Are you living simply?

[Guest guest]

Hari Krishna

It has been my experience that the people who speak with such wistful

longing for a simpler existence have never had to experience the brutal

reality of it. One of my best friends is an 84 year old red Indian woman.

She heard me lamenting about life being so complicated now days. She snorted

with derision, ha you white people are never happy with your life always

looking for "simpler " ways. For your information The "good old days " were

terrible old days. The streets of most cites were mud all winter, the

streets smelled of dung and coal and filth. My little brothers died of

terrible diseases that are now curable for under five dollars a shot. My

mother died of consumption (tubercles) coughing up blood. We shivered all

winter and sweated all summer. We worked long and hard just to have enough

food to develop malnutrition from our efforts. You want to go back to that?

You guys are full of self righteous hog wash. Grab the good and keep it

close. Ignore or fight the evil and bad stuff. Deal with what can't be

changed and be done with it for Gods sake! Pretty wise old lady huh! I agree

if there is a PV system I can afford why not use it. I never did see any

advantage to lifting when I can get a pulley or a fork lift to do it for me.

I think we get into this scripture slinging mode and think that is the only

way to go. Prepare for the worst pray for the best. I applaud every attempt

to live simply. But while I really could live off the land eating berries

and drinking out of rain water puddles, I don't. I like a cozy warm bed I

like printed books (as opposed to hand written) I like electricity and solar

panels and air line travel and banana splits and Ice cream and all the

wonderful comforts of modern life. Like Radhe Krishna says the simple life

may be carrots from the grocery store. The simple life should be in your

heart. Do what you can and what you must but not what "THEY SAY YOU SHOULD!"

If you circumstances are such that a flowerpot in the window is all you

can manage then by all means do it. And have the best darn flowers that

there have ever been, growing in that one flower pot! Life and circumstances

shape our life's but we control the direction and the actions. Blossom where

you are planted and make the world richer for your existence.

[Guest guest]

> I have lived

> for months in Tipis in the UK (surprise!). On days with no wind the smoke

> just hangs in the lodge, and the rain falls right in through the smoke

> flaps. It is damp, your eyes sting, you cough etc...etc.

 

You needed a tipi guru. i know people who have lived very comfortably in

tipis, but it is a more complicated art form of life, knowing how to

manipulate the smoke flaps, inner liner etc.

 

I remember one Deity kitchen in New Vrindaban that has terrible to work in

because of the smoke in the woodcookstoves. To this day, they still cook with

gas, thanks to that experience, but when I got my wood cookstove, and

studied

the correct installation, I could immediately see what the problem and been,

and that it was correctable.

 

>

> Prabhupada says that a balanced varnasrama system is what we need. The

> injuns were like an abandoned tribe of ksatria warriors. I have heard that

> some tribes did cultivate grain. I wonder if they were in a better postion

> than the buffalo hunters?

>

> Your Servant

> Samba das

 

Actually, the farmer indians got wiped out easier. The nomadic vision we have

is of the tribes who were able to survive through mobility and hunting. The

tipi was the summer home , the RV, of the tribes who wintered in the forests,

and who were driven out onto the plains as "civilization" spread.

[Guest guest]

>

>

> Better to eat raw tomatoes? Better to send your wife to the temple to bring

> back some Maha prasad! ;-) What's the final conclusion of this progression?

 

Better to send your wife to the temple to trade some tomatoes for burfy?

[Guest guest]

>Better to send your wife to the temple to trade some tomatoes for burfy?

 

Send the wife? All unprotected? How un-vedic! Why not leave the

wife at home, well taken care of, and have the husband go and get the

burfy? Or of course, you could also send her there carried on a

pallequin. The possibilities are limitless.

 

Ys,

Madhusudani dasi

[Guest guest]

"COM: Madhusudani Radha (dd) JPS (Mill Valley - USA)" wrote:

 

> [Text 2836175 from COM]

>

> >Better to send your wife to the temple to trade some tomatoes for burfy?

>

> Send the wife? All unprotected? How un-vedic! Why not leave the

> wife at home, well taken care of, and have the husband go and get the

> burfy? Or of course, you could also send her there carried on a

> pallequin. The possibilities are limitless.

>

> Ys,

> Madhusudani dasi

 

Naturally, the 25% of produce I pay to local land trustee will be paying for

safe roads. Other problem, uncontrolled tongue of husband may be unsafe for

burfy on way home.

[Guest guest]

> You needed a tipi guru. i know people who have lived very comfortably in

> tipis, but it is a more complicated art form of life, knowing how to

> manipulate the smoke flaps, inner liner etc.

