More Simple Living!

I was majorly bummed when I took a good look at the ingredient list of my favorite Burts Bees  Honey Lip Balm and discovered although it was suppose to be all natural ingredients it contained parfum or fragrance. I know that parfum is bad so I did more research and found David Suzuki foundation had some good information. Here it is.

Fragrance and parfum

Fragrance is an obvious ingredient in perfumes, colognes, and deodorants, but it’s used in nearly every type of personal care product. Credit: blue celt via Flickr.

Use in Cosmetics

The term "fragrance" or "parfum" on a cosmetic ingredients list usually represents a complex mixture of dozens of chemicals. Some 3,000 chemicals are used as fragrances. ⁱ Fragrance is an obvious ingredient in perfumes, colognes, and deodorants, but it's used in nearly every type of personal care product. Even products marketed as "fragrance-free" or "unscented" may in fact contain fragrance along with a masking agent ⁱⁱ that prevents the brain from perceiving odour. In addition to their use in cosmetics, fragrances are found in numerous other consumer products, notably laundry detergents and softeners and cleaning products.

You see....ol' Burt must have sold out to "The Man". I'm not happy about this at all. I feel let down like  one of my best friends sold me out....cheated on me.
Chemicals on my lips just sucks badly! I mean I apply lip balm at least twice a day ...everyday...so if I am reapplying it..where did it go the first time? I must have sucked it off and now I'm full of these 3000 chemicals that I wasn't aware of. Arrrr!

Anyways enough snashing the teeth and cursing "The Man". I'm going to do something about this injustice to my lips. I'm going to make my own Honey Lip Balm!

It is just so easy to make this stuff! I feel so much better:) Alright so I didn't give "The Man" a major blackeye.... just a little pinprick;)  I'm not going to provide you'all with a recipe because there are literally a gazillion recipes online.... and besides I kind of made mine up. I'm cheering you on...take care of your own needs...it's super empowering!                                                                Seriously though the reason why I do what I do and G does what he does is because we feel passionately about living a good life with as little stress as possible and maybe helping others with ideas on how they can live  a simpler life as well. Hare Krsna, Kokum Lal

Bread Account Cancelled! :o

A big reality of choosing to live on a farm is income. How to make enough to finance the project but not only that how to make money between the two hour intervals that we have  moving the cows through the pasture. You see our biggest reason for being here is to protect the cows and in order to protect the cows we are experimenting with mob grazing. Most people view cows as food. We want to change their vision. We want the masses to see cows as incredible soil makers...more valuable alive than dead. Mob grazing requires us to keep our small herd of 5 cows/bull/oxen,3 alpacas and 2 guinea fowl moving every 2 hours....which makes around 8 moves a day. So we need to be on the farm and yet make money at the same time. How do we accomplish that?
Gaura Nitai and I have always been involved with real estate to some degree or other so we are accustomed to making large chunks of money. Gaura Nitai has worked hard to bring in the money to take care of his families needs and although I studied business many years back I've basically  been a domestic goddess for the past 8 years. We decided that we are good at a few things and baking bread is one of our talents. G got a bread account  with the Buddhist Monks who live next door. I'm not a foodie or a prasadamarian...I eat to live(although I must admit sometimes I "live" a little bit to much)...so cooking isn't high on my list of fun things to do.. that is G's thing. I on the other hand I love to make lotions and potions.....green witch comes to mind;) I've grown a cottage garden full of herbs in the past so I wanted to do more of that.So right now we have two micro businesses on the go....Whole wheat bread baked in our wood burning Pioneer Princess stove and soap/beauty products. Bread in the morning twice a week and soap making in the evening 3 or 4 times a week.
Since last year we have been happily increasing our bread sales to the Monks.....yesterday they canceled the account due to financial difficulties:( This has freaked us out!!! Now what do we do? Our micro soap business isn't up and running yet.....it's still....well....micro mini. We'll see what happens today. Hare Krsna, Kokum Lal

Nitty Gritty Talk

I was wondering how I ought to represent our little community in my blog. Should I be formal and only quote Srila Prabhupada?
I decided that I'm not very good at that and there are hundreds if not thousands of sites that do a much better job at that than I could possibly hope for. What I am good at is saying it like it is...honest...nitty gritty talk.I will share with my readers what is actually going on in our journey as we discover how to implement what Srila Prabhupada wanted us all to do, Simple living and high thinking. Hare Krsna, Kokum Lal