Ananda Village Online

mowing Rajarsi Ridge

2009-07-03T09:31:00.001-07:00

4oth Anniversary weekend. (testing audioboo.fm site) biked up to Raj Ridge at Ananda Village this AM. here is a short audio with a photo of mowing:

Listen!

Click here to see photo:

2008-07-08T08:54:00.001-07:00

on way home now. back to smokey Northern CA. No end in sight with 100+ degrees..no heavy food today.

2008-07-05T06:01:00.001-07:00

heading up to Seattle today to see some freinds and family....what no smoke in air up there? Hmmm...

2008-07-01T22:14:00.001-07:00

today's smoke and fire update. Continued hot and smokey..expect the same for remainder of week. Smoke drifting north to Columbia River (700 miles).

2008-06-29T21:24:00.001-07:00

Just back from Sonora where I ran trains all weekend with freinds. Smoke better here. Hope we don't get more lightening.

2008-06-27T06:48:00.001-07:00

visibility only 1/2 mile due to wildfire smoke with no end in site. Like a war zone here. Stay inside. I am going south to get out of it.

2008-06-24T07:54:00.001-07:00

Staying inside today mostly due to smokey outside.

2008-06-23T06:42:00.001-07:00

Fire season here. Lightning strikes over weekend not only knocked out power for a while, but also caused almost 4,000 fires throughout Northern CA. Sunday was pleasantly warm and windy. Monday now is smoke filled. More like an August day, than June.

Feels quiet, subdued, almost eery outside.

2008-06-15T18:59:00.001-07:00

glad to be home tonight watching the US Open...and eating ice cream! Go Rocco!

2008-06-14T22:13:00.001-07:00

in bay area for weekend to run trains, oh yeah, might eat some good food and sleep also...

2008-06-10T07:32:00.001-07:00

iPhone, the day after...Now what?
At least the skunks are gone, thanks to 90000 BTU cayenne, and just about all the other mammels too.

2008-06-09T10:25:00.001-07:00

listening to WWDC Steve Jobs Keynote

2008-06-08T21:59:00.001-07:00

Just returned from Palo Alto where we held video conference with Seattle. Bandwidth problems forced us to use plan S....this after 40 manhours of work.

Mother Miracle Visit

2008-06-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

Had dinner with friends of Ananda last thursday. Patrick and Shahla from Mother Miracle school in Rishikesh, India. They brought 2 little girls, Mamta and Kusuma with them. Inspiring stuff. They have over 100 little poor kids in their 2 room school. The littlest kids are outside and as they grow older they get to go inside. 3 different classes in one room. This fall, they move into a 10 room building. We are sponsoring a child, Pooja Giri, who is 10 yrs old and just learning to speak English. Her teacher for past year was Kusuma (the 14 yr old girl whom we met). Think about that.

This is inspiring work. http://www.mothermiracle.org

2008-06-07T06:50:00.001-07:00

Rats, The Battle still rages. Spent 2 hours closing up ways Mr. Skunk can get into back yard, AND more cayenne..Mr. Skunk still ate the birdseed on the ground..sigh

2008-06-06T08:04:00.001-07:00

Putting out cayanne pepper to discourage skunks...hope to see some trains this weekend

2008-06-04T22:02:00.001-07:00

been trying to figure out how skunk gets into our fenced back yard. tonight there are 2 of them. double yikes!!

2008-06-02T22:48:00.001-07:00

what is that in back yard? Skunk? Yikes!!

2008-06-02T07:23:00.001-07:00

spring yardwork completed, 4 squirrels relocated, Leo had 5000 viewers yesterday..how much better can it get?

2008-06-01T08:03:00.001-07:00

Zeroing in on completion of mowing. Got the blisters to prove it too.

Hummingbirds in back yard

2008-05-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

We go through about 1 gallon of "joy juice" per day feeding these hummingbirds. This is just a snap shot from Monday morning hummer feeding. Sometimes it is a frenzy with 60-70 of them out there. We have a few steady customers over winter but mainly spring and fall when they cannot find other food around. Really a never-ending source of joy.

Recipe for "joy juice"
1 - gallon fresh cool water
4 cups white sugar
bring water to a boil. add sugar, stir to dissolve, cool before serving.

