GLORY BEE!

Have you ever savored a smidgen of fresh raw scrumptious  honey?  You have not lived until you do. It is as it sounds....divine! With the question asked, I will now unfold to your understanding the marvelous excursion we made to the "local" bee farm only a couple hours away.  We were all excited and if I may say a bit nervous.  Being in close proximity with swarms of bees did not seem to be the most relaxing of activities.  However, with high hopes and and of course a little wad of cash we made our way to the M.V.T. Bee Farm.

We pulled up and met the head hancho, who was knowledgable and friendly.  Since, he did not know English it was good we had Mani and another FFC staff with us who could translate.  He led us to his hives and as we went I was looking at something else when all of a sudden there I was, shoulder to shoulder with a hive, looking down at the opening, teeming with Italian honey bees.  Surprisingly, it did not bother me in the least, and I could tell that Katie and the others were at ease as well. In fact there reigned a very pleasant feeling about the whole trip.  It was wonderful to be around these inspiring industrious productive creations of God.  His boxes were small because there are few flowers blooming at the moment, which caused him to also feed his bees, but instead giving sugar water he used sugar cane.  I liked the more natural way.    

He opened a couple of boxes and in one of them he showed us the queen who very shy and kept hiding from our curious gaze.  We also saw all the useless drones and busy workers working tirelessly.  It was funny and sad that one roly-poly drone, who was bored I guess, flew out of the box. I did not see or notice until he tired to come back.  Our host had already placed the queen excluder screen on top.  We was so fat that he could not pass through the screen so he went to the door.  In this picture he is stuck in the opening.  He could not get through no matter how hard he tried.  When he finally escaped from his tight situation he started flying around the box and I eventually lost track of him.  Never get so fat that you cannot pass through your own door. 

Not only did we enjoy the company of the bees, and  by the way no one was stung, but we sampled the honey and toured around his place.  There was a lot to see and learn.

He also makes his own boxes and equipment which we uses and sells. Like this nifty smoker. If you think only humans have problem with smoking try being a bee for a while.  Ignorant honey fans, like us, that desire to start their own hive of honey makers, can buy everything necessary from him.  (Remember that for future reference).  

Remember that little wad of money, well it sure came in handy.  We bought a few pounds of precious raw honey.  However, the honey is much sweeter and runnier than the honey we buy at home. To say the least we were overly hyper-excited to have something to sweeten our lives again.

Precious as this honey may be, it is imperative to separate the honey for the comb.  (To tell the truth this really is necessary, for though the honey is sweeter here, the comb is painfully bland and unpleasant to swallow). That is where this machine comes in handy.  Using the centrifugal force created by the manual power of the hand and arm and enhanced by a simple gear system, the honey is easily extracted and collected.  

But here let me introduce the real honey extractor.  I thrilled over every opportunity he gave us to sample the delectable honey.  Once he let us eat from the comb he pulled from the hive. Again from an old frame in storage that still had remnants of honey in it. Then, at the end he graciously blessed us with several pieces of honeycomb saturated with beautiful rich honey. You could say Katie, Mani, and I were in heaven coming home.  We all have that good feeling (really good feeling) and I am pretty confident in saying that we will proceed to do our own bee hive.  The moral of the experience is when you feel good inside, right about where your stomach is, than that must be the right thing to do.  I could leave it at that, but I think it would be better to say; Good things never come free, we must work for them.  Just like the lazy drone met his fate, and we got the blessings of all the hard work of ours, and theirs!

This is David your Post Host...so "bee" alert for my next post, because you never know when I will post again.

food...Food...FOOD!

Considering the breath, depth, and extent of the importance of food in the life of every human being, it only made sense to discuss this topic from our point of view from inside the Indian culture which surrounds us.
To begin let us survey the Indian cuisine.   They brew up all sorts of incinerating sauces and curries that all but kill those not already burned out and accustomed to such fiery food.
Look at the concerned expression on the faces of these boys, about to partake of good plain rice garnished with a blaze of fire. In spite of the fiery challenge the food creates, I and the other non spice lovers have found and we enjoy certain dishes that amazingly are not hot.  And yes, we like all the other Indians eat with our hands. It really is quite fun (and saves on washing). Now to continue!
During the elapse in time from Katie's last visit to India we have made significant changes in our choice of foods we consume.  Now, we stay with whole foods, nothing processed, refined, and definitely not GMOed. Simple enough, but that includes flours, refined white sugar, and most cooking oils.  With that, out the door goes many of the none spicy foods.  Then we try to stay away from anything that has been cooked to death and there went out all the other dishes made in India except for two that I know of, pepper water and a spicy sauce called chutney.  Checkmate! After a few days of vacillating and eating some dead and spicy foods I decided enough was enough and I had had enough.  I promptly promoted myself to chef.  I do not know which is worse eating spicy food or my food!  Nevertheless, I have enjoyed making good plain bland healthy food.  Poor Katie she loves spicy food, but no problem she always  manages to get pepper water or chutney to eat.

