a mosaic I created over my front entrance



the view from the west of my house. the grape vines have died back already, but here you can see my recently added wood shed packed with wood for the winter. I didnt think I would enjoy splitting wood, but its very satisfying.



the west interior of my house. Wood burning stove (I have only fired it twice so far this year), water filter (I drink rain water), treadle sewing machine (no electricity in my house), glowing bottles in a cob wall, my guitar in the lower corner (oh yea, I am teaching myself to play and have even written a few songs), rubber boots BC it gets quite muddy, and hand made rugs on the floor. Welcome to my cozy home.



I constructed a small 100% natural "structure" on the land I plan to squat. This wont keep me dry, warm, or safe from insects, but it feels warm and embracing when I crawl inside. It reminds me of being in a large basket. Also, none of the pics I took showed what I feel. This pic is of the north-west "wall." Yes, I know it just looks like a bunch of sticks.


We all change. Change happens weather you want it or not; whether you are aware of it or not. Sometimes we can control or guide the change and sometimes its not in our hands at all. Since living at dancing rabbit I have changed a good deal. I think for the most part I have enjoyed and appreciated my many transformations. I have acquired many levels of education that I was not taught in the "education system." I have learned how to grow my own food, forage for wild food, build a house, share emotions, communicate with others, work with people who dont always think the way I do...

I moved here wanting a community. When I lived in Florida I had a hard time interacting with individuals or small groups of people. I craved large groups and enjoyed surrounding myself with lots of people. In the past 31 months DR has grown to be a larger community and I have grown to enjoy one on one interactions and small groups. I used to attend every social event, potluck, group meeting. I used to organize events and parties regularly. Now I notice I often skip out on the large group get togethers. I dont attend movie nights, meetings, group meals, and even dance parties sometimes.

I have been wanting a sub community since deciding that DR felt like a good place to call home. I flirted with a few options when I first got here. I felt kinship with IronWeed community. I was a provisional member for a few months, but then their core group disbanded. In the past year I have formed a new sub community with 3 friends called Wabi-sabi (formally known as the Down there Beards). I felt like this was the track I wanted. I wanted a small group of friends to work with and share with. We began cooking and eating together in July. We designed a building and have dug the foundation and layed the drainage. We have preserved food for the winter and early spring. We have planned some of next years gardens. Now suddenly for the past month this hasnt felt right. Partially because we accepted a new member who I dont really want in the group, but perhaps partially because I want something else.

I have been fantasizing of my own place. A small homestead in the woods. I have begun to design this place on paper. I have scouted and found my location. It is not far from the DR village- perhaps a 15-20 min walk. What is this change? I want community, want to work with and live with others, to share and laugh with friends. Yet I also desire to have my own space, my own home away from others. Do I chose one, can I have both? Currently I plan on perusing both.

Other changes in my life that I can not control- the health of friends and family. One of my closest friends was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago and has left the community for the time being in order to have better access to healthcare and her family. My father's memory is continuing to decline.

I dont know what I want from life. I am here. I am living it. I sometimes feel lost and alone. I dont know why I exist. What is the point. I am trying to live fairly simply. Have a small impact on the world. But by simply existing I am having an impact.

I used to be fun and smiles and full of sunshine. My joy has mellowed out and my spunk is on vacation. I am looking for something but I dont know where to find it, and even if my eyes run across it I may not recognize "it" as the thing I am looking for.

2 months. Lots has happened and changed. My house looks a bit different. I have an earth berm and front garden beds and a borch and a frog pond. I have had good and less good interactions with some friends. I experienced an amazing relationship with an individual which ended all too soon. I have continued to learn about myself and grow as a person. I am continuing to work with a few of my friends to create a sup-community within Dancing Rabbit- right now we have an outdoor kitchen which we share. I cut off most of my hair back on July 4th. I realize I have very ADD hair. I have the front long, 1 dread lock still remains, the back is short and there are shaved racing stripes along the sides and back; I think it says a lot about my personality. My friend Brian has been visiting me and helping me get some work done. I will be away for 3 weeks this month getting certified in permaculture. The location of the course does not have electricity so dont expect to hear from me for a while. Oh, also I no longer have a phone so snail mail and e-mail are the only ways of communication for Liat.

