I've spent the past week at Dancing Rabbit helping my friend Liat with her home. Its name is Aubergine, and it is a recovering school bus. We have cobbed the inside of the windshield, complete with bottles for light and mirror tiles for fun. We are currently working on cobbing a section around the emergency door in back, which will also have bottles eventually. I have helped Ziggy, another DR resident, with his cob house, and I've helped Ironweed, a cooperative within DR, with plastering their kitchen. I've been doing a lot of cob. I think I am now a cob convert.
Today, we switched things up by painting a bit. Aubergine now has "Aubergine" written above the door, complete with vines, leaves, and an eggplant for visual interest. We cobbed a bit more around the door, but you can only do so much at a time before it starts caving. We finished painting and couldn't cob any more, so Liat let me go.
A little background info, some observations, and the inevitable commentary: Dancing Rabbit is an Ecovillage in Northern Missouri. The nearest town is Rutledge, MO, home of Zimmerman's store and restaurant. (The Zimmermans know their consumer base-- the first item on the menu is "Vegan burger." Fantastic.) DR was founded more than ten years ago, hoping to be a model of sustainability that would eventually be the home of 500-1000 people. Ambitious. It currently has somewhere around 45 members, the majority of whom are over 30. This is something of a switch for me, as I'm used to having a bunch of young folks to hang out with. But hey, everyone seems pretty cool and environmentally-minded, and there are a fair number of children around for me to play with. I'm doing pretty well.
I played Scrabble with Ziggy last night and won by one point. The scores were up in the 270's. I managed to play "fuck" and "hustler" off of each other, which was great. (Sorry Grandma.)
I've been having a blast learning about natural building techniques. I'm vaguely considering coming back as a work exchanger sometime after I graduate to learn more. I think I'm making a pretty good impression, so I think that if anyone has any building going on I'd be likely to have myself a job. Seriously, cob is great. It's like building a sandcastle, but it's a permanent, giant sandcastle that you can eventually live in.
I haven't given out any surveys or conducted any interviews yet. Liat and I are planning on having a "Surveys and Sweets!" party on Saturday, luring people in with cookies or brownies or something similarly delicious. I'll recruit for interviews then, I think. I would really like to have an interview with Rachel or [oh gosh, I forgot his name], who are the only two founding members who are still here.
I like it here. I don't know that I would be able to live here long-term, but I would certainly be interested in coming back.
I've been thinking a lot about the rest of my life (heavy stuff) these past couple days. Whoa Nelly, I'm graduating in the spring and I need to figure out something to do. This is intense.
I had a conference call with the SEAC Regional Coordinator folks a couple days ago. What did I get myself into? These people are intense. I guess I'm pretty intense, too, so maybe it evens out. I definitely won't be able to attend the training. It goes from August 19-21, I think, and I'm in Portland that whole time and have no intention of being anywhere else. Maybe I'm just a bad environmentalist. Maybe I want to have my own life. However you want to look at it, I'm probably not making a fantastic impression as a new Regional Coordinator.
I think I'll wander around and take pictures while the light is good and I have nothing to do. Yes. That sounds like a plan.
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