You can call me Honey!

"Unique among all God's creatures, only the honeybee improves the environment and preys not on any other species." ~ Royden Brown

Thank you so much to all those who have made a pledge to my kickstarter campaign to bring a hive of honeybees  to my homestead near the sea!  The campaign is a success, I have met my minimum pledge goal and my project will now be funded!  Excuse me why I do a happy dance...O.K., I'm back now.  It all began with a sleepless night, and now it is a daytime reality show!  My equipment is ordered and beginning to arrive, I am enrolled in the Milk & Honey course at Esalen, and I am continuing to learn more each day in my studies of bees.  If you would still like to participate, you can, and there are great rewards for donating.  Buzzz!!!

Let's celebrate this success with some facts about Bees and and there Hives!

1. The honey bee has been around for millions of years.

2. Honey bees, scientifically also known as Apis mellifera, are environmentally friendly and are vital as pollinators.

3. It is the only insect that produces food eaten by man.

4. Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, includingenzymes, vitamins, minerals, and water; and it's the only food that contains "pinocembrin", anantioxidant associated with improved brain functioning.

5. Honey bees have 6 legs, 2 compound eyes made up of thousands of tiny lenses (one on each side of the head), 3 simple eyes on the top of the head, 2 pairs of wings, a nectar pouch, and a stomach.

6. Honey bees have 170 odorant receptors, compared with only 62 in fruit flies and 79 in mosquitoes. Their exceptional olfactory abilities include kin recognition signals, social communication within the hive, and odor recognition for finding food. Their sense of smell was so precise that it could differentiate hundreds of different floral varieties and tell whether a flower carried pollen or nectar from metres away.

7. The honey bee's wings stroke incredibly fast, about 200 beats per second, thus making their famous, distinctive buzz. A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, and as fast as 15 miles per hour.

8. The average worker bee produces about 1/12th teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

9. A hive of bees will fly 90,000 miles, the equivalent of three orbits around the earth to collect 1 kg of honey.

11. A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.

13. A colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honeybees and one queen. Worker honey bees are female, live for about 6 weeks and do all the work.

14. The queen bee can live up to 5 years and is the only bee that lays eggs. She is the busiest in the summer months, when the hive needs to be at its maximum strength, and lays up to 2500 eggs per day. Click here to learn more about the Honey Bee Life Cycle,

15. Larger than the worker bees, the male honey bees (also called drones), have no stinger and do no work at all. All they do is mating.

16. Each honey bee colony has a unique odour for members' identification.

17. Only worker bees sting, and only if they feel threatened and they die once they sting. Queens have a stinger, but they don't leave the hive to help defend it.

18. It is estimated that 1100 honey bee stings are required to be fatal.

19. Honey bees communicate with one another by "dancing".

20. During winter, honey bees feed on the honey they collected during the warmer months. They form a tight cluster in their hive to keep the queen and themselves warm.

Source: youtube.com via Greg on Pinterest

“Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?

Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.

Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.

Last night as I slept,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that it was God I had
here inside my heart. ” 
― Antonio Machado

Anoche cuando dormía 
soñé ¡bendita ilusión! 
que una fontana fluía 
dentro de mi corazón. 
Dí: ¿por qué acequia escondida, 
agua, vienes hasta mí, 
manantial de nueva vida 
en donde nunca bebí? 

Anoche cuando dormía 
soñé ¡bendita ilusión! 
que una colmena tenía 
dentro de mi corazón; 
y las doradas abejas 
iban fabricando en él, 
con las amarguras viejas, 
blanca cera y dulce miel. 

Anoche cuando dormía 
soñé ¡bendita ilusión! 
que un ardiente sol lucía 
dentro de mi corazón. 
Era ardiente porque daba 
calores de rojo hogar, 
y era sol porque alumbraba 
y porque hacía llorar. 

Anoche cuando dormía 
soñé ¡bendita ilusión! 
que era Dios lo que tenía 
dentro de mi corazón.

Wild Harvesting Cactus Fruit

This week I've been hiking up a hillside by my house with a beautiful view of the ocean.  My new puppy loves to bound up the hill free from his leash.  I was noticing the nopales, the cactus, that grow in patches on the hillside, were loaded with ripe, and also dried-out fruit, of a deep fuchsia color.  I did a little looking on the Internet and learned some techniques for working with these prickly fruits know in Mexico as Tunas.  They have some obvious short spines, but even more dangerous are almost invisible hair-like spines.  These hair spines can be easily knocked or blown off when handling the fruit, so be careful.

