June 27, 2008

Last week I introduced you to Dancing Rabbit (www.DancingRabbit.org), an Eco-Village in rural Missouri that is striving for complete sustainability. This week I'm going to tell you about my familys weeklong visit there.

Our trip was so incredible, and so unique, I know I will have a hard time cramming it into one column. I also know that I don't have the writing skills to really paint a picture for you. So, all I can say is, if you ever have the opportunity to stay in an Eco-Village, jump on it! And, if you don't have the opportunity, go seek it out! It will be the most memorable vacation (and cheapest!) your family will ever take.

One of the highlights of our trip was working on building a community kitchen out of cob, which is clay, sand, water and hay. (Think Adobe and Tudor.) We were building walls for the pantry of a new common kitchen. It was fun to work with our hands and get dirty. The kids got to help, too. And, cob is beautiful - they artfully put colored glass in the walls for decoration and cool lighting effects.

Being in the kitchen was also a highlight. Cooking meals is not a daily, boring chore to rush through, the way it is at my house. At Dancing Rabbit, people are assigned to make one meal per week. They spend all week thinking about, looking forward to and planning that meal. They collect the greens they need from the garden. They start preparing everything from scratch at about two o'clock in the afternoon. They make enough to feed their food co-op that night for dinner, and leftovers for lunch the next day. Usually other people will help, and it becomes a chance to chat with neighbors. The following day, people would be on their own for breakfast (they kept homemade granola, quick oats, and ingredients to make pancakes in stock), then whoever was responsible for dinner the night before would heat up the last night's leftovers. This meant everyone was always eating well, and yet only had to make about one meal a week. Such a nice thing about living in community - sharing the workload. At Dancing Rabbit, food is something that takes time and heart - just as it did on this planet for thousands of years.

One of the food co-ops specialized in gourmet vegan food. Eating with them was always a huge treat. (They even keep a really neat blog here: http://ecovegan.blogspot.com.) I never realized that vegan food could be so delicious. (And this is coming from someone who doesn't eat any vegetables!) Eating a vegan diet for a week really made me feel healthier than ever. I can also attest that vegan bodies aren't stinky and don't require deodorant. (I'm speaking of Josh, of course, because I always smell like roses, anyway.)

At Dancing Rabbit, they recycle and compost everything. In one week, the only thing I threw away was the container that my kids' rice milk came in. Those can't be recycled. I also threw away a tea bag, but was then informed that they could actually be composted. I believe the landfill trashcan at the common house was only filled up once in the week we were there, and well over 30 people were using it! It really was amazing. I really think in our house of five, we have way too much trash. We buy things at the store that come with too much trash in the first place, instead of buying in bulk and using our own containers.

As far as trash goes, my biggest accomplishment was that at Dancing Rabbit, I went an entire week without using a single paper towel. I didn't realize until I got to Dancing Rabbit that I have a serious paper towel addiction. When I got to Dancing Rabbit and found out they didn't use paper towels, I started panicking, having heart palpitations, feeling dizzy, having headaches, twitching, and having just about every other withdrawal symptom you can imagine. I had detoxed from paper towels by the end of the week, and realized that life did, indeed, feel better without them. I went home vowing to never use another one. That lasted about a week. I had one spill that I was convinced needed a paper towel, and not a rag, and that was all it took to fall off the wagon and be a paper towel addict once again. Sad.

At Dancing Rabbit they only have two cars. The people in the driving co-op pay weekly for the opportunity to use the car, which covers gas and maintenance. Then, there is a bulletin board with all of the major nearby towns listed, and people leave notes when they need to go to one of those towns, or have something picked up from there. Then, when someone is using the car, they check the bulletin board to see if anyone else needs to go, or if they need to run errands for anyone else. It was amazing to me that 30 people could easily get by with two cars. For small grocery trips and such, there was a small, organic, Mennonite-run grocery store about two miles away that could easily be walked or biked to.

On our second day there, our baby, Hayden, had pink eye, and my doctor called in eye drops to a pharmacy about 20 miles away. I was going to go get the eyes drops (we did, after all, have our own car there), and one of the members insisted I let her get it while she was in town that afternoon. I felt like I was imposing on someone I barely knew, although I appreciated the favor. Then I realized that what was more important to her was doing the environment a favor by not letting me drive our polluting and resource-using van 20 miles for a tiny bottle of eye drops, when she'd be going that way herself. So, I gave her money and our insurance card, and a couple hours later we had eye drops.

Next week, Im going to write about Dancing Rabbit one last time. I want to share with you how it inspired House Purge, and also changed our lives. And then, I promise  well get back to purging!

Kristen Owen is a longtime blogger and registered eBay Trading Assistant. More information, topics, and helpful tips about House Purge can be read by going to the projects Web site at www.housepurge.com .