THE ISCOWP NEWS Volume 5 Issue 3

Oxen's Winter Work

This winter has been one of the most harsh winters in the history of the United States. The capitol of the country, Washington D.C., was brought to a standstill because of heavy snowfall immobilizing city traffic. In other parts of the country similar conditions persisted even after all modern emergency-disaster methods were applied.

We are all forced to question the value of high technology when it fails to provide the simple functions of daily life during adverse weather conditions. On the contrary, in the same extreme weather, oxen trained by ISCOWP continued to log wood from the forest for heating and cooking.

One ISCOWP trained team, Jaya and Nanda (pictured at the bottom), can pull 500 pounds of wood at one time out of the forest, and Vraja and Gita (pictured at the top) can pull 1 ton. The wood can be used not only for heating and cooking; one log has been used for making a new yoke for Jaya & Nanda. Step by step, project by project, we are realizing how absolutely dependent we are on the work that the oxen are providing. The oxen are the pivot point of all our activities.

In this issue you will not only find a financial report for ISCOWP's year of 1995, a financial report of the Sponsor a Teamster Campaign and update, but also letters from around the world concerning alternative methods of survival. Your financial support for training oxen and teamsters and to spread the knowledge of an alternative lifestyle is the foundation of ISCOWP We are very grateful for your help and wholeheartedly welcome you to the even more productive year of 1996.

Index of articles

Letters

Stoves, Housing, Oil Lamps, Sauna, Yokes/Harnesses, Progress in Yugoslavia, News from Bangladesh

Sponsor a Teamster Campaign August 95 - August 96

Evaluation of Fiscal Year 95  

LAKSHMI'S KITCHEN 

Expand ISCOWP Membership 

New Plows! 

Letters

Dear Readers,

The following letters were mostly submitted to the cow conference, therefore the introductory email message. We left this information intact because if you wanted to get in touch with the writers you would be able to do so via your computer.

Stoves

Text 139476 (81 lines)
From: Internet: Varis Lux-Karnergrauzis
100526.1600@compuserve.com
Date: 26-Dec-95 07:06 EST
To: Cow (Protection and related issues) [594]
Subject: American stoves are foolish

The following two paragraphs in carrots are referring to ISCOWP's previous entry in the cow conference.
>>When I was in Russia I saw many ceramic ovens that doubled as fire places which consumed considerably less wood and did a much better job of heating the home than the iron stoves that we use here in America.
A question for devotees in cold European climates that are familiar with these types of stoves. Are there any people in these areas that know how to build these stoves that would give you this information so that it could be shared world-wide through this conference.<<
The temple's two buildings here in Riga are total about 1000 square meters, three floors plus basement. It is completely constructed from logs - like a log cabin, but the walls are covered with other materials. When we reconstructed the building we pulled down a few walls to make a temple room kitchen, etc, and we saw that the walls were made from solid wood about 6 to 10 inches thick. There are a lot of buildings like this one here in the centre of town. I have not seen this type of building in any other areas.
However the main unique features of these buildings are that they are built to be heated by wood. Now they usually have central heating, but still the wood stoves are preserved. In this particular building several stoves were destroyed or stolen, as the building has suffered a fire on the top floor and was vacated, declared as condemned. When we decided to save the building we had to rebuild many of the stoves so we have some experience. We also built a huge wood-fired bread oven in the basement-right in the centre of the city.
The basic principle of these stoves are that they are very massive brick structures right up to the ceiling that act as a heat battery. The stove is usually lit once a day and then keeps the room warm the whole day. At the bottom is one fire box about 18 inches deep with a door that's about 8 by 8 inches. From the fire box there are flue channels going up to the chimney in an indirect way, sometimes as a spiral, other times criss-cross wise. In certain strategic points there are plugs which one can pull out in order to gain access in order to clean the channels from soot. Fire bricks should be used in the fire box. Sometimes they even use stones in the construction that keep the heat longer, but they should be tested first that they don't explode. Sometimes the exterior of the stove is covered with very special ceramic tiles which are made so that they can be built into the design, rather than just stuck on like usual. They are like concave bricks with one side glazed and with special intersecting joints with the adjacent tiles.
They don't manufacture them anymore around here. Sometimes they can be very fancy with designs and different shaped mouldings. Sometimes they can be unglazed and then painted with oil paint, as the out- side of the stove does not reach a high temperature, probably maximum about 70 degrees Celsius. Its heating effect is based on the large surface area. Nowadays I'm sure you could get some high-tech glue and just glue the tiles on. The whole stove is often constructed with approximately one part clay mixed with 3 parts sand between the bricks or tiles as it resists the temperature better than cement. Sometimes cement is used to render the outside, to make it stronger All gaps and cracks are filled with the clay mixture. Of course the clay should be allowed to cure for two weeks before firing, and then it is stoked very slowly for a few days. Full heat should be stoked very gradually.
There are many variations of this principle. For example a very practical variation is that there is a cast iron cook-top included with two holes with concentric rings. Some of them have a water receptacle also. The same principle is maintained, that as you stoke the fire to cook, the flue gases go through the stove into the wall which has channels going through it (by the longest course) and the whole wall heats up. In country areas the houses are usually wood but have the "heart", a section of flued brick walls. Imagine a square house with say, four rooms of equal size. So at the intersection point (the "cross" point), that corner is bricked and flued. So when the housewife is cooking in the kitchen then she heats up the whole house. Some of them even incorporate a bread oven into the design.
A very quaint feature, often in Russian homesteads is that they have a low brick wall, like a seat built into the design, on which one can even sleep. This is the traditional place for the elders of the family they sit there all day on their warm seat and even sleep on there.
In a museum in Germany I saw some medieval homestead design where parts of the floor were heated in such a way, with the fire box below floor level. This would be good for devotees as we are accustomed to sitting on the floor. I have heard that in China they have such a heating (and seating) arrangement called a "kang".
After being a devotee for a while it is easy to see how most people live very foolishly in small matters. For example I could never think of using toilet paper or NOT using a tongue scraper, but yet there are literally millions of people living in ignorance of this. I get the same feeling when I see the American style potbelly stoves and other cast iron "convection-stoves" advertised. They are very inefficient and very expensive. Better just get some bricks, clay and order a door for the fire box and some rings for the cook top and do it yourself for the fraction of the cost and save heaps of firewood. I would be happy to answer any questions if more details are required.