2008-05-26T06:57:00.001-07:00

Monday in the rural foothills can be busy. Today it, yet again raining so I will catch up on inside chores while the weeds continue to grow. Hope the wildfire threat is reduced a little.

2008-05-25T07:06:00.001-07:00

Curve ball of rain this weekend curtailed mowing. Soft and moist is nice but I am chomping at the bit to complete the fire clearing work.

2008-05-23T14:28:00.001-07:00

Front "yard" is mowed (all one acre) and snipped. Back yard (2 acres) on Saturday. We only mow once per year when the grass is 3 feet high and dying. Don't need a tractor. Going to new Indiana Jones movie now for a treat.

2008-05-23T07:01:00.001-07:00

Mowing season once again here, albeit earlier than past 2 years. Good news is how cool it is outside, bad news is that it might rain..

2008-05-22T08:05:00.001-07:00

Think I will go to office today and see what trouble I can cause.

2008-05-20T21:34:00.001-07:00

Well, fun time to have a little bronchitis isn't it? Need to NOT work in yard for a couple days...darn...

2008-05-20T06:53:00.001-07:00

Why am I coughing up blood?

2008-05-19T21:42:00.001-07:00

Whew..DSL line performed flawlessly. Video conference live broadcast to 3 continents. Really incredible...now if we can just get the mic adjusted next time

2008-05-18T21:06:00.001-07:00

Got the video conference system working with broadcast. Now if the DSL line holds up it might actually work on Monday...

2008-05-17T07:32:00.001-07:00

catching up on Battlestar Galactica this morning. Season 4!!! Great way to spend too hot day while sick

2008-05-17T07:02:00.001-07:00

Mexican dinner at Meditation retreat last night with play about Turkeys. Did you know Nabha can speak Gobble?

2008-05-15T07:24:00.001-07:00

Whew! Just received email from my friends in Jaipur India to say they personally are well and not affected by bombings. I am sure it is not easy though.

2008-05-13T18:31:00.001-07:00

Getting warm here in foothills. Expect +90 on Thursday. Guess I will get to finally wear shorts.

2008-05-12T07:21:00.001-07:00

This sore throat is hanging in there for over a week. Woke up middle of night coughing fit..Ugly...what to do...

2008-05-10T12:17:00.001-07:00

In town tuning errands. Nice to have library for wifi. Now onward

2008-05-07T08:35:00.001-07:00

Thunderstorms last night Lightening was great!! More today.

2008-05-05T19:36:00.001-07:00

Watching really cool documentary on that great American 20th century icon: History of Lionel Trains

2008-05-03T07:42:00.001-07:00

First Saturday in May is Rajarsi Day where all of the community spends the day on community work projects. Always fun.--I am weed eating and painting

2008-05-02T07:44:00.001-07:00

Fridays are technically my day off...I am going into office

2008-05-01T09:10:00.001-07:00

Yes!!! VPN is restored. Now I can resume sitting in my Lazy boy chair while remaining connected to the world!!! (no iPhone yet though)

2008-05-01T08:32:00.001-07:00

Hopefully VPN will come back up soon. My man is on the hunt!!! More for domestic tranquility than for me anyway.

2008-04-27T06:47:00.001-07:00

time to get the shorts out as it will be warm today. Going to the big city to see some freinds!!

2008-04-25T22:51:00.001-07:00

Great day with friends today. Tomorrow we rum trains all day.

2008-04-20T21:08:00.001-07:00

Worked most of day on getting owNry layout ready for next weekend's guest. 8 guys coming down from Portland...should be fun

2008-04-19T07:18:00.001-07:00

If you want an all body exercise that is quite aerobic, then try pulling scotch broom, the scourge of the sierra foothills. watch out for the poison oak

our local community clinic looking for providers

2008-04-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

www.sierraclinic.org
Looking for providers. Please view

Blog it application

2008-04-16T07:45:00.001-07:00

Just added Blog it application which enables me to post a blog to multiple sites at same time while updating my microblogs- Twitter and tumblr. Wonder if anyone actually reads this stuff. http://www.typepad.com/features/blogit.html

Crystal Hermitage Gardens

2008-04-13T14:27:00.001-07:00

Spring has been kind to the Crystal Hermitage gardens this year at Ananda Village. More photos here. Video here

2008-04-13T14:06:00.001-07:00

Gardens at Crystal Hermitage today http://ping.fm/GBw8v

2008-04-13T07:15:00.001-07:00

not a cute post here. But effective: Round-up Rendezvous at 7:30 AM on the road. let's spray those thistles before the neighbors wake up. Ah Sunday!!