I prepared for the harvest, my equipment consisted of two dogs, a backpack, a glass jar with a lid and some metal tongs.  I choose fruit that were dark in color, big and un damaged.  I used the tongs to secure the fruit and give them a little twist as I pulled them from the cactus paddle and then immediately dropped them in my glass jar.  I never touch the fruit or the cactus directly.

I took my full jar home and filled it with water and a small amount of apple cider vinegar and shook it up to remove any dirt or debris.  I drained this vinegar water and added fresh water, shook again and drained.  I transferred the clean fruit to the blender and added about a cup of water and puréed.  I poured this mixture through a mesh strainer, using a whisk to help work it through.  I took my strained mixture and added it back to the blender with another cup of water and half cup of agave syrup and puréed again.  I then poured it through a finer strainer.  The finished produce was a bit concentrated and I add fresh water to taste with each serving.  I also brewed up some kombucha flavored with this juice, such a beautiful pink color, I love it!  Tastes kind of like Raspberry with Aloe!

Inflammation Reduction Diet

To maintain health we must periodically clean ourselves, not only on the outside, but on the inside.

From time to time I see the most amazing healer, Dr. William Lerner.  He is a chiropractor and more importantly to me, a kinesiologist.  He uses muscle testing to have a conversation with your body to discover its needs and its aggravators.  I would like to send everyone who comes to me with chronic pain to see Dr. Lerner, but the truth is that there is a long wait to become a new client of his.  So in a very slow way, I am beginning to study his techniques beginning with some courses I took last fall on Touch for Health. Education and training is expensive and time consuming, so I am taking my time on developing these skills, but I hope some day to converse with the body and discover its voice in the way Dr. Lerner does.

Often when I see Dr. Lerner for a pain in my physical body, such as in my finger joint, my knee, hip, or neck, he discovers the source of the pain to be caused by inflammation from reaction to foods that I am consuming.  When I first started seeing Dr. Lerner, I was having pain for several years in the joint of my middle finger.  The pain had been there for several years, and I thought it was occupational, stress to the finger joint from deep tissue massage.  I was completely wrong, I didn't need to give up my job or change my technique.  Instead, what I had to give up was dairy.  I didn't believe at first, but I trusted without belief and cut dairy out of my diet, and in a few months the pain had gone away completely!  I am not lactose intolerant and don't feel sick immediately after eating dairy.  Instead it is the longterm build up of casein, or milk protein, in my system that causes sensitivity to my joints.  I don't always lead a dairy free life, but when i do, I feel better!  Here are two articles about the link between arthritis and milk:  Foods and Arthritis  RA and Milk

The last few weeks I've been experiencing instability and pain in my hips and knees.  My patella was even popping out of alignment for two scary days.  Yesterday I saw Dr. Lerner, and he again discovered a food allergy that my body was responding to with inflammation.  Fantastically interesting stuff to me.  This time it was the nightshade family causeing my health decline.  Sure enough, I had been experimenting with potatoes quite a bit lately in my kitchen as well as smoked paprika, chile peppers, tomatoes, hot sauce, all nightshades.  Other nightshades (that I don't tend to eat so often) include, eggplant, goji berries, ashwandgha, tomatillos,...  In these foods the harmgul component are alkaloids, a nitrogen based compound in these plants that acts as a natural insecticide, keeping insects from eating them.  It is not fully understand the mechanism in our body that causes the inflammation, but it is a direct link for some people, eat nightshades, experience joint pain.  Here are two articles that explore this subject: Nightshade Article  Informative Article.

Now all of our bodies and digestive abilities are different.  For the most part, I feel that my body is pretty happy with bread and gluten, but for many people, gluten is a major source of inflammation in the body.  Just read this Article from Huffington Post and you'll probably be scared to eat bread for a week.  The main problem with bread is the genetically created wheat that is the basis for the bread we eat in America for the last 50 years.  It's a major problem and makes me cry as I reflect upon the
passage of Congress of HR 993 in the Agricultural Appropriations Bill.  I'm not sure if its any better for me, but I have begun to buy 00 Farina, a flour imported from Italy.  Perhaps the stronger restrictions in Europe are providing my family with higher quality wheat, it sure makes for better pasta.

In conclusion, I am going on an anti-inflammatory diet for a few days/weeks, we'll see.  The method is to eliminate all dairy, nightshades, and wheat from my diet and instead focus on fruits, vegetables, beans, non-gluten grains, nuts and a little sustainably raised fish and meat.  My hope is that this diet will take some pain and stiffness from my body and allow me to be a more supportive, encouraging, and energetic member of my community!

