I've now lived at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage for one complete year. I haven't even been off the property over night once because I love it soo much here. People have been asking if I'm ready to get away yet? Honestly I'm not, I feel like I've been on a year vacation from stress. I absolutely love it here.
That doesn't mean that there hasn't been stressful moments. Like having planned all winter long with my friend Kyle on how we were going to develop the our warrens, only to have a bunch of other people want to build on the same chuck of land. To make matters worse there was one party who wasn't playing well with others. Not to say I have perfected the art of community and consensus but I am learning.
I've had my challenges, as would anyone named the most neanderthal man in a feminist ecovillage. I have to say that does totally describe me and I am okay with that. I think the rest of the community is okay with it as well. I do feel a part of the community and have developed a wide range of relationships and here are my Top 5
5. The Wexers: This is what we call the people who come here as work exchangers. It's a lot of work to build a village and with just over 50 members, some of whom are still working on there own houses, it's not something we can do alone. So for basically no more then then a tent platform and food, these amazing people come help us build our dream. Many of them describe their experience as Summer Camp for Adult. This year was the first wexer Olympics, they also formed a flash mob and performed at the local corn festival and won most entertaining act and let's not forget the apple cook-off. I few of them liked it here so much that they have stuck around and become residents.
4. Sunflower Food CO-OP It is nice to have 2 meals a day with 10-30 people everyday. You really get to know your neighbors this way. The core group has been Nathan, Cob and his kids (Morgan, Duncan and Ewan), Sam and Kody, Jennifer and her kids (Rowan, Cynder and Torren), Allyson, Bear and Zane (they have their own kitchen now and I miss eating with them), Clint, and all of their wexers and visitors.
3. My Movie Mates. I have a few groups of people I watch certain kinds of movies and I love all of these people. The Manly Monday Crew (Cob, Micheal Clark, Sam, Kyle, Morgan and Clint), Womanly Wednesday (My 2 favorite wexers Katherine (AKA Kate) and Kristen the dynamic duo) and last but not least my Dance and Cheer Squad (Rachel, Tony and Sheila). Tony and Rachel are the last 2 from the group of people that came out here from CA. I cherish time with these 2 because they are always so busy making sure thing function smoothly.
2. Surprisingly in 2nd place a 13 year old girl named Cynder. I got to know Cynder because here family eats in the Sunflower Food CO-OP with me. Watching her and her mother interact was always very entertaining to me. It took her awhile to warm up to me, people tell me I can be kinda scary, so I just wrote it up to that and figured I should break the ice. One night a bunch of people were sitting around the common house and I had a craving for chocolate. To which someone tells me There is the brownies Cynder made for tomorrows lunch. When questioned on whether I was going to have some I replied jokingly Sure why not I'm not scared of her., many retorted You should be. It was then I knew what I needed to do to let her know I'm not as scary as I may look and that was to play a joke on her. I wanted chocolate but I wasn't going to eat food that was set a side for my entire food co-op. So I told everyone my plan and they all thought it was funny to and that was all the encouragement I needed. I made a batch of brownies for my craving and to share. Then cut out all of the brownies so there was an empty pan with just crumbs. I then swapped that pan out with the brownie pan that Cynder made and labeled Eat this and Cynder will find you!!! and then hid her pan on top of the cabinets in plain sight. She did not see the humor in this at all and for awhile truly disliked me. If I sat at the table she was sitting at, she'd pick up here plate and go sit somewhere else. That only encouraged me to sit at her table more though. She was learning I could dish it out and she decided to see if I could take it and was always harassing me because I was Old and whatever else was handy at the moment. It became clear to me that she finally accepted me was when she signed up to work on my cook shift with a huge grin on her face.
1. Kyle was the 1st person I truly bonded with out here. We were both new residents braving the horrible MO winters that only the hardiest of humans should ever attempt and giggled the whole way through because we both have spend winters farther north.
The fact that I'm an omnivore in a vegetarian food co-op was less of a challenge than I thought it would be. Now that I'm starting to learn my way around our kitchen. There are limits to what we buy and I had never cooked with dry beans before. So there was a learning curve for sure. The friends that I had before moving here got a got laugh at me struggling to cook, as I am an excellent cook. I think I'm now back at that level and people here look forward to when it's my turn to cook. I really like the fact that I only have to cook once a week or once every 2 weeks, depending on how many people are eating with us.
I've also spent that last year celibate. Not something I'm exactly proud of but hey I lived. While I do think that the values of the women here are closer matches to mine. The fact that we are such a small community means that the pickens are slim. Not too many young ladies with daddy issues in the sustainability crowd I guess. LOL Does anyone want to take one for the team so I can quit saying I'm celibate? LMAO
As year two unfolds I look forward to starting to build my own house Sunsets Over Fallingwater and getting wexers of my own. If you have any interest in checking out an ecovillage for more than a couple of days, wexing is where it's at and you should get a hold of me. I'm looking for people who are interested in at least one of the following, green building with shipping containers, organic gardening and living in community.
