Video – Dharmanidhi USA Visit, October 2010

On Nadis:

On Icons of Purpose:

On Focus:

January 2011 Update

Garden

Our new garden is flourishing under Sarasvati’s able management.  The garden beds are lush and green with an impressive variety of vegetables.  We all foresirage regularly for delicious tomatoes and greens daily.

An important part of our garden’s success is our homemade worm pee.  Below is Yogesvara’s experiment with a variety of controls.  The plot without any worm pee or casings is currently not showing any growth while the plots with worm pee or casings or both are showing good growth.

Next on the garden’s list of To Do’s is a large chicken coop which will include the new garden pond put in during our successful and very fun, first Thai Kids’ Camp - see tour here.

Trees

Tree planting around the land is slowing down as we approach the dry season but the end of 2010 saw a few more put in the ground.  New trees were added to our front “lawn” and parking area as well as the upper food forest.

A bare Plumeria branch is finally showing some green – excited to breath the sweet smell of Frangipani!

And nearby, sprucing up the bodhi tree shrine is a shiny new, red spirit house and platform.

Meanwhile the trees in the lower food forest, down by the ponds are faring nicely and have been protected with shade cloth for the coming season.

Temple

A pretty footbridge connecting the dorm/kitchen paths to the temple path was erected just before the October Mind of Siva Retreat.

And after the retreat, Mahatma embarked on the great temple path project.  The path was widened, leveled, and layered with weed suppressing sheets and then 3″ of gravel.

Directly across the temple is the beginnings of a lovely temple garden complete with circular koi pond and numerous mounds to be eventually covered with soft grass for afternoon lounging.

The temple mural project is moving along as well.  Neem Karoli Baba, Ananda Mayi Ma, Dattatreya and Abhinavagupta have been or are in the process of being added to the wall.

And more…

Dharmanidhi’s office headquarters is finally nearing completion.  This exciting prospect ushers in a new era of book writing and rest for our mandaldyaksa!

In addition, a very secure fence will be erected around the perimeter of both the garden and the coop (to protect it from Kiki, the dreaded chicken killer – we love her just the same though and simultaneously, new compost stalls will be built.

We’re looking forward to the start of our aquaponics program.  This symbiotic program of multiple tanks of fish and vegetables/flowers/fruits sharing water and byproducts will mean an increased production of healthy, organic food for residents and retreat attendees alike.  An area in the nursery has been cleared to be the eventual first home for tanks already in the planning with a fabricator in nearby Loei.

A contractor has been hired to begin the building of a gymnasium which will house Catch Wrestling trainings with the famous Billy Robinson as well as other fitness retreats coordinated by Atmadharma.  Impressive racks of weights and other exercise equipment are already in use and awaiting their future home.

August Update

The Path

Phase 1:
A path was cut from the mini-footbridge (Phase 2 of The Path) to the temple entrance with a fork to the east entrance of the bath house. 3/4 of the path have been wood chipped.  Phase 2 involves installing a new footbridge where the 2 planks currently are slated for week of Sept. 20th.

Ground Cover

Here is the ground cover thrown by Gji and crew right before he left:

Here is status of seeds thrown next to this patch from water tanks to second entrance:

The ground cover thrown down by Sambhu near the dorms and by the pond path is growing nicely as well:

The rest of the seeds will be used for the lower food forest by the meditation cabins.

Lower Food Forest

Phase 1: Over 50+ trees have been planted in the area in between the bamboo huts and wood cabins as well as behind the wood cabins.  It is difficult to see in the following pictures but you can click on them to see the larger image.  Phase 2 includes cutting out 2 paths, seeding the rest of the area with ground cover, erecting a bamboo fence around the wood cabins, and throwing more wood chip around the huts.

The bamboo fence will be erected next week.  We are exploring path solutions as wood chips will probably just be washed down with every heavy rain.

Garden

Phase 1: The garden between worm house and bath house has been excavated.  An additional 7 beds are being added to the 5-6 that were done right before Gji left.  Hard to see on smaller pics, click for larger images.

The seedlings to plant in the first 2 beds are in the nursery growing nicely.  Only ones that haven’t popped up yet are the watermelon.  Yogamaya has translated an excellent chart with Thailand growing season information.

And just to show how many trees have been planted – here’s how many are left:

Phase 2 involves planting 2 beds every 2 weeks with the seedlings from the nursery.  More seeds are on order and we expect to get a nice bunch donated from Dharmaroga.  The first 2 beds are slated to be planted on Sept. 8.