Dancing Rabbit Report June 4

 This is Liat, here to tell you about recent happenings at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. This past week’s forecast was predicted to bring rain almost every day, but we lucked out and only had one dark, wet day. Some people get frustrated by rainy days because they slow down building projects and many people have to conserve power because of the lack of energy coming in through the solar panels. However, I have learned to enjoy the rainy days as an excuse to stay inside and read, plan for future outdoor projects, and of course, have my garden watered for me.

This year’s second group of visitors showed up last Monday. The group includes eight adults and one teenager. With them they bring a lot of creative energy. On Saturday they planed and hosted a coffee house where they served coffee, tea, home made wine, cookies, and cupcakes. They went above and beyond playing the parts of hosts and servers, and came around with paper and pen on which they wrote down orders. After folks were served yummy deserts, the evening was filled with poetry reading, singing, and even a tap performance.

Last Tuesday’s weekly potluck with our neighbors at Sandhill and Red Earth Farms had a special twist. Tony’s birthday was during the week, and in celebration of it he requested that people try to include cinnamon in their dishes. There were both main dishes and desserts with a rich cinnamon flavor. I can still almost taste the cinnamon rolls, cinnamon pudding, and sweet potatoes (which of course had cinnamon to compliment their already delicious flavor).

On Wednesday, there was big excitement in the village as a large group of people got together to move the double wide outhouse. Its previous location turned out to be partially in the main road, which we are hoping to improve in the near future. With the power of Rabbits, visitors, and the tractor combined, the outhouse was dragged across the street. I heard more than one joke that day which began with “why did the outhouse cross the road…”

I have noticed that most of the physical jobs here such as working the garden and building with cob dry my skin out. This past week I have been working on insulating the school bus with unwashed wool from a local farmer. I am hand fluffing it and the lanolin from the wool moisturizes my hands wonderfully. A friend and I were teasing about marketing the work here as if you were at a spa… “exfoliate your skin by spending the morning stomping cob, and then follow that up with a natural lanolin moisturizer.”

One of the projects that impresses me the most is Ziggy’s cob house. Ziggy and Adam can be sometimes be seen stomping and molding cob from from 8am till 8pm. The other day the two of them along with the visitors stomped nine batches of cob in two hours. Impressive!

Being that I am not a parent and am the youngest of my siblings I have never really observed a child getting older and learning new skills. It is quite interesting for me to watch the children here at Dancing Rabbit grow and learn. Aurelia, who just a few months ago had a very minimal verbal vocabulary, is talking up a storm and communicating very well. It seems like just the other day that Zane couldn’t hold his own head up and now he is holding himself up, crawling, and showing off his new teeth. The other kids are growing into helpful residents and teenagers. When I moved here the kids were all shorter than I am and now at least three of them are taller than me.

There have been many people coming and going this week. Rachel, the Radfords, Cob, Tony, have been away. Alyssa’s mother arrived on Sunday and will be staying for a week. Marry Beth who will soon be one of Dancing Rabbits newest residents has spent a few days helping out Dan in the garden. In the coming week when both Cob and the Radfords return from their separate trips they will be arriving with friends and family.

The birds and plants are absolutely wonderful this time of the year. The baby birds have hatched and are beginning to leave the nests. Each day it seems like a different plant is in bloom or producing fruits. It is very satisfying to see the abundance of apples, pears, peaches, and cherries after last year’s late frost which killed all but one apple.

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is a nonprofit and a residential community that demonstrates ecological sustainability in Rutledge, MO. We offer tours on 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month at 1pm. Our next tour will be on June 14th. Please call us at (660) 883-5511 to let us know you plan to attend. For more information about Dancing Rabbit, please see our website at www.dancingrabbit.org, or come join one of our tours.