The Problem is the Solution

The Problem is the Solution

Greetings! Because you are a friend of Dancing Rabbit, I’m going to take a leap and guess that you are someone who’s interested in solutions—solutions to the ecological and cultural issues we face today. (Just a guess…) And because you’re aware of the issues, and excited by solutions, I’m also guessing that you could be a great match for the 4th Annual Permaculture Design Course at Dancing Rabbit, happening September 21-30! Why? Simply put, permaculture is a framework for creating sustainable and regenerative human habitat. The world-renowned Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course curriculum explores physical, social, economic, and inner personal…read more >
Chores and Chiggers: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Chores and Chiggers: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Hot darn y'all. It's me, Ben. I am not an astronomer, nor an astrologer, but I do in fact live in the dirt, like 80 percent of the world does, and I do declare that writing this inspirational tome, under a newish moon, in late May, in northeast Missouri, of temperate North America, is something of a chore. It is nothing I’m not used to; I do a lot of chores around here, some of which I actually enjoy when the weather cooperates. As of late, our quaint eco-burg has been affected by a climate pattern I like to call…read more >

Raising the Bar(n): A Bartender’s Perspective

by Sammy Jo I really love the wonderfully unique perspective of our village that I get from behind the bar at the Milkweed Mercantile. As you can imagine, the conversations I engage in and overhear on a weekly basis are worthy of a blog post in their own right. Everything from relationship dynamics to butchering techniques to quantum physics has been discussed during my shifts. If those straw bale walls could talk… well then I suppose we would remember a lot more of our amazing ideas. (And we’d be famous for having talking walls!) But of all the conversations I…read more >
A Greater Us: A Dancing Rabbit Update

A Greater Us: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Hello, friends!​ ​Tereza here, finally back home after a ​short stay in Chicago, IL, and ​two weeks each in ​San Antonio and Austin, TX​. I began writing this on a lovely Sunday morning​,​ ​​the day after ​Sandhill​'​s annual May Day celebration, and the village ​was quiet​, save the birds, both ​wild and domestic​, singing and chirping and clucking and crowing their way into the day... There was a deceptively calm feeling in the air, and ​it was easy to ​sense the underlying busyness of ​a Dancing Rabbit spring just under the ​surface. Our second crop of this season's visitors arrived…read more >
Be Like Water: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Be Like Water: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Greetings faithful readers, and happy May Day! Danielle here, writing to you from the most beautiful time of year here at Dancing Rabbit. There are a lot of times throughout the year here that probably rival each other in beauty, but this one is especially high in its existential upliftment effect due to the fact that I haven’t had to wear my winter coat lately when I go outside to pee, grab firewood, go to dinner, or the many other things I have to go outside for here. It’s finally warm, and if you read Ted’s column last week, or…read more >
Fires, Visitors, Fun, and Trains: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Fires, Visitors, Fun, and Trains: A Dancing Rabbit Update

At last, perhaps, our trials of a lingering winter are coming to an end. Sara and I celebrated 15 years of living at Dancing Rabbit on the 16th, and this seems to be the lengthiest cold spring we can remember. Warm spells almost always start to show up in March, but from later February to mid-April this year we saw not a one. Cold weather hung around gratuitously like the proverbial guest that has overstayed its welcome. The arrival of milder weather this past week still feels tentative and slow-moving, as though the land doesn't believe it yet. Thankfully our…read more >
Becoming our Best Selves: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Becoming our Best Selves: A Dancing Rabbit Update

Its official: I have lived at Dancing Rabbit for a year. I’m so glad that nature reserved this wacky weather for my second spring and not my first. This time last year there was no last-gasp snowing or freeze/thaw/muck/freeze/repeat cycles in the month of April. I think I made a handful of fires last year in April; this year, a handful each week of April, so far. Liz here, rolling with the ups and downs of spring in the midwest. When the days are warm, (and last week there were several days of downright hot) my son, Graham, and I…read more >
Help Us Build it to Last

Help Us Build it to Last

There's baby chickens in my house and the sun ain't up yet. Just so you know where I'm coming from. Howdy y'all. My name is Ben, and I'm some type of goatherd here at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, of rural northeast Missouri. I'm not any sort of expert on much, which is why I refrain from offering advice to anyone on any subject, but I'm pretty good at knowing when something is sorta messed up. I've been instructed by my editors to not focus on the negative in this promotional article for our Timber Frame Workshop, and much to their chagrin,…read more >