Neot Kedumim

Hello Again!!!

So this past week our field trip was to Neot Kedumim, which is a Biblical reserve area that has all these different stations to do things that are referenced in the scriptures. Also, all of the plants and scenery is authentic, which is pretty rad :-) The phrase "Neot Kedumim" is a play on words in Hebrew--It means something roughly like "looking at the past for the benefit of the future" 

This was our last field trip with Professor Judd :-( (finals are next week and we switch teachers for the second half of the semester)

Our first station was Sheep Herding!!! It was so fun! 

we went in four different groups and all got a chance to herd the sheep (and goats)...This is the first group huddling and making a game plan...

The first group was not so great... haha- Here Kara is petting the sheep instead of herding him ;-)

Chaille's approach was to coo at the sheep and to kindof hug them/flit around them to get them to go where they needed to...It didn't really work...

Then they started to get their act together and ended up getting the sheep/goats where they needed to go

(group 3) Romeo got the idea to lead them with a plant while the rest of the group herded them, and that worked really well :-)

I love them!

SHEEP!

:-)

Eye Love Ewe!

Our group went last, and we actually did really well! We had to take the sheep and bring them around this post and then back to the starting point, and we did it pretty quickly!

Leading the sheepies 

Taylor and I led the group :-)

More sheep herding! More, More More!

Our group! We did pretty good!

There was a baby goat in the mix, and we loved him :-)

holding the baby goat (also, I love Skylar in the background) 

and another picture of sheep...

goats!

They were hungry...

check out that cute little goat head :-)

and this is the last picture of the sheep.

Our next stop was at this well/cistern where we talked about the biblical story of Eliezer (Abraham's servant) going to find a wife (Rebekah) for Isaac. Spencer and I acted the story out... I was Rebekah, Spencer was Eliezer, and our guide from Neot Kedumim was the camel ;-) [if you are interested, the biblical account is found in Genesis 24.]

drawing water out of a cistern that is several hundred years old (this cistern was actually used by local people when they inhabited the area that is now Neot Kedumim)

Imagine drawing 250 of those plus whatever humans needed for the day--that is roughly the amount that Rebekah would have drawn for Eliezer (25 of those per camel, and Eliezer had 10 camels with him)

check it.

It was really neat to draw water out of a well :-)

Next, we made the spice Zatar (which we have been eating this whole time--it is everywhere here!)

Zatar is a spice that is called Hyssop in the Bible. It is made from the crushed leaves of the hyssop plant, and is really good on pretty much anything... We picked Hyssop and then crushed it into the ground spice.

Hyssop is used as medicine--it is a natural antibiotic, so you can rub it on any wound and it will speed up the healing process and disinfect it. Also, it is the plant that Moses and the children of Israel used as a brush to put blood on their door frames (Exodus 12:22) and it is mentioned several other times in the bible as well

We put our drugs...I mean Zatar... in little bags and saved them for lunch :-)

When we got to the lunch spot, there was supplies to make pita bread and soup and fire! This is Hannah, Sara, Rachel, and Heidi making Pita :-)

kneading the dough--Jacob taught us some tips (his family owns a pizza restaurant, so apparently he is a pro at making bread dough) ;-)

Shaping my pita :-)

We cooked our pitas on these pan things that were over the fire :-)

Lindee made a heart shaped pita!

Jenessa, Lindee, and Sara enjoying their pita bread (with Malia, Anne, and Eden creeping in the back)

So Ragan got his Pita to actually have a little pocket, which was cool... and Jacob's was in a perfect circle (again with the pizza pro restaurant--which, by the way, is on an Indian Reservation in Arizona, so Jacob is basically an Indian...)

Making my pita!

Putting our fresh Zatar on the pita!

yum!

Sara and I enjoying our fresh pitas

Meg making the lentil soup on a rock :-)

Nikki putting out the fire like a champ.

Sawyer singed his mustache while making the fire. You can see the left half of his mustache (his right) is singed... oops...

Party!!!

I don't know where Jacob found this stick, but he kept tickling people with it...

Lindsay put flowers in her braid :-)

So we went and used these toilets that were randomly pretty clean (which was a nice surprise) and also had bizarre