Beer Sheva billboard work in progress

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Don't you love to watch guys tearing down the old ads and putting up new ones?! 

I almost never pay attention to billboards (maybe because I never buy or need anything), but I do enjoy observing the low-tech old-fashioned work that goes into them. 

Even if we consider roadside billboards like this one in Beer Sheva to be "visual pollution" we can still appreciate the men who work on tall ladders in the hot desert sun to keep them maintained and up-to-date. 
And yes, Israel does have many digital billboards, but they lack this human touch.
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Down on the farm

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Last week's farm pictures from the middle of Israel.
They are snapped through the window of a bus, so it's better if you click a few times and open them to the large version. 
You can see the sharp line dividing dark soil from green plants.
According to the hats, I reckon those are workers from Thailand harvesting whatever crop that is. 

And here a truck with trailer goes along the farm road leaving a trail of dust. 
Israel is in her fifth year of drought. 
Most of our water now comes from desalination. 
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UPDATE: I just learned that today is World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought!
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Our matriarch Sarah's laughter, then and now

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And Sarah said: 'God hath made laughter for me; every one that heareth will laugh on account of me.'

 וַתֹּאמֶר שָׂרָה--צְחֹק, עָשָׂה לִי אֱלֹהִים:  כָּל-הַשֹּׁמֵעַ, יִצְחַק-לִי

-- Genesis 21:6 --

This was said after God had promised the barren Sarah that she and husband Abraham would bear a son in their advanced old age. 
I am thinking of this statue, called "Sarah," by Rita Paran, based on that Bible verse, because today our City Daily Photo bloggers group is sharing a Theme Day about LAUGHTER. 

Back in 2011 I was walking very early through the still-closed Mamilla Mall in Jerusalem. 
I was shocked to see the cleaning man throw a bucket of water on one of the Bible Stories statues! 
But our matriarch Sarah just laughed.
She seemed quite tickled when the cleaner scrubbed her with his broom. 
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(Linking to City Daily Photo,  Our World Tuesday, and Weekend Reflections.)
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Sparkling SodaStream water!

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Happy WORLD WATER DAY!
The 2018 theme is Nature for Water and the idea is to raise awareness about nature-related solutions to the water crisis.
Over the last few years Israel has gotten itself out of our water shortage; now we re-use a whopping 86% of our water.
So I'm going to blog today instead about a more exciting topic--SPARKLING WATER!

On a blustery January day our group's bus pulled up to the gate for a factory tour.
The sign says Welcome to the SodaStream family.

The plant is huge, spread out in many buildings, in the brand-new Idan HaNegev industrial park.
SodaStream moved here and closed its much smaller factory in the West Bank less than four years ago.

Our tour started with a little lecture in the Visitor Center where all the varieties of soda makers are on display.
Here is how to make flavored soda water at home:  https://www.sodastreamusa.com/how-it-works.aspx

We also got to see the funny video with Mayim Bialik and Hodor about the Lost Tribe of the Homoshlepians, the primitive people who used to schlepp water around in plastic bottles.  :)
Watch it here!

Then our guide took us into the factory!

You don't see many workers because so much of the production is automated.

But if something is a bit off, you do need a person to get right in there and fix it!

Our SodaStream guide needed amplification to make her voice heard over the machine noise.

Watching the robots is a bit mesmerizing, even in my little videos!

This man is from Peru!
SodaStream prides itself on fostering a happy work atmosphere filled with mutual respect and equality among its 1,700 employees.
Jews and Arabs, new immigrants and native-born Sabras, all ages, all work together in peace.
Every day a bus from Jerusalem brings 80 of the Palestinians who worked in the previous factory in Mishor Adumim.  (And travel time is paid.)
And 40% of the workforce are Bedouin--Israeli citizens from the close-by Bedouin city of Rahat or from the Negev's many unrecognized villages.
And half of those Bedouin are women!

