Farming

Abundance at Himalayan Acres

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  • An aerial photo of the noni orchard on our vast agricultural land
  • The road that leads to our agricultural parcel
  • Exotic hardwoods grow silently
  • These unripe fruits will soon be ready to harvest
  • The trees look happy and healthy
  • Large Noni ripens
  • Sacred mango tree watches over our older noni orchard
  • Song of india grows freely

Jai Ganesha!

Today, we explore the lush and pure lands of Himalayan Acres. Natyam Shankaranatha joins Acharya Arumuganathaswami on our agricultural land which is across the river from the main monastery property. Here we showcase some of the sights that he saw.

Acharya and Natyam treaded through the hundreds of acres of exotic palms, hardwoods and noni trees. Upon seeing the noni trees up close, Acharya was inspired by the high fruit count on the branches. The monks look forward to picking many hundreds of pounds of noni fruit in the days to come.

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Trees Fell, Recovery Spirit Rises

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  • Bhairava inspects the excavator
  • Fallen trees are consolidated to later be removed
  • While Pradeep operates the excavator, his helpers chainsaw and use the backhoe
  • Pradeep operates the large excavator

Vel Muruga!

Pradeep and his two helpers continue to clear fallen trees on the Aadhenam property. Today, they are working on trees located in the cow pasture area. They skillfully chainsaw fallen banyans and palms. They freed up the pasture area so the tractor can mow and cows can roam again. Cleaning these areas brings back access for the monks to care for the animals. After the pasture was cleared, two major trees were handled that fell over the ditch. The area was very narrow for the excavator to access so his helpers started by clearing the way through.

After many hours of chainsawing, Pradeep needed to get across the ditch to access the fallen branches on both sides in order to move them. Pradeep used cut sections of the fallen banyan as a bridge to maneuver across. It was amazing to see his ingenious idea accomplished safely and effectively.

Our German shepherd, Bhairava, inspects the excavator that Pradeep operates during the day. He is very happy with the progress. After a productive phase for all the kulams, the monks head into a full moon retreat to replenish their pranas and prepare for another phase of dancing, living, and merging with Siva!

Aum Namah Sivaya!

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Post Hurricane, Day Two

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  • Totes of water for cleaning dishes in the kitchen
  • Water to use sparingly for abhishekam and cleaning puja tray in Kadavul Temple. Another set of buckets are brought to Iraivan Temple.
  • Example of trees landing on our guhas (monks’ sleeping huts)
  • Two large-diameter uprooted talipot palm trees completely blocking the main road to Iraivan Temple
  • Uprooted large lychee tree nearby the flagpole (except there is no longer a flag; it was ripped off and disappeared)
  • Many downed branches from swamp mahogany trees
  • Greenhouse covers blown off in Annapurna vegetable garden
  • Another downed lychee tree next to Annapoorna Garden
  • Many hibiscus plants providing flowers for the temples were blown over but the roots are fortunately still in the ground.
  • Many uprooted avocado trees in our fruit orchard
  • Large downed tree across the San Marga path, just before Muruga Hill
  • View from San Marga path small Ganesha shrine towards the rudraksha grove, with massive uprooted bamboo clumps over the path in the distance
  • Branches strewn throughout the rudraksha grove
  • Electric company truck inspecting power lines near our property

We embarked an another very clear, sunny, hot day as is the typical weather for a while after a hurricane. Much coordination occurred with mobile washing and cooking water supply totes from our rain-catchment tank, including bring a trailer tank of water over to the house where our temple priest and cook stay. Our chainsaws revved up again to clear more small trees from pathways. Additional trees had fallen since the night of the hurricane, weakened by the winds. We hear that the airport has reopened, though running on generator power. The electric company and county department of water are working hard to assess damages and start to restore power and clean water supply to the island. Portable generators have to be staged in various locations to pump water from tanks while the power is still out. Extra tree trimming contractors were brought to Kauai before the hurricane struck, so enough teams could be ready to fan across the island in the aftermath. Around 15-20 souls braved their limited living conditions to come up and pray in Kadavul Temple, some with suitcases in hand. One local devotee said he was woken up at night in his house during the hurricane by a tree branch piercing through the roof and ceiling of his bedroom.

Photos above include a larger sample of downed trees around the property, giving a sense of the tremendous cleanup process ahead of us.

Below is a video showing some of the island damage, mostly on the south side coast from the storm surge.

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New Sprayer on a Trailer

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For years we’ve been using standard hand watering cans to nourish young plants that can’t easily be reached with a garden hose. And even older plants have to get watered during our occasional dry spells. As you can imagine, it’s rather laborious to fill a few small cans at a spigot and then go out to various plants, back and forth, back and forth. To speed up the watering process, we’ve just purchased a 60-gallon sprayer tank on a trailer, with a strong pump. Hook it to a utility vehicle, and you can cover many plants before having to refill. Besides the spray gun, it also has a boom attachment with seven spray nozzles. We assembled it the other day, and now we’re figuring out some extra parts needed to connect it to our vehicles.

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Hydroponic Greenhouse Crops Currently Producing

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  • Basil
    Basil

Here is a selection of hydroponic greenhouse crops that are currently in production mode. First up we have a row of basil leaves which will end up in curries and pesto. Then, multiple rows of lettuce. The ever-tasty purple-ish kale. A row of red bell peppers grows tall. Big red tomatoes are coming back on line after a hiatus. The last photo shows some of the complexity to arrange for irrigation and nutrient supply.

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New Vehicle, and Roof Complete

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We are regularly on the lookout for good deals to expand our utility vehicle fleet, and a great opportunity recently presented itself. Now we’ve added this Polaris Ranger to our lineup. The row of flowers is from it’s blessing the other day. Here, Sadhaka Shankaranatha is transporting several bins of leafy greens from the hydroponic greenhouse to the kitchen refrigerator.

The roofing team also completed the Guru Peedam hall the other day. The final layer of asphalt shingles was applied, along with copper gutters and flashing, and mortar in various places to prevent leaks. This re-roofing is a temporary fix for the next 5-10 years while we saving up for completely rebuilding the structure of the Guru Peedam ceiling, which is slowly rotting.

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