Composting

This post comes with a warning: I don't know what I'm doing.  This post is not a how-to, its a how-I'm-attempting.  My husband and I were walking our dogs home from the beach in January, following an alley up that runs behind beautiful coastal property, when we came across this composting device that had been left out with the trashcans for disposal.  We picked it up between the two of us and trying not to step on any dogs, we carried it a few blocks home.

I began to fill the ventilated receptacle up haphazardly with dead leaves, vegetable juice pulp and other odds and ends from my kitchen and garden.  I didn't seem like much was happening, so I talked to my mom, and she said that it has to be mixed up a lot.  So I began the difficult work of turning the compost every day or so with my hands or a shovel.  After a few weeks I got my chickens and I began adding the chicken poop and pine shavings they nest in to the compost, that helped a lot, and I began to notice the center of the compost heating up, even steaming on a cold day.

I read up a bit on-line and decided my compost was too dry, so I wet it down a bit, lacking in nitrogen rich green material, so I asked the gardeners to dump the grass when they mowed into the compost, and finally lacking in worms, so my mom brought me a big bag from the garden store.  Now I started seeing some change, the creation of some lovely planting soil.

I have yet to complete this process, but I have recently started a new compost pile to add new material too allowing the first compost pile time to complete its process without adding any new material.  I need a compost pile to dispose of the waste from my chickens, but so far its proven difficult.  I'd like more space and a better set-up, mixing the compost by hand is difficult work.  Here are some great resources to teach you, I still have much to learn!

eartheasy.com

www.composting101.com

howtocompost.org

Hibiscus Drink

This is an herbal sun tea.  My mom always made sun tea in the summer with a few bags of Lipton tea.  We had two great lemon trees and my parents loved to drink their tea with lots of ice and a wedge of lemon as they read the paper on a sunny weekend.  Sun tea is so simple, all you need is a big glass container, some tea, and a sunny spot.  It's good to use transparent glass container so the infusion receives the full spectrum of the sun's light and, like all tea, it's good to use the cleanest and freshest water possible.  You do not heat the water, fill your container with room temperature water and your tea, about a quarter cup for a gallon of water.  If your container doesn't have a lid, cover with a towel or plastic wrap so no bugs fly in and place the container in the sun.  I left this hibiscus tea out all day.  For a black or green tea you might leave it less time, like 4 or 6 hours.  Strain the tea and refrigerate.  I didn't sweeten the hibiscus tea, it is quite tart, and many would prefer it sweetened with some honey, agave, or sugar.  You can purchase the dried hibiscus flowers from my Etsy Shop or at The Robin's Nest.

Alternate Nostril Breathing

Alternate Nostril Breathing, or, Anuloma Viloma Pranayama, is part of the Sivananda Basic Hatha Yoga class.  I have taught this exercise thousands of times and find it to be calming, centering and a great tool for expanding awareness of your own inner workings.

This breathing can be done before your yoga asanas to center you and gather your energy at the beginning of your practice.  In the Sivananda Series we practice Pranayama at the beginning of class beginning with Khapalabhati Pranayama followed by Anuloma Viloma.  It can be done at the end of your asana practice to settle and calm you before final relaxation.  Or it can be done as a stand alone exercise at most anytime and in any place.  I was told once a story of a powerful attorney who would always practice for  few minutes before appearing in court.

If you are deeply congested the exercise will be impossible.  If you are pregnant or are experiencing headache or other tension, it is best not to hold the breath.  Instead, alternate the breathing but with a continuous breath and without retentions.


Let's begin:

Typically we sit on the floor in sukhasana, a cross legged position.  You can sit on a blanket or cushion to be more comfortable.  The exercise could be done sitting in a chair, laying in bed, or even standing if necessary. As you follow these instructions, keep you body and face relaxed.  Do the best you can pacing your breath, but if it is difficult, adjust the exercise so it works for you.  It is best to sit and practice deep conscious breathing for a few minutes before beginning this exercise.

Practice slow deep breathing for a few minutes at both the beginning and end of this exercise.

With the right hand you will form the Vishnu Mudra and use the fingers to regulate the flow of breath through the right or left side, I'll explain this more in a moment.  With your left hand form the Gyan Mudra by touching your thumb to the tip of your index finger to form a circle while extending your outer three fingers open.  Place your left hand on your leg or knee and let it rest there throughout the exercise.

Place your left hand on your knee in Gyan Mudra throughout the exercise.

With your right hand form the Vishnu Mudra by folding your first two fingers to the base of your thumb while extending the thumb, ring and pinky finger.  After a calm breath in, seal the right nostril with the thumb and exhale slowly through the left side to a slow count of eight.  Next inhale on the same left side for a shorter count of four.

