March 21-27

A prominent theme for the week was that of continuity with the recent and more distant past. The week began with an appreciation of our Indralaya elders and ended with the departure of the VW vanagon that was purchased as a ferry shuttle vehicle in 2007. On the days in between various other projects and responsibilities received attention.



Registration Update
On Saturday, confirmations for nearly 150 family week participants were processed and sent. So far, over 500 people have been registered for all our 2011 programs and work parties!

Two upcoming programs are now fully registered, the Self-Healing Invitational with Robyn Finseth and Family Week Two. Wait lists have been started for both these programs. Deep Singing week will also be full soon, as there are just a handful of remaining spaces available.



A Peachy New Pear Cabin
The analogy of building your house on a solid foundation is familiar to all of us. Perhaps it has something to do with the tried and true theosophical tradition of doing things in a somewhat contrary manner that with Pear cabin this concept was turned on its head to some degree, as a solid new cabin has been being built on top of a questionable foundation. This situation was amended this past week as maintenance staffer Thea Patten and volunteer Michael Short established several new footings and replaced much of the old foundation.

new water tap

Life-giving Waters
Some changes to the water delivery systems in the dining hall have also been recently completed. A new filtered water tap was added in the coffee kitchen and a hot water tank for the basement washing machine was installed. This washing machine is used primarily for bed sheets and linens, so hot water is an essential ingredient.

new water heater

Waste Water Systems
While work was being done on altering the library roof line earlier this year (see January 10-16), we learned that the tree that fell between the roundhouse and library a couple years ago had cracked the lid to a waste water tank when it came down. This week the tree was cut so that we could get access to and replace the lid.

Note the hollow tree core above right - soon to be an Indralaya planter!

This holding tank is one component of Indralaya's septic system. It contains waste water that has been pumped up from another holding tank that services the three waterfront cabins (Cedar, Ocean Spray and Kunz). Water from the tank is then pumped to a drainfield located in the meadow. This is the largest of Indralaya's five drainfields. The holding tank is one of 11 waste water tanks that are on the property. Recent county regulations require that these be inspected regularly and I recently attended a workshop for this purpose.

Wake Up and Smell the Roses

In between continuing to plant new starts in several of the garden beds, Chelsea Cates, our new garden coordinator (see the March 7-13 entry for more about Chelsea) also found time to tend to the rose bushes located along the SE corner of the garden fence.

Good-bye Vanagon ~~~