Author Topic: All Things Sauna  (Read 14797 times)

John P

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #60 on: April 27, 2018, 05:04:19 PM »
I'm getting a little confused. I thought the issues with your sweat lodges were first that you lost the location where it was sited, and then there was a split in your group caused by several women who said they'd been sexually harassed by the previous landowner. Have you actually got a functioning sauna/sweat?

eyesup

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #61 on: April 27, 2018, 09:32:36 PM »
Just make sure the wood you are burning isn’t treated wood. Depending how old it is it can have some bad chemicals in it, chromium, copper or arsenic in it. I don’t know what they are using nowadays but at one time it was not recommended to burn it.

Sorry if I’m raining on your sauna. :'(

Duane

jbeegoode

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #62 on: April 28, 2018, 08:26:19 AM »
Just make sure the wood you are burning isn’t treated wood. Depending how old it is it can have some bad chemicals in it, chromium, copper or arsenic in it. I don’t know what they are using nowadays but at one time it was not recommended to burn it.

Sorry if I’m raining on your sauna. :'(

Duane
We know all about that Duane. We have been scrounging palates, mesquite, construction scrap, buying cords, raiding garbage, and hauling off pecan orchards for 40 years.
Thanks, for concern,
Someone got some oleander in the mix one time. Some people get anaphylactic from eucalyptus.
Jbee
Barefoot all over, all over.

jbeegoode

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #63 on: April 28, 2018, 08:38:28 AM »
I'm getting a little confused. I thought the issues with your sweat lodges were first that you lost the location where it was sited, and then there was a split in your group caused by several women who said they'd been sexually harassed by the previous landowner. Have you actually got a functioning sauna/sweat?
We lost the site, we took to a fundraiser to buy it, or someplace else, so we created a non-profit. We still have some money and a board looking for a place to build another.

In the meantime we have two sweats. One 30 minutes out of town southwest and one at my place, 30 minutes from downtown. We need one central, in town. Too many people don't like to drive so far and take so much time out of a day.

Those belligerent dramatic women were defeated. Their issues/concerns are being addressed as one is still on the board. There is now unity and cooperation on the board.

The article is about my place and what we did about two years ago.

I'm moving back into town. It might work out that the new gymnasium is in my backyard...we'll see.
Jbee
Jbee
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John P

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #64 on: April 30, 2018, 12:57:39 AM »
I'm not sure that the "belligerent dramatic women were defeated". If one of them is on the board, then it sounds as though peace has been restored without anyone being forced out, and every group can expect to be heard. I'm happy that it worked out that way.

But now, finding a new place close to town is probably quite a challenge. I hope you can do that.

jbeegoode

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #65 on: April 30, 2018, 04:58:39 AM »
I haven't a clue why, but I'm confident that a wonderful place will be acquired for the new sweat.
Jbee
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eyesup

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #66 on: May 02, 2018, 09:27:53 PM »
Quote from: Jbee
I'm moving back into town. It might work out that the new gymnasium is in my backyard...we'll see.
Oh no! That’s too bad. You are leaving your home and garden? :(
Since it will be a private facility, will the city or county be enforcing any health code requirements?

Duane

John P

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #67 on: May 02, 2018, 10:05:18 PM »
Or more likely, will they come in with zoning and construction-code issues? What you can't build in a residential area, what parts of the structure have to meet this and that and the other inspection requirements? They may say there's "some things you cain't do inside of city limits".

jbeegoode

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #68 on: May 03, 2018, 01:56:50 AM »
Generally we've got it covered. I can't lay out details. There are some thin lines. Mostly, difficulties might have to do with neighbors and parking, not the gov. Remember, we have been working with these same factors for nearly 40 years.

There has to be some compliance of course. There are certain definitions that apply as to use.
Jbee
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nuduke

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #69 on: May 26, 2018, 09:18:39 PM »

JBee,
Why oh why are you moving to the town?
You will be hard put to find a property that allows you the sort of all day freedoms that you have in the Tortolita hills.
I'm sure its a considered decision but seems almost counter to your nature.
Would you like to offer a bit more on the rationale for that?
John

jbeegoode

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #70 on: May 26, 2018, 11:07:57 PM »
If I can stand the mosquitoes, lack of quiet and people, which can all be mitigated...

