at Dancing Rabbit, including some stunning black-and-white posed shots. However, she wasn't happy with them, so she's going to come back again for another try next spring.

We also had our yearly Open House. A few hundred people from around the area came and got tours of DR. It's really fun to watch the amazed looks on people's faces when they realize that a strawbale building doesn't necessarily look like a barn. Or that we have lots of high-tech stuff like solar panels and biodiesel vehicles, but still use outhouses. We're expecting a snug winter here at Dancing Rabbit!

Rabbit dens: under construction! * Thanks readers! * Life in a fishbowl * Member Bio: Ted * Ecovillage map * Sustainability, and hard work * Recovering wilderness on the prairie * Nature Corner * Chicken to go