Our Sodo is nearing completion! However, there is still a lot of important work that needs to happen before it can be fully operational with an occupancy permit. Now the paid contractors are finished and almost everything else needs to be done by our own volunteer efforts.

If you would like to help finish our beautiful new building, we can use you now! In addition to regular Wednesday work parties and the ‘Engawa day’ Saturday, January 23rd, work will be ongoing all week long (while we are on schedule and not on retreat) until the Sodo is done. Please consider offering your time whenever it works best for you – there are jobs for everyone. This week we continue to focus on the engawa, which, at the moment, is almost all the way around the Sodo.

Contact Ikuo (ikuohull at gmail.com), so that we know when you’ll be coming, and let him know if you’d like to have meals with us.

This is a great opportunity to be more intimate with our new home, and to practice with Sangha in a truly rewarding way.

In addition to regular Wednesday work practice days (9:30am~4pm) on the property, and any other work time you might wish to show up for, a special work practice event is coming this Monday, January 18, Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. About 100 PCC students will be coming out to plant trees and help with landscaping as part of MLK Day of Service events. Here, Kakumyo takes delivery of trees to be planted. Lots of landscaping work has been going on, and will continue.

The courtyard is getting ready for major work. As part of this preparation, there are lots of strings criss-crossing the space. As a result, it contains lots of trip hazards (impossible to see in the dark). So we are asking everyone to go around to the back side, the Tenzo entrance, where the steps have been completed, and enough of the engawa has been finished to make it easy to access that door. Now that the sidewalk is completed all the way from Siskiyou St to the driveway to the south side of the Sodo, it’s easy to walk around. Once the courtyard is completed (and the engawa in front of the front door), the wheelchair ramp will finally be easily accessible.