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Sustainable Living Community Energy Environment Food Agriculture/Permaculture Health Inspiration Lifestyle Shelter Transportation Water	Six LSN members greatly enjoyed time together touring two Missouri intentional communities called Dancing Rabbit Eco-Village and Sandhill Farm the weekend of August 11-13, 2006. We certainly came away with greater understanding of how to live more sustainably. Several of us were moved to share a few words with you all about our experiences. Susy: I had a GREAT TIME! These two intentional communities impressed me a lot. I went into this journey with frankly low expectations. What I found was a group of highly qualified individuals who are very deeply committed to agrarian and eco-energy sustainability. I learned that it requires a lot of hard work, but the results are worth the sweat! These people indeed are making GAIA very happy indeed. It was very interesting to observe how extremely population-depleted regions of our country, like Rutledge, Missouri, can be re-energized positively with good community and leadership skills such as the ones applied at Sand Hill, and intelligent design such as that applied at Dancing Rabbit. ------------------ Steve Moring: The Sandhill and Dancing Rabbit communities are very different in terms of how they are socially, economically and legally organized. The Sandhill community is an agricultural commune, where its six members share their living and working space and their income. Ownership of the land is in the form of a non-profit corporation, like an entity, and similar to a monastic order. Their legal and tax status is described as a 501 D. The only things owned personally in the community are the individual’s clothing, books, and personal effects. The community owns all vehicles, appliances and machinery. Individuals are allocated money on a need basis, usually in increments of less than $100 at a time. People are encouraged to travel once or twice a year to visit relatives or to have a modest vacation. Individuals are included in a group health care plan. New members can join the community without a buy-in requirement. If they thrive and are accepted by the community, they are members for as long as they want to be. If they leave, there is no buy-out. The Dancing Rabbit (DR) community is organized in an entirely different manner. The ownership of the land is in the form of a corporate trust. Individuals, families or group cooperatives lease homestead plots from the trust. Members then use their own, private resources to build their dwellings and grow their food. Income is not shared, with the exception of one household. Rent from individual leases goes toward building and maintenance of some shared resources which include a common house for visitors, water storage, and a vehicle cooperative. Groups of people in the DR community form various independent living cooperatives. In this community of 25+ members, there is one gardening cooperative and five eating cooperatives with various groups sharing kitchen and dining facilities. Each living cooperative or home has independent energy producing systems, which include primarily photovoltaics and wind generators. Apparently, none of these are networked for efficiency. Income in this community is obtained from primarily external sources. Some members barter various work skills and purchase vegetables from the garden cooperative or other farms. One group has a thriving computer and internet business. One main difference in this community is that less than 50% of the food consumed is produced on DR, whereas 80% is produced at Sandhill. Approximately 50% of Sandhill’s income is derived from value added agricultural products and very little, if any, income at DR comes from this agriculture. In short, these communities contrast as a microcosm of a classical experiment in socialism versus capitalism. ------------------ Julie Vernon: Checking out these two communities at once, I found myself with the compelling opportunity to consider what elements may be most vital as well as inviting in living as a sustainable community …whatever the size or shape. Seeing how these communities live...what works and what doesn't...I could better envision what it might take to function well here in the Lawrence area as a community of various groups and individuals with the common goal of local-reliance and sustainability. In a nutshell, I came away with the feeling that prioritizing and nurturing interpersonal flexibility, social skills and conflict resolution amongst ourselves is just as vital, if perhaps not more, as the know-how and implementation of living off-the-grid. I believe it begins with waking up, caring enough and prioritizing putting our heads and hearts together to create a community of some unknown variety that can tangibly sustain us through possibly difficult times ahead. We could certainly have fun at it, too! In these uncertain times, that's something we can be sure of... ------------------ Chris Millspaugh: My trip to very rural NE Missouri or "So you're visiting a hippy commune?" Lovey-dovey hippies living in teepee's or new age eco-nazis living in contemporary units. I