These are the newly designed perimeter wall under carving.

Work is progressing well on the roof stones for Nandi Mandapam as these lotus petal designs, also called kamalam, near completion.

As many of you know who have been here recently, the large banyan tree on the east side of Kadavul had grown to gigantic proportions and was beginning to engulf our buildings as well as shade the sun from the solar array. We hired a local arborist, Felipe, to trim the tree. It was a radical pruning of the understory. Felipe took a special interest in the project, pledging to make it "beautiful." After removing a 85 percent of the lower branches and leaving the crown, we can see the structure of the main trunks. It looks like a magnificent sculpture. Underneath the tree we gained a 1/4 acre of re-estate. The Siddhidata Kulam is turning this into a temple flower garden.

After years of carving in Bangalore and months of complicated shipping proccedures, Hanuman has finally reached the monastery. The team at Aloha Isle Moving company are the ones who helped unload Hanuman and all other stones from the shipping containers. We're grateful to them for always putting our stone arrival on the highest priority, and with the most experienced staff and operators to handle all the delicate pieces. Hanuman particularly challenged them due to his weight and length. To date they have delivered about 70 containers of stones!

The Media Studio's new entryway is progressing nicely. The rafters have been installed after months of detailed work. They all fit wonderfully.

After reaching the Kauai docks several days ago, the containers from India have finally been unloaded and are being trucked up to the temple. So far we've received two truck loads and are expecting more. When the containers arrived on Kauai Yoginathaswami and Nirvani Adinatha went to inspect their contents. Included are Stones for the Nandi Mandapam, the statues of the Satgurus, Hanuman, the three elephants which will adorn the stairs leading up to the temple, and lots more.

After nearly a month of work beginning while Kulapati Deva Rajan was here, the ridge beam of the new media studio entry way portico was placed today. It is the culmination of a long process and things should move quickly now as all the parts for this crucial element have been milled and ready for installation.

Progress is being made on the Media Studio entryway. This long beam is the main ridge of the entryway and is almost ready for installation.

The classic tool in the following photo with Kumarnathaswami using it, is an Ajax No. 8 Barn Beam Drill, made of cast iron and oak. Such drills were common in the latter part of the 19th century, used for drilling large holes for mortising in timberframe construction, such as the building of those marvelous old barns that used to adorn the countryside from sea to sea. The drill removes most of the waste in the mortise which is then squared up and cleaned out with chisels. The mortise's purpose is to accept a tenon cut on the end of a joining post. 
Kumarnathaswami purchased this drill on ebay specifically for our timber-frame work on the Media Studio entry system. Despite being 150 years old, it is in perfect shape and functions flawlessly and easily, a remarkable wonder from the days before power tools came on the scene. It is also easy to use and a lot of fun. It just makes you feel good just to look at it, drill a hole or watch someone use it!