This splendid bowl, hand carved by Thomas from a hunk of black walnut, could soon be yours if it strikes your fancy.

  

We’ve been having busy late summer days here at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. As I head from a conflict resolution meeting back to the office in the common house, I stop to close the downspouts on the rainwater catchment system, so that this afternoon’s burst of rain will flow into Sky House’s underground cistern and we can draw from it in the weeks ahead. 

Alannah here, writing for the Center for Sustainable and Cooperative Culture (CSCC), the non-profit organization in our community. When I’m not helping put natural plaster on Liz’s SubHub construction project or cooking over fire at the Critter kitchen, I can sometimes be found working away at my computer.

Over the last few weeks I have been busy gathering items from around the village for our silent auction, which is live now through September 1st. It has been a real joy for me to collect the gifts and crafts that my skilled and talented neighbors are offering. We have lots of wonderful things available to choose from, including: private natural building consultations, acupuncture, BodyTalk healing sessions, handmade knit baby blankets, and dried herbs. 

When my co-worker, Matt, first suggested a Lammas Day Silent Auction as our summer fundraiser, I thought he was talking about llamas, and I had to look it up, but no... Lammas Day is the first harvest festival of the year, in the old English tradition. Early August coincides with the first wheat harvest, and Lammas Day is celebrated by baking bread with freshly ground wheat. I will be helping to bake bread this Sunday by feeding Alyson’s sourdough starter, and I am grateful for the reminder of the way my activities are dependent on seasonal cycles and flows.

Asking my co-villagers if they would be willing to contribute their skills and crafts has been really fun. I find that people really do love to contribute to things around them. Kyle asked me not to call him a natural building “expert” (I think his beautiful buildings certainly demonstrate his expertise) when I suggested that he share his time with someone who is interested in learning, so we settled on “natural building dude”. Either way, you can bid on a chance to chat with him or other natural builders here about your very own natural building projects. 

One particularly outlandish auction item is a set of six sock puppets. They were made at a sock puppet sewing party hosted by Katherine a few weeks ago. People gathered in the courtyard outside the common house, bringing with them bits of fluff and fabric. Some brought knitted mini tophats, fun buttons, and other lovely decorations. Kids, adults and visitors alike created them together. I love that we have community events that center around making new fun using recycled materials; it is something I dreamed of having in my life before Dancing Rabbit, but it took moving here, slowing down, and making friends with people of all ages to see it manifest. 

Take a look at some of the crafts and services offered by the members of my community, which you can bid on here. There are three whole pages of cool stuff, so there’s sure to be something that appeals to you.