Cons to stay: It is considered a drive for most friends, I would like more visitors. When I get older during retirement this could bring me to isolation.
I don't want to make the move when I need to, but now when I'm capable to make adjustments.
Often, I elect to just stay home rather than drive into town for social and cultural functions. I stay in town nearly half of the time at DF's place anyhow.
I'm sick and tired of having a dangerous surprise meeting with a rattlesnake in my yard each year, having to look under furniture before sitting, and watch every step with a potential for trauma. Walking like a warrior gets old, sometimes it is nice to just feel comfortable outside.
I can't really be barefoot on this desert. The wind blows needles everywhere.
I live in too much house for myself, and DF doesn't want to leave the city.
There will less elbow room around here, as the years go by.
I've had a good run, over twenty years in this gorgeous natural setting, the last ten most of my time out here and naked. There is less new and amazing and I know that I can have greater variety in nature elsewhere, but I won't be as intimate with a natural setting as I have become, by living here.
I will be more tied down to an extent here financially.
More inexpensive water and difficulty organic gardening to desired scale.

What "in town" looks like:
A modest home, with a good sized yard, walled in and private. Placed to mitigate city noise, which is mostly traffic. Stores may be within a bicycle distance. Much less gas cost. Maybe the community sweat in my backyard, a regular gymnasium atmosphere a couple of days a week. The new one would be closer, anyway. More water for organic food production and maybe a water feature to swim or lie about. Perhaps DF would retire in partnership instead of two households.

What replaces the nature at my back door? Spending at least 7 out of 30 days each month, hiking and camping, in all sorts of places. BArefoot all over living outdoors, in a garden around a home. Taking advantage of the optimum weather when it happens

From all the time that I spend in town with DF, I know that I'll need to get out often, but my possibilities will be greater, as I am not tied down to work schedules...just part-time, or a few months labor each year at Christmas, or just falling back and living on what I have...possibilities.

I have a portable wood burning stove to attach to a large canvas tent, bed of nice air mattress, and nice oriental wool rug floor. Hot water shower (adequate), a toilet, stove, and good food...nude glamping. Even a computer to write with. It all packs up into my 4x4 which takes it into the remote back country like I sometimes write about at my website. The hiking and exploration is one exercise, but I love to just focus on the body in the moment, to stretch, to work out, yoga, chi gong. There is more movement in living in the woods, even glamping, so the effort is the health that my body requires. More squatting, more bending. Call it a portable summer house, for a week, two weeks, two months, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon....
I don't think that I'll miss the staying in one natural convenient place so much, when I can now spend as much time as I feel in a variety of new adventures and cozy options with nude walks still out of my door.
I spend lots of time indoors now anyway. That is looking out of windows, or occupied to not even look out of windows.

Less of a home...I'm not into that anymore, I just need cozy, adequate, a bit of personal flare. I can create that in town, or DF and I can put together a place with enough space for two.

I've got 42 saguaros on this property. I'm taking a few with, then stuff the yard with less pricky vegetation, edible, an inviting  living space outside.
Jbee
Barefoot all over, all over.

BlueTrain

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #71 on: May 27, 2018, 02:45:17 PM »
That's a very good thesis on the considerations of where to live.

I have nature out my back door where I live now, in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. That doesn't mean I can go naked anywhere out there. For that, I have to go elsewhere and elsewhere is not close by. But I can still enjoy nice walks in the woods when the spirit moves me, which unfortunately is less and less these days. But that's another story. Anyway, I can see all the nature I care to see when I take a walk from my back door. It's much better now that the leaves are out but it's just as nice when it's freezing (and less muddy). My walk round trip is about two miles and there's a good view of a lake at the other end of the walk. The view from my deck is a wall of green thirty feet away.

