namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

Here is a picture of hay in New Vrindaban’s winter barn.

Here is a  painting about hay from the 16th century.

We have completed installing the posts for the 8 foot (2.44 m) deer fence. There were many blocks thrown in our path, each one more frustrating than the next, but eventually we finished.

The first was that the post hole digger I bought more than 30 years ago when I was in charge of the farming at New Vrindaban was worn out and unusable. Ranaka lent us a tractor but it took Gopesh, a professional welder,  most of two days to get it functioning again.

Yesterday we had the fire in the cook stove going as it never got above 40 degrees (4.5 C) and was cloudy.  We usually try to make it to the end of October without lighting a fire but the last two weeks of the month were below average temperatures everyday and cloudy so we did have fires the two days there were snow flurries, I think the 28th and 29th. Almost made it. The cookstove is sufficient to heat the house until it gets really cold.

by Elisa Wood

Unlikely as it may seem, a billionaire oilman and the ‘Lone Star State’ of Texas are driving wind to new heights of acceptance and growth in the United States, as the country becomes the top nation for wind power production for the first time. Elisa Wood reports.

“When my body will be thrown into the pit at the cremation grounds, it will simply lie there motionless. Then many crows, vultures, ants, and worms will come and playfully sport there. “

Srila Saccidananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura, The Desire Tree of Auspiciousness, Second Branch, Part 2, Song 4, Verse 10

I have been working the last week on getting a deer fence up. Many misadventures and frustrations which I may detail more later.

Wouldn’t it be nice if New Vrindaban and places like Vrindaban and Mayapur in India could follow this example:

From the Catholic News

As Pope Benedict again called on young people to defend nature from a “correct ecological perspective”, the first solar panels have been installed on the Paul VI auditorium at the Vatican.

The cows have been moved from their summer pasture at Bahulaban to the winter barn and are now enjoying free feeding access to the hay that Ranaka, Ray, and Moses put up during the summer.

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Solar power plants and other renewable energy sources are real, competitive threats that neither the coal industry nor the state’s political and academic leaders should dismiss, a consultant warned Wednesday at the second West Virginia Coal Forum.

Excerpted from the New Yorker, check out the whole article here.

Is the world’s food system collapsing?
by Bee Wilson

“The World Bank recently announced that thirty-three countries are confronting food crises, as the prices of various staples have soared. From January to April of this year, the cost of rice on the international market went up a hundred and forty-one per cent…

I have been working on getting a critter resistant fence up around about a 1/4 of an acre (1000 square meters) of garden. I have taken down the electric fence that previously surrounded it and have only some rugs and chicken wire skirting (a fruitless attempt to keep groundhogs from going under the electric fence) to pull out from the entangling weeds and grasses to be done with that.

That whitishness you see on these tomato leaves is the first killing frost of the year laying its cruel hand on our plants, the cruel hand of death.

Jury duty took 4 days, 3 and a half really, but is over.  I got home yesterday in time to finish up my rye seeding project before the overnight rain.

Tapahpunjah had come with the tractor tiller and done the main part of the two gardens I am trying to get fenced in this fall in order to plant next spring. While I can’t be sure I will have the energy to get them both planted, I have to be optimistic and the fact I have the energy to seed rye on them this fall is a good omen.  The next stage will be putting up a critter resistant fence.

“By nature, Srimati Radharani is just like a creeper of love of Godhead, and the gopis are the twigs, flowers and leaves of that creeper.”

Madhya 8.209

While agriculture no longer fills my days nor spills into the nights,  I still do some token things. My daily routine includes checking the fig tree to see if any are ripe,  picking up walnuts and now dehulling black walnuts.

For those who are actually following this issue and want to study it rather than simply react emotionally or from a purely financial perspective, check this out:

Kevin Lewis’s article on (non-hysterical) environmental hazards of gas drilling

From Australia:

RSPCA radicals push for vegan world
By David Nankervis
September 28, 2008 02:30am

A RADICAL push has been staged within the RSPCA to endorse vegan diets as the best way to prevent cruelty to farmed animals.

One of the supporters of the push has been elected to the board of the RSPCA SA branch and will stand for the presidency.

Electric dryers use five to ten percent of residential electricity in the United States!
(Learn more…)

For those concerned about the environment, or anyone else for that fact, voting for environmentally aware candidates can make a difference.

To vote, you need to register if you aren’t already.

Deadlines for registering:

West Virginia — October 14

Ohio — October 6

Pennsylvania — October 6

The latest topic stirring up discussion in New Vrindaban is the idea of leasing the gas rights.

See here for a taste of the NV community discussion and here for some idea of the discussion in the broader community.

I read this and liked it so passing it along. I tried to email the author about getting permission for the blog to be included on Planet ISKCON but the contact email address isn’t working.

From: http://backtofarm.blogspot.com/:

Simple Living in Rural India

By Caitanya dasa brahmacari