Shepherds and flock on the move

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I was out walking when suddenly a cloud of dust started moving toward me from the west.
(Hint: you can enlarge the photos and solve the mystery.)

Turned out to be a large flock of sheep and goats!

Two young Bedouin shepherds and their dog kept them moving at a fast clip.

The fine dust coming into my camera (and my nose) was not a good thing but there was no way that I was going to miss this exciting photo opp!

I followed the flock.
 

Here we were walking part of the Israel National Trail.
Some of the goats took a minute to stand on hind legs and eat a bit of the Meitar Forest.

You can see the houses of Meitar up on the hill.

The flock moved on toward their home in the hills and I turned back to start the climb up to my home in town.

Because the sun was setting and night would soon cover the desert.
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Free range organic farm

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Friday a neighbor-friend picked me up and we drove out to visit a big organic farm and to buy goat yogurt, white cheese, and labaneh.
This mega-dog was in a paddock with some bucks and rams.

Many of the cattle were basking in the warm sun.
It is not often that you see free-range cattle, sheep, goats, and chickens these days.
It made me happy.

Only the parrots were enclosed.

The view from the farm's dairy and shop has changed since I was there last summer.
The West Bank (which starts just across the road) is now behind a concrete separation wall.

The security fence and/or wall is not yet finished.
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(Linking to Camera Critters and SkyWatch Friday.)
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Sweet pair of goats

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Still have some pretty things to show you from Sonnenhof, like this sweet goat which lives at a farm not so far from the nuns.

The goats share a yard with chickens which live in this nice chicken coop.

Goats are notorious for eating (and often killing) trees so this shrewd farmer has enclosed his tree with a electric fence!

Here is the farmhouse, goat pen, and cattle stable.
The farm is also named Sonnenhof.
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(Linking to Camera-Critters.)
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Shade for all

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The view from the Beer Sheva-Meitar bus window. (Nicer than in the previous post.)
A flock of sheep and goats takes shelter from the noon-day sun.
The Keren Kayemet (Jewish National Fund), Israel's tree management organization, was nice enough to plant these trees at scattered places in the desert.
(I know it's the KKL's work because I enlarged the photo and found a white pillar with the emblem.)

And also taking advantage of the shade -- two Bedouin girls under a tree.
Even though they sit with their back to the flock, one or both of them must be the flock's shepherd.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
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Roadside browsers

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Lots of road construction going on between Meitar and Beer Sheva.

But that doesn't keep the goat herds from coming quite near the construction sites and the busy highway.

Enlarge the photo to see the goats browsing. 

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Linking the clear hot summer sky to SkyWatch Friday.

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UPDATE:  Here's a nice sheep + shepherds video (from the rainy season, when fields are green.

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Feast for the jackals?

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So there I was, wandering in the desert outside Meitar, all footloose and fancy free (1).
Sometimes when I hike alone and find nothing special to photograph I ask God to send a sign or  just a little token of friendship.

But this one almost knocked me off my feet! (2)
First reaction: Oh, poor goat! 

But what was God trying to tell me?
That he has a bone to pick with me? (3)
That I should go down on bended knee? (4)  (Wait, Jews don't kneel.)
Or did he just want to pull my leg? (5)

Down the road a piece I found shoes and a pair of jeans laid out at the base of the trail marker.
All this was giving me cold feet (6) and I decided to shake a leg (7) and head home.
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1.  able to do whatever you want without any obligations
2.  to surprise or shock someone so much that he does not know what to do,
3.  to want to talk to someone about something annoying they have done
4.  to show a lot of emotion when you are asking someone for something, to act like a servant
5.  to fool someone, to trick someone, to joke with someone
6.  to become afraid and hesitant about something at the last minute
7.  to go fast, to hurry
More at http://www.idiomconnection.com/legfoot.html#B
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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N is for "No entry to flocks!!"

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I had to laugh the first time I walked down to Meitar from the eastern desert hills. 
There on the periphery of my town, just before the outermost houses, stood a green sign.
(You can see it between the two utility poles.)

NO ENTRY TO FLOCKS !! 

I can't read Arabic, but the Hebrew warning, literally translated, is

IT IS FORBIDDEN FOR HERDS TO ENTER!!
OFFENDERS WILL BE PROSECUTED UNDER LAW!

I laughed, imagining sheep and goats in handcuffs standing before a judge.

What I cannot imagine is a flock invading clean, orderly Meitar and starting to poop and graze in the parks and the now-lush gardens of residents.
The faded and bent old sign must be a throwback to 29-year-old Meitar's earlier days.
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(Linking to ABC Wednesday and to Signs, signs.)
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Goat on water buffalo

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Photo by Joan Fahs

Last Saturday I posted a photo of a goat standing on a Jerusalem zoo bench. 

