Those of you who read our column regularly might have noticed that a few weeks ago Alline reported that we had come to an agreement about moving forward with the general design for our new common house. Then, perhaps you noticed that Julie subsequently gave an update that Alline had jumped the gun in her enthusiasm for the joys of consensus, and in fact we’d had a lovely meeting but not actually gotten the whole community’s buy in on the design. Well, here’s Sam, happy to be the one to tell you that yes, this week, we did get all thumbs pointed skyward in support of the general design of our new common house. There’s a caveat that if an energy analysis on the design comes back showing that the high ceiling in the proposed new great room will be inefficient to heat, alternative designs will be considered.
Funding and designing the new common house have been the biggest things affecting the most members lately. It takes a diverse palette of talents and energy to make a building happen, and even more so in a consensus-based non-profit environment.
Folks are also active working on a total overhaul of our website. We’re getting new content written, a new design designed (not to mention agreed to), and new connections made. Now you can follow us on FaceBook to get these columns, March Hare blog posts and other important or exciting updates in your newsfeed. Go to www.facebook.com/DancingRabbitEcovillage and click the “Like” button to subscribe.
Our annual retreat is coming up, with all the planning that entails. We’re hosting another weekend of the facilitation training course that includes students from the our area and another community in Ohio. We’re working on getting the meeting topics picked, budget proposals prepared, and logistics like food and housing for our guest facilitation trainees.
The midwives have announced that they are on call for a birth, so they might have to bypass the regular protocol for signing out a vehicle. That’s not news, it happens pretty often whenever they go on call. This case is special, though, because this on-call period is for one of our own. Nani, Dave and Elle’s new baby is due to arrive sometime this month. I, for one, just haven’t been able to resist knitting baby-sized hats and booties in preparation.
The weather’s been weird, I’m sure you’re all aware. It’s been warm, except when it’s snowing, the buds are swelling on some trees, some bulbs are starting to come up, and I’ve been hearing spring-like birdsong. It feels like it’s already spring, but we’re just now scheduling a seed swap for spring planting. The maple sap is running, so the call just went out to get ready with buckets and taps for the annual harvest. We’ll see how the rest of winter and spring go.
Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is an intentional community of 50 people and growing, practicing ecologically sustainable living in Rutledge, Northeast Missouri. We offer free tours to the public from April-October. For more information, see our website at www.dancingrabbit.org, visit our blog The March Hare at blog.dancingrabbit.org, find us on FaceBook at www.facebook.com/DancingRabbitEcovillage, or give us a call at (660) 883-5511.