A great work week

This week had several practical lessons about new topics, and I really enjoyed the work because I felt like we could really see results. We usually spend a morning on each little project, and when there is a clear outcome…the energy we spend makes sense and I like that.

We learned how to make liquid fertilizer to feed our plants in the organic garden. We collected cow shit from the dairy to carry back to the huge “pot” where we then began the process of making cow shit “tea.” Katie has an absolutely hilarious entry about this!


There’s a bird reserve here in Kibbutz Lotan where birdwatchers visit to catch glimpses of different species on their migration routes. On Monday morning we walked to the bird reserve with a picnic breakfast and all our tools, and this was the sunrise we walked with:


At the bird reserve, our work consisted of cutting down the reeds that had grown very high, blocking the views of birds for the birdwatchers in the observation rooms. We stood in the unbelievable green of the alfalfa, stretched all around us, and worked for hours cutting down the reeds and dragging them away to a compost pile.


Throwing the reeds to the side...behind me you can see the observation room, built from mud, covered with date palm branches:


Something very exciting is that this week we began straw bale construction, which I really enjoyed learning about and doing…the whole concept fills me with a kind of optimism. We watched a film about homes made out of straw bales in various parts of the world, and the benefits of this type of construction really blow my mind. Straw bales provide incredible insulation naturally, so they are building blocks and insulation all in one. A straw bale is an agricultural byproduct, a renewable resource, a natural material, and easy to build with. I don’t plan on living in the countryside and building my own home out of straw bales, but it was still really exciting for me to learn these techniques.

We built a little room to practice what we’d just learned conceptually. Here is the beginning of the building process, when the walls were two bales high:


Yaara and Katie stabilizing the wall using a method called internal pinning:


After we finished the walls, we sat inside and had another theoretical lesson covering the details of straw bale construction, specifically discussing the attention that must be paid to moisture.


Hurray!