Week 2 begins

This morning we met bright and early in the 'bustan' neighborhood (bustan means orchard in arabic), which is the area where future G.A's will live. We are helping to build and maintain seven mud-domes for housing, plus communal dining, bath, and living areas. The great thing about this area is it will be completely off the grid, and will be a working example of how more than a dozen people can live comfortably and sustainably. Too bad we can't live there already, but it is great to be a part of developing it from scratch.
All we did today, however, was to create a raised 'sheet-mulch' garden (aka 'insta-garden'). By utilizing what we learned about composting, we layered organic materials in a way that will decompose into very nice fertil soil. The garden was placed next to one of the nearly complete mud-domes as a way of cooling the air circulating near its base, where some of the ventilation shafts are in place.
(#1. Sheet-mulch garden-layer1)

(#2. Sheet-mulch garden-layer2)

(#3. Sheet-mulch garden-layer3)

(#4. Sheet-mulch garden-layer4)

(#5. Sheet-mulch garden-layer5)

(#6. Sheet-mulch garden-layer6)

(#7. The finishing touches of the sheet-mulch garden...)

After our sheet-mulch extravaganza, we had lunch and then a short tour of the kibbutz in the afternoon. Here is a picture of a beautiful random rest spot.


After dinner, in hopes of finding a hat, sunglasses, a notebook, and chocolate, I accompanied of few of the girls to Yotvatah (a larger kibbutz nearby which actually has a store on-site... famous for their dairy products, especially chocolate). This is a picture of us entering the very touristy store, where I got all my needs except sunglasses. I just think the cows are pretty funny...