Back at DR and totally happy. Ah food. Since living at DR I realize I have become a food snob. I dont care for high class restaurant foods, I want fresh, live food. There is nothing to compare to a fruit picked right off the bush/vine/tree. Now that spring is here there are edible plants all over the place. Eating greens and berries from my garden. Also new interest of wild edibles. Eating all sorts of "weeds." Sorrel, lambs quarters, nettles, clover, onion grass, cattail, pepper grass, dandelion,black locus tree flowers, and so on. Also mushrooms are abundant. Last month there were morels, now I am finding wood ears and my shitaki logs are producing offspring! Soon the mulberries, raspberries, and blackberries will be ripe with peaches, pears, and apples not far behind. I have also been more interested in fermented foods. Making and eating lots of miso, pickles, fermented wild greens, and so on. YumYumYum.

I havent been motivated to post in the past few months. so many things happened. the cliff-note version of the past 5 months...
grandmother died, found a ride to NY, visited a community called Ganas, went to Israel, led a Taglit trip, volunteered on kibbutz Lotan for 3+ weeks, went to Jordan and stayed with some Bedouins in their cave, frolicked around Israel some more, got older, visited the West Bank for a week, was terribly home sick, got back to the states and went directly home, was happy to be home, got a bit stressed out and frustrated with "the precess" at DR, re-formatted my life and priorities, got happy again, built most of my green house, started my seedlings and garden, went with some friends to Asheville NC, went to an arts festival with lots of amazing contra dancing, visited a 12 tribes community, found a ride to FL where I currently am waiting for my cousin to get married so I can return home. AH! that didnt take so long.


greenhouse almost complete. Still need to finish the cob and light clay straw. also you can see the mirror mosaic I did on the gable. The ropes in front of the hood are for my grape vines to grow up.

Ah, so I now realize its been three weeks since I last posted. I guess that shows to be a good thing though because I haven't been incredibly bored with nothing to do. In the past few weeks I have talked about Dancing Rabbit with people at USF and in high school. Some of the high schoolers asked funny questions such as "do people not shave because of the chemicals that would go into the water?" I met a bunch of nice and interesting people at USF who totally would have been my friends if I were still there. I sat in on a few classes and realized what a waste college is. I biked to a community called "eco-farm" (http://directory.ic.org/6309/EcoFarm_Community). Also, I visited Marc in g-ville for a few days. We ate amazing dumpster food and went on a 40mile bike ride. Ah, how I enjoy a bike ride without steep hills. Florida was good. I enjoyed much of my time although I did find myself sitting in front of a computer more than I would have liked and even watched movies. It was nice to spend time with family and friends that I dont see too often.

Now I am in Va. staying at Acorn Community (http://www.acorncommunity.org/). Ive been here in the past and enjoy the people, atmosphere, and business. They sell seeds, and while here I get to work for/with Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (http://www.southernexposure.com/index.html)/ They dont have fancy machines to pack their seeds, so people like me sit around listening to music and weighing every little pack of seeds. Yay seeds! Pretty much my entire garden last year was grown from their seed.

On Wednesday night I went roller skating with some friends; hadn't been to that skating rink since I was in elementary school- total flashback. It was 80's night so we had fun dressing up. Some of the skaters were amazing. It was like a little society I didnt know existed. Dance skating, fast skating, backwards skating; I was in awe.



Today was the big day. That yearly festival of gorging ones body with food. Last year I spent Thanksgiving at Dancing Rabbit and it was the best Thanksgiving I have ever experienced. Today, while spending time with family was the first time since leaving DR that I kind of wanted to be home. Thanksgiving with close friends, all dressed up in our finest, cold winds outside, amazing dishes, perfect. Thanksgiving with family is awkward and buffet style. Eating outside next to a swimming pool, family members I have never met or whose names I dont remember. Lots of cameras, video games, and a television. On the plus side, my family can be pretty funny. Someone this year brought a bunch of fake mustaches, so some of us put them on; lots of laughs.

