One Year Living Off-the-Grid at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage
Hi. I’m Brian, a new writer here at Planetsave. For the past eighteen months, I have been living off-the-grid at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, a rural intentional community located in northeastern Missouri.
Dancing Rabbit is a community composed of 45 individuals dedicated to sustainable living and creating cultural change. Renewable energy from solar panels and wind turbines powers the entire village, which is made up of natural buildings constructed using earthen (such as straw bale and cob) and reclaimed materials. All drinking and cleaning water is collected using rain catchment systems, and three biodiesel-fueled vehicles provide the entire group with transportation needs. Much of our food is grown in our organic gardens.
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It is from this unique perspective of living in an ecovillage that I hope to share with you dear readers the experience of living sustainably. Having been here for nearly 18 months, I am fully settled into this off-the-grid lifestyle. I’m even now busy building my very own cob house. Things you might find me talking about are natural building, sustainability in daily life, local foods, community, and a myriad of related topics.
Thanks for having me and look forward to more musings from off-the-grid!
(Image credit: pjchmiel at flickr)
Hi,
We are a family of four looking to settle off the grid. I am thinking that being part of a community would suit us. Does anyone know of any communities (now or soon to be) in New England? Thanks so much.
Peace
The Laurie Family
Hi there,
I am also interested in a cob house, off-the-grid community. Florida might be great. I live in Sedona but have recently been staying in nearby Clarkdale in solar house. Need water and warmth so time to leave desert. Please keep me posted on Florida.
Back in 1989 I paid $800 for two 50 watt panels and a charge controller that…well lets just say they don’t make them anymore! Now we are up to 450 watts and about to do a huge revamp, adding three new buildings and a lot more solar panels, wind and maybe even geo thermal if we have enough cash left over!
“The important thing is to take the first small step” then we can work out the next one, but tomorrow if everyone that saw this changed one light bulb!
the world would be 132 watts greener!
[...] an environmentally sustainable lifestyle at their core. Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, which is now my own home, is a community striving to demonstrate a more ecological lifestyle through things like the use of [...]
are you allowed to have children? i am 31 years old and have a 6 yr. son. I have always wanted to do this but thought it would be too difficult independently with a child. an ecocommunity may be what im looking for. Please Respond!!!
Hey want to live off grid? buy my home and solar isntallation on 10 ACRES only 90 min from downtown LA.
Hello to all. I am retireing soon (2 years) and am looking for “off the grid community” in the mid-atlantic, or SE. I you know of anything where an old geezer would fit in let me know.
[...] you live in an eco village or other form of intentional community, you’re probably curious about the lifestyle. [...]
Hello,
I would like to know if there are any off the grid communities in North Carolina and Illinois. I am interested in researching them to see if living in such a community will work for me. One of my thoughts is I would like to live in a community, believing it takes a village to raise a child. Not being the best at internet research, I haven’t had success in my search. Thank you for your feedback.
Ruth
I would like to build a self sustaining solar powered grid so that I can watch TV heat my house and cool ot , heat my water, and do clothes , wash dry and cook all using solar power… I am a student and want to know all that there is to know I am a human sponge .. I want to spead my discoveries to mainstream american culture and get this thig jumpstarted in MAIN Stream Culture making students aware of this free energy that is available to us NOW so we can work on ways to improve the existing forms of free solsr energy at our finger tips I know BIG Business wants to STOP US but We NEED To FIGHT For The Righjt To PARTY FOR Free using the sun… Harness the massive solar energy that comes to earth every day from the sky and it can and is being don NOW IT IS TIME FOR ALL OF US TO Hold Hands and get this out into MAINSTREAM POPULAR CULTURE !!! pLEASE hELP uS ( jUSTIN & cANDACE ) tO BECOME FREE FROM THE ELECTRICAL tITtY !! if there are any grants available that you may know of that I can appply for also after watching your little show about a year 30 days offf the grid w/ vito and the other guest i want to make my home a self sustaining household and reduce my carbon footprint to ZERO is it legal in Memphis tn, can I get any grant money I am a stdent living on low income I will scrap aluminum cands and copper wire if I have to i am very inspired and deicated to making this happen CAN YOU HELP ME — Any advice that you can supply will be graetly appreciated How Much Solar energy must I produce to make my house a self contained unit Off of the GRIS and is it economically feasible for me to do this in stages I would like some help starting this project means alot to me my girlfriend was a st jude patient she had brain cancer and i want to do this for us so we can makle a better world for future generations by setting examples that they can follow PLEASE send any info that may be helpful like what is the most economical means to start out and where can I aquire what I will need for rock bottom prices … do you build your own panels or should I spend money for premade panels which way will be the best and … what can I expect to power how much energy must I produce to make my whole house self sufficiant, The wATER HEATER, FRIDGE, MY tv cOMPUTER WASHER dRYER … CAN i GET APPLIANCES THAT WILL WORK BETTER WITH THIS TECHNOLOGY AND SAVE ME MONEY ON HEATING & cOOLING MY hOUSE i AM VERY INTERESTED IN DOING THIS AND DANCING RABBIT INSPIRED ME can you help me //???? e-MAIL me at sandwbros@bellsouth.net I would be so Happy if you can help me achieve my goal without making the cost economically non feasable … there must be help out there as far as government grants and such and people that are willing to help please help me network as you have already made the steps in the right direction can you give me some aims and goals !! Much Appreciated Justin & Candace WE WANT TO BE OFF The GRID Self Sufficfient but in a cost effective way !! Thank You !!! please i AM GRASPING AT STRAWS HERE AND WANT TO BE ABLE TO HOLD SOMEHING IN MY HAND THAT SAYS yes I CAN DO THIS !!! PLEASE Help Me A dedicated Student .. Willing to devote my education for renewable solar panels that are cost effective !!! Any Recent breakthroughs … How do you get funding for a project such as this from my community or federal Government I want to start a Home Based Solar Powere Business helping others achieve their goals of electical freedom but first I have to do it for myself so I am not completely full of shit and know nothing about what is invoved … we can make this technology BOOM if we just work together Hand in Hand to escalate the curnet technolgy to a affordable price for everyone !!!! Please any ideaws on what my 1st step should be and how much $$ I will need as a start up base to at least get something going on at my home would be graetly apreciated … DESPERATE Dedicated Interested … Intelligent Justin Schweiger I await a response from Dancing Rabbit .. PS are you the guy w/ the FRO I wish I could remeber your ]name you are such a god person God Bless Please help Me & Candace Thank You