2008-04-12T14:35:00.001-07:00

Watching Master's Golf tournament. Saturday is "moving day" as it is called in golf lore

2008-04-11T06:33:00.001-07:00

Yeah!!, finally got Dave's SMD82 devices programmed so now his staging tracks all work!. Satisfaction.. Long trip though. Late night

2008-04-09T21:03:00.001-07:00

United Way visit went well at clinic. Still have the financial review next week....

2008-04-09T07:11:00.001-07:00

today, United Way visits our clinic. Sierra Family Medical Clinic (sierraclinic.org). Hope they want to support our community clinic for low income patients

2008-04-08T12:41:00.001-07:00

At the market having burgers and fries

2008-04-08T07:57:00.001-07:00

No iPhone yet so practicing on iPod touch

2008-04-08T07:35:00.001-07:00

Cold this morning. fire roaring. starting to warm up. Little cabin in the woods... Ha!

Be Restful in your heart

2008-03-01T09:42:00.000-08:00

Be restful in your heart” is one of the daily sayings from Swami Kriyananda writing in his small book called “Do It Now“

Upon reflection, during this past weeks seclusion, it seemed that as I have been less caught up in daily “to do’s” and requests, I noticed that as the week has progressed, the mind has relaxed since it had little to do externally all week (walks, and chores notwithstanding) and also my heart seemed to relax.

Seven years ago, while shoveling snow on February morning outside our home here at Ananda Village, I experienced a mild heart attack. I had only lived at Ananda Village for 18 months or so, having left a career which involved a tremendous amount of stress. This lead to the inevitable trip to ICU, etc yet I was home shortly thereafter, more deeply committed to recuperation and changing some lifestyle habits. Thirty pounds later and as I learned more about these teachings, I discovered that the heart chakra resides behind the physical heart but there is also a tie in. As I relaxed and rested my heart chakra, my physical heart seemed more rested. This is not to suggest substituting meditation for exercise because moderate exercise each day can help keep most of us, not only in better physical shape but it helps our meditations because the body wants to then relax and we usually find ourselves more calm during meditation.

Yogananda urges us to practice energization exercises daily prior to meditation. This subtle tension and relaxation techniques often helps calm the body, energize the nervous system in a calming way and thereby I find my body and heart more relaxed yet awake. Ananda Yoga is also about preparing the body for meditation but that is another story told by authors much more understanding so I will not dwell on this.

When we relax or rest our heart, we also open up to new energies within. I often almost naturally feel more loving towards others for instance. More willing to listen within to the sounds of the Divine.

Yogananda, in one of his prayers says: “Father, teach me to be calmly active and actively calm…”

All this is fairly easy to accomplish as we progress in seclusion with concentrated effort to relax our hearts. It almost sounds almost contradictory to make an effort to relax but it is also good practice for daily lives. Recently at work, I was running late to an appointment and didn’t feel very relaxed. As I was rushing out the door, a co-worker wanted to ask me to do something for him and it couldn’t wait until later to discuss it. I was not very relaxed at this point feeling a lot of tension in my body as I didn’t want to deal with this issue right then. Upon reflection later, I saw that, while the issue was important then tension was not.

So for this next year, as we progress into celebrating Ananda Village’s 40th anniversary, my goal is to remember this prayer: “Father, teach me to be calmly active and actively calm” and be more restful in my heart.

Seclusion

2008-02-26T14:02:00.000-08:00

As part of our spiritual practice here at Ananda Village, we are urged to take seclusions regularly, perhaps just a day here and there) and at least annually, take a week seclusion, as a balance to all of our busy outward service activities. In fact, employees like me, who work for Ananda Businesses here at Ananda Village, are offered a week long seclusion time in addition to our standard vacation time. Since it is not cumulative, I didn’t schedule the time and consequently didn’t “take seclusion” and really missed it.