A great deal depends on exactly where you live, of course. Frodo took pains when he bought his new house in Buckland to select one that was out of the way so that you could come and go without being noticed.  I do the same thing, leaving from the back door and going directly into the woods instead of from the front of the house. One of our neighbors across the street is always outside smoking. I call him the neighborhood watch.

The place where I lived when I was in college was across the street from the football stadium (at the time). But within fifteen minutes or so, I could be in deep woods, depending on how close I was able to park and on how deep I wanted to go. The woods around here, all over the county, are anything but deep, although they still offer good places for walking. But to reach a place where bears still roam, that's about a ninety minute drive.

eyesup

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #72 on: May 28, 2018, 06:55:26 AM »
Looks like a well thought out list of reasons that finally made sense to act on.
Good luck on the move. Hope all goes well with you and DF.

Duane

nuduke

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #73 on: May 31, 2018, 05:52:44 PM »

Looks like a well thought out list of reasons that finally made sense to act on.
Good luck on the move. Hope all goes well with you and DF.

Duane



Yes JBee, I can concur with Duane here.  You have brought together (possibly for the first time) the disadvantages of your apparently rather idyllic rural location.  The greatest of these I think is the danger of isolation in older age.  You have also clarified the nude opportunities and possibilities of a new location and I think provided you can be screened from neighbours, you may end up happy as larry* as a garden naturist like me! :)
John
*Larry as in the generally used simile but not as in Tanman! :D

jbeegoode

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Re: All Things Sauna
« Reply #74 on: March 06, 2019, 07:11:36 PM »
Last Sunday we hosted a sweat. Several friends came and shared. A younger couple arrived, then a much older friend. We conversed. Then another couple arrived and then a late thirties mom showed up with two of her cool kids. DF and myself. 

One grew up around Russian saunas. He loves to spend time in insane heat. We managed to get the thermometer up to over 212F one day. It went past the red lines. I was trying to understand why my body didn't just boil over. He described big city Russian public saunas with walls of heat, their customs and how they are used.

This day he brought a couple of veniki. Three were in a five gallon bucket soaking when they arrived. These are bundles of birch branches with leaves. The stems would make good whips if alone, but they are a fist full at the base.

There is a picnic table in our sweat. On that, his girlfriend stretched out on her stomach and he he began to demonstrate. Later she rolled onto her back. The process stimulates the entire body.

The bundles are waved around two fisted. First they were shaken over the hot rocks, steam rises as the water rains down. This heats up the room, and creates a pleasant forestry aroma with humidity.

The swishing of the branches is done so that they gather the heat from above and coat the body with it. At intervals, the bundles come crashing down as a heavy swat. This sting opens the pores and then subsequently hot air is scooped down into them. It is very effective.

Sometimes the veniki branches are left on the body, feeling like a hot wet blanket. It feels heavy and it swishes around. They are used to drag and scrape and stimulate the skin with heat, friction and moister.

Occasionally, the veniki is laying across the shoulders, or another section of body and a hand's pressure is applied, giving a massage effect and outgoing breathe cleansing the lungs, and giving a heat pack effect. There can be rhythm and every motion is a surprise.

We soon picked up how to do the operation and began to practice on each other, taking turns on the table. I began to laugh at the sounds of the room, "Please, beat me harder" and pleasure filled moans. Standing outside, one might wonder what was going on inside.

Working on others, my wrist were giving out as the leverage in the brooms becomes heavier in time. Standing in 190F to 200F humid air in movement is amazing exercise. It feels good. It works the upper body and lower back. A couple of us expressed that it would be a good healthy job to have.

We continued as the sun went down. I lit several candles in a candelabra for light. It was a wonderful experience shared by all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJkhfrPkijE

This one is very funny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BnM1kpE2rs

We just walk out under the stars and listen to quiet minds, or run a spray nozzle from a hose over the body during breaks.

Jbee

 
« Last Edit: March 06, 2019, 08:03:52 PM by jbeegoode »
Barefoot all over, all over.