Trying different things we have found red rice to be the best, and we are always eating vegetables like potatoes, cauliflower, onions, garlic, carrots, and Katie finally bought some spices (I do not know if she is trying to hint at something) which I use sparingly.  The best part is the fruit.  Papaya and pomegranate are in the peak and I savor each juicy bite.  Life is not too bad if you ask me.

I have rarely made food and almost never without a recipe, now I always make food and almost never with a recipe.  Good example, is when I tried to make a stir fry and because I used potatoes it transformed into something...I guess it looked like funeral potatoes (the yellow stuff in the preceding photo).  Maybe I wont use potatoes next time. Another thing which now makes me appreciate my dedicated mother even more, is the tremendous amount of time it takes to cook beans or anything without killing them.  It took me 2+ hours to make a simple soup! Then there was the time I heroically threw in some spices into my fried rice in an attempt to make something comparable to Indian food.  While I scorching my throat on this substance I had produced, I asked Katie what she though.  Would you believe it she did not know I had put spices in it at all?  Is it just me or do I have a hypersensitive problem?
That is beginning of our culinary adventures.  What would a story be without a moral.  Here it is.  If you hate hot food  learn to love it immediately or you might end up in India or some place worse!  Okay, maybe it could go something like this, do not twiddle your thumbs and eloquently complain waiting for your situation to change, but get up, buck up and do something about it (especially if your stomach is forcefully motivating you to do something)! How is that for a moral?

Thanks again! This is David your Post Host, and I hope that next time you are at Staples buy some Post-its because you never know when I might post again.

Coconuts? Are You Nuts?

  There is a new craze that has overtaken our experiments with herbal medicine! Coconuts...the new  miracle food and medicine (new? well I guess it has been around for a long time).  During our stay in Utah before coming out to India we ate at a live foods restaurant with an herb shop in it.  In this herb shop was a harmless looking book called Coconut Cures by Bruce Fife. We looked at each other and thought, well we are going to the land of coconuts, this might be helpful. I was not too excited because I never liked coconuts, but Katie up and bought it.  As we skimmed though it the author was going on and on about how coconut oil, coconut milk, coconut water, etc sometimes alone or mixed with other things will cure just about anything.  It kills parasites, rejuvenates the blood, cures diseases, strengthens the immune system, heals terrible burns, and innumerable other amazing things. It seems that coconuts can do just about anything.
   As Katie is the doctor guess who is the guinea pig.  ME! Yipes, and I do not like coconuts! So far I have used it on my head to cure my dandruff and it seems to be working.  Good! Then there was a coconut oil three day cleanse that is supposed to kill candida (yeast growth in the stomach), detox the digestive system, and help it to function properly.  I did that and well I am still not sure if it worked after taking only coconut oil and water for a couple days I was pretty wiped out. Now that it is over I kind of feel the same as before.  Who knows! Then Mani also became a guinea pig on the parasite purge program.  Coconut oil and dried coconuts for him, though it was only for a couple of days.  He just made the mistake of trying to take the daily dosage of oil all at one time.  That kind of burned him out, and he could not face coconut oil again.  However, it worked for him and he was able to clean out some of those unwanted pests.  Luckily for us that is as far as we have gone so far. Except for Katie is trying coconut oil on her ringworm, and we have yet to see the results.
   That is not where coconuts stop! No, coconuts do not stop! For lack of better materials I used a coconut leaf to construct a rake of sorts.

  We are really going to have to find a new hobby.  Just to speak optimistically the rake did not last long to long to say the very least.  You may be just as "concerned" as we are to see what else these little medicinal bombs that fall from heaven can do.  But that will have to be saved for a different day, different story as we are fresh out of info (even if we cannot seem to rid of these coconuts).  I wonder why it is called a nut, we should be called nuts for taking them!  Thankfully we can now proceed to the moral of this story, which is; never trust your doctor if he is holding a coconut.  Not bad but not good either.  Here it goes...if you never dive into something without getting some idea of what it is (at least make sure it is not coconut oil...heehee).

