Hey there!

This is who we are and what is important to us. We are open and honest people, we respect each other and nature around us. The shortest version of our values is "The Golden Rule".

As we hop onto this train to get to know you, we are looking forward to learning who you are as well, what is important to you, how you want to live your life.

Who We Are

We are currently Dave and Dani, living in the main house, Debby living in a cabin, Jeff living on the other side of the property, and our solar business resident living downstairs in the office space of the main house.

I, Dave, have been a solar energy professional for the last 22 years, designing and selling systems and had a retail solar store component for about 16 years, some of which still is in operation across the US. I was regarded for many years as a "Serial Entrepreneur" and have launched many businesses and non-profits since living in Vermont. My family is in CT and we do not see them all that much these days, although we are all on good terms, just getting older and some of them no longer drive. I am the youngest along with my twin brother.

Dani is a gardener, homemaker, help mate and artist. She spent many years in the insurance business and helps us navigate those aspects when we need to make claims or follow up on those kinds of services. Dani's family is mostly dispersed through the South and in France, where she was born.

Debby was for many years in the legal profession as a paralegal and we count o her skills when we need to enter into those kids of areas. Debby has a great connection with her family, all younger than her, and they visit frequently - they too are in CT.

Jeff is like a "MacGyer", an ultra handyman. He spent many years at sea, on luxury yachts as a chief engineer, and seems as if he can fix anything. He seems capable of meeting any challenge when it comes to reserach and repair or construction. He can master most tools including heavy equipment and likes a challenge. We have worked together installing solar, large and small, but he caught Covid while getting his rotator cuff operated on and that has developed into "Long Covid" so he is badly diminished as to his ability to work more than a few hours a day.

Our Mission

The Rah Rah's Community Mission is to help our members meet the basic needs of life, promote respect, share values, and support talents that prove beneficial while focusing on The Golden Rule as a foundation for a prosperous and healthy community.

How It All Began

“There has to be a better life than this” I thought as I sat stuck in bumper to bumper on “Die 95 “ in Bridgeport, Ct somewhere about 1988- Spending an hour plus each way, five days a week, coming & going to a job that didn’t feel even worth anyone’s doing. “If I was swallowed up here, no one would ever know I had lived- what’s the point?” I mused. I was a child of the late 60’s & 70’s- I had heard the protest songs, Jefferson Starship’s “Blows against the Empire,” John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” and “Imagine” and the other hippy voices of those days. I had been inspired by the “United Earth” message of Gene Rodenberry’s Star Trek. I wanted to be free. I wanted to live a real life. Instead of just existing, barely making enough to keep me on the hamster wheel until I passed. I thought back to something I had read-years before-something that made immediate sense when I read it. It was John Shuttleworth’s 10th Year anniversary address for The Mother Earth News. He wrote: “I was simply lucky enough to grow up in a time and a place where people really and truly did still live the Jeffersonian ideals upon which this Nation was founded. It was a time and place where people still controlled their food supplies and their housing and their transportation and their work and their entertainment and all the other aspects of their lives on a very personal basis. It was a good way to live.” “Yeah” I thought, “That’s what I want”.

I had read the early Mother’s in the late 70’s and was inspired –but something had changed about it in the early 80’s and I had changed-we had all changed. We were buying into the big lie and becoming Yuppified. It was the “go-go 80’s” and I felt like I was sleep walking. Something was missing in life. Maybe the answer was in those old back issues. Digging thru them again, I was reintroduced to Scott & Helen Nearing and all the cool people doing things…worth doing….living lives worth living…but where had they all gone? Scott Nearing was dead. The Eco Village was closed. Had I lost my chance? Was it too late to reach out again? And then I found them-what a wonderful surprise. I found where the heart of them had gone. They had gone Back Home.

Reaching intent & conviction

Armed with my old Mothers and my new BackHomes, I felt on a mission. It wasn’t just me that felt the thirst for a “Better Life”- It was almost everyone I talked to. Everyone seemed to feel at odds with the way things were set up- as though we were not getting the best from life. It was my new Girlfriend Dani too, and with little convincing, we decided to embark on our version of “The Good Life”.

We devoured the words of the Nearings, Louise Dickerson Rich, Thoreau, even Richard Adams, author of Watership Down. Like the wondering rabbit tribe, we yearned for a new place and a way to live. We even began to call each other” Rah”, like they honored the hero rabbit, Hazel, so we would honor each other. We decided we would leave the lives we had found so unsatisfying and strike out on our own in a Vermont forest that would become our homestead. In 1991 We began a search for our land, as we designed our dream home. We studied the Real Goods Solar Living Sourcebook, and Reader’s Digest’s “Back to Basics”. We slaved and saved and worked four jobs between us. At last it felt worthwhile! Now we could pour ourselves into something. We had our escape planned! We bought our land and paid up front. The X’s went up daily on our calendars, like prisoners marking time. As we saved for our log home, we put a $300 trailer as our first camp and started to get to know our land. We put our first Solar PV system on the trailer- a simple charge controller, a 40 watt module and a RV battery-and it worked perfectly for our small needs .I bought a used Back hoe, learned how to repair and run it and did as much Earth moving as I could, selling it for the same price it had cost me when I was done. We planned and installed a modest PV system in the house, learning to live on 1 kWh a day. In order to sanctify our plan in spirit, we made a pilgrimage to meet Helen Nearing in 1993. We just wanted to thank her and to tell her that in our way, we hoped to carry on what she and Scott had begun. We married shortly after meeting Helen. All in all it took us nine years to make the break and start our new lives. I don’t want to minimize the effort it took, but I also do not wish to remember every difficult detail, every ache and setback. Much like a Mother will forget the painful aspects of giving birth, we naturally choose to dismiss the work and remember the joy. Was it tough? Oh yes. Was it worth it? It is as worth it as Freedom and life itself, for that is indeed what we were living and killing ourselves for.

In The year 2000, on my 45th birthday, we landed on our knees, under an apple tree, on our Rah Rah land facing the setting Sun. We were free. We were grateful. We had done it! Now what? As we held hands in the soft grass, and kissed the ground, so very thankful…we promised to give back. To give back to all the spirits, living and dead, that had made this moment possible.