Down in Florida. Things are going well. Ive been biking almost daily. So far I have gone contra dancing, canoed on the river, played in my old house with some of my old roomates, hooped a lot, spent time at USF, slept on a few different couches, helped out with FNB, and done a lot of dumpster diving. This afternoon I found a freaking rainbow of produce. This is only 1/2 to 2/3 of the fresh stuff that was in there. I am most excited about the avocados, pomegranate, and eggplants.



I have found a new excitement of hooping and spent too much time watching youtube hoop videos today. I checked out a small hardware store to see if they had the plastic irrigation tubing (I want some smaller hoops) but they didnt have it. On my way back to my parents house I kept poking my head behind buildings and into dumpsters expecting to see a bunch of scrap tubing just laying around (I take it for granted that at Dancing Rabbit we have piles of useful stuff laying all over the place) and I was about to give up when I saw a piece of tubing peering out of a trash pile just a quarter of a mile from my parents house. The tubing is a bit thin for hoops, but I will take what I can get- there is a whole spool of it!!!

Our first freeze was the night after I last posted. It was amazing to see how my garden transformed from a lush spectrum of color into a brown droopy array of death. All I am left with of my fresh garden veggies are greens and carrots (these plants can persist through some of winter). I have had many visitors and friends visit in the past two weeks; therefore, I have had some motivation to get more work done. Two awesome women from Acorn Community in VA came out for a few days and helped me make and fill a gravel wall against the north side of Aubergine in preparation for the earth berm. We also created a tire/gravel retention wall on the north-west side which has two water barrels so that next spring I can store some water in the berm. I hosted a woman who is going to school for photo journalism. She followed me around for an entire day taking pictures of everything I did. It was surprisingly fun to have a shadow. She took 900 pictures!!! When she is done sorting them she said she will send me some of the good ones. Another person, whom I met two months ago came up for a few days this past week and helped me transform part of my woodpile into what looks vaguely like the frame of a green house. Yesterday I hosted a grassroots environmentalism class from the local university. Seeing how many people I host here and bring to Dancing Rabbit makes me realize that I really value and need more social interactions in my life.

Winter hath arrived- OK, so maybe its only fall, but in comparison to Florida, its totally winter weather. We are still waiting for the deep freeze which will kill everything in the garden, but it has dropped significantly in temperature in the past two weeks. The fruit is mostly off the trees, peoples wardrobes have changed, and some nights smoke escapes from chimneys. I have put some time into my future green house and into my berm. I keep having speratic bursts of motivation and I start a project, and then it drifts away. My house doesnt stay as warm as I would sometimes like, but the mice seem to think its a nice warm place. I have two no-kill mouse traps and I have now caught a totally of ELEVEN mice in my house! If the mice didnt pee, poop, and eat through bags of food I wouldnt mind them. Now in the morning on a regular basis I have to go for a walk to release the mice. I have sealed up many gaps which I knew existed and that the mice were probably coming in through, but now I am stumped. Where else are they sneaking in through?! Some of them are terribly cute.

I have been feeling burnt out on Dancing Rabbit again. I think I want to just get away and travel again, but at the same time, I dont think its healthy to "run away" from the things that arent making me happy. Guess I will stick it out for a while and head out sometime between mid Nov and mid Dec. Sometimes when I walk into my house I still have moments of thinking "WTF? Is this really my home? Do I really live in a schoolbus? Am I really living out in the middle of nowhere Missouri?" The answer is yes, but it still feels unreal at times.



My stove in full swing! Its not that big of a pain in the butt to make a fire, and its really soothing when its going. Soft crackle sounds and warm light bouncing off the walls at night.



Harvested a bucket of green tomatoes and peppers a few days ago because the weather report keeps threatening that we will get a big freeze.