In the Bhagavad Gita it says: “Free from the hopes (engendered by) desire, and untouched by any craving for possession, the (waves of feeling in his) heart controlled (by yoga concentration), the yogi, retiring alone to a quiet place, should try to unite his little self with the Supreme Self.” (Chapter 6 verse 10). (Commentary in “The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita” Page 255 in chapter 18)

This week I am taking seclusion for seven days. Well it is really only six because I had company over weekend and then had to prepare on Monday, etc. What I plan to do is not speak with anyone, no work related activities at IT, or clinic, or solar, stay quiet, walk, meditate, chant, read books, listen to inspiring music, in essence, focus inward, attempting to go deeper into the quiet spaces of the soul and each little bit helps. Will chop wood and carry water, but with the Divine on my mind, not just the mundane.

This is an opportunity for longer meditation and to release, at least for a few days each year, my mind from the outward push and pull of daily life. Some people’s seclusions are very deep, others aren’t. I’ve had mixed results upon first impression, but always feel renewed. I don’t claim to be even conversant with how to seclude. Sort of “just do it”. One recommendation I have heard is to maintain silence. For this seclusion, I interpret that to be not speaking or hopefully interacting with anyone. But, as mentioned, I am listening to certain music with deep spirit vibration and with deep (a relative term) concentration on some talks by those souls whom I feel have a deeper understanding of the infinite than I in hopes of gleaning some inspiration towards my own goal of self realization.

Seclusion location is up the individual. I am taking seclusion at home because my spouse is visiting and volunteering some time in Ananda LA during this week. The challenge, for me here, is to not get too wrapped up in all the little home projects. The advantage is low cost and I get to sleep in my own bed. Plus our home is in a quiet, isolated part of village (whole village is pretty quiet really) so I don’t see neighbors and can walk into the woods pretty far without seeing anyone. Other’s go to meditation retreat. Lots of options. More later.

February Sunset

2008-02-12T05:50:00.000-08:00

After a month of snow, wind, rain cold, we are blessed with a streak warmer clear days. Last Sunday evening Sraddha and I drove up to Rajarsi ridge to see an artist freind of hers and I walked out to the west side to watch our famous sunsets. We get so busy here in our various activities, it is always nice to appreciate Divine Mother's natural ever changing art of Maya.

winter at St. Francis Pond

2008-02-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

Down below our house is St Francis pond. Beautiful little walk up from village center on fire road.

Have a little faith: Ananda

2008-02-08T07:07:00.000-08:00

found this article posted January 28 on the Palo Alto High School online newspaper:
Very good
Have a little faith: Ananda

Steve Jobs Macworld address in 60 seconds

2008-01-22T07:51:00.000-08:00

I attended this keynote last week in San Francisco and here are the highlights. Actually kinda funny.

Macworld Video

2008-01-20T11:32:00.000-08:00

I took some little video snippets last week during Macworld. 4 minutes long and will give you a flavor of the event. 50,000 exhibit attendees (up 10,000 from last year). Pretty cool. I even added music. Just click on arrow in video to play.

Macworld Tuesday 2008

2008-01-15T20:46:00.001-08:00

Got in line at 7:30 AM which was 90 minutes early and there were 1000 people in front and 1000 behind.

Really incredible.Ended up in a conference room watching a live broadcast of keynote by Steve Jobs.

Sraddha joined me at 11 AM and we walked the exhibit floor for 7 hours. Forgot to take photos but late in the day, on the far corner of exhibits we found this cool electric car

She wanted to drive it home.

There's something in the air!

2008-01-14T21:51:00.001-08:00

Macworld 2008
Originally uploaded by gary ryan

Just arrived at MacWorld in San Francisco this afternoon. Anticipation growing. Stopped by Moscone upon arrival to pick up badge before going to hotel. Could be loads of fun. This photo taken by someone who posted it to the MacWorld Flickr site and I have linked up to blog and post with ease!! Really cool...Something in the Air

Day 7 without power

2008-01-10T19:16:00.000-08:00

Power just came on at 7:20 PM tonight. after 7 days. Oh the peace and quiet is so nice but so is turning on a light when I get up in the middle of the night. We will definitely be making plans for back up systems and actually already are for work since we can probably count on this happening again. Power to the people!!!