Guruttama das
Riga, Latvia

Text 141510 (35 lines)
From: COM: Smita Krsna Swami (Sweden) <Smita.Krsna.Swami@com.bbt.se>
Date: 04-jan-9611:24WET
Reference: Text 138460 by ISCOWP (Balabhadra Dasa & Chaya Dasi)
To:    Cow (Protection and related issues) [608]
Subject: Problem solving

The tiled stoves of Russia had supposedly their origin in Sweden. In Sweden they are very common in older houses. They do not have to be tiled; their efficiency is in their inner construction and the kind of material you use. On a visit to Riga, just two weeks ago, I was impressed by the recently built heat storing stoves they had in their temple. They were not high quality but did their work. Guruttama Prabhu had the local people make them for cheap money. But they might not last long. In the temple there they also had the old tiled stoves built in the beginning of the century.
The Riga temple is situated in the center of the town, it is an old two story wood building. It is quite a unique temple; it has almost the complete possibility to be heated by wood stoves as spoken about here. There is also a big bread oven in the cellar fired by wood. The oven has the capacity to bake 50 kg loaves at the time.
In the former Soviet Union they are in one sense blessed because they have not yet managed to destroy the old know how in certain areas, as Gadadhar Prabhu also from Riga spoke about in the other conference, Varnasrama, I think it was.
At Almvik I am projecting a small house and the heating there is to be solved by this heat storing principle of this tiled stoves. But we are going to use the chimney as storage. There is one local person that does it here but he is quite expensive so we are going to try to make it ourselves.
On a visit to Almvk Jagadish Maharaja ,spoke about one German devotee on the west coast of USA that was going to learn the skill of building this tiled stoves in a professional and durable way. That devotee's name was not mentioned.
Previously I mentioned that we built one house here at Almvik from clay, hay, and wood. We intend to get more houses like that which are cheap in material but require more work

Smita Krishna Swami
Jarna, Sweden

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Housing

Text 143507 (8 lines)
From: Internet: Mani Bandha <manib@jolt.mpx.com.au>
Date: 15-jan-9610:OONT
To:   Cow (Protection and related issues) [619]
Subject: Straw bale houses

I have just recently seen a highly recommended book on constructing houses with straw bales titled "Construction with Straw Bale" By Leo Newport. It costs $A41.95 including postage in Australia, overseas is extra. Available from PO Box 1299, Armidale, NSW Australia 2350. One interesting comment he makes is that rice straw has been proven to be preferable to cereal straw. It may be possible for rice growers to find a ready market for rice straw rather than burning it. Just recently in Australia 600,000 tons of rice straw was burnt.

(Text 143507)
Comments: Text 143686 by COM: Smita Krsna Swami (Sweden)
Text 143686 (25 lines)
From: COM: Smita Krsna Swami (Sweden) Smita.Krsna.Swami@com.bbt.se
Date: 15-jan-96 19:28 WET
Reference: Text 143507 by Internet: Mani Bandha
To:   Cow (Protection and related issues) [620]
Mani Bandha <manib@jolt.mpx.com.au>
Subject: clay and straw houses

Rudrachandu Prabhu who is the man who built a clay/straw house at Almvik gave the following titles for those who want to know about the building techniques used by him. Rudrachandu is from Switzerland and thus his main language is German and the literature he uses is in German. There is one title in English you could try to get hold of. The English version is a little more hippie -like he thought, but it still gives the idea. Here are the titles:

Gernot Minke, Lehmbau Handbuch, ISBN 3-922964-56-7
Franz Vollhard, Leichtlehmbau, ISBN 3-7880-7383-7
Mc Cann.J. Clay and Cob Build, 1983 Aylisbory
Mac Henry, PG. Adobe and Rammed Earth Build. N.York 1984.