Exhale from the left nostril to a count of 8 then inhale on the left for a count of 4.

Gently seal both nostrils and retain the breath for about 16 seconds.  Focus internally at your third eye point at the center of your forehead.

Cover the nostrils and retain the breath for 16 seconds.

Uncover the right nostril by lifting the thumb and exhale for 8 seconds then inhale for 4 seconds.  You repeat this pattern exhaling for 8, inhaling for 4, retaining for 16, other side exhale 8, inhale 4, retain 16.  It is considered a "round" when you complete both sides.  As a beginner you might start with four rounds and gradually increase over time.  Another way to make the exercise more advanced is to lengthen the pace, exhaling for 10, inhaling for 5 and retaining for 20.  It's a ratio inhale:1 exhale:2 retention:4.

Exhale on the right side for 8 and inhale for 4.

After you have completed the exercise it is most important to drop your right hand back down to your knee and to sit and meditate for a few minutes.  During this time become aware of the sensations in your body, your breath, and your mind.

I have a photographer!

Where the magic happens!

I love keeping this blog!  I feel like I have a lot of ideas and experiences to share, but the photos I take (on my phone) really aren't too amazing.  So I am pleased to say that I am now collaborating with the talented Aaron Goulding!  In the year of simplicity, it is the underground commerce known as barter or trade that has brought this opportunity my way.  So enjoy a step up (maybe a few thousand steps up) in the quality of the photos around here for awhile.  I am so grateful and excited to share these new images with you!

A New Facet to my Dharma

It's an interesting thing happening for me at this transitional age of 35.  I'm experiencing the clarification of my Dharma.  I know I am a healer, an educator of health and yoga.  I feel deep reverence for this profession and for the work I do with others.  But I have always had the feeling that there was something else in addition to this that the universe wanted me to be doing.  And it wasn't so much something different than what I was already doing, but just a maturation of my skills enabling me to begin to teach others, and the success to give me the freedom to use some of my time towards other goals.  And what are these skills and goals you ask?  They are homesteading skills.

At first I thought these new efforts in my life were for my own good, but after seeing the effect my chickens have on the neighborhood, I am realizing that I am learning and practicing these skills so that I can share the experience with others and empower them (YOU) to make healthy living changes in their own environments.  It began with some healthy recipes made form whole foods, and is expanding into composting, gardening, raising chickens, raising bees and just in general becoming deeply connected to the cycle of life.  I have called this the year of simplicity for my self, but simplicity ain't simple.  For the most part to me it means cutting off a corporate supply change and creating my own supply change.  It often means investment in equipment, an initial period of patience when things are getting started, and a whole lot of extra work for me.  The simplicity is not in the doing, but in the purity and simplicity of the final product.  When I am not able to create things on my own, then I try to rely on the farmers' market, and other sources of integrity.

My guru in this adventure is my laptop (or iPad).  I am not the first person in America to try to go back to their roots lately, so luckily I can find all sorts of information from others on what to do, how to do it, and at what time of the year.  I just found a great home steading blog, and like me, it all started with a compost pile.  Just after the new year, while walking our dogs home from the beach, we found an interesting composting barrel in a back alley waiting to be thrown out.  We each grabbed a side (my husband and I, not the puppies) and walked a few awkward blocks home with the thing.  Honestly it has been difficult.  At first there were a lot of flies.  But after consulting with my garden guru mom and receiving a gift from her of a big bag of worms, its starting to progress a bit better.  I've been told that you can't have much success with one composting bin, and instead you need two so that they can be at different states of composition, so here's what I hope to get built for me soon, or maybe its easy enough to do on my own, a pallet compost bin.

If you think that is awesome and you'd like to support my efforts, you can!  I have just started my first Kickstarter Campaign, and am asking you and the rest of my virtual community to support the expansion of my homestead with some bee hives.  If you would like to make a contribution, it would be greatly appreciated.  There are great rewards for donating!  Even if you aren't able to contribute, stay tuned here at YoginiRobin and follow the progree of my hive!  Click here to donate to this Bee Project!

