Dancing Rabbit in Review

            So Dancing Rabbit was a wonderful success.   I left overflowing with gigabytes and pages of interviews, and steaming with ideas.

        Coincidentally, and awesomely, YES! Magazine was on site at Dancing Rabbit while I was there, and, talking to the Wabi Sabi Community,  April and Ziggy made the front page!   This is just 30 feet or so from the trench Aaron and I dug for the Carletons.   Check it out!  
(Yes! Magazine was started by someone who also wrote this awesome book,
http://www.davidkorten.org/whencorps)

 http://small-scale.net/yearofmud/2010/08/05/my-cob-house-featured-in-yes-magazine/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smallape/4864276848/


Some other particularly notable and relentless ideas have been:

---the limits of consensus for groups larger than 50 (and its importance to acculturating new members)
---questioning the importance for bunches (aka , more than 40 or 30 acres) of land... especially when there's a public national large forest all around, and many other sympathetic groups
-- how well strawbale would work here (Western North Carolina)... it seems like it wouldn't be the most practical.   We'll see. 
--- if it took Dancing Rabbit 15 years to reach 50+ members (including kids),,  then wouldn't it make more sense to just start small, and let nature and time takes its course?   Although, I'm still very ambitious, and would like to actively help other/sister groups form , as nearby as possible. 
--- whether being so close to a city could also be a detriment, as people will inevitably want to commute to find a higher paying job,  which (A) bring more "city" energy and stress back to the community, and (B) raise internal village prices---  but maybe not.   People at Dancing Rabbit continually didn't think this would be a problem (being an hour away....  as they are at least 4 hours from a major city.. and 1 hour to a 20,000 person city)

--- And LASTLY, whether the Eco-village format or Intentional Community (the community itself) wouldn't be best served as a subset of a "Research organization".   I would push for, an ecological landscape design research, measuring plants and water use, or Green Building Research, measuring energy use & indoor /outdoor temperatures for different building materials, and heating sources. 
                      (Actually, I can think of a few places that do this, or accidentally do this...   Maxpot in Austin,   Mountain Homestead in Oregon, Rocky Mountain Institute in CO, Gaviotas in Colombia, Arcosanti in AZ is almost like this, but says they aren't...).

---oops....one more.    Solar panels and large battery stores seem to have quite a few draw backs!    Every 6 to 10 years each battery store for each dwelling much be replaced, at a cost of about 6000 dollars, or about One Thousand dollars a year.     It might be better to be hooked up to the grid, with a back up batteries for security, but not in use, relying more on Wind Turbines....    to be researched more.
(Subtext:::: Dancing Rabbit has been off the grid for 14 years...and just voted to go ON THE Grid!---     because they're going to invest in a medium/large wind turbine that will produce more than they need for quite a few years...and would make them a little money by paying it to the Electric Company.   Although the exchange is by no means equal.   If they were short, they would buy at a much higher rate. )


The key to Dancing Rabbit seems to be:

--- A strong empathetic and ambitious culture
--- Strong & Clear initial Vision Statement and Core Covenants---  to attract new members, and guide village direction
--- Not using any private loans.   They have relied entirely on Family Loans,  which we SHOULD be able to do.    It shouldn't be a problem. 
--- Low initial entry fees.   A system that biases WORK HOURS strongly over MONEY SPENT.   I don't know if they meant it that way.  But their requirement to use recycled or locally harvested materials necessitates it. 
--- The above also acts like a self-selecting system for new membership
--- A strong culture of voluntarism--  ALSO! A bunch of visitor programs and Work-Traders, that basically act like the recruitment process
--- Being a long way away from anywhere else, means that you really appreciate being there.  There's no where better for MILES!   :-) 
--- Being close to Mennonites,  much better neighbors than regular rednecks (in my opinion)
--- Also of course, is the fact they bought 280 acres for 180K !! , and they use an extended (initial 10 year, now renewed for a little bit, but maybe not renewed after 2012) Government Program (CRP) that pays them 60$/acre/yr to keep them in a "prairie-like' state...and "ready-for-the-plow".     Interesting.  Largely helped pay their mortgage.  

Karaoke cum Consensus.  Cynder's Birthday in the Common House, also where Town Meetings take place.

Knowledge Bomb on a Wednesday Morning & Economic

[[Debt is a compromise on the future (and your future desires) in favor of your present desires.]]

This is a comparison between an ecovillage that will remain unnamed, and Dancing Rabbit.   