Rudrachandu has also attended a course run in Sweden for this kind of clay/straw houses and has had help from enthusiastic clay/straw house builders in Sweden for the present houses built there.
The immediate plan here is to project and build a couple of more of these houses. There will be the possibility for householders to buy or rent them. There is also an idea of a building company of this kind of houses operating from Almvik and thus creating incomes and engagement for devotees.

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Oil Lamps

Text 140172 (12 lines)
From: Vraja Kishor (Dasa) DDS (Towaco)
Date: 30-Dec-95 11:49 EST
To: ISCOWP (Balabhadra Dasa & Chaya Dasi) [1048]
Subject: oil

Here is a self-sufficiency question which is practical for me, since I have switched to natural lighting: can one use regular corn or vegetable oil in a common oil-lamp - or does he have to buy the petroleum based pre-made lamp oils?

Vraja Kishor das
Towaco, New Jersey

ISCOWP REPLIES

Yes, one can use regular corn or vegetable oil in a common oil-lamp. You need not buy petroleum based pre- made lamp oils.
There are a variety of oils that can be used. Different oils give off different amounts of smoke as they burn. We will be researching this and if anyone in the cow conference can add information please do.
Srila Prabhupada talked about castor oil. And when we were in North Carolina we were considering growing castor beans. However the plant and the beans are both poisonous which really scared me. They are a big bean and when dried they could be mistaken for a dahl and cooked up and digested- a disastrous situation. We want to grow an oil crop here in New Vrndavana and have been discussing mustard but I have heard that it does not burn very cleanly and I would like to research different alternatives for a lighter oil.  

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Sauna

Text 138881 (99 lines)
From: COM: Gadadhara (das) HKS (Riga - Latvia) Gadadhara.HKS@com.bbt.se
Date: 21-Dec-9500:32WET
To:    Varnasrama Development [665], Cow (Protection and related issues) [593]
Subject: Traditional sauna and it's value

Let the Russian devotees (and some others, too) kindly excuse me. I'm aware, for them it's nothing new. But some might benefit. In many places around my country, people still use the traditional sauna. Why? I'll boldly state that it (or some substitute, like Japanese furo, sorry if I misspell it) is relevant in the places with cold winter.
You go down to the rivulet, and see a small, even tiny wooden building on the bank. An old willow tree has spread it's branches partly over it. From the chimney, some aromatic birch wood smoke goes up towards the late evening moon. A big barrel with cold water and a wooden bucket outside the door wait for you to splash yourself after sitting in the vapor chamber.
Inside you find three rooms. In the first, you dress and stoke the fire. The stoker comes several hours in advance and makes the fire. (The stove has a mouth in the first room, in the second a big built-in "kettle" for hot water, and in the third it consists of stones up to 50-70 cm big) When the stones are somewhat above 110 Centigrade (sorry, I do not have the exact number), the stoker pours water over it: fs-s-sh!! and the room fills with hot vapor.
Now you can go into the second room and wash yourself. It's quite warm there, but not too hot. (Only) After taking off the dirt from the body surface, you are ready to enter the vapor chamber. But where is your birch "brush"? Oh, here. It's made of thin birch twigs (sorry if I'm using an improper word, no dictionary here) WITH leaves, some 50-90 cm long, tied together in a bunch to easy hold at hand. (They always used to be a staple in the market, - or self-made, dried and kept hung somewhere, to have them ready all the year round. And the leaves are NOT just an option.)
Birch leaves are good against rheumatism and back pains, but not only. But, some time ago one of our God-uncles reported of his wonderful experience with Russian sauna (which is, as far as I know, basically the same as described here). He mentioned oak twigs, but I believe he somehow took birch to be oak
OK now we open the door to the third chamber. Wow! It's air - or is it air at all? - burns your throat, and makes you to shed tears and - in one instant - covers body with profuse sweat! Wiping your eyes, in the dim light you see one devotee sitting on a long wooden bench and whipping him/ herself with that kind of brush - hands, legs, back - all over. Then you see another devotee laying down on the second bench which is located behind the first one, and some half- meter higher. Yet another devotee is energetically whipping him/ her on the back. He/she dips the "brush" in a bucket of hot water, shakes the excess off, and continues whipping.
"Hey, haribol!" somebody shouts from the third bench which is still higher, “Why don’t you try and come to me?" You agree and try stepping on the bench, getting higher ... oh Krsna! Your breath is choked! Unbelievable! How can he/ she be still alive there?!
Everybody laughs, "You have to have some training", the elders tell you. Start with the lower bench." After two minutes, it becomes too much for you. You return to the second room and wash the sweat off. Then you consider that you want to get rid of that nasty chronic disease, and go into the vapor chamber again.
After some time the others invite, "OK, come with us! Let's go!" You go outside - and suddenly somebody pours a bucket of cold water on you! But -astonishingly enough - you feel it just pleasantly cooling.
Finally you have finished those procedures. Still reddish from the hot, you go to the ashram feeling reborn. Now you're ready to the next traveling sankirtana tour It is said that ancient people used to get rid of many diseases just by attending this sauna. It was also used for other medical procedures, and child delivery. So it was considered almost sacred.
--WARNING!-- Better go to sauna with experienced people, to avoid damage to health due to fanaticism. The same in regards to building one, or stoking.

