Making Life Sparkle: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Making Life Sparkle: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Guess who received a whopping foot and more of snow in the past week? Guess who hit the hills, sliding on sleds? Guess where the goats are these days? Guess who got to sparkle the evening away? Answers reside below... Some Rabbits sledding on the Vista de la Moo. From left to right: Alannah, Hassan, and Ezra stuffing his face with snow. Hello-hello from the windy, frozen plains of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage! Prairie here, thankfully staying warm and toasty in the midst of all this weather. I am also grateful for the plentiful opportunities there have been to get out…read more >
The Only Constant is Change: My Dancing Rabbit Visit

The Only Constant is Change: My Dancing Rabbit Visit

By Michelle Winebarger I thought visiting Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage would be like taking a trip back in time, but once I got there, I felt like I was stepping into the future; a future where technology meets sustainability and conservation; a future where weapons and locks are not needed; a future where traditions are kept, yet new ideas are always welcome and appreciated. Solar panels sit atop many buildings, powering modern appliances from refrigerators to wifi modems, air conditioners, and coffee pots. As a community power source, there is an impressive solar panel array near the sports field, which powers…read more >
A Village of Holiday Traditions: A Dancing Rabbit Update

A Village of Holiday Traditions: A Dancing Rabbit Update

I have started to wonder how holidays differ for fellow Rabbits from the holidays we grew up with or left behind in our lives before Dancing Rabbit. “T” here, as I approach my first holiday season at DR. All ready for holiday celebrations at the Milkweed Mercantile My family celebrates Christmas. As a little kid, that meant a trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s or Bonnie and Bill’s for a couple days with all the relatives.  We almost always attended a Christmas Eve church service and sang traditional songs and hymns like “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” and “Little Drummer Boy”…read more >
Nothing Can Be Perfect: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Nothing Can Be Perfect: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Prairie and her view from Woodhenge Fear. It is a tangible feeling. It tells the birds to take flight when creatures near their perches. It encourages the crayfish (or crawdads) to take a pinch at unassuming, soft human limbs intruding upon their humble homes. It is a survival mechanism running through all living things. Just as bringing the same-charged sides of magnets together creates a kind of tension that prevents contact between them, so, too, does fear faced with an unfamiliar obstacle. Often, caught in the center of that tension we only try to escape: we run. The first humans…read more >
Combining Thanks and Giving: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Combining Thanks and Giving: A Dancing Rabbit Update

I sit here bundled against the cold with two dogs at my feet while listening to my toddler laugh as he plays in the bathroom sink. Yes, he has figured out how to move the dog food bin to the counter and climb on it to give himself access to the wettest and “funnest” game ever. I know there will be a bit of cleanup, but for now, I have a few moments to myself and he really is so joyful that it’s hard to see the negative. Melany here, writing during blizzard conditions that seemed impossible just yesterday. Truthfully, I…read more >
Winter Sleep: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Winter Sleep: A Dancing Rabbit Update

So, I woke up this glorious Sunday morning to the still toasty, snap, crackle, and pop of logs burning in the custom-built rocket stove of my neighbors’ house. I am house-sitting for them, you see. (Did I mention it is a self-feeding rocket stove? Yeah, that’s right, self-feeding. Simply put, it’s an amazing structure.) Their cat, Grommet, is darting back and forth through the house clawing and kneading, first there on the wood post between rooms, then here on my leg . . . ouch, trying to hint I should let him out. This is when I say, “You know…read more >
Putting Down Roots: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Putting Down Roots: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Across my neighbor’s yard, there is a tree that seems to be watching me. It is so still, so solid, yet always growing. Its trunk and branches may be still, but beneath the soil, its roots reach out to exchange nutrients with the soil. The concept of roots could be applied in an interesting way to my life here at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, having just moved for the third time since my mother and sister and I arrived at the village. A dance of musical houses has increased in speed recently with the influx of new residents. My name is…read more >
It Depends: A Dancing Rabbit Update

It Depends: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Grandma Matthews did not like going to the chicken coop when she was a girl. She lived on a small farm just south of Corder, Missouri. “I would go into the chicken coop and those chickens would just fly everywhere, and . . . ughh!I hate chickens.” She loved her milk cow though. “That was the best cow. She was a little Guernsey and she was just the best little cow. We milked a few cows, and the milk truck would come around and pick up the milk to sell. That was part of how we made a living.” I…read more >