Power still out

2008-01-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

Interesting how fragile the wider infrastructure actually seems now.

It is now Tuesday night (5 days later) and power remains off at our house and about 15 others here at Ananda Village. Expected back by Thursday. We are pretty quiet anyway here, however even more quiet and dark with no lights. Solar batteries continue to give us personally a little electricity to cook by and I can access internet.

Most of us have propane for heat and at least one room in homes can be warmed up although fans don't run to circulate air to other parts of homes. Still we have warmth amidst the 30 degree outside and we are all dry.

Glad I meditate and live here.

Wind storm in Sierra's

2008-01-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

Friday we got pounded by wild 40 mph winds, gusting to 70. Power out since Friday AM. and still out here at Village for everyone except a couple of homes. We are fortunate in that we use oak/madron wood for heat so are warm and have the remnants of (expensive) solar system with (expensive) batteries so have a little power if we conserve by turning everything off unless absolutely necessary. I say remnants because solar panels 15 years old, but we have inverter and 6 year old batteries we had purchased when first moving into this home. Needless to say it was absolutely necessary to turn on TV yesterday and satellite dish system to watch Seahawk football game . Phone system/DSL system central has generator backup so I actually have internet and you emailed the correct address whcih still works. All that to say we are fine although inconvenienced. got some snow. 2 inches twice but a bit slushy as temp hovering around 32.5-33 do it doesn't quite get frozen. Pretty out and also very quiet. and we are enjoyning it.
Expecting more snow tonight.

A Place Called Ananda

2007-03-03T08:41:00.000-08:00

Several souls who live at Ananda Village are collaborating on a new blog called "A Place Called Ananda". Take a look. There is RSS feed

I have set up a tumbleog for quotes by Paramhansa Yogananda and Swami Kriyananda.

Winter 2007 at Ananda doesn't deter the mailing

2007-03-03T08:37:00.000-08:00

We awoke this morning to a wonderful quiet blanket of snow covering the landscape. After meditation I went out to clear and area in the back garden so I could feed our wild bird population and heard the distant rumble of Prakash's tractor. “Ah,” I said to myself, “Divine Mother is once again clearing the roads for us.” Despite 7 inches of beautiful snow, we all could get around easily.

The Outreach Ministry had planned a big mailing party today and were not deterred. When I finally arrived after some chores, they were hard at work.

It takes more than a little snow to slow Ananda down!!

Swami Shankarananda visits Ananda Village

2007-02-10T21:50:00.000-08:00

Swami Shankarananda Giri, who directs a large Kriya Yoga work in Northern India (Rishikesh and Bubaneshwar ashrams) visited Ananda Village last week. His guru was a disciple of Sri Yukteswar Giri, so you could roughly say he is a spiritual cousin of Swami Kriyananda. In fact he stated, during our community satsang at Hansa Mandir, that he and Swami Kriyananda have spent many lifetimes together in the past.What a joy and blessing it was to be with this Swami. His energy, and light are a great example to all of us of the result of Kriya yoga practice.

Swamiji toured the village, visiting our schools, retreat and Sangha ministry offices, dined with village managers at Crystal Hermitage, had tea at our home) then Satsang in the evening with a packed house.
One note as to why Sraddha and I were involved. Swamiji has been instrumental in assisting us with the statue project inspired by seeing the statues of our line of Master's at his beautiful temple in Rishikesh. With his guidance, we contracted with an artist in Jaipur, India, to carve marble statues of Yogananda, Babaji, Lahiri, and Sri Yukteswar. See the image below of the statues as displayed in his Kriya Yoga Mandir in Rishikesh. More on this in a later post.

Angels come to Ananda Community Christmas Party

2006-12-16T08:19:00.000-08:00

Indeed the little Angels of Ananda descended upon our community Christmas party Dec 3 to lead us in several songs.
(apologies for redeye)

All of this occured after our annual World Brotherhood Day celebration held at the Expanding Light retreat
where residents offered the sum of a days wages towards projects around the world.