Darnit.  
I had been juggling all these pieces, but I wasn't quite sure what to do with them.   But today, it all came together. 

Here are the pieces.    Many very interesting & very ecological ecovillages have a very high entry cost/membership fee.  On top of this, they have high fees to buy into the leasing or land system. 
Dancing Rabbit is all the opposite.  There are no initial fees, and very low leasing fees.  Many people live (well) here with an annual income of $2K, 3K, or just a little more (yes, less then 5,000 dollars) ! 
This is truly a marvelously low number.   The reason is because almost all of the dwellings are built by the rabbits themselves, and almost all of the materials are salvaged from demolition crews. 

This Rabbit I was working with today lived for a while at another amazing ecovillage that has been under a lot of internal pressure (understatement). 
She posited that these pressures stemmed from:
-A large entrance fee that also acts as a preventative to leaving,
>so thus, people feel trapped if they want to escape,
& , >people feel entitled to their desires and opinions about the land, leaving less room for community vision and consensus.
(For example, many people spent most of their savings, and cannot be bought out because few people are joining)

From this, I take the following. 
Debt puts you into a manipulated agreement (obviously).  This has effects upon those around you that never knowingly entered into that agreement. 
Debt is a compromise on the future (and your future desires) in favor of your present desires.

Not having debt allows you to express yourself in a manner more fluid responsive to your current state.  This also allows you to enter into debate and consensus decision making.
This is because consensus requires some kind of pact between people, based upon their mutual participation and embeddedness in some sort of organization.
Of course, all of this in balance with participants' endebtedness to other obligations.

So, this unnamed ecovillage (unknowingly) made many people financially compromise into an agreement that only amorphously defined the resulting privileges.  The weight of the debt was/is so great that the details bring up emotions too strong to handle in a public and civic manner, aka, suitable for consensus. 
These emotions create tension that instigate the fight-or-flee instinct. 
Unfortunately, the participants are bound by their financial commitment. They remain, although feeling trapped. 
With these emotions, the decision-making process in the village continues to lose shape & decompose.

VERY DIFFERENT FROM DANCING RABBIT.

The loose, yet clearly defined, entry and exit requirements of Dancing Rabbit allow conflict to be dealt with in an efficient and uninhibited fashion.  Over time, this creates a culture that facilitates efficiency, honesty, respect, personal boundaries, and confidence. 
I know that sounds like a big step. 
But this is because if the system isn't working for them, they only lose the life they created at Dancing Rabbit. 
Apart from the house they built (which the Land Trust at Dancing Rabbit will buy from you by default), they risk no initial downpayment or other large investment. 
This keeps the energy flowing.  Both in & out.  


In conclusion, keep the ownership of debt, and fees for participation clear.  This means, keep the benefits, finances, and decision-making out in the open, and tailored to different needs without unduly privileging some. 
Keep the financial barriers to entry and exit LOW.  
Keep the acculturation, resident, and membership process clear, pleasant, long enough, and inexpensive. 

Thanks!
(More on the culture of consensus later!)

After an Early Morning Lightning Storm at Dancing Rabbit

I love waking up a Dancing Rabbit to the smell of a wood cook stove.

[in the early years, every cooked together (in the current huge metal bicycle shed) on a wood stove, now only one person uses a small homemade “rocket stove”]

The morning summer sun gives the prescient ruby red glow from 4:30am to 5:30 even at this modest latitude.

As the day proceeds, kids, parents and sitters walk by as you work, in different levels of their chatter or silence,

heading to the pond or the Common House.   Watching people carry or pull on carts their materials or harvest.

Floating on the pond’s inner tubes, watch the sunset, the north star and the waxing moon grow brighter,

the bugs over head bring aerial acrobats, bats of different sizes entertain just as the pond and air start to grow a little too cold.

Calm summer days with uncomfortably warm middles--  a week or two punctuated with a windy electric storm and inundation.

The various sturdy earth, strawbale, or whatever houses and shacks still standing,

So many tents bounce into submission, and then bounce back when dry hours later

Blood pumping soundly in a community made of long term builders and dreamers,

Excited new residents, & vibrant summer visitors keep the paths clear, eyes bright, and gardens happy

Twenty-Five buildings in 13 years for 50 members and up to 30  visitors, workers, and residents

Things that Last aka A Culture that Moves Beyond the Economics of Forced Obsolescence

Blog Thoughts

July 14 & 15th, 2010

Dancing Rabbit, Seventh and Eighth Day

I thought, maybe I should have put on shoes, as I walked to the fellow who I assumed must be my host: Cob, aka David.  Then I noticed that he, and the group he was eating dinner with were all barefoot as well.  This was a good start to a busy few days. 