Gadadhara dasa
Riga, Latvia

PS. Nowadays here dry-heat saunas are very popular. We call them "Finnish saunas" (sauna is Finnish and Estonian word, actually - excuse me Finns for reminding), although I was told of purportedly vain search for them in Finland. They found only moist vapor saunas there. And I have read of that dry heat being cancerogenous.  

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Yokes/Harnesses

Text 139559 (111 lines)
From: Internet: Noma T Petroff npetroff@polar.Bowdoin.EDU
Date: 26-Dec-95 20:24 EST
To:   Cow (Protection and related issues) [597]
Cc:    Varnasrama Development [669]
Subject: Three-padded German Ox Collar
From: Hare Krsna dasi, Brunswick, Maine

In response to the question about an address for the author of the book on the German Three-padded Ox Collar, as far as I know (as of 1991) his address is:

Dr. Rolf Minhorst
Gestermannstr 28
D-41 00 Duisburg 11
GERMANY

His book is called: Modern Harness for Working Cattle: The German Adjustable Three Pad Ox Collar How to make it and how to use it: A Practical Manual for Ox Farmers, Development Assistants, and Hobby Teamsters.
Related to a conversation we had earlier about the use of head yokes, Dr. Minhorst says that the head yoke is widely used in Latin America and Quebec because of several advantages: "low price, easy construction, suitable to force even restive oxen to work." He says these advantages, however are opposed to serious disadvantages (p. 9):

1. Only oxen of the same size and force, with a short and compact neck and a thick base of horns can be yoked together. This yoke is not suitable for oxen or cows with a weak neck, thin base of horns, and all the more not for polled animals. Until today, the users of the head yoke have not recognized that this yoke is too far away from the gravity center of the ox's body [my italics] and that the ox has less pushing force in his neck than he has tractive force in his whole body-trunk.
2. When pulling two wheeled carts, every roughness of the road is transmitted by the wheels, the axle and the shaft to the head yoke which for its part is beating on the head of the draught oxen. Very hard beats can cause unconsciousness, break the horns or even cause fractures of the skull. Going downhill, the oxen must halt the wagon with the yoke tied to their horns which represents an enormous burden for them.
3. A free movement of the head is impossible. just imagine the insect plague during summer time. When trying to keep the traces permanently at an optimal angle, the oxen have to keep their heads down thus being forced to inhale dust and to become tired early. While working on a slope, both animals have to distort their necks in an unnatural way which causes them much pain (Fig. 10, 8).