Pizza Night at Master's Market

2006-11-10T20:37:00.000-08:00

Friday Night is Pizza Night at Master's Market in downtown Ananda Village. From 5-7 PM folks come into the market to buy slices of vegetarian pizza, beverages and other assorted market items from the Deli as well as well stocked shelves.

Its growing reputation amongst our neighbors has increased business so much they have added extra help. Many village residents volunteer to spend 3 hours on a friday night helping out the dedicated staff.

Needless to say that I am a regular customer of the best Pizza in Nevada County!!

Ananda Featured in recent News article

2006-07-11T06:08:00.000-07:00

Ananda Village was featured in our local newspaper, the Union, with a very nice article.

Seattle with Sraddha's brother and kids

2006-05-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

We spent Saturday and Sunday with Sraddha's brother and his 2 children, Ariana and Cyrus. Went for a walk, had hot cocoa, then watched Cyrus play baseball.

He is 7 and had 2 hits including a double which scored 2 runs. His team won so it was really fun. He is a real baseball fan and has good eye/hand coordination.

Edmonds Washington

2006-05-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

I am up in Edmonds, Washington visiting my cousins. They are planning a wedding for their duaghter LZ shown below with her fiance, Paul

Ted Grady passed away

2006-04-04T06:20:00.000-07:00

Ted Grady passed away over hte weekend. He was 83 and a long time devotee of Yogananda and village resident for past 14 years. I would frequently encounter him at the Expanding Light where he lived and served for many years. We would have lunch and talk.

I didn't get a chance to talk with him recently because I was out of town last week in bay area for training. I had just heard of his terminal illness and vowed to contact him this week. Then, the day after I returned, he passed.

An astral ascension was held last night at Hansa, attended by many community members and family. He was part of our greater spiritual family, and a fellow gurubai. I will miss his smile, sense of humor and grace. He is with the Master now. OM, Peace, Amen

Will it ever stop raining?

2006-04-04T06:03:00.000-07:00

Not for nothing, but I spent most of my adult life in Seattle area which has quite a reputation for rain. Actually, our annual rainfall (55) is more than Seattle (33 or so), but it mostly arrives between November and March then dry for 6 months. I just found this cool site, weather underground (www.wunderground.com) which has a weather station near us on the San Juan Ridge. The total rainfall for past 6 months is 41 inches, with March contributing 12 inches.

So far in April we have logged 2.5 inches but it feels more like 4 inches. And it keeps on coming wiht forecast of rain for next 10-14 days. The daffodils are having fun and lasting longer than usual and we have a couple of tulips coming up.

Everyone around here is ready for sunshine again. Some of us are scrounging for firewood because we have run out. We were out last weekend cutting dead madrona trees to bring in more heat into the house. Not too bad.

Spring Cleaning at Ananda

2006-04-01T06:49:00.000-08:00

April 2 normally has 65 degree temperatures, however today we will be lucky if it gets above 45. Nevertheless, Swami Kriyananda is coming in 3.5 weeks so we need, as a community, need to get out and clean up our community. Today we are working at the Expanding Light and Crystal Hermitage areas. I awakened this morning to light rain showers, which is much better than the downpour I experienced last night, when I returned from a bay area computer training class. Being "yogis' and living in our spine we tend to great these days with. "Oh Joy!!" Despite the long week in bay area and rather long drive home, I look forward to celebrating our community with this work day. We gather for a morning circle then disburse to our various areas. Time to bundle up now and head out.....

First, (well at least after a cup of coffee for some of us) we have a prayer circle where we chant and meditate.

Gyandevi is dressed for the rain

Some worked in the gardens, others of us took chain saws and went out to clear dead limbs. Yours truly picked up and stacked dead wood so Prakash could come along and pick it up later

Some of us just try to tear the trees down by hand.

After 4 hours of cleaning we stopped to meditate and have lunch. I went home and took some ibuprofen.

Hi Speed Internet

2006-03-23T13:14:00.000-08:00

THis morning I found some notes I made back in 2000 after we all survived the Y2K "crisis". I was researching alternatives to our dial up modem access where we were limited mostly to 19.6 modem speed. I was talking with Puru about possibilities of adding various methods to give us faster internet access. Mind you, I am not a formally trained techno-geek here so much of what I was finding was mostly "greek" to me. ISDN and DSL were interesting acronyms which mainly suggested faster connections and a little envy of those who had it.

