Gitagrad Varnashrama
Festival 2012

Although the weekend began wet and windy the weather subsided and a delightful time was had by all. In previous years the festival was held at Magdalenavka Retreat center in cold January so as not to interfere with spring planting. This year we decided to hold it after the planting was done and Bhakta Oleg agreed to be the host at New Vraja Bhumi, the Gitagrad village at Bezvodnaya, near Nikolaiv in southern Ukraine.

Attendance was from 50-60 participants, nearly half of which were women, in contrast to earlier years when the ladies numbers were much smaller. Many of the participants this year were "village hopefuls", that is, they are interested in village living but haven't gotten there just yet. 

Given the venue, the discussions were much more practical and hands-on than before, with such seminars as building with saman (clay/straw), straw bale construction, making efficient wood stoves, raising, training and working with bulls, care of cows, agriculture, bee keeping, soap making, natural cosmetics, conservation of foods, Varnashrama culture, additional upcoming Ukrainian village projects near Odessa, and more. 

The festival was held in two adjacent villages--Bezvodnaya, where we had the use of the Cultural Center for indoor activities, and Mikailovka where the cows are kept. On Sunday afternoon everyone went out to meet and brush the cows, pet the calves, and to try a hand at milking. Then we all had as much fresh, raw, un-pasturized, un-homogenized straight-from-the-cow milk as we wanted! Yum! (pity that people in America are being harassed by the govmint for drinking such wholesome milk).

I have put a number of photos of the festival on Flikr for you to browse, and many, many more should be online soon. Additionally, today I had my debut into video-making putting the various clips I took of our fun with the cows. There's about two hours of work for every minute of video -- ugh, the learning curve! -- so I hope that you will enjoy it!