Peace, Love and All That Hippie Jazz,
Coz
That doesn't mean that there hasn't been stressful moments. Like having planned all winter long with my friend Kyle on how we were going to develop the our warrens, only to have a bunch of other people want to build on the same chuck of land. To make matters worse there was one party who wasn't playing well with others. Not to say I have perfected the art of community and consensus but I am learning.
I've had my challenges, as would anyone named the most neanderthal man in a feminist ecovillage. I have to say that does totally describe me and I am okay with that. I think the rest of the community is okay with it as well. I do feel a part of the community and have developed a wide range of relationships and here are my Top 5
5. The Wexers: This is what we call the people who come here as work exchangers. It's a lot of work to build a village and with just over 50 members, some of whom are still working on there own houses, it's not something we can do alone. So for basically no more then then a tent platform and food, these amazing people come help us build our dream. Many of them describe their experience as Summer Camp for Adult. This year was the first wexer Olympics, they also formed a flash mob and performed at the local corn festival and won most entertaining act and let's not forget the apple cook-off. I few of them liked it here so much that they have stuck around and become residents.
4. Sunflower Food CO-OP It is nice to have 2 meals a day with 10-30 people everyday. You really get to know your neighbors this way. The core group has been Nathan, Cob and his kids (Morgan, Duncan and Ewan), Sam and Kody, Jennifer and her kids (Rowan, Cynder and Torren), Allyson, Bear and Zane (they have their own kitchen now and I miss eating with them), Clint, and all of their wexers and visitors.
3. My Movie Mates. I have a few groups of people I watch certain kinds of movies and I love all of these people. The Manly Monday Crew (Cob, Micheal Clark, Sam, Kyle, Morgan and Clint), Womanly Wednesday (My 2 favorite wexers Katherine (AKA Kate) and Kristen the dynamic duo) and last but not least my Dance and Cheer Squad (Rachel, Tony and Sheila). Tony and Rachel are the last 2 from the group of people that came out here from CA. I cherish time with these 2 because they are always so busy making sure thing function smoothly.
2. Surprisingly in 2nd place a 13 year old girl named Cynder. I got to know Cynder because here family eats in the Sunflower Food CO-OP with me. Watching her and her mother interact was always very entertaining to me. It took her awhile to warm up to me, people tell me I can be kinda scary, so I just wrote it up to that and figured I should break the ice. One night a bunch of people were sitting around the common house and I had a craving for chocolate. To which someone tells me There is the brownies Cynder made for tomorrows lunch. When questioned on whether I was going to have some I replied jokingly Sure why not I'm not scared of her., many retorted You should be. It was then I knew what I needed to do to let her know I'm not as scary as I may look and that was to play a joke on her. I wanted chocolate but I wasn't going to eat food that was set a side for my entire food co-op. So I told everyone my plan and they all thought it was funny to and that was all the encouragement I needed. I made a batch of brownies for my craving and to share. Then cut out all of the brownies so there was an empty pan with just crumbs. I then swapped that pan out with the brownie pan that Cynder made and labeled Eat this and Cynder will find you!!! and then hid her pan on top of the cabinets in plain sight. She did not see the humor in this at all and for awhile truly disliked me. If I sat at the table she was sitting at, she'd pick up here plate and go sit somewhere else. That only encouraged me to sit at her table more though. She was learning I could dish it out and she decided to see if I could take it and was always harassing me because I was Old and whatever else was handy at the moment. It became clear to me that she finally accepted me was when she signed up to work on my cook shift with a huge grin on her face.
1. Kyle was the 1st person I truly bonded with out here. We were both new residents braving the horrible MO winters that only the hardiest of humans should ever attempt and giggled the whole way through because we both have spend winters farther north.
The fact that I'm an omnivore in a vegetarian food co-op was less of a challenge than I thought it would be. Now that I'm starting to learn my way around our kitchen. There are limits to what we buy and I had never cooked with dry beans before. So there was a learning curve for sure. The friends that I had before moving here got a got laugh at me struggling to cook, as I am an excellent cook. I think I'm now back at that level and people here look forward to when it's my turn to cook. I really like the fact that I only have to cook once a week or once every 2 weeks, depending on how many people are eating with us.
I've also spent that last year celibate. Not something I'm exactly proud of but hey I lived. While I do think that the values of the women here are closer matches to mine. The fact that we are such a small community means that the pickens are slim. Not too many young ladies with daddy issues in the sustainability crowd I guess. LOL Does anyone want to take one for the team so I can quit saying I'm celibate? LMAO
As year two unfolds I look forward to starting to build my own house Sunsets Over Fallingwater and getting wexers of my own. If you have any interest in checking out an ecovillage for more than a couple of days, wexing is where it's at and you should get a hold of me. I'm looking for people who are interested in at least one of the following, green building with shipping containers, organic gardening and living in community.
Peace, Love and All That Hippie Jazz,
Coz
fallenglory:
I'm totally jealous. They look like an awesome bunch of people. If I could convince GIBrett, we'd so be living there. 
fixer:
Looking forward to watching your progress on container homes and other green buildings. I am toying with the idea of a multi-family farm vs an established eco-village but a lot of ideas align. I started a blog of sorts to keep track of all of the areas I need to research and skills I need to learn - http://fixer.tumblr.com/