Spring Has Sprung....I Think??

Dear Readers;

 I think that spring has finally come to Prince Edward Island. The weather is still unpredictable but I have managed to cut some pussy willows. The songbirds have made their appearance...bees are busy buzzing and the occasional flower have bravely peeked out a head. The cows are happy because they are grazing on fresh grass in the large field that is located just behind the barn.

 We have been very busy here at Govindas' Farm training two baby oxen teams. The first team is four month old Radhe and Gopala. Our second team is our Jersey babies... two month old Nimai and Nitai. They are all doing great and I will post a video of their progress within the next few days.

 Our latest volunteer is Michele Moses. Michele has worked in the film industry and she has owned horses. She has a special skill with animals and she is both loving and firm. We had no idea how to get the calves trained but Michele got them started for us and now they are learning new commands every day.

  We are also getting 3-4 gallons of milk a day. We took the calves off of their mother because they were causing her teats severe damage. I made this bag balm for her and it is helping but I don't believe that the calves will be let back to nurse. I noticed that their teeth are razor sharp ...very unlike the Canadienne calves' teeth. I'm not sure if it is a breeding defect or not. It is unfortunate because I like to see calves spend as much time as they like with their mommies but it would be irresponsible on our part to let them hurt her any more. We do milk Saci twice daily and give the calves most of the milk and with what is left we make curd,yogurt,butter and buttermilk.

 I hope that you enjoy the pictures and the invitation is out there for anyone who would like to come to help spring clean the barn. The barn also requires some major foundation repairs so if anyone has some ideas about how to raise money please leave a comment. Thank you.

Hare Krsna.
Kokum Lal

Hanging curd to make cream cheese.

Homemade whole wheat bread baked in the wood stove oven.

Our first batch of butter. The buttermilk is delicious:)

Training Baby Steers

Dear Readers;

 I just finished publishing our latest video. We have been spending a few hours a day working with the calves to get them halter trained. We don't know what we are doing but I did find a great Facebook page called All Thing Oxen. I put my questions out there and there are so many passionate oxen people with oodles of knowledge and they love to share. Our problem with Gopala is he hates leaving the barn and we have been dragging him around with his halter. After three weeks of this he still hates going out and no wonder. Our fault is we were trying to force him so after listening to good advice we are waiting for him to make the move forward and reward him with praise. The video I'm posting is really a what not to do video. I will post one when we get the hang of the right way to do this training. Of course all animals have their different characters so what works for one steer does not necessarily work for the next one.

Hare Krsna,
Kokum Lal

New Compost Toilet

Dear Readers;

 Gaura Nitai finished the upstairs compost toilet yesterday!

 The shower has been installed and so has the sink. He also sanded and finished the floor. I was thinking that we would have to paint the floor because the outline of the bathtub was still highly visible as was the outline of where the former sink was. In the end we decided that this is an old farm house with a lot of history and the outlines are just another page to the story.

I was going to post a video of the calves but Youtube is a little nuts today and I've spent 2 hours trying to sort out the mess. Maybe I will have it done for tomorrow.

 Here are a few photos of the bathroom.

Hare Krsna.
Kokum Lal

We will find some wood flooring to finish the floor.

The bottom tube on the left side is to remove the urine and the top pipe pulls the air into the stack.

A sink that we traded for a few bars of homemade soap.

Energy Healing On My Cow

Dear Reader;

 I have been practicing EFT ...Emotional Freedom Technique on myself for the past 8-9 years. EFT is like acupuncture but without the needles. Simply by tapping on the various points and vocalizing the issue that you are working on negative energy is released and healing can happen.

 I know that it has worked for me and for my good husband. He used the tapping to get over his fear of heights and motion sickness. I also read that  EFT can be tried on just about anything. I've had some crazy success with it on my dog who had a water phobia and I even used it to slip by highway road blocks in the Honduras....14 police roadblocks to be exact:)

 When Saci got sick and lodged herself in the doorway I decided to try it on her and it worked! By the next morning she had moved and her health kept on improving. Three days ago she stood up after being down for 16 days!! Today she is out in the sun and regaining the use of her legs! Anyways I was tapping on her meridian points and my friend Michele thought that it would make a cute video:)

Hare Krsna.
Kokum Lal

WWOOF and Calves

Dear Reader;

 Spring is certainly slow in coming this year. The Northumberland Strait is still blocked with ice so we get to see the Icebreakers making a path for the Irving Oil Tankers...much to the annoyance of the Canadian Tax Payers. You would think that at the price of gas and oil on this Island that the Irving Corporation would make better plans or pay from their own pockets but I don't follow politics much so I will leave that to the Political Pundits.

 What I do know is this ...it is still cold outside!

 We head out to the barn every morning at 7 a.m. just on time to see the sun spread it's pastel colours across the sky before it makes its big ta-daaaa. As soon as I approach the barn the calves hear me and start calling....then the cows join the chorus ...it's quite the morning greeting.

 What is starting to dawn on me is how animals become more like children...especially when they aren't feeling well. This week Nimai came down with a fever and scours(diarrhea). Luckily I had anticipated possibly requiring an antibiotic at some point so two months ago I made a natural antibiotic with garlic,cayenne pepper and ginger soaked in apple cider vinegar for 4 weeks. I gave him 3 doses a day for two days. I also gave him some homemade yogurt and chamomile tea to sooth his digestive tract. The following day I took his temperature and he was back to normal.What a relief!

 We also have had a WWOOFer from France. He was with us for just over a week and Victor was a great guy to have around the farm. He was learning to speak English and was doing great for having only been in Canada for one month. He was so enthusiastic to learn anything and everything. I find that most volunteers are very good and genuinely want to learn.

 Here is a short video of the men training the calf. The older calves are giving us a really hard time. The 4 month old calves are still in the pulling back and falling down dead stage. I am going to change the process tomorrow to see if I can entice them with a handful of grain.....the proverbial carrot on a stick trick.

Hare Krsna,
Kokum Lal