The Last 24 hours of Ideablob (and aren't we all glad!)

Hi everyone. We're nearing the end of the Ideablob contest. We've had an amazing day - over 260 votes! Wow. I am neck-deep in gratitude, and bubbling over with awe.

If only it were enough! Sheesh, Project H Design is simply impossible to beat, or at least they seem to be. They have a HUGE network, hundreds of university affiliations, and more. I spent yesterday emailing cohousing groups, ecovillages, strawbale building groups, renewable energy groups, EVERYONE I could think of. And the votes have poured in. But Project H keeps coming, like Rommel driving deep into Egypt (to misquote Richard Brautigan), plowing over every lovely idea in its path.

For those of you just tuning in, please help our business, the Milkweed Mercantile, win a $20,000 cash award. Go to Ideablob.com, register, go to your email to confirm your registration, and then vote for "Strawbale off-grid business." We would really appreciate it! THEN, please go to your social networking networks, and network! I am so new at all of this! Twitter, Stumble, trip and fall! (it is really fun, though, "meeting" so many people that I never even knew existed!)

For more on our business, click here.

To watch a short video about the Mercantile, click here.

For photos of the Mercantile in progress, click here.

For more on Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, click here.

Thanks so much for taking the time to come here and read this. And thank you again for voting for us (if you do). We look forward to meeting you in person someday here at the Mercantile!

Getting there is half the fun!

A Vintage Farmall tractor in the Rutledge Fall Festival Parade (all ten minutes of it!).

Oren Erickson and a vintage Farmall tractor

We're still doing well on Ideablob. Tomorrow is the last day for the "sprint," then we have a week of final votes. I found the Mercantile mentioned on a blog called "Work at Home Truth". Check it out here. It's nice to know that we have friends everywhere!

Today was the annual Rutledge Fall Festival. It was really fun as usual. Where else can you watch a parade that is, at most, 10-minutes long? There were two hot cars, two not-so-hot cars, four political candidates (throwing candy to the kids), 8 very cool vintage tractors and a bunch of kids and adults with face paint on bikes. Hmmmm, who do you suppose were the Rabbits?

L to R: Ant, Ewan, Ted, Cynder, Aurelia, Morgan, Sierra, a Super Hero

Denny Clatt for Eastern County Commissioner!

I want one of these for my garden!

Also joining us (in the parade and at DR) this week are the Super Heros. A group of about 25 enthusiastic, fun people who are interested in making the world a better place, they ride around on their bikes doing good deeds. They all wear capes, have 'super hero' names ("Compassionate Man," "Super OK with himself Guy"), and are just a delight. They're camping here at DR for 3 days, doing a day of work each at DR, Sandhill and Red Earth Farms. Friday they helped bale the Mercantile, stomped cob with Annie, washed Tereza's windows, and lots of other things I don't know about.

L to R: Sierra, Super Hero, Queen Bee, Cob (aka Crazy Hat Man), two more Super Heroes

Glam Jan

More tomorrow!