That same day my friend Joan Fahs shared an even funnier photo and, with her permission, here it is! 

It is from this winter's unusually frosty and icy February in Perryville, Arkansas.

When I worked and lived there at Heifer Ranch (1996-2002) our two water buffalo, Briggs and Stratton, shared the same big front pasture. 

Since then, one died, leaving his buddy rather lonely. 

So I'm glad to see the Livestock people have given him some bucks for company. 

This new mixed species pasture looks like it created a real symbiotic relationship! 

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(Linking to Camera Critters.)

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Don't get my goat, said the goat on the bench

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A goat showing off its goatee at the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem.
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(For Camera Critters Sunday.)
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"How long, O Lord . . . ?"

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For Robert Geiss' weekly PsalmChallenge, here is Psalm 79.
The intense feeling of this psalmist most likely comes in reaction to the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE.
He speaks of violence and calls for vengeance. 

Today is Armistice Day / Veterans Day in the world.
Since biblical days and before,  the need for soldiers and armistices continues.
Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours terrorists in Gaza have fired over 100 rockets, mortars, and missiles into Israel.
Will it ever end?

O God! Nations have come into Your estate, defiled Your holy Temple, reduced Jerusalem to rubble!

2. They have given Your servants’ corpses to the fowl of the heavens for consumption and the flesh of Your faithful to the wild beasts of earth.

3. They have spilled out their blood like water around Jerusalem. No one was buried.

4. We have become a disgrace to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.

5. How long, O LORD will You be angry, forever will Your zeal blaze like fire? 

6. Spill forth Your rage on the nations that do not know You, on the kingdoms that do not call upon Your name,

7. for they have consumed Jacob and laid waste his habitation.

8. Do not recall to us our former  iniquities; speedily may Your compassion come toward us, for we are very low.

9. Help us, O God of our salvation, because of the glory of Your name; save us and grant forgiveness for our sins, for the sake of Your name.

10. Why should nations say, “Where is their god?” Before our eyes  let the vengeance for the spilt blood of Your servants be known among the nations.

11. May the prisoner’s groan come before You; as befits the might of Your arm, reprieve those about to be put to death. 

12. Return sevenfold to the bosom of our neighbors the disgrace which they heaped on You, O Lord.

 

13. For we, Your people, are the flock You shepherd. 
We shall glorify You forever; from generation to generation we shall tell Your praise. 
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Translation by Rabbi Benjamin J. Segal.  See also his notes on Psalm 79.
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Photos:
1. Sculpture by Kobi Knaan, at Bible Stories exhibition, Mamilla mall
2. An outdoor people warmer,  Mamilla mall
3. British solitary confinement cell, Museum of Prisoners of [pre-State]  Underground Movements Prisoners, Jerusalem 
4. My neighbor's goat flock and their shepherd
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The song of silence

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Happy Pentecost to all Orthodox Christians and especially in Athens, where our weekly PsalmChallenge is centered.

Psalm 65

1. For the leader. A psalm. Of David. A song.

2. To You, silence is praise, God, in Zion; a vow to You will be paid.

3. It is He Who hears prayer; unto You all flesh shall come.

4. Reports of sins overpowered me; our iniquities You will expiate.

5. Happy is he whom You choose to bring near and to dwell in Your courts; we will be sated with the bounty of Your house, the holiness of Your temple.

6. With awesome deeds of righteousness answer us, O God of our deliverance, O hope of the distant ends of the earth and sea,

7. Who by His strength has formed the mountains, Who is encompassed in power,

8. Who stills the roaring seas, their roaring waves, and the tumult of peoples.

9. Those who dwell at the ends of the world are awed by Your signs; You cause the portals of morning and evening to exult.

10. You watch over the earth and water it; You enrich it greatly, with a god(-like) stream full of water;
You form grain for men; truly, indeed, You do form it.

11. Engorge its troughs, its ridges level; with showers You will soften it, its growth You will bless.

12. You have crowned the year with Your bounty; abundance will drip in Your paths;

13. the wilderness grasslands will drip; with joy the hills will be girded.

14. The pastures will clothe themselves with flocks; the valleys will drape themselves in grain; they will raise a shout; they will even sing.
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Translation by Rabbi Benjamin Segal. See also his notes and the Hebrew.
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Photos:
1. The Jordan River at Kasr al Yahud
2. Neighbor goats in our valley in the hills
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Al Shami goat with a mouthful

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I walked down in the woods across the street and found my neighbor's buck tethered to a small tree for browsing.
(See the leaves in his mouth?)
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This breed is new to me and looks weird.
Apparently the Cyprus (Damascus) Shami goat is popular in the wider Middle East.