Hitching oxen with a double head yoke is inefficient because this yoke forces animals to synchronize all their movements, thus hindering them to completely develop their tractive force. Besides that, an ox team with a head yoke is much less maneuverable in comparison to a team with a modern collar harness.
[Dr Minhorst continues:] In Germany, the use of the traditional double head yoke was prohibited in the 1920's to prevent cruelty against the draught cattle.
Thus Dr. Minhorst's comments strongly support the position presented by ISCOWP earlier on in this conference that use of a head yoke for oxen should be avoided by devotees in the Hare Krsna movement because it causes unnecessary pain to the animals. It would put us in a bad light in regard to cruelty to animals and in regard to using the most efficient method of harnessing.
Dr Minhorst proposes, of course that the German three-padded ox collar is the most efficient and comfortable collar for oxen. Wouldn't it be great if we had an ISKCON experimental agricultural farm where we could make long term tests with a three-padded collar and the traditional yoke and compare the results? Here are his comments:
The [three-padded] collar is very flexible and fits tight to shoulders and neck of the walking animal without exerting any bad pressure on shoulder blade and joint of shoulder, above all when benched iron hame-rods are used (Figs. 40,41). It allows the animal a complete freedom of movement of neck and head, and in comparison with other types of cattle harness a comfortable working without premature fatigue (Fig. 42).
[Minhorst continues:] In the judgment of the old farmers and harness makers the adjustable three pad ox collar was an excellent and serviceable cattle harness. It was developed by [Heinrich] Steinmetz in the 1930's in Germany and was only 30 years in use before the German agriculture was completely motorized in the 1960's. Probably because of World War II, no more scientific comparisons were carried out at that time to qualify and quantify the superiority of the new over the traditional harness. Nevertheless, even without scientific proofs small farmers in several Middle European countries recognized very soon that the German ox collar was the best cattle harness ever known in Europe.
[later] Horses enjoy great estimation throughout all the Americas. For both, for saddle and for working horses there are anatomically well fitted and beautiful made leather harnesses, but not for the bullock- Today, as 4500 years ago, the ox has to struggle with a wooden yoke. It seems as if the working bullock, already a longer time ago, had got into a sociocultural dead end road where he simply has been or- gotten. Might it be possible to get him out of there at the end of the 20th century?
If any European devotees can go and meet Dr Minhorst and even work with him, it might prove a great boon to expanding Srila Prabhupada's varnasrama mission. In the late 1980's and early 1990's Pitavas prabhu and his wife Aradhya prabhu made friends with the great French animal equipment designer, Jean Nolle, but unfortunately never had the opportunity to work extensively with him before he passed away.
We should not miss this opportunity with Dr. Minhorst. It's a chance to help him in his Krsna consciousness, and help us become expert in skills that will help spread Prabhupada's mission.

Hare Krsna dd
Brunswick, Maine

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Progress in Yugoslavia

First of all I would like to ask you to forgive me for not informing you earlier about the receipt of the training video, for being so neglectful and ungrateful. Thank you for sending it so quickly. I have really thought that we will need it soon, but I have learned later on that our farmer has no time at all to think on training of Nandi or finding someone for that purpose, since he remains almost alone with his family on the farm without workers and help. We haven't seen the video yet, because we needed to find someone to record it from NTSC to PAL video system. We hope that it will be done these days in Beograd and that we will finally have the opportunity to see it soon. I thank you once again for your understanding and help.
I am also very much thankful to you for printing our letters in your newsletter. It was very inspiring and helpful. Thanks to your attitude and introductory words, my son and I have seen that we are doing something, no matter how modest it may be, and that we are somehow included in the plan of the Supreme. We have been having such a great wish to do something for the satisfaction of our spiritual master, H.R Harikesa Swami, that could be offered to Srila Prabhupada for his centennial. We are really very much inspired and great enthusiasm was arisen in us to take up this task of cow protection with more responsibility and surrender, for our personal purification and satisfaction of our Guru Maharaja. We would also be very glad if our letters could inspire your readers.
I would like to inform you that our society for cow protection GOPALA was registered by our government. We i.e. the secretary of our society, Bhakta Momir, a longtime friend of the devotees and a jurist in one great firm, is working on the completion of the papers. We plan to organize the first meeting of our society soon, to see what could be our first steps and to set some plans for the future. We ask you humbly to pray to our Lord so that he can use us as his instruments in fulfilling His divine plans, and to utilize as much as possible this society for that purpose.
I am also very glad that I can let you know that our Adopt A Cow program progresses very nicely. Till now we have 8 regular donors and my son Milan and his friend Bhakta Milomir were very successful in December with collecting funds. They have distributed a magazine ATMA for Srila Prabhupada's marathon and by the mercy of our temple authorities in Beograd they have obtained a percent from each sold magazine for cow protection. I have also made a few birthday cakes for donation and we have succeeded to pay regularly the required monthly amount.
My son, who helps very much, who distributes the Maha prasadam to and collects the donations from our donors and runs the finances, plans to make a short financial report for our donors and friends in February, which will be enclosed to the letters to our friends the both of us prepare, as you do.
We thank you again very much for all your blessings and nice example you set for us. Whatever we do, we have learned from you and we will do our best to continue to follow in your footsteps to be more and more successful. We thank you also very much for your suggestions on how to continue with preaching. My son and another friend of his Bhakta Igor, a student of agriculture, are enthusiastic to prepare some leaflets and literature on the model of yours, we will distribute on various occasions. Unfortunately we are not yet in a position to take Nandi and Syamala to different events. We have no facilities and there is no one among us who could handle them. We have not yet become capable for doing such things, so that we can only pray to Lord Jagannatha to send us a person who could train Nandi and treasure this suggestion for the future.
Thank you also so much for quoting the verse from Srimad Bhagavatam and Srila Prabhupada's purport, and for emphasizing this very important sentence that "These greatly sinful acts are responsible for all the troubles in present society." Thank you.
We wish you and your children a happy beginning, i.e. continuing of your work in the village at Madhuvan Farm. We also wish you all the best, much, much happiness and success in this very auspicious year of Srila Prabhupada's centennial.