 Just in case you forgot this is David, your Post Host. Coconut trees are also good for posting things on, and you never know when I will post again. 

Its Her Birthday...Hooray!

I know I am a couple days late but still we need to celebrate.  Katie had a birthday on Sunday 20th of January 2013.  She might not appreciate it if I say how young she is and it does not matter therefore I wont tell.  Although I was half asleep, some of the boys and I woke her up at midnight and celebrated. We gave her a strainer and a stainless steel pot for cooking, which she had not only been wanting one but we gave her one that is purple, hard to beat I say.  Since we do not eat cake anymore, we acquired an emergency candle and a big old guava fruit that served as the cake.  At least it worked.  Naturally, the party did not last long and we all were soon in bed and asleep.
  That day was special for a couple of reasons.  We had a special meeting at our church called a district conference in the which Katie accompanied the choir on the piano and I helped to sing in that very same choir.  Katie was nervous and I was exhausted, because of a three day coconut oil cleanse I had been doing, but we survived the day.  To end the day and my cleanse we made a scrumptious heaping bowl of fruit that was at the minimum, absolutely divine. Then to top it off we Skyped our family and they sang Happy Birthday to Katie and we chatted for a good while about the exciting and exotics things that are happening on the opposite sides of the world that we are on. We finally said good bye and eventually I said good night and went off to bed.
  Come to find out next morning, Katie who had taken a nap earlier was kept awake talking to Mani until after midnight.  By the way, Mani left that  Monday for a new job in a nearby town.  That is how Katie saw the beginning and the end of her birthday.  The moral of this short story is never have a birthday in India...well maybe not.  The moral could be; do not worry about your birthday and you will enjoy it more (especially if someone else worries about it enough to do something special for you)

Thanks again...and this is David your Post Host, so look twice when you go to the post office because you never know when I will post again.

A Higher Plane of Thought

Groveling, as we were, in indecision and dubiousness as to what we should do to revive the dead, depleted, depressed dirt that cumbers the orphanage property, we decided we needed a new higher level of thinking and inspiration. The answer came in the form of Sandra telling us of an organic farm, run by a British lady, way up in the nearby mountains.  A couple of days ago we literally moved ourselves to this higher plane of thought and altitude.  For nearly four hours we climbed higher, in the orphanage's van, with the road becoming more treacherous, the mountain more precipitous, the surroundings becoming greener, the air fresher and colder (we were unprepared for that, going in our tee-shirts and all), and the scenery ever more beautiful.  As we made our ascent the only life we saw were the lethargic monkeys sitting by the side of the road like hypnotized spectators watching for the end of an eternal race of vehicles chugging up and down this winding perilous racetrack.

We finally reached the office of the organic farm, located in a little town called Ketti. There we encounter, Vanya Orr, the founder and director of The Earth Trust.  We had a pleasant discussion in the which she provided excellent tips on how to resurrect our poor bedraggled dirt.  She explained to us the process of green manuring and creating biomass and putting the right ecological balance back into the earth.  Even white grubs and cut worms can become our friends.  Of anyone we have met she would know. Vanya has not just been doing organic gardening for years, but has been doing it here in India for over 16 years, so she is a pretty knowledgeable resource.  We were glad to have talked to her.

Nestled even higher up the mountain from her office is one of her farms.  Very well organised and aesthetically pleasing, it was fun to tour the ground.  we saw many many different plants, vegetables, and herbs.  She even had raspberries and strawberries and because the raspberry season was over they let me scour the bushes and devour whatever remaining berries that were hiding. It was delectable! Our main purpose in trekking into the mountains precisely involved these succulence raspberries and strawberries.  We had come to secure some starters for ourselves.  However, because of some seasonal discrepancies which we did not completely understand they did not have any for us an would not cut any at that time.  Though a little disappointed in not accomplishing our mission, we were glad to have visited this gorgeous part of the country and have enjoyed the cool climate. After a quick trip a botanical garden we started on our way home a midst the gathering darkness.  Leaving this higher plane we eventually arrived home later that night and crashed into our beds exhausted and slept soundly. All in all it was  a fun trip but fruitless, as in we came back without the fruit. The moral of the story is if you do something with fruit make sure you take extra fruit so your work does cannot be completely "fruitless".  Actually, a better moral would be to prepare everything ahead of time in order not to waste time (but if you are going to waste time make the most of it. heehee!)
Here are some more pictures of our trip!