dIdn't know what to expect from visiting these "eco-villages". I let my wife Lowen talk me into going with the group. I didn't really want to at first, I had other things I could have done. but I am interested in sustainability and more natural construction techniques, and she said we could camp. So I went. Lowen, Steve and I arrived at Dancing Rabbit around 10pm, Friday night. We were greeted by darkness. No host or greeter. So we stumbled around through a terrain of narrow paths, tall grass and small "huts" barely visible. Lowen and I thought this might be a bad horror movie. Just when we expected machete yielding mental cases to jump out and hack us up for their meat freezer, someone answered our shouts of "hello!" Nathan showed us to our camp area and we put up our tent and went to bed, not knowing what to expect...even more so than before. Well, the next day was filled with questions and answers and show and tell. I found that the two places, Sandhill Farms and Dancing Rabbit were similar, yet very different. Sandhill Farms was first on the list. They were more agriculturally based. They grew 80% of their own food and harvested, processed and sold sorghum. They were small as well, only 6 people, I believe. It was more like we were visiting a farming family. The whole outfit seemed more traditional than I expected. They shared everything from chores to money. It was a collective. Laird was an original member from 1974 and when it first started, he had no experience in building or growing food. It was very impressive to me that he persisted and through trial and error, created the farm and the collective. We had a great lunch served to us there, all grown on the farm. Even the tomato juice was homemade. After lunch, we headed back to Dancing Rabbit. This place worked/operated as a true village. I think there were 20 or so people who each leased bits of land from a land trust the community owned. They were responsible for their own housing, electricity, water and income. Much income wasn't needed as they were self-sustaining. I was floored at how little money they spend and how small their yearly budgets are...less than most of us spend in a month! Income was made by selling services or goods to other "villagers". Several had online internet businesses. Yes, they had internet connections and computers. There were kitchen collectives, shower collectives, etc., so within this eco-community were sub communities. The whole village was self-sustaining as far electricity and water went. They were completely off the grid. Solar panels and windmills powered EVERYTHING. They were, however, more reliant on outside sources for food. So that was a big difference between the two places. At this village, I got my curiosity of straw bale and cob building filled. What before seemed daunting and almost impossible to do became closer of a reality to me. These people weren't trained carpenters or framers, yet they were building some very attractive, sturdy houses--with natural building materials. Because of the nature of the material, heating and cooling were MUCH more efficient than conventional methods. It made me want to start my own straw bale house that day. The idea that all the energy we were wasteing, cooling our house kind of sickened me. It was a very educational and inspiring trip that I think opened all of our eyes to the fact that self-sustainability is very doable. Maybe not to the extent that these places were doing it, but if we all did even a quarter of what these two places were doing that would help make a difference. ------------------ Steve Stemmerman: Currently 6 people are permanent members of the Sandhill community. With the help of volunteers, interns, and visitors such as ourselves, they maintain a 135 acre organic farm, raising a variety of crops which provides most of the food they eat. Meals and income are shared in common. In addition to vegetable crops, the community specializes in sorghum and honey as value-added items. Members have used their experience to create an income outside of the farm in areas such as conflict resolution and mediation and organic certification inspection. They also publish the "Communities" magazine. Dancing Rabbit describes itself as an eco-village. They live totally off the grid, supplying all their own energy needs with solar and wind power in self-built structures. Many are straw bale. Some live communally and share resources and others live more independently. One collective within the community is involved in raising gardens. Food is also purchased from neighbors in the area and from a regional natural food distributor. I was very impressed with both places and the variety of similarities and differences between them. The cohesiveness of the Sandhill community was self evident in everything they did. They were very settled in and comfortable. After 32 years, they are well adapted in their relationship with the earth, themselves and others. Dancing Rabbit is a model for community self-sustainability. They hope to reach a population of up to 1,000 people. If successful, they will be a valuable resource as we seek for ways of living more lightly.
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