Across the river at Himalayan Acres, our recent hardwood plantings are growing steadily. As you may remember the whole monastery teamed up several months ago to get these little trees in the ground. They are mostly Koa trees, with Sandalwood interspersed among them. Because it can get rather windy here, each seedling has received a blue sleeve which will keep them protected. They also each have a square weed mat around them. This will ensure that they to not get overcome by the area's tenacious guinea grass.

Yesterday was the Siddhidatta Kulam's weekly garden day. The team of monks joined together to sprout seeds, plant beds, add compost and other nutrients to the soil, weed, mulch and harvest today's lunch. Thanks to an orderly system of maintenance the garden needs to be worked on by the whole kulam just once a week in order to go on producing all the vegetables we need.

Every quarter the monastery observes Guruthondu day. On this day the entire monastery gets together and pushes forward on a single project that the guru decides on. Yesterday morning, following their meditation, the monks geared up with their boots, water bottles, gloves and sunhats, then drove to Himalayan Acres across the river. We've been working hard to prepare many acres of land for hardwood planting, and yesterday a large part of that initiative moved ahead. Overall the monks planted 1,400 koa seedlings throughout one of our freshly tilled fields. We will also have some sandalwood trees planted intermittently throughout this field. One day these trees will be a whole forest of very special hardwoods. Jai Ganesha!

Our mighty Siddhidata Kulam have brought in another abundant garden harvest. Believe it or not this food will be almost completley used up in the next two days.

With the extra help from taskforcers and karma yogis, the Siddidatta Kulam has been making steady progress in a variety of areas, including the upper and lower gardens. On Sun 1, the team did their weekly upkeep of the garden and then proceeded to weed the wingbean fence, which has started its abundant cycle of production. Another important project they've been working on is the preparation of our newest raised garden beds. While having raised beds has proven to be one of the most effective gardening techniques for use in our environment, it can have issues. When heavy rains fall, the beds have the potential to fill up with water, unless the hard clay beneath them has been properly broken up. We call this clay-breaking-up process "double digging." It is an excellent way to get your day's exercise.

"What is Saivism? We are devotees of Lord Siva and we are doing Sivathondu--that is Saivism" Yogaswami

Today, Vel and Roshan planted a Mauritian pumpkin plant. After placing some fresh mulch over the garden bed, and putting the young plant in the earth, Vel performed a short puja, giving it a blessed start to a productive life. This variety is known to grow very big, and it is prized because of its thick skin which protects it from kauai's hungry bugs.

"Whatever work you have to do, do it well. That in itself is yoga." Siva Yogaswami

Trade winds come in off of the Pacific and are funneled up the valley of the South Fork of the Wailua River. At the end of the valley, our 200 acres of land receive strong winds throughout the winter and spring. This necessitates planting windbreaks to protect our future hardwood trees. On Friday an intrepid team went over to plant 600 eucalyptus trees as part of the future windbreak. Shown here are Nirvani Adinatha, Vel Mahalingam, Tandu Sivanathan, (who has just planted the last tree) Aran Veylan, Sivarathna Manick, Manickam Senthivel, Guarav Malhotra and Dasan Mahadevan. Not pictured were Mayuran  Muttulingam, his two sons Balu and Chandipati, Acharya Arumugaswami and Nirvani Tejadevanatha. Thank you all for your hard work!

The Siddhidata Kulam grows and is constantly harvesting many wonderful things from the vegetable garden. They've recently harvested this Burdock plant, part of our ongoing initiative of trying out new vegetables to add variety to our diet. The roots of these plants can be harvested and eaten and are common in east-asian cuisine. Its seeds and roots are also said to have medicinal properties, primarily being good for the blood.

The monastery is back in full swing after a three-day full moon retreat. We were fortunate to be able to view the full "Blood Moon" here in Hawaii during the full lunar eclipse. The previous day, last day of last phase, was a Guru Thondu Day. This is a day we have each quarter during which all the monks work together on a project that Bodhinatha has chosen. He asked all the monks to work on out Himalayan Acres forestry project.

For many years Sadhaka Adinatha has been working with the state agencies to get support and finally this year grants have been given to moanstery by the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife to plant more trees on the land across the river from the temple. These grants are strictly managed and the land owners receiving support must fulfill their plans in a timely manner.

Phase One involves the planting of 3,000 or more Mahogany trees which will serve as a future endowment of the monastery and in the meantime provide valuable habitat for the wildlife in our area. Trees also secure the soil from erosion over time, which is very important on a small island like Kauai.

Wind breaks are a key element in the plan and the monks worked on Guru Thondu Day to plant 1200 Areca Palms and about 300 or more Spinach trees. These are fast growing species and will buffer the young mahogony seedlings which will go in the ground later this year. The leaves of the Spinach tree are edible (if well cooked) so we also have bushels of greens if we ever need them!

During the winter and spring, trade winds come in from the ocean and are funneled inland by the valley of the South Fork of the Wailua river. They burst out of the valley and sweep across the property where the monastery is planting hardwood trees. To protect our precious hardwoods that we will be planting in the next few years, we are focusing on planting windbreaks this fall and winter, about 6,000 feet in all.

Today we loaded up almost a thousand pots of areca palms and several hundred pots of Cnidoscolus aconitifolius (spinach tree) on their way to be planted as components of our windbreaks. An equal amount will go over in a second load and then in five days the entire monastery will join together to plant trees, transplant small seedlings into larger pots and fill additional pots in preparation for seeding 3,000 mahogany trees. Stay tuned as the project evolves!