Magdalena Ristic
Patrigarha Rajacia 43
Yugoslavia  

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News From Bangladesh

Thank you for your letter of January 1, along with the information on rice hullers. There was one hand operated huller there that looked promising if we could build a similar one ourselves. The picture of the ox driven stone cylinder is very similar to one picture that I have seen in an old hand made paper-making book (here being used for pulping with the stone enclosed by two walls). Unfortunately there are no naturally occurring stones in this river delta country, but I am thinking it may be possible to use brick or perhaps some particular heavy hardwood species of tree.
Although we separate the majority of the paddy from the stalks by hand beating, that remaining on the stalks is separated at the end simply by hooking up 3 to 4 oxen in a line around a central post and spreading the stalks for them to walk on, this is quite efficient to loosen the more stubborn grains. If we were to use parboiled rice (semi-boiled in the husk) it would be much easier to hull. This process is not offerable to the Deity (according to Gaudiya-vaisnava tradition) and in our particular locality, not used, although most other parts of Bengal usually parboil the paddy before husking.

Thank you for enclosing those addresses in Bangladesh. I have visited them some years ago, the last two are engaged in promoting 'modern' agriculture practices and promoting hybrid monoculture varieties of rice with innumerable varying qualities and tastes, thanks to these "Research Institutes," almost all of them are lost forever. Almost 95% of the people under the ages of 25 / 30 have never eaten a traditional variety. The old rice varieties had such wonderful and descriptive names, "Gopat Bhoga," "Kalo Jeera," etc., now the names are "IRRI 32," "BRRI II," and the like. The "Intermediate Technology" organizations along with all the "NGOS" are actively engaged in destroying any remaining traditional or sustainable practices and methods of agriculture. Whether they do this knowingly or willingly or just out of ignorance is irrelevant. They are all funded by western governments to 'modernize' local agriculture practices, and the scientists engaged are only doing their jobs. Again, thank you so much for the letter, and I am anxiously awaiting to see what other nectar is in your next newsletter. Hare Krsna.

Nistula das
Chittagong Bangladesh

PS. I went to post this letter and discovered that your Fall 95 newsletter in the post box. Thank you very much for anticipating and sending two of them. Anita & Co., as well as all the devotees were very enlivened to see the wonderful 2 page spread. It gave them great encouragement. It is not always the easiest thing to convince the devotees to work backwards (against the current of "modern development'). This article will be a really great incentive to them to not only continue with enthusiasm with the paper, but also in other areas. Again, thank you so much. My only regret is the quality of the photos I took. Anyway your presentation was first class.
Thanks also for enclosing that beautiful calendar. How many calendars do you print each year? If we were geographically closer, we would like to donate specialty made paper for next year. Hare Krishna.

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Sponsor a Teamster Campaign August 95 - August 96

Chart shows pledged amount and how much has been given by March 96.

The above listing shows the ISCOWP members who have pledged donations for the Sponsor a Teamster Campaign. It also shows the amount of donations that have come in for this campaign as of the end of February.

As you can see we are $4071.50 short of our goal of $30, 000. which translates into a few less teamsters and oxen to be trained. With the $25928.50 pledged we can train 18 oxen and 9 teamsters.

At this point, about half way through the campaign, we are training 9 oxen and 4 teamsters.

For many years at New Vrndavana there have been no trained, working oxen. However, many of the long term residents remember working with oxen and horses in the past to till the rolling hillsides of New Vrndavana. You might say we are helping to revive the past animal power history of New Vrndavana by training New Vrndavana's residents and oxen.
Tripada das who has the team Bhima and Bhumi (pictured on this page) is a long term resident who is planning on staying and digging his roots deep in New Vrndavana. Tripada has recently purchased a 7.9 acre parcel where he and his family will live with their team. So now, Bhima and Bhumi will have a secure home. Right now Bhima is learning to pull logs and they are both learning to work together which means learning to wear a yoke.
Digging one's roots in deep is beneficial to protecting cows. A cow or ox can live to 25 years. We often tell prospective teamsters or cow protectors that having an ox or cow is like having a child. The responsibility is long term .
Therefore being securely situated is very important to successfully fulfill this responsibility.
Raganatha with his wife Jarnuna and family, also long-term residents of New Vrndavana are already protecting two cows and will be protecting a team of oxen also. They have bought land also and Raganatha wishes to work the oxen to develop his land. Balabhadra will be training him and his team in the spring. In our next newsletter Raganatha will be telling us about his realizations and experiences taking care of his COWS.
Speaking of getting firmly situated, we are now in our new home and operating nicely. In our last newsletter we were waiting to move in, paint, and clean. That stage is over, thank goodness, and we are now preparing for spring planting on the surrounding fields of Madhuvana Farm. Bhakta Dave and Bhakta Chris have moved into Balabhadra's old residence, the ISCOWP bus, which is situated in an opposite field to the house. They both have a desire to live on the land and this move was a quick fulfillment to that desire.
Bhakta Dave has been training with Balabhadra for 8 months. He writes, "I have been acquiring new skills and more knowledge under Balabhadra's direction and feel I would very much like to be a part of manifesting Srila Prabhupada's self-sufficient goals for New Vrndavana."
Part of Bhakta Dave's training has been as a teamster with a new team, Padma and Ganda. The team is young and also in the beginning stages of their training. Therefore, two older oxen will be trained by summer so Bhakta Dave can help develop the fields at Madhuvana with ox power. Padma and Ganda will be two small at that time to do any serious plowing.
Although the first day of spring is March 20th we are now (March 8th) experiencing freezing temperatures and snowfall. The earth is frozen and can not be plowed. Planting is not a good idea until there is assurance the freezing temperatures are over. We pray the extreme weather will abate timely.