Ah, FINALLY I have some energy to work on my house again. I was so "done" with is a few months ago. I had accepted that I had no more energy for it and went traveling for a while and even while home didnt really work on my house at all. Last week I started working on a few small, non-crucial things such as mosaics and finished plaster. Looks good, but wont keep me warm this winter. Also, I have been doing TONS of procrastinating. Hanging out with friends, playing with kids, cooking (baked bread 4 times in one week), eating (ugh, I am almost sick of eating), visiting other work sites and helping out there, yada, yada, yada. Anyways, today I finally did a bit of work on my future greenhouse. Last I touched it was almost two months ago when I put the posts into the ground. Today I used the transit to calculate the height of each one so that I can level them (yes, I know I am doing things backwards, but I couldnt figure out how else to do it). I think a big motivator is having someone help me. Puck, who is visiting from Twin Oaks helped me out a bunch. Sawing Osage wood by yourself sucks. Also, need two people to work the transit. After working on my house I helped Ziggy with his house. Gosh, I am never un-impressed with his building.

This past weekend was Dancing Rabbis's Land Day. We had a say of games, stories, songs, fire... Not nearly as big as last year (our 10 year), but was so much simpler- I like simple.

Last week I bottled almost 5 gallons of Tomato wine. For those who have never tried tomato wine, you are missing out. Very tasty. Come visit me and I will share with you.

Someone sent me some pics from the Superhero bike ride, here is a group pic-

I really enjoy when there are group pics yelling, "lets take a silly one" and then seeing how people chose to portray "silly".

Things are starting to cool off here and there are noticeably less hours of daylight. The temperature has gotten down to the 40's some nights. Its still dark when/if I get up for 6am yoga. The sun has fully set before dinner is over. Ah yes, fall and winter; seasons I did not experience back in Florida.

fluffing wool to insulate the roof in early August



putting an osage orange post into the ground for my green house



this is my friend Ziggy's roof! Its a reciprocal roof being supported completely by cob walls. Apparently I am the second person to climb up; ha, and I used to be scared of heights!

It seems like I have been out of town so much recently. I am home again and dont have any plans for travel in the near future. This past adventure was as a super hero. My friend Ethan started Super Hero Bike rides 10+ years ago as a one time thing. He wanted to see if it was possible to get a group of people to ride across the United States dresses up as super heroes with no plan other than doing community service wherever they could find it. The ride was a success and since then there have been rides every year in the states and even five in other countries. My identity was Patch-CO. Patch because I enjoy fixing things both in the sewing realm and the problem solver realm. "CO" because is is a gender neutral word and I didnt want to be "Patch-Girl" or "Patch-Woman" or whatnot. Examples of some of the other super Hero's names are Velvet Revolution, Spot, Atomic Calm, Cosmic Rhythm, The Zing, and Super OK with Himself Guy. I had some tough times on the ride, and even decided to leave the group last Sunday, but I changed my mind and stuck with them a few more days. I came home now because I wanted to re-connect with friends here that I havent seen much lately, work on my house, read, and so on. I biked approximately 150miles in 8 days (longest day was 45ish miles; shortest day was 0miles). I often think of myself as a weak biker, but a few people on the ride told me that they thought I was a strong rider; couldnt argue when I was often one of the first 8 people (out of 23) to get to our location.

Now on to female urination... I sometimes tell women that if they feel uncomfortable peeing outside that I would be happy to give them tips and such. A woman who is currently visiting DR asked if she could take pics of me in "peeing stances" for her blog. While I was out of town she put it together. I think its pretty cute. Also, I really like the things she has to say about me and my house. Yay for fun people visiting DR. http://wanderphilia.blogspot.com/

I have returned from the Desert. Burning Man was OK. There were definitely some interesting, fun, awesome things going on, but there was also a lot of waste and things that made me unhappy. I met some amazing people and rekindled some friendships with people I haddnt seen in 6-18months. There were horrible dust storms, but the reminded me of nature. There was a lot of partying going on and I found a scene that made me mostly happy. I posted some pics on facebook; heres the link-
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2251037&l=8517c&id=5000384

Before returning home I made a stop in Colorado with a friend. I stayed with some friends from Florida and also go to see some family that usually lives in Israel. Boulder is a really nice place. I dont typically like cities but I enjoyed this one.

