Ezuz.

We are here in our 15-family village, and it's pretty remote but beautiful - about an hour drive from the nearest city (1.5+ hours on bus). Our family's residences are comprised of about 7 (?) different train cabooses that have been derailed and transformed into living and working spaces scattered throughout a plot of land. Also on that plot of land are lots of fruit trees (peach, pomegranate, olive, fig), porches, a covering over most of the area that offers shade made out of nets and thatched with palm fronds, a small stall area for the chickens, goats and donkeys, a trellis for grape and other vines, a toolshed, a small garden with mostly tomatoes, compost, a small herb garden, a tire swing, lots of kid-sized bikes, a wagon, a bulldozer (that we ride down to the terraced orchards), two cars, a playhouse, and an area for hay. Woof.

About a 12 minute walk away down the hill and into the desert is the dry riverbed where Avi (farm patriarch) is building his massive terraced orchards according to the methods used by ancient Nabatians (spelling?), which basically consists of orchards (beautiful beautiful orchards) on large expanses of land in the riverbed with elaborate stone walls filled with mud and straw mixture and covered in concrete. The idea is that the stone walls (there are about 3 fields right now, we're working on building the fourth) help hold the water when there is flood water from the 2-6 rainfalls a year, so that the water can actually seep into the soil and hydrate it rather than just keep rushing down the riverbed. It's all trial and error but it looks pretty impressive. Again, pictures will be coming when there is adequate time! Our work is to help care for the animals (not very hard...feeding and milking (goats only) twice a day), but principally to help build the orchards with Avi during the day. We've only done a day or two of work with him so far, but it's pretty strenuous.

The family is two boys and two girls ranging in age from 6 to 13, mother (Tamar), father (Avi), 4 goats and a billy goat (more on them later), about 7 chickens and 2 roosters, 2 small donkeys, 2 cats, and a dog. Most of the family (human members, donkeys, and Blues - the dog) are all on a trek in the desert right now, leaving Noam and I in charge of the animals, a few side projects, and keeping everything under control while they're gone.

Again, so many challenges! In so many ways. But yet again, it's so beautiful - and I appreciate how much time I have to think and learn. Pictures will be much more illustrative than words for a lot of this, I think. But to sum up the past 5 days....milking goats is pretty great.