Cover Page • Community - The Good Stuff • Ecovillage Baby • Tony B's Bio • Suzanne's New Warren • Nature Corner • Poetry • Thank You

Suzanne’s new warren—
what is the plan anyway?!

I moved to Dancing Rabbit in March of 2005 and felt a sense of being at home from the beginning. I spent my first six months living in a tent and then Bella Ciao opened up for rent. Bella Ciao is a small straw bale house—a beautiful snug little building that I love. Still, she is not my permanent home and I am ready for a place where I can put down roots. Growing up, my family moved a lot—we lived in seven different houses when I was a child. And in my years of going to college and being on my own in the city I lived in over ten different apartments. I’ve done so much moving in my life that my first consideration whenever I think about acquiring something is to wonder how heavy it might be to move. And while I love gardening, I have never had a yard that was mine to plant in. So leasing my own warren means a lot to me.

I was having a hard time choosing a warren with so many possible options. Then Laura asked me if I would like to take over her warren when she left—she and Penn were getting ready to move to Iowa for graduate school. Laura had planted a beautiful garden on her warren and as I walked around with her I began to get excited because I could visualize a house there—a long, linear house nestled alongside, and looking out onto, the garden. Not all warrens at Dancing Rabbit have garden space next to them; not only did this warren have garden space, but it had prepared beds with all kinds of interesting things already planted in them— currant and blueberry bushes, herbs, onions, volunteer peach trees, sand cherries, evening primrose, and more. There’s a young mulberry tree in the front of the warren, and an apple tree in the back. I feel very lucky to have “inherited” this beautiful space that Laura put so much heart and imagination into.

The plan for the house I hope to build there is continually evolving. In thinking about what it is that I’ve liked in places I’ve lived before, I realize that my preference is to live up high, in light and airy apartments on the second or third floor with a porch or (even better) rooftop access. How in the world would I recreate that feeling here? Then it occurred to me—there could be a public building down below. A cooperative craft studio, a food cooperative, a restaurant, a store. The second floor could host my house on one side with a door leading out to a rooftop garden.

I am not planning to build until 2008 or later. I want to have plenty of time for visions and revisions. I want to be sure before I start building that this is the place I want to put down roots. I don’t have enough money to build yet. And it may take some time to figure out what sort of cooperative space could be on the first floor and to find partners in building it.

For inspiration and guidelines I am reading A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander— a brilliant book that has completely changed the way that I think about design and the building process. So far in reading it I have learned that good design comes from a process of taking seriously many intangible factors. It is about thinking about what sorts of events and activities you want to foster in a space and then creating the specific spatial arrangements that will work to facilitate those events and activities. It is a very organic process that considers first the spiritual and other hard-to-quantify needs of the person(s) who will live in the space.

Outside of the house, I envision a kind of permacultural wonderland. A half-hidden forest garden with meandering paths, a gazebo, a curvy cob garden fence alongside West Road, or a living fence instead— hedge plants that birds and wildlife can shelter in, and that light filters through. I picture a small pond that catches the overflow water from West road where birds bath and frogs live. I’m planning for a greenhouse (alongside the south side of the building), a small shed, a root cellar, and an outdoor solar shower that will help to water nearby plants. A circle of trees around my warren will protect it from wind and help to create a sunny microclimate in the garden. There will be fragrant smells and beautiful flowers, the buzzing of many insects, the sound of flowing water…a panoply of plants that feed and shelter birds and wildlife…a couple of sitting nooks where folks can sit and talk or enjoy the garden in silence. I’m excited to start the work/play of making this vision come true.

Cover Page • Community - The Good Stuff • Ecovillage Baby • Tony B's Bio • Suzanne's New Warren • Nature Corner • Poetry • Thank You