On the way up!

 The compost pile.

 Where are the raspberries?

 Mani, the guard of the botanical garden.

 David by herbal India (Botanical Garden)

The strawberries, but there was a sign warning not to touch. Too bad!

Thank you! This is David your Post Host and I hope your watching because you never know when I will post. I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Wheat is for Man!

That's right! Wheat, being nutritiously dense, contains most of the vitamins and minerals necessary to comfortably sustain human life. Since we are surrounded by ultra refined rice cooked to death and  vegetables boiled and cooked out of nutritious existence, it is extremely difficult to come by food that feeds the body and nourishes the soul.  However, instead of succumbing to the adverse conditions and filling our stomachs with dead fillers we have found and commenced eating organic wheat.  How did we find it? That in itself was an adventure. Sandra, the director of FFC, gave us a couple of addresses to organic shops, so merrily we went to visit one. When we arrived at the supposed destination there was nothing that looked like an organic food store.  But, we did not fret because that is normal.  Luckily, we were with a couple natives and we had them call the number provided with the address. Come to find out it was still closed for the holiday of Pungal,  holidays usually take several days in India, but we ascertained the correct location, which was tucked away in an adjacent side road.  Next day, we paid a call on the shop and paid the price for the organic wheat and other grains and foods we bought.  Wheat, though it is for man, poses, unfortunately, a difficult problems in eating soaked, low heated, and plain, because it is almost unpalatable, and we have no raw honey or other natural healthy sweeteners to make it edible.
However, never do we falter or permit small inconveniences from stopping us.  Mani had the innovative idea to extract the juice from the sugarcane.  Great idea, but how? We started first by beating the poor sugarcane until it split several times longways then we twisted and squeezed it.  Effective? Well, sort of.  At last we reverted to stripping the sugarcane of its hard purple colored shell, cutting the inside into small pieces, blending it to a powder, then squeezing and straining the pulp in a cloth t to produce the sweet watery juice.  Fortunately, this worked better, and we were able to enjoy our wheat to a higher degree than before.  The moral of the story is never buy wheat unless you have something sweet to eat it with...maybe not.  The moral of the story is; if you are determined to do something you will always find a way to do it! (except, maybe, for exterminating all of the mosquitoes, I am still trying to find a solution for that one, heeehee)

This is David, your Post Host...and you'll never know when I  will post again.

We Are Here...Where Is the Green Stuff?

Yes, we are here three days and are ready to start our projects.  Those first two days were not good for much except dream chasing which I exploited to the fullest.  We arrived early in the Saturday morning ready to drop which I unceremoniously did, then it was Sunday, the day of rest, so I rested in the truest meaning of the word. Then thinking we could buy things and get started Monday, we found out it was Pungal, an Indian holiday, and all the shops are closed so we "reluctantly" took advantage of the down time to relax. However, we have not been completely lazy these past couple days but we have formulated a couple prospective projects, each presenting itself with its peculiar problems.  Nothing comes easy especially in India.  We are going to start a couple of garden and see if we cannot coax anything to grow in this red barren dirt. We have thought to start an herb garden here.What do you think?

Yea! it is right next to the goat farm which does not smell as bad as you might think...well definitely not as as bad as some ol' feed lot in Nebraska! That brings up the other project problem on our list. In order to sustain the bountiful produce that might spring up, maybe a little less spontaneously than hoped for, we need  lots of good organic fertilizer.  Humm.  THE GOATS!! what a wonderful idea and here is their contribution...                                                        The only problem is that this goat dung is adamant about not decomposing naturally like all civilized dung does.  Luckily we have a worm farm (I know it sounds funny but it is quite amazing).  These slimy wrigglers convert our atrocious goat dung and dead dirt into usable organic matter. 

So now we have some material to work with, where are the plants? It now being Tuesday we were able to buy our first plants today and of course since Katie holds the purse strings she had the first and last say in the choosing of the plants. No one who knows her will be suprised to know she bought herbs.  Stevia, peppermint, eucalyptus, rosemary, thyme, lemon grass, and cinnamon were her choice of herbs.  By the way, me and the other grazers agree that stevia makes a great choice for dessert.  Just pick a leaf and chew on it...Yumm!


I am David, your Post Host...so keep the holes dug because you'll never know when I will fill it with a post!