Kirtan babies

This was when they were about 9 months, and they first really started dancing to any and all music. Vaiyasaki really got them going though, as shown in this video.

Final skeleton

Now the front wheels are turning a full 90 degrees,

the driver seat is raised and the main frame is extended all the way to the front.

Now we will weld some steps in the back and a small step for the driver on the side.

The roof will be a very light frame with fibre sheet. The seats and floor board will be wood.

Every thing will be nicely painted and fibre coated to protect it from the weather.

Now I just hope that Balaram can handle the easy steering and load.

I hope it is not too heavy for him, because they used very thick iron.

still i am not convinced with the size of the turning gheer.

more updates

Some more progress we made with the bullock carriage

The new Bullock cart

After a long time planing and looking for the right design and maker, I finally found some people who agreed to make my own idea of a "bullock carriage". Here i am posting the first pictures of the project in progress. Even not visible here, it will be a four wheeler this time with two benches and, believe it or not, spring suspensions.

Jeep springs

A total of 8 passengers will be able to sit

Solid steel axle

The steel rods you see here are temporary support, which will be removed later

Abhay birthday party

Hare Krishna!

There were so many pictures, so I tried making some collages.

cooking, cooking and more cooking...

special guest Laksmipriya...

and lots of guests.....

Simon scare

We had a scary incident with Simon last night. He got really mad at something and cried so hard that his breath caught and he stopped breathing. He started turning all blue and purple. We were blowing in his face and poking his chest and cheeks and eventually he passed out and that made him start breathing again. It all happened very fast and was over quickly but it scared us so badly and reminded us just how fragile life is.

He is better now. He got all sweaty and tuckered out and slept pretty well last night after that...

I am haunted by Simon's little blue face. I can't get it out of my head. I love my baby boy!!

Some old pictures

Cow dung to fuel converter

Just as our LPG gas for cooking was running low, a man walked through our front gate about three weeks ago and asked me if I was interested in getting a gobar gas tank installed.

I immediately agreed to the terms, which was that we pay for the bricks, sand cement and stone chips and they pay for the Labour, the gas line and connections and provide a bio-gas stove.

The two workers stayed at our place for 5 days and practically worked for 10 hours in the hot sun until the tank was done.

I was very impressed how fast this man could do this job.

Now all we had to do was fill the tank with an equal amount of cow dung and water. For the gas to keep flowing, it needs two buckets of dung and two buckets of water per day. We have no problem with that. Our cows kindly provide the dung for free to us.

Gobar gas is produced by mixing cow dung with water & making it into slurry. This slurry is then kept in the fermentation tank were it is acted upon by anaerobic bacteria in the absence of oxygen. After 15 to 30 days methane would be produced.

Yesterday, for the first time, I prepared our Lunch on the new Bio-gas stove. The flame we are getting is very high compared to the conventional butane gas from the bottle. This makes fast cooking.

A cow is arching its tail. It’s about to do…what?

It’s about to produce the rest-of-India LPG cylinder.

Bug-proof, water proof, plaster for walls and floors.

We’re talking dung here. Not waste, but wealth:

Cheap, available, unavoidable.

Cows are very useful animals.

Hare Krishna!

Love,

Mama

More stuff

A face:

The origional:

(not my art)

my trunk:

I Officiated A Lesbian Wedding This Weekend!

This past weekend I officiated my friend Lorena and Jennifer's commitment ceremony. It was not legally recognized by the state, but was a wonderful celebration of their love for each other. Julien helped in the ceremony as well. He was the chocolate bearer, to help with the chocolate mixing ceremony, a tasty twist to the sand mixing ceremony.

Here Julien is with my boyfriend Brent. They are best friends.

Thanks Mom for the colorful Indian threads, they worked great for the ceremony.

It was a beautiful ceremony. The sun even came out just as they exchanged rings.