Just outside SodaStream's gate you can see Rahat (well, you might have to click a few times on the photo to see the houses).

It was early afternoon Friday when our bus left in order to be back home in Meitar before Shabbat.
What warmed my heart that cold day was this picture of two smiling young men bringing platters of food or goodies as a nice little Sabbath Eve extra for the "SodaStream family" that stayed on to work, 24/7.
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At the official website you can click on your country for local information about SodaStream.
SodaStream came to Israel in the 1970s, and today its headquarters are here and the products are exported to 47 countries.  Soon China will join that list too!

Learn all about SodaStream over at Wikipedia and check out the links at the end too.
And happy World Water Day!
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"God gave burdens, also shoulders."

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We interrupt my report about Israel Space Week to post something for City Daily Photo blogger's Theme Day.
The Feb. 1 subject is TIRED. 

When I moved from the Jerusalem Hills down to the Negev a few years ago, I was shocked by the old-style technique used by one of the three movers. 

Mohammad was not an especially big man, but he knew how to use the tumpline method to full advantage.  
Still, at the end of that hot August day, I reckon he was a bit TIRED. 

The whole work of moving house reminded me of the old Yiddish proverb:

GOD GAVE BURDENS,  ALSO SHOULDERS. 

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I myself used to carry things on my back using such a tumpline while working livestock as a residential volunteer at Heifer Ranch and I found it quite nice.
Read more here:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/08/tumplines/537306/
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A good signal?

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Oi veh, that man is VERY high up!
Seen from the bus to Beer Sheva at noon today. I think we were just passing Tel Sheva Junction. 
I'm having fun imagining that the little white dots (caused by the bus window reflection) are the signal emanating from the cell tower.  ; )
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Correction! -- The REAL conservator appears!

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Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it today!
(I couldn't find a decorated indoor tree in the Negev to post, so this one up in our Meitar Forest will have to do. )

Being Jewish I don't do Christmas, but I DID get a present just now in the form of an unexpected comment.
Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo blog is honored and surprised to hear from Georgios, the actual restorer from Golgotha in the Holy Sepulchre!
He wrote

Dear Dina . My name is Georgios and i am the man in the foto. I am Greek and i was working in the conservation of the wall paintings in Greekorthodox chapel in Golgotha. We were 3 professional conservators from Greece and we restored and cleaned the wallpaintings ,the icons and the Jesus on the Cross. It was an unbeliavable and fansinating experience. Thank you for your fotos.

This is the man in my recent blog post title Overhead Work in the Holy Sepulchre.
If you missed it, please take a look now at the four photos of Georgios at work.

After trying to find information online about the conservation work, I confess that I  assumed him to be a different expert, and thus made a big mistake in that post.   :(
My apologies to all!  That will teach me to be more careful in reporting and to "assume" nothing.

Shalom dear Georgios,
Thank you so much for miraculously showing up here in the blog on (new calendar) Christmas Day!  Thanks for your graciousness in forgiving my case of mistaken identity.  And thank you for sharing with us how it felt to give your help to such a holy place as the Holy Sepulchre.
I wish I could have talked with you; I was so moved watching you work.  God bless you for your loving contribution to Golgotha.
May you have a blessed Christmas season.
With much respect,
Dina
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Overhead work in the Holy Sepulchre

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In the 12th Station of the Cross I was surprised to see a man working ABOVE the heads of the many pilgrims and tourists.
I was there at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre a few weeks ago.
Had to take the pictures in the dark, so click a few times on the photos to enlarge them and see a bit of detail.

Everyone was waiting in line for a chance to kneel under the Greek Orthodox altar and touch the stone of Calvary.
Being Jewish and not Christian, this is not something I do, so I was quite happy to instead watch the work going on overhead.