Now I am home for a week. I dont want to do anything on my BIG to-do list. I am enjoying being home. Good people. My garden is starting to tinker out. My house is still the same as it was. It is fun helping one of my younger friends study who started 8th grade recently. Makes me feel like a big sister or mentor. Been helping out my friends here in order to not do my own work. My body is craving crappy processed food. Ugh. I am leaving town on Monday to train to be a super hero! Today I began to make my costume. I will be away for 1-4 weeks riding my bike with a group of other fabulous people dressed in fun costumes. We will ride to towns and offer our services and try to help whoever we can find. Its starting to get cool here. Had to add another blanket to my bed.

Ok, so I should be leaving any time for Burning Man (should have left yesterday but the person who is giving me a ride had some vehicle problems). I will be away till at least the 3rd of September, so dont worry if you dont hear from me for a while. I am all packed. I have a bag with fun clothing/costumes. I box filled with food including bread and granola I baked. My bike is decorated with pink ribbons. Jeff cleaned out a bunch of 5-15 gallon containers for storing water. I think I am prepared.

Originally my goal for my house was to finish the interior (insulation and drywall), the roof, the greenhouse and the berm before winter, an then if I had additional time I would build by porch. I found that I became a bit stressed out and unhappy because I was always in work-mode and didnt have time to relax, hang out with friends, read a book and so on. Last month I changed my plan to "get the interior finished and the roof insulated and finished and then anything else that gets built this year is considered bonus." I have now practically met my goal!!! My roof is on and insulated. There are just a few more small ti-bits to complete it. Also, I have my nine posts for the greenhouse sunk into the ground already, so I am pretty happy. I dont feel stressed out and I feel good about taking time away for Burning Man this month and the Super Hero Bikeride next month.

I am so happy that I am in a good place right now.

If you have any ideas for what I should do during winter this year let me know. I can currently see myself traveling either the east coast or west coast. Also, there is the possibility of traveling internationally this year. Last night I applied to lead an Outdoor Adventure trip in Israel, but as long as my options are open, I am interested in hearing suggestions.

Also, as a bonus (because I havent uploaded any pics this week) here is a pic form when Joanna and I cut a hole in the schoolbus roof before installing the chimney and the metal roofing.

This week has been great! As far as my house goes- I got my fasscia and soffitts finished. I cobed in the west gable. I began to insulate. I marked out where the posts for the greenhouse will be and have 8 out of the 9 holes dug (each 2ft deep) and have even began to install the posts. I harvested more posts and skinned them. My stove arrived this week. Things are feeling very homey.



My friends who sell produce here are having a not so great season and I am overloaded with tomatoes right now. I let one of the food co-ops know that I had extra tomatoes to sell if they were interested and that evening they bought 14.5lbs of tomatoes from me! I hope to can some of of my own tomatoes this year, but I dont have the time to do much, so I am happy that others will be canning food I grow and will be able to enjoy it this winter. A few weeks ago I made a chutney with Black Berries and Peaches and canned it. Yum!



Also- in other BIG news... yesterday a friend invited me to go to Burning Man with him and I said yes! I am a bit nervious that I will be dissaponted in the amount of waste, but I hear so many good things. Also, over a year ago, a few of my friends talked about going to Burning Man this year and even though it isnt happening with that gro up of friends, maybe it was meant to be.

Earlier today when I was cutting down a really big branch I had an unexpected experience. There I was, in the middle of the woods, sawing through an Osage Orange tree (known for extremely hard wood that is said to last 100 years) and I stopped to listen. At this point I had over 2/3 of the branch cut through (and when I say "branch" it was at least 20ft long). As I listened to the sounds of wild life and the soft cracks of the branch slowly moving from its own weight I got extremely sad and began to cry (not just a few tears, but a fully on cry). I dont typically think of myself as a "woo-woo" sort of person, but I experienced some intense emotions over this tree.

Updated pics since just a few days ago...


This is the front view of Aubergine currently. The roofing metal is all on and my stove pipe is installed (it took almost two months to get all the pieces I needed because they were on back order). Also, I have cobed in the west facing wall and windows. The next pic is the inside view of the wall. The cob acts as a thermal mass and will hopefully help me to control the temperature both in winter and summer. The bottles are there for light and decoration. The less transparent circles in the walls are pickle jars where I can now store random tid-bits. In the future I may apply a finished plaster so that the wall is nice and smooth.



