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it’s hard to know where to start with this subject. first off, for those of you that don’t know, Dancing Rabbit is an ecovillage just outside of Rutledge, MO (a small Mennonite packed town). it was “founded” in 1997 and at this point has about 30 full time members that live there year round. the dancing rabbit land trust owns 280 acres of land, but only about 50 acres are planned for use by the inhabitants, the remaining land is to be sustained wild grass lands. the main focus of this intentional community is on sustainability and renewable energies. they are completely free of grid power, running everything on solar and wind; most of their water is filtered rain water, but some is from the city water source; most of their cooking fuel is wood, although some of the kitchens still use propane (but they are trying to eliminate that in the near future). they are not completely self sufficient or sustainable, but they certainly are a whole hell of a lot better off their we are (when the lights DO go out).

i’m sure i could just ramble on and on about all the things that we did and how much fun we had, but i think instead i’m going to break it down into a few main categories, and just go from there. so, shall we begin?

the people

the first person that we met when we pulled into the gravel drive just outside of Rutledge, MO was thomas. right away i knew that he was going to be a very nice man and would probably be very helpful during out stay. he immediately took meredith and i on a quick little tour of the place. he showed us some of the main buildings and facilities and all that jazz. it was very nice.

from this point i sort of forget who and how we met everyone else, and i don’t necessarily have things to say about everyone there, but there are a few people that i need to mention.

the johnsons (tim, jennifer, rowin, cynder, toren {oldest to youngest}) are probably the newest members to DR and meredith and i spent a good amount of them with the three youngest. after about day two of our visit toren and cynder had officially become “our friend” and that was that. we spent little of our time away from them. they are hilarious little kids and so cute and fun and have carved out a very special place in my heart.

nicole was our cook. she is awesome. she made food for about 10 people two times a day for the entire time that we were there, and she is still making food as we speak for the remaining visitors that are still there (until the 20th of september). her cooking was amazing and she never ceased to amaze me on her creativity and devotion to her work. at one point meredith and i were trying to figure out how we could take her home with us. now THAT would have been awesome.

cecil and tony are two of the original “founders” of dancing rabbit (although they don’t like getting that title) and they were probably two of the coolest “old members”. they were very friendly and happy to help and assist us with whatever we needed. tony did a serious of lectures on different subjects that were very informative and exciting, and cecil sang songs and ate okra and walked home from sandhill with me after the pitch in. oh yeah, and they are both computer geeks and you gotta love that.

there are so many other people, but right now i have to move on….

the place

over all the facilities and buildings and all that were quite a bit more sophisticated and advanced than i ever thought. aside from a few things that they have intentionally not included (clothes dryer), they have just about all the amenities of “normal” life that we do accept that they’ve tweaked them just ever so slightly to fit into their eco model of living.

with solar power aplenty, and more sunny days that i could shake a fist at, we were never short on electricity during the visit. we could listen to music and use computers and even iron our clothes if we wanted (an iron requiring 24 times more electricity than my powerbook). it was really pretty fancy.

the buildings and kitchens were also very nice and comfortable and all that. with a smattering of different kinds of construction, from straw bale to dry wall, all the buildings had their own individual character and were very enjoyable to spend time in. the kitchens all had appliances and running water and plenty of delicious food to eat.

one of the facilities that was pretty different from my usual daily life were the toilets. instead of having normal flush toilets like we are all used to, they had a humanure system using 5 gallon buckets and sawdust. basically, you sit on a toilet seat over top of a box with a bucket inside. you do your business and then instead of flushing, you just cover the waste in sawdust. that’s it. when the bucket gets full, you put the lid on and take it outside. after about 6 buckets fill up, you take them to the humanure compost. after the waste has composted for 2 years, it turns into plain old top soil and can be used for any kind of gardening you want. very cool.

aside from dancing rabbit itself, there are also a few other communities in the area. adjacent to the DR land is red earth farms, which is an offshoot of dancing rabbit itself. a few previous members wanted to do their own thing, so they bought their own land and created their own community. they are only 4 people as of yet, but they seem to be enjoying wonderfully. also, about 3 miles away, is sandhill farms. this is a much older community (founded in 1974) that is completely income sharing. their focus is primarily in their agricultural products like sorghum, horseradish, honey, and all sorts of other things. we visited their on one even for the weekly pitch in and it was a beautiful place.

my conclusion

i am very happy with my experience from dancing rabbit. i learned quite a bit about sustainable living and community building, and i think i made some friends there while i was at it. i feel like they are going in the right direction and taking small steps to get their in a reasonable fashion. i could see myself possibly returning for an even longer stay at some point in the distant future, but first i want to try my hand at sustainable city living. i know it seems quite a bit harder, but i’m going to try and take what i learned there and apply it to my time in seattle. i know that i can’t advance as far as they have, but i’m sure i’ll fun trying it either way.