More photos from the Iraivan Carving site in India

On a schedule every three years, the monastery replaces all its computers. This brilliant innovation from Bodhinatha a decade ago keeps the IT side of our lives quiet most of the time, getting all of the purchasing done at once and then out of the way so we can focus on our religious work for the coming few years. We procure the latest and greatest computers that Apple has to offer, and then for three years we don't have to pay any attention to anything new that comes out. Warranties are also for three years, so we never have to deal with hardware that is out of warranty, which would cause untold inconvenience and unexpected expense.

February 2013 was the time for our hardware refresh, and like last time we flew out our IT engineers from Rocket Science Consulting in San Francisco to assist. Joe Russell, who has worked with the monastery since 2008, and Jesse Ruegg, a recent addition to the Rocket Science team, came for about a week, spending four days at the monastery installing and configuring new servers, helping the monks migrate their laptop workstations from old hardware to new hardware and conversing at length with Senthilnathaswami, who is responsible for the monastery's IT infrastructure and our relationship with Rocket Science, as well as Shanmuganathaswami, Siddhanathaswami and Sadhaka Mayuranatha, who helped with the project in many ways seen and unseen. Of course, Joe and Jesse had some personal time off to enjoy our beautiful island as well. It's always a treat for hired workers to come from the mainland!

Martin Mosco is with us again, working on the third and final model for Siva's Living Temple, the sacred gardens. The stewards visited the studio just down the street where he is creating this masterpiece and Martin was able to share his vision for the space around Iraivan. As you may know, it is essentially building a mountain of stone on the Mount Waialeale side, and a massive lake on the ocean side. The stewards made some small addendums and went away with a grand vision of the future, thanks to this brilliant landscape architect. Martin is a Buddhist and runs a small temple in Denver, Colorado. A few glimpses of his modeling skills are to be seen in today's slideshow.

Our Siddhidata Kulam works hard to keep the flow of fresh organic produce coming to the kitchen. This years winter crops were quite successful