Launching myself into the blogosphere

What the world does not need is another blog.

But.

But what? What could I possibly have to contribute to the overcrowded, blathering online world?
Good question. I hope to be able to answer that in the coming days and weeks. Thanks for sticking with me.

Here's a bit of background: I left my beloved Berkeley in 1999 and took a huge leap of faith. My husband Kurt and I moved to the middle-of-nowhere-Missouri (where?) and joined Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. Not a cult, not a commune, but a group of inspired, impassioned idealists looking to create a better way to live. Let me rephrase that. We're looking for better lives for ourselves. We don't claim to have the answers - heck, we're still figuring out the questions.

Kurt and I designed and built a strawbale, solar-and-wind-powered home. We love it. It is cozy, and maybe someday we'll even finish it! Last summer we started the biggest project of our lives: the Milkweed Mercantile.

After Noah-esqe, torrential rains all spring, we were finally able to start construction in the end of June. Here is a photo of the first day of construction. The Dancing Rabbit Community Building is on the left (you can see the rooftop solar panels and the porch swing). If you look closely, you can see the top of the grainbin apartments peeking through the trees above the backhoe.

The cistern, storm shelter/basement and foundation were all dug and then brick was laid. The rest of the foundation was poured, and then everything hit the fan. Kurt and I both had medical crises in our families. While it meant that construction came to a screeching halt, we were grateful that we were able to drop everything and spend time with our familites when they needed us.

So this construction season topped out at a mere 39 days - as of December the building looked like this. Pretty good for just over a month. I can hardly
wait to see what happens this spring!

We will be posting construction details, including how to build a cistern (for collected rainwater) on the Mercantile website soon - just as soon as we write them.

Coming up next: the real scoop on life at Dancing Rabbit.