Slow and Busy: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Slow and Busy: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Since spring, I have looked forward to wintertime, when I hoped to have hours every day to lounge around reading books, knitting, and chatting by the fire. Well, we have had a fire going most days at our house and I have read some great books recently, but I still haven’t learned to knit. And I haven’t felt my days are especially leisurely yet . . . there has just been so much fun stuff going on I can’t resist! Christina here, writing about a week at Dancing Rabbit that has felt as busy as it ever does around here.…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 >
The Ongoing Fiasco: A Dancing Rabbit Update

The Ongoing Fiasco: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Howdy y'all. I guess it's my turn to write this thing again. I'll just tell you, because I'm required to do so, that my name is Ben and I've been bumbling about Dancing Rabbit for a hot minute now, doing things and touching stuff in a vain attempt to live a little simpler than I could outside of a community like this one. Some of my attempts succeed—like using all three sides of the toilet paper—while others seemingly drag me into an ever more complex fiasco of using resources in order to save resources. Sure, if I could find a…read more >
The Frost Has Come: A Dancing Rabbit Update

The Frost Has Come: A Dancing Rabbit Update

All good things come to an end, I hear, and in my 15-plus years at Dancing Rabbit, it has so far held true that every warm season is sooner or later met with a first frost. I did see the forecast—patchy frost here the other morning—and I’ve seen the marginal impact on beans and sweet potatoes in the garden. The first definitive frost is expected tomorrow night. I anticipate climate change may shift our seasonal expectations over time and we may end up in zone 6a instead of 5b, but for this year we're seeing frost just a hair later…read more >
Cross-Pollination: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Cross-Pollination: A Dancing Rabbit Update

I have a sense of time marching on as the season shifts gears from late summer to fall. Liz here, checking in with the latest about Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. This week we had several rain storms, including one loud thunderstorm that kept me up for hours. I am grateful after these storms that my little, straw bale house stays snug and dry in this weather. I haven't felt the need to fire up my wood stove, which is how I heat my house, but a nip in the air is telling me it won’t be long. The village feels quiet…read more >
Handprints in the Soil: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Handprints in the Soil: A Dancing Rabbit Update

It seems like every time I write this column, I end up writing about why the previous week wasn’t a “normal” week. And this last week was no exception. Many of my regular weekly events took place— “the WIP” (the week-in-preview), Ultimate Frisbee games, homeschool classes, there was a Tuesday night potluck—but I wasn’t available to participate at any of them. Instead, I spent the week observing worms eating food waste, activating bio-char, making “lasagna” with cardboard, straw, and compost, and listening to more fascinating presentations than I can count. Christina here, writing about the Permaculture Design Course which I…read more >