 

Can you reccomend anyone? (nah, only kidding). Actualy it did cross my mind

to build one right now, as I need to move onto our land as soon as possible,

we have already had one theft up there (it was only a small plastic bin,

they emptied the rotting veggie scraps and made off with the bin, but that

was all there was anyway). But there is no way a tipi would survive a

cyclone. Actualy the problem I had with the smoke was more to do with damp

wood. I remember at other times with a good blaze going, and a canopy (I

forget the name) stretched between the anchor rope and down behind the

lining, it was really pleasant. Fantastic dwellings tipis. I was trying to

figure out why the Indians had such a short lifespan (whitemen with rifles

not withstanding). Really its true if someone needs to move into the great

outdoors in a hurry, with a minimum of cost, but a maximum of comfort, a

tipi is a really good choice.

 

I might make what they call a 'bender' in Ireland, which might be similar to

a wikkiup in Red Indian lore. Its basicly a dome or tunnel like structure

made from willow or hazel or other flexible saplings, of about 15 to 20 feet

long, which are stuck into the ground, and wrapped around each other to

creat a kind of skeletal form (you can make a sweat lodge in the same way,

but smaller). Lay a tarpaulin over it, and install a small stove made from a

'can' or milk churn or something, and you have an instant cosy home. I used

to drape a carpet or fabric 'hanging' over the poles before putting the

canvas, to provide some colourful 'wallpaper'. These structures are much

more stable than a tipi, smokeflaps would be useless in a cyclone, and would

have to be closed. The main drawback with a bender is that it looks like a

huge ugly slug, compared to the elegance of a well made lodge, but beauty

isn't everything! I am still trying to find an old bus which would be the

easiest solution for now. Lets see.

 

> I remember one Deity kitchen in New Vrindaban that has terrible to work

> in because of the smoke in the woodcookstoves. To this day, they still

> cook with gas, thanks to that experience, but when I got my wood

> cookstove, and studied the correct installation, I could immediately see

> what the problem and been, and that it was correctable.

 

Yes a vent pipe from outside near the air feed of the stove can be good, and

also to make sure that the chimney or flue is long enough. We had a lot of

stoves in Ireland.

 

YS

[Guest guest]

Haribol prabhus,

PAMHO AGTSP

 

Being off line for a while and there's a whole pletra of stuff to catch up

on. Seen the mention of 'benders' and stoves. Thought you might like to know

about the gas cyclinder type which Aniruddha made for us last year. Actually

a few devotees made them. We had single 'Calor' yellow, and double ones

which had ovens in them. Very simple to do, one day's work with a welder if

you've got a cyclinder. The rounded top is cut out for a door. The 'stove'

lies horizontally and then you make two 'pin flap' hinges for the door. He

mounted ours on feet, and at the time we were in a mobile. There's great

heat from them. Also Bh. John used one of the larger red cylinders and put a

small one in the middle of it, and made an oven model. We ran flue pipes

from the back of them vertically, and ours had a steel flat plate welded on

top which you could put a pot on. So you can heat water or do some cooking

on it as well. I suppose anything like a gas cylinder would work, and I

suppose in a 'bender' situation, even a mini-stove could be made by using a

smaller cylinder. The reason the gas bottles are good is because they're

readily available here and very heavy construction therefore durable. We're

in our cottage now, but we use the stove in the mobile still when Gaura

comes home to visit. He just returned briefly before the marathon having

spent a 'year in the sun' being only in Europe for the good summer weather

and the rest of the time in India and Africa respectively. He found that it

was great as it was his only source of heat in there. So I'm supposing that

you might have access to them since they're all over India as well.

ys

[Guest guest]

> Haribol prabhus,

> PAMHO AGTSP

>

> Being off line for a while and there's a whole pletra of stuff to catch up

> on. Seen the mention of 'benders' and stoves. Thought you might like to

> know about the gas cyclinder type which Aniruddha made for us last year.

 

Wow, great idea, gas cylinder stoves, excellent. I got the gist of the

design, is there anyway you could get a photo of one, and scan it into a

computer, so we can get some technical tips first hand?

 

It would be especially helpful to show the welder, as people often grasp

things a lot quicker with a picture.

 

The flat plate you welded on, was it just welded on top of the curved

cylinder side, or was the cylinder wall cut away, and then replaced by a

flat plate?

 

Did anyone make a back boiler in one?

 

Thanks a lot for sharing that.

 

YS Samba das