Emirates 24/7 News has a video about a recent beauty contest, saying "Jordan hosted the maiden beauty pageant of the famed Al Shami goats that are known for their silky fur and curved nose."
Warning: video shows the long ears cropped.

Four pretty does were browsing freely not far from the buck.
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These four-footed neighbors are for Camera Critters.
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The original Weed Eater

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One man's weeds can be another creature's meal.
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This picture of a former neighbor with open mouth hopefully qualifies for Rob and Mandy's new food meme called "Food for Thoughts."
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Sheep and goat grazing is encouraged in Israel, especially here in the forested Jerusalem Hills, in order to reduce the amount of underbrush and lessen the chance of fire.
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After a few recent days of rain, green growth is finally starting to replace the brown dry stuff that has been around all during the extra-long extra-hot summer dry season.
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Desert dwellers

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DESERT DWELLERS -- for today's ABC Wednesday.

Our bus stopped in the middle of nowhere on the Jerusalem-to-Jericho Road to let this family get off.
The women, in their finest clothing, walked across the highway and climbed over the side barrier and returned to their encampment.

Some Bedouin still prefer to live as nomads, as shepherds tending goats, sheep, and camels.

Enlarge these photos and look for goats feeding at the troughs, the corrals, the tin structures, the black goat hair tents, the car in its carport.

I love the desert.

I admire the desert dwellers.

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Dairy goats and a cheesemaker, for Shavuot!

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Yesterday we celebrated the Jewish holiday of Shavuot on which it is traditional to eat dairy food, and LOTS of it.
In the past week Israelis purchased THREE times the normal amount of cheeses and dairy products.

Nothing can beat goat and sheep cheese--in taste, texture, and appearance.

These are the young bucks which will sire the does which will produce the milk which will be transformed into cheese.

But this is the master cheesemaker and only he knows how to create the delicious prize-winning artisan cheeses of many varieties!
Shai Seltzer learned to make cheese thirty years ago and ever since, to quote the farm's lovely website, "Shai has won acclaim worldwide as an instructor and mentor of dairy goat farming and cheese making."
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Learn about the cheese in the cave and the specially-bred herd, about the hills that have known agriculture for 6,000 years, and about Shai--all at the website (linked above).

Or, take a hike or a drive up the mountain and meet this fascinating man in person.
Follow the sign with the doe that says goat cheese.
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You might want to click and enlarge this photo.
Even zoomed in, it looks far away. It is the view across the valley, from my hill in the Jerusalem Hills, looking toward Har Eitan mountain.

You see the little white dots in the center, in the middle of nowhere?
That is where Shai lives and works.
He built it all from scratch years ago. A real pioneer.

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Besides being Shavuot, today is also the day for our bloggers' weekly animal meme, Camera-Critters Sunday.
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Transporter beam? Star Trek dog??

Time for weekend Camera-Critters meme, featuring animals from around blogland.

Down in the woods I opened a gate and was surprised to meet this dog in a place forbidden to him, on the wrong side of the wall. He should have been up one terrace, helping the shepherd herd and guard the goat flock that was out browsing.
He knew it and wanted out.
Any Trekkies reading this blog? You reckon the dog was saying, "Beam me up, Scotty!"?

A bevy of Bs

Bagels in the Holy City.
Bright balconies of an old guesthouse in Tiberias.

Basalt church and basalt rocks on the seashore of the receding Sea of Galilee.

Blogger behind bars? Bwahaha, no, it is just the cloister of the . . .

Benedictine Monastery in Tabgha.

Balancing bear in the Biblical Zoo, Jerusalem.

Boy (my beloved) on a burnished bear at the Biblical Zoo.

Braille. Click to make this bigger and see that the third sign in this forest picnic place is in braille!

Bucks, aka billy goats, at a goat cheese dairy farm in the Jerusalem Hills.

Big bales (in Hebrew balot) are the way to transport material in construction and archaeology.

Just-baked bread for the HaMotsi bread blessing on our Jewish Shabbat evening.

And for the Christians, the Blessed Sacrament for the Feast of the Multiplication of Fishes and Loaves. On the ancient mosaic floor of the church at Tabgha on the Sea of Galilee.

To see what other bloggers are offering up for the letter B this ABC Wednesday please visit http://wednesdayabc.blogspot.com/ or http://mrsnesbittsplace.blogspot.com/.