Tereza here, with this week’s happenings at Dancing Rabbit. One bit of excitement was a storm with big winds that blew some tents to places tents do not usually go. Happily, all such temporarily-relocated homes are now back where they belong. The wind also blew the lining from Ziggy and April’s unfinished roof. The lining is a waterproof membrane that goes between the house and the living roof (comprised of earth and plants) that will eventually crown the timber frame home they are in the process of building. With a lot of help the very heavy lining was raised (again), and miraculously only one corner sustained minimal damage.
Of course the weather continues to be on our minds, with so many days of high heat and humidity. Even big winds and scary turbine noises couldn’t stop the joy most of us felt with the coming of the storm, and the welcome rain and cooler temps it brought, if briefly, to our lives.
Mandy celebrated her birthday, which coincides with a “day out of time”. This is a day that occurs between years in an alternative calendar that uses 13 months of 28 days each. This “extra” day, which keeps the calendar aligned with solar and lunar cycles, has no date or day of the week, but is something special: a day out of time. Folks who follow this calendar often celebrate the day with a focus on peace, forgiveness, and art as a positive way to bring in the new year. Mandy held a number of events that day, including a special yoga class, art-making by the pond, and a ceremony of forgiveness, following which the participants created a piece of art together from natural items we found in the vicinity. She also had a small gathering in the evening, with fabulous food and interesting costumes. I enjoyed her birthday a lot, and from all appearances she did as well!
Another event held this week was the 1st Annual Old Homestead BBQ and Campout. We have 280 acres of land, but only build on a small portion of it, as we’re striving to demonstrate a village-scale model for sustainable living, which for us means living densely. Once upon a time, way out on the north 40, there was an old homestead, mostly overgrown and decrepit by the time we bought the land. It’s a beautiful spot, with lots of big trees, an old windmill, a pond. Folks decided to have a campout BBQ party there, complete with participant-made music. I wasn’t able to attend, but rumor has it that fun was definitely had, and I hope to go next year.
Another item from the rumor mill is that folks have taken to playing water polo in the pond, and are having a pretty great time with it. I for one don’t know how they manage to keep the horses in the water for so long. (No, I can’t take credit for that joke, but I can’t recall who actually said it.)
As for me, my biggest excitement these days is going by the site where Bear is building me a little house. It’s going up so quickly! One day there’s nothing. The next day, foundation piers. The next, a full platform. Okay, it’s not really that fast, but it’s fun to see the speedy progress and imagine what the space will be like when it’s completed.
This might be a good place to explain some differences between green building and natural building, both of which are used at Dancing Rabbit. A green building might be built in a conventional way, but using more eco-friendly materials, and is usually heavily focused on performing efficiently. So my house, for example, will be fairly conventional stick frame, but built with reclaimed, reused, or harvested within the bioregion lumber*, and the walls will use 2×8″ rather than the standard 2×4″ wood. This means the walls can hold a lot more insulation, which will make the house much more energy-efficient. Using fewer trees for fuel = dealing with less firewood = hip hip hooray!
A natural building can also focus on efficiency, but its goal is to use as many straight-from-nature materials, sourced from as close to the site, as possible. Straw, clay and sand, for example, are used in many buildings at DR as wall materials, instead of using lumber and more conventional insulation.
Natural buildings are often very unique and interesting designs; the ability to make curved walls and create sculptural elements from cob make for more flexibility. But natural buildings are also much more labor intensive and generally take longer to build. As I am not physically able to build myself, I simply couldn’t afford to build a natural building, especially given my need to be in a new place this winter. Those two factors are the primary reasons I decided to go green. So while my house won’t have cute little cob niches, or mosaics or bottles in the walls, I know it will be sweet and well-built and cozy. Being an always-too-cold kind of person, I can’t believe I’m going to write this, but I can’t wait for winter!
* One of the Ecological Covenants that every member and resident at Dancing Rabbit agrees to abide by says: “No lumber harvested outside of the bioregion, excepting reused and reclaimed lumber, shall be used for construction at Dancing Rabbit.”