Forgot to mention in my last post all the amazing fruit I have been eating. Started the season with strawberries followed by mulberries and raspberries. Now blackberries and peaches are in season. SOOOO many yummy peaches. Ive never had this much truly fresh fruit. It sometimes reminds me of dumpster diving for the mere fact that there is such an abundance and if I (or someone else) doesnt eat it then it is wasted although here it will go back into the earth and be eaten by many different kinds of insects and animals).

Still have to finish the soffets, gables, and insulation of the roof. Then have to figure out what to do about the berm and green house.

PS- still cant comprehend the fact that I live in am old school bus or that I am a "homeowner." But it is fun to look back at the pics from January and compare what I had then and what I have now.

Ah, recently I have been much happier than in past months. I am still working on my house, but taking more time to have "me" time and to help friends with their projects. Also, friends have been visiting me which is great fun. I have stomped several batches of cob recently both for my project and for friends houses/buildings. It has been raining a LOT. We had three inches of rainfall in one hour today. And on Sunday there were crazy storms which had winds of over 60mph. So far, Aubergine has help up to the weather just fine.


Yummy home grown salad with edible tasty flowers.



My friend Marc who visited from Florida. There was a crazy storm that night and you can see the darkness in the sky behind us.



My friend Joanna (visiting me from DC area) and I cobbing in the windshield with bottles.

Yesterday was my one year anniversary of moving to Dancing Rabbit. Wow, one whole year. In one year I have learned many things about building, gardening, communication, kids, dealing with stress, and sharing emotions. I now have my own house and garden. I am part of a functioning community.

In celebration of my anniversary I had a house naming party. Many of my friends and neighbors came out and we brainstormed names and ended up with a huge list. Since its my house I vetoed the names I was not willing to call my house, and then we had a few rounds of voting. The final names to chose from were "Pocket Place" "Pocket Palace" (one of my nicknames here is "Pockets") and "Aubergine" (French word for Eggplant). We took out "Pocket Palace" for the final vote and the two remaining names each received eleven votes (four of us stood aside). We asked Ewan a child who turned 6years old last week which one he liked more and he chose "Aubergine!" So, now my home has a name. No longer to be called "the Bus." Woo-hoo!

Well, here they are; many updated pics of my house and garden. The pics may look out of order a bit, but I actually usually have interior, exterior, and garden projects all going on at the same time. If you want to get a better view click on the pics and they will enlarge.

I have been getting a bit burned out, but the past week I was in Michigan to celebrate one of my cousins bat mitzvahs and then traveled around Chicago with a different cousin for a few days. I originally was not looking forward to returning to Dancing Rabbit and my projects, but after being in the suburb and city I was quite happy to return to the quietness of my home. Yesterday and today I played in my garden and worked on painting the south wall and ceiling of the bus. Its good to be physically working again and eating my organic home grown salads.


Me washing wool with Borax. I used wool that I got from a local farmer for my insulation. Borax is a cleaning powder that is environmentally friendly and is supposed to discourage moths from living in the wool. I only washed a few batches of wool because it tood days to dry. For most of the insulation I just sprinkled the borax powder into the wool before fluffing it.



My North wall with wool before drywall went up.



The North wall with drywall.



Me adding more purlins to the rood before installing the roofing metal. My dad is in the pic too. My parents and Avi were here for a week to help out.



Installing the Burgundy roofing metal!



My "couch" with a finished wall behind it. Actually, its not quite finished because I have plans to outline the purple stripes with dark purple, but that will be in the future.



This is about 1/2 of my garden. I also have two fully beds of tomatoes, a bed of summer squash, and four fruit trees in the garden not showed in the above pic.

Da-roof; da-roof; da-roof is on da-bus!!! right now its just the frame. Mostly because I havent decided on what color roof I want. If you have ideas as to which color let me know! http://www.klauer.com/colorchart.html



The South side wall is complete with wool insulation, dry wall, and even a window sill!



Fresh salad from my garden- YUMMY!!!