This picture shows the new team Padma and Ganda who are 4 months old. They have been in training for one month and have proven to be quick learners. They already know "Get Up," "Whoa," and "Haw." Now they are learning how to stand still after they "Whoa." These commands have been learned separately and now part of their training program is to learn to walk together. Bhakta Dave, their teamster, spends two sessions everyday with them under Balabhadra's instruction. Since the barn is not completed yet they have a home in front of the temple in a little barn with a fenced area that was used last summer to house another young team.
Also living near the temple is a bull calf born only a few days ago. There is a small barn and fenced area near the temple in which Vraja and Gita stayed during their Memorial Day visit to New Vrndavana. He is completely black and makes a matching team with another calf recently born at the barn. The plan is to train them this summer.
At present the first born calf is being housed with their mother under Gopi-lila devi dasi's care. By receiving personal care and attention he will be more receptive to receive training in a few months. Padma & Ganda received much attention in their early days from Bhaktin Laura and Bhakti-seva. They have proven to be quick and receptive learners.
So far, all the teams receiving training have been young calves at the beginning of their training. This spring and summer they will not be able to do a great deal of work simply because they do not have the size and strength necessary. Jaya and Nanda and Bhakta Jeremy's ox Pita are one year old and 10 months old respectively and will be able to do light field work and hauling in the summer. Vraja and Gita, at one year old, were harrowing fields (light field work) for planting.
Jaya and Nanda have been logging in the woods. Ananga Manjaridevi dasi (formerly Sarah) has completed malting a new yoke for them out of a 400 pound log hauled from the woods by Vraja and Gita (see picture on page 4). Bhakta Jeremy's ox is pulling logs. In the next few months there will be increased activity with the oxen due to the favorable weather and the many agricultural activities that go along with the approaching seasons.

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Evaluation of Fiscal Year 95

EXPENSES

SUMMARY

The Seed to Sustenance Land Project, now located at New Vrndavana, West Virginia, is the scene of ISCOWP's agricultural development based on ox-power. The categories and costs listed above reflect several months of the Seed to Sustenance project in North Carolina (before ISCOWP's move to West Virginia) along with our activities here in West Virginia. The barn costs reflect credit card charges paid using funds from the November sale of our mobile home. The barn will be taken down this year, moved to West Virginia, and reconstructed on land which will be in ISCOWP's name.

A major aspect of this year's project has been the training of teamsters and oxen from the New Vrndavana herd. Please refer to pages 6-7 & 12 for a more detailed financial report and analysis of this aspect which is still in progress till August 1996.

SUMMARY

This year, with the encouragement of Vanamali Pandit Prabhu (Dr. Mody) we received advice from Kala Kanta Prabhu from ISKCON Foundation on how to improve our fund raising techniques. Now we understand the professional approach and have acquired new computer equipment and software to facilitate more effective and efficient fund raising. The challenge this year is to learn how to utilize all the new facilities.

The ISCOWP News is our quarterly publication which informs its readers to ISCOWP's progress and educates by discussions of relevant topics. Our monthly pledge members ($15+ a month) receive a monthly ISCOWP progress picture report. Other pledge members ($30+. a month) receive monthly fresh baked oatmeal-chip cookies, which are a favorite snack of Vraja and Gita and our members, in addition to a picture report.

As you can see in the letter section, activity in our cow conference on COM/LINK is expanding. Much useful information is being gathered and distributed amongst our 100 international members.

SUMMARY

Many trips have been made to move 75% of our ox-power equipment from North Carolina to West Virginia with a few large pieces remaining. We have moved into and refurbished a house situated at Madhuvana Farm, a house that Srila Prabhupada lived in 2 out of his 4 visits to West Virginia. The sale of our mobile home enabled us to move the office activities to New Vrndavana, have the whole family and ISCOWP under one roof, and pay off ISCOWP credit card debts.