Being so far removed from the city in a very rural area, we were running our whole Rajarsi park network on a 56k special modem at the time. I was trying to find out about email servers and web servers and satellites...

We experimented with home satellites like Starband and DirecPC (or DirecWay) but the latency periods caused problems and the uploads were very slow.

All this to say that now, in 2006, I marvel at our Village wide DSL system available to anyone who can afford a few dollars a month and has a phone line. I understand that 25 years ago here all that was available was 1 (one) pay phone down by the market.

Our ministry has T1 speed internet access and WiFi. Guests can come to the Expanding Light guest retreat and use the business center and WiFi if they wish. My technical staff can connect in through secure private networks to our business network. Everyone has email if they choose. We show our Sunday services and other program through web videos. Many thousands of souls find this ray of light because of all of this.

It is truly a marvel, when we step back and see how far we have come.

The Morning After Spring Equnox Snow

2006-03-21T07:07:00.000-08:00

The next morning we awoke to brilliant sunshine over snow capped hills. Sraddha went out to feed the birds and saw this.

Happy Spring Equinox? It snowed!!

2006-03-20T18:49:00.000-08:00

After 3 days of sunny "warmer" weather where we went hiking to see the upcoming wildflowers, we greeted the spring equinox with more winter!! This photo is from outside my west corner window looking up at the OM building where the Sangha Ministry and Crystal Clarity Publications resides. Most folks went home a little early. As of 7 PM we have about 3 inches total here.

Market Rennovations

2006-03-19T10:22:00.000-08:00

Tom is rennovating the inside of Master's Market.

We will have a new counter looking out onto the village green where customers can sit and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee.

The floor is being prepared for new tiles. Many villagers are donating the tiles and get to sign them.

Winter Walk to Crystal Hermitage

2006-03-14T13:18:00.000-08:00

We got out in the snow and walked over to the Crystal Hermitage this morning.. As we started up the hill, we saw Prakash coming back down the hill with his snow clearing tractor and brush. It was only 32 degrees.

Over the hill and down past Ayodya Cluster to
the Crystal Hermitage parking lot. Sraddha turned to pose.

We walked on past the parking lot down to the hermitage in 6 inches
of snow. We arrived at the front gate and were greated with this.

The Chapel was covered with beatiful white blanket.

Our return trip saw us helping Seva avoid the ditch while driving in her car. We brought her to our house for coffee and then I drove her over to the Expanding Light for her work session.

Day 5 of Snow at Ananda Village

2006-03-14T06:40:00.000-08:00

This is Tuesday March 14 and we have snow...for the 5th day in a row. While not very cold this many days in a row is almost unheard of here in the foothills for many years. Since it all melted yesterday travel has not been a problem. Prakash has been out clearing the main roads every morning and it sure is beautiful. I stepped outside our front door this morning and snapped this picture.

Sraddha is out feeding her birds. And brushing snow off Hummingbird feeders. We have a couple steady customers all winter and they warm us in the late spring.

She snapped this photo looking down to St. Francis Pond. On the right is our guest cabin.

Hansa Temple in Winter

2006-03-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

Last Year it was temperatures in the 70's and now we have snow with more coming.

I took this photo this morning after about 5 inches snow overnight. More expected tonight. A winter wonderland and really quite beautiful.

Winter Comes to Ananda Village

2006-03-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

March is so variable in weather. 2 years ago in 2004, we were planting tomatoes which were ready by June. Last year, 2005, it rained until June and we didn't plant until June. This year we had 70 degree weather in February and now have had 4 snow days in March so far. This Sunday Morning I awoke to 2 inches of powder snow.

Sraddha went out and cleared a little area on the deck for feeding her wild birds. And are they happy campers or what?

We then went for a walk up to the top of Brindaban hill. First folks out in the powder. 29 degrees. Well, off to Hansa to video tape the Sunday Service today. You can find our Sunday service talks in Real Player format, MP3 and/or podcasts at http://www.ananda.org/inspiration/streaming/sunday.html

All for now.--Kent

Testing this Blog

2006-03-11T10:04:00.000-08:00

To find out more about Ananda and Ananda Village go to http://www.ananda.org