UPDATE, CORRECTION!  The restorer's name is Georgios and he is from Greece (and not from the Jericho school, as I had wrongly assumed)!  Do see his wonderful comment below!
I also made a new post about him here.
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UPDATE: See also https://religionnews.com/2016/03/25/mosaic-restoration-jesus-calvary-jerusalem/
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(Linking to  inSPIRED Sunday  and Our World Tuesday meme.)
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Olive oil by the barrel

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T is for tugging.

Dani, the in-charge of Kibbutz Gezer Olives had just driven two heavy barrels of our fresh oil back from the olive press.

And they had to be off-loaded to the entrance of the kibbutz bomb shelter where the oil would later be bottled.

American volunteer Ashlea took a whiff.

Dani made the taste test.

Ashlea got a capful of the precious fruit of our olive-harvesting labor.

Luke, a WWOOFer from New Zealand, tried it too.

Only I, as reflected in the pure oil, was busy with the camera and mercifully too busy to drink.
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UPDATE May 2018:  A brief video of the Kiwi volunteer Luke was just published! He talks about his good experience at Kibbutz Gezer.

(Linking to T-day at ABC Wednesday and OurWorld Tuesday.)
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Where did the salmon's head go??

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Last night was the Eve of Rosh Hashanah (literally, the head of the year). 
On the festive New Year's dinner table, usually on the platter with the traditional gefilte fish, traditionally there should be at least one cooked fish head. 
Or even a ram's head. 

This is to remind us of one of the many blessings that God promises in return for obedience to his commandments. Deuteronomy 28:13a says 
"And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail . . . " 

In The Living Torah translation it becomes "God will make you a leader and never a follower."

The Hebrew blessing said over the fish head is 
יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ ה' אֱלֹהינוּ וֵאלֵֹהי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ, שֶׁנִּהְיֶה לְרֹאשׁ וְלֹא לְזָנָב
May it be Your will, Lord our God and the God of our fathers, that we be a head and not a tail.

I pray that every leader and every citizen in our world will use their head to make peace and not war in the new year. 
Shana tova, a good and happy year to all!
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High tension

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The Electric Corporation had to send us this special crane, and we waited several hours without electricity as it drove over from Ashdod, the port city of the Mediterranean coast. 

Then they had to adjust the feet of the truck, to make it level and solid. 

Remember this post about the burning palm tree from last March? 

And this post on how the black dead tree was cut down? 

So the fire was the culprit!  Three months later the apparently frayed cable tore and ended up on the sidewalk. 

I know the technicians turn off the electric current for blocks around, but still, I always worry that the brave man on top might get zapped, God forbid!

Here he tried to "splice" the two ends of the cable.

But his helper on the ground later had to lift the cable up to him on a stick.

Oi, look how high he is, working hard to take up the slack and make it taut.

Leaning so far out of that cherry picker bucket. 

We all watched in awe.  

You can enlarge these pictures and see how the man is smiling through it all, as if to calm me, the Worrying Jewish Mother.

Thanks electric company. You guys are always here when we need you.

Stay safe and may you never ever get zapped. 

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(Linking to ABC Wednesday Z-day.)

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The palm tree is gone

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Last week a local family's front yard grass, hedge, and tall palm tree were suddenly on fire, from an unknown cause.
In the previous post we wondered if it could be spontaneous combustion, but maybe not.
Yesterday a private garden crew came to cut down the blackened tree.
The chainsaw made quick work out of the upper half of the palm.

Watch how they lifted it over the fence and onto the sidewalk.

Still a little bit of green leaves at the very top of the blackened crown.

Watch and hear how they saw the lower half.

"Timber!"  -- over it goes.

And the second "log" comes out to the sidewalk.

All that's left,  black ashes surrounding a sawdust covered stump of a palm tree that had been growing for decades.

Today our local council's green clean-up crew picked up the wood and swept the sidewalk clean.
And here endeth the lesson.
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(Linking to ABC Wednesday.  Letter M is for motor saw, which is how most European languages call the chainsaw.)
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