INCOME

William E. Dove's (Balabhadra d) donation comes from the sale of the family's mobile home and was used to pay off all major ISCOWP credit card debts. Services rendered refers to funds given to ISCOWP's land development planning for Madhuvana Farm, clean-up and refurbishing of Madhuvana house and land, as well as other areas, salvaging building materials, training teamsters and oxen, cow protection and fund raising consultation, and building a barn at Madhuvana from salvaged materials

ISCOWP's success is due to your help. Thank you!  

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LAKSHMI'S KITCHEN

Vegetable Semolina (Upma)

PREPARATION TIME: 35 minutes 
COOKING TIME: 15-20 minutes 
YIELD: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

1 pound assorted vegetables 
2 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil 
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds 
1/2 teaspoon fenegreek seeds 
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated 
1 dried chili, crushed 
6 curry (neem leaves)* 
1/2 teaspoon turmeric* 
1/ 4 teaspoon asafetida* 
5 1/2 cups water 
3 teaspoons salt 
2 2 / 3 cups semolina or farina 
1 cup butter or ghee 
1/2 teaspoon black pepper 
2 tablespoons lemon juice 
2 tablespoons butter

1. Begin by cutting the vegetables. You can use what- ever vegetable you have or what the season provides. Just cut them appropriate sizes so they will finish cooking at the same time. Heat 2 tablespoons of ghee in a saucepan or wok over a medium flame and fry the cumin seeds, black mustard seeds, fenegreek seeds, curry seeds, ginger, and chili. After 30 to 45 seconds, toss in the turmeric and asafetida. Then add the cut vegetables. Then add a little water to prevent scorching. (you do not need to add water if using a wok). Lower the heat, cover, and simmer, put the water and salt in a small pot to boil.

2. Melt the butter in a 5-quart saucepan, add the semolina, and stir-fry gently over a medium-low flame, stirring every time the bottom layer of semolina appears lightly browned. It should take 10 to 15 minutes for all the semolina to turn brown.

3. When the grains are ready and the water is boiling put the cooked vegetables into the grains. Then pour the boiling water into the mixture. Be careful! The mixture will erupt and sputter. Lower the flame. Stir several times to break up any lumps. Then cover the pot to trap the steam. Let the upma simmer on the lowest flame. After 5 minutes, lift the lid to see if the grains have absorbed all the water. If not, stir briskly several times and cook a few more minutes uncovered. Finally, add the pepper, lemon juice, and butter. Mix again and offer to Krsna with tomato chutney.

*These items can be purchased at an oriental, Indian or health food grocery store. 

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Expand ISCOWP Membership

Many of you have been with us from the very beginning when we incorporated in March of 1990. As you know we are a specialized organization dealing mostly with spreading the knowledge of ox-power, a very necessary and neglected aspect of cow protection. If you look carefully at the list of names you will see old-time members who are giving more and more to spread ox-power knowledge.

But we also need to reach out more to make a real difference. Due to our lack of computer equipment in the past, we have preferred to keep our mailing list small for easier handling. Now, due to the generous donation of one of our members it is possible to expand our database.

Therefore we are requesting that you help us expand our mailing list by donating a membership to a friend. A yearly membership consists of our quarterly newsletter The ISCOWP News and other pertinent literature. In return for your donation we will send you a glossy 22" by 28" poster of an original watercolor of the holy places of Sri Vraja Mandala, a 26 square mile area in India where the village of Vrndavana is situated. In this area of India, Lord Krsna, the original cowherd boy exhibited many wonderful pastimes with His friends, family, and cows. The poster can be sent to you or the friend who is receiving a membership. Please refer to the enclosed yellow form.

If you would like to send us some names of friends you think might be interested in ISCOWP, please do so and we will send them an introductory newsletter and membership package. Thank you all for your help! 

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New Plows!

When Cuba and Russia broke off relations, the Cubans realized that they no longer had their oil connection and were forced to work their sugar plantations with an alternative energy source. They set into motion the training of 400, 000 oxen, of which they are about 50% realized. Part of their solution to solve the oil problem in agriculture is the development of a special plow, three of which Jitarati Prabhu has sent us. 
This plow has been outfitted with either large or small wings and a depth wheel. These wings cut the root system of the plants underground leaving the roots to decompose as fresh organic matter for plant food without the lose of nitrogen from the soil. The soil is loosened up at root level allowing aeration and water penetration. As the grasses or weeds die back after the roots have been cut they become mulch on top of the soil and help in holding soil moisture for the soon to emerge crops.
Several steps in field preparation and the "hardpan" problem related with the traditional moldboard plow is eliminated. As soon as the weather allows we will begin to use these plows and will report the results to you in the next issue.

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