More Projects than Usual

Several teams of workers are busy at the monastery, laying water lines, tiling the temple pool, trimming giant palm trees, tending the gardens, moving mountains of soil, and more. So today we offer a buffet of images to give you an idea of what's happening.

Pradeep Chand and his helper are trenching thousands of feet to bring water and optical cable to Iraivan Temple. All these years we have used a too-long garden hose to bring water to the temple.

Aason Figeroa is hidden here under the red tent, working on the Tamil Aum in tile.

Heading out to Iraivan Temple, we enter Corypha Alley, a path with seven Talipot palms on each side—fourteen sentinels guiding us to Mahalingesvara.

Cutting Edge Tree Trimmers are clearing the old and brown fronds.

These fronds are the biggest in the palm world, each weighing 200 pounds or more. Gavin is up in the bucket being careful since the petioles are serrated with super sharp and truly dangerous edges.

While he cuts from the boom truck, Kai moves the fronds off the road, wearing new leather gloves for protection.

A lot of protoplasm came down yesterday. Now, to move it to our Green Dump.

The massive trunks are revealed in the process.

Who designs this stuff?

A sign at the beginning.

More sun comes through now and the palms are not burdened by old weight.

Jurrasic trees for sure.

This is not our palm, but a mature Talipot in flower. It produces the largest flower in the plant world, fully 25 feet tall, towering at the top of the tree. This flowering process takes years from start to seed, creating hundreds of thousands of seeds to assure the future of the species.

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