            Since arrival everyone here has been remarkably open.  I’ve benefitted especially from the other visitors (around seven) and wexer’s (work-exchangers; around 13 ?), because, they can fill me in on life here as non-permanent rabbit.  In addition, since the visitors pay a modest room & board fee to stay here, I benefit from the various information sessions that are held for them.

In the thirteen years since Dancing Rabbit started, their meetings have evolved to function rather smoothly (although apparently the recent ones are much smoother than usual).  Visitors and wexer’s are welcome to “participate as observers” at the meetings.  Since arriving on Wednesday night, I’ve been to a Planning Talk, a Healthcare Meeting, a Business Meeting, a fantastic Q&A session for the visitors, worked on a few different projects in besides my hosts’ project, and visited the local Flea Market, the “Dog and Gun” in Rutledge, Mo.  The records are also publically available in the Library, in the Common House, from where I am writing this. 

            During my college years traveling, I remember thinking that In THIS place or country, I will feel at home.  I won’t feel like an alien.  It took a good amount of stamps in my passport before I discovered the error in that line of thinking. 

            However, having made the ‘eco-tour’ a part of my life for the last two to four years, I can say that Dancing Rabbit feels much like the planet I would be from.   Not the “church” necessarily, but at least the culture.  

Inspirational neighbors to DR

http://www.sandhillfarm.org/vision.php

We envision Sandhill Farm as a stable, progressive, fluid and vibrant community thriving in abundance.

We prioritize building and maintaining the health of our members, systems and facilities.

We hope to integrate more alternative energy, natural building, empowered health care and self sufficiency in our lives.

Sandhill Farm, in cooperation with our friends and neighbors, will continue to expand and network a culture of sustainable living in northeastern Missouri.

http://planetsave.com/blog/blog/2008/10/01/radical-simplicity-living-car-free-petroleum-free-and-electricity-free-at-the-possibility-alliance/

http://www.suesupriano.com/article.php?id=145

Old and New

Leaving today for Dancing Rabbit.   Very excited.
Here's the publisher of my Portfolio for Grad School from Fall 2009.   There are some interesting moments and photos inside.

order book
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/portfolio-for-planning-and-design/6195652?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1

or download for free
http://www.lulu.com/product/file-download/portfolio-for-planning-and-design/6195653?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/2

I'm now working on an Ecovillage "Reader".    Looking for Collaboration.  Should be fun!
The books I'm drawing heavily from include:

Spell of the Sensuous (David Abram)
Group Genius
City Life (Witold Rynczinski)
Belonging (bell hooks)
Gaviotas
Tao Te Ching
the Prophet (Khalil Gibran)
(intrinsically:  Pattern Language, Hand Sculpted House, Creating a Life Together, )

Time balances and duties

            The world is opening up a lot of opportunity for me right now.   It is giving me great opportunities for discipline and for square success and independence.  This opens up a long standing internal conflict that I think most of us deal with on some level: the conflict between our empath/and or/ spiritual self/ and or/shaman self--   and that of our driven/legal/financial self. 
          I am reminded of two great persons that I have brushed up against over the years.  The first was a man on the nologo listserve on the summer and fall of 2001 named Scott.   He was reportedly working for a First Nations people in canada doing radical linguistic inquiry.   Insofar as it was mildly related to the discussion he shared his process with us.   One such occasion he described humans according to their function; as in homo-Sapien, homo-Faber, homo-Ludens, etc.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_faber

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alternative_names_for_the_human_species

This falls along the lines of you are what you do, or you are what you know. 
The more time passes, the more I see this as true for many.   Even more so if you consider disidentification (not just "non"  :-)  )  with work as a way to identify with others in a similar position. 

The other is Todd from wildroots in north carolina.    My brief but very open and enjoyable conversations with  him involved his process and eventual complete drop of bourgeois leisure society (and even out of agricultural society) into a deliberate hunter-gatherer leisure society.   Yes.   That's what I mean.   

to be continued....must run to potluck brunch.  

Continuation

The cross country community scouring is over for now, but the posts are not, still need to update on the Farm in Tennessee, and update the posts on spillcorn, wildroots, and earthaven.

I will get back on this after I take the GRE on Friday! Wish me luck!

lov
thom