Winter Power Breakfast

Here in Southern California the weather can be confusing.  Today, for example, was a beautiful sunny day. Probably in the low 70's.  It was the perfect Sunday for the local farmers' market and the afternoon in the garden planting a new lemon tree.  Although it felt like a mild summer day, the reality is that spring has not yet sprung, and we are in the last days of winter!  Winter is a time to be sure and not skip breakfast, and when I need a hearty breakfast, I often reach for a carton of eggs.  But lately I've been trying to wake up with a healthier start with oatmeal and all the fixings!  No instant oatmeal for me either.  Instead I simmer my oatmeal for 10-15 minutes then add the yummy treats that make this breakfast so awesome!  Lately it's been red walnuts from the farmers' market, Greek yogurt, bee pollen, dried blueberries and dried cherries.  This breakfast keeps me hopping all morning, especially when preceded by my usual morning veggie-fruit juice.

The Community Effect

 When I decided with my husband to become backyard chicken raisers, it was a decision that we mostly made for our own personal benefits and for the distant benefit of metaphorically liberating from bondage all those factory chickens that were providing us with eggs.  I did't think my decision to raise chicken would have an effect on my immediate community, at best, I was hoping not to be a nuisance.  So far we haven't gotten any eggs, our chickens are still purely in the realm of pets, not yet supplying us with nutrition, so I'm still waiting for that benefit in my life.  Instead it is the effect the chickens have on the community that has been the most profound experience so far.  We don't have a backyard, instead we have a nice garden in front of our house on a fairly busy intersection across the street from a high school.  The chickens have their protective ranging area right along the fence, and people walking by have a close up encounter with the chickens if they choose.  All day long I witness people stopping to interact with the chickens.  If they see me in the garden they'll let me know "I love your chickens."  People tell me about how there dogs are connecting with the chickens, that they refuse to walk past on the other side of the street, they want to visit the chickens!  Many young families walk past me house, strollers and toddlers and elementary school kids whose loving parents walk or ride on bikes past my house to and from school.  The kids get really excited, they love to see the chickens.  It's exciting to connect people, especially children, to this beautiful animal.  Many of us utilize chickens for our sustenance without considering the chicken as a living creature with a dharma and a personality, I know I have.  Every day my chickens bring me more joy and I am grateful for this unexpected effect they are having on my neighborhood....now if they would just start laying me some eggs!

Sleepless Nights

About six weeks ago I spent a sleepless night.  No problems, no worries, just pure excitement.  I had decided that I could, and would, raise chickens in my own front yard.  The idea got my brain spinning and I spent at least one sleepless night filled with imaginings and late night web searches.  Now my chickens are established in their beautifully built home, and for a few weeks everything has been calm, yet busy.  Last night a new possibility creeped its way into my brain and went from idea to distinct possibility.  After several hours of tossing and turning, I found myself sitting on the couch at 3am, creating my first Kickstarter campaign.  Kickstarter is a way to find funding from the community for creative endeavors.  I have helped others in the past record albums of yoga chanting music through kickstarter.  At three in the morning I decided it was the answer to my deep longing to become a bee tender!  This is the year of sustainability for me, creating nourishing food in my kitchen and on my property.  We are honey addicts in my house, and honey isn't cheap.  I have seen the price of a pound of honey go up by $2 in the last year.  There are all sorts of stories in the news about Bee Colony death and the devastating effects on the ecosystem and crops without the adequate supply of honey bees in our community.  The same city council referendum (city bee regulations) passed in early 2012 allowing for chickens in residential areas also allows for the keeping of beehives at residences for personal consumption.  The supplies you need are not too expensive, at the maintenance sounds fairly minimal.  I have even found a 5 day training course at Esalen, or it would be better to say the course found me and has been my inspiration for this all!  Stay tuned as my kickstarter campaign gets approved and I look to you for support in fulfilling my ever expanding dream of a little homestead near the beach in San Diego.

A Creative Retreat

Over the last few years I have been attending from time to time a special class called Creative Retreat.  The class is facilitated by Kate Fetterolf, figure painter and art therapist.  The class is a weekly gathering of women for two hours.  We all sit in a big group on an assortment of tables gathered in the center of Kate's light and airy art studio in downtown La Jolla.  At the beginning Kate offers us different bits of creative fodder, maybe a poem, a short exercise, some photos of art to inspire us... Then we get to work, open to use the varied resources of Kate's studio.  She will help us to get started with our chosen medium and we are free to create for about an hour an a half.  As we all work, Kate will observe and occasionally ask a little question or offer up a bit of guidance in using a particular medium. As we near the end of class she will start to corral us in, helping us towards some place of completion.  At the end we spend a few minutes looking at one anthers creation and discussing a bit our creative process.  The class has been so helpful to me.  I have felt my creative self opening up tremendously while taking these classes.  I enjoy especially witnessing the creative experience of the other participants.  Here are some of my artistic meanderings.  Kate is currently accepting new students for her Creative Retreat held at Outside the Lines studio in La Jolla.