We are just two odd individuals trying to become minimalist farmers. This project is dedicated to our Spiritual Master His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
I feel as though it's been ages since my last post and my excuse it that it's finally spring. We are very busy on Govindas Farm. We are milking cows,training calves,making butter,planting gardens and getting ready for our daughter Sitas' wedding in British Columbia.
Of course neither Gaura Nitai or myself had a thing to wear to such a formal occasion so I have been searching high and low for proper attire that fits our no budget...budget for the '50 inspired theme wedding. I did find all that I require and I will post pictures of the wedding that is happening next week.
Someone asked me how do we make butter from the four gallons of milk we get everyday so my creative side kicked in and I also had this song stuck in my head. I heard that to get a song out of the loop you just have to listen to it so I decided to just make a video and include the song. Hope that you enjoy this bit of fluff. We had fun making it.
When I was a teenager I was every mothers worst nightmare. For instance, this one time I was at a party with friends and stupidly mixed alcohol and over the counter headache medication. This was not a good idea because this landed me in the hospital for a good week or two. The experience was horrible and of course the Doctor was less than sympathetic.
On one hand it was me hitting bottom and it was a wake-up call. I was a mess and I decided that I did not want to continue on this path. I stopped drinking, smoking and I became a sort-of vegetarian. I did not know much about health and no one in my family knew much either so I decided to travel to find God,health,purpose and just generally a better way of life. I hitchhiked West to Vancouver B.C.from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
I met my husband in Gastown and he was a vegetarian. I think that he felt sorry for me because I was such a skinny little thing and he just wanted to feed me:) Our health bible back then was Back To Eden by Jethro Kloss and although our original copy self destructed many moons ago we always replace it. Here is the latest edition.
Even though I've tried to eat only organic food I still did not fully comprehend the importance of proper nutrition until I took care of a sick cow. Just by changing the cows diet to include some muscle building nutrients she recovered very quickly.
I really like this video by 91 year old Charlotte Gerson. She is such an inspiration to get healthy. Charlotte recommends us to stay away from Doctors and hospitals as much as possible. If we want to live a simple life we require our health and on my quest to better health and clear thinking I've noticed that the dandelions are big enough to pick so I will be juicing up handfuls to add to our carrot juice.
Every day we are learning by doing. This morning my lesson was to not put my finger into the calf's mouth and pretend that I was a teat by wiggling my finger around. I was trying to encourage Nimai to suck on the bottle. We had to take the two calves off of their mother Saci because their teeth are so sharp that while suckling they had severely injured three of her four teats.
We also had no idea how to train the little steers but we tried anyways. Fortunately Michele Moses came along and with her years of horse training she was able to help us along by teaching us how to be firm but loving with the teams.
Gord built a light weight yoke out of PVC pipe. It did the job for the babies but we will have to get proper equipment when they get a little older.
Gord and Michele even managed to harness the two year old steer. That was quite funny...not for them..but for myself:) You can just imagine what it feels like to have a pair of horns just inches away from your behind as you are walking an untrained huge animal around the ring. He doesn't have to listen to you. He is just hoping to get a carrot at the end of his humiliating experience.
Here is a little video of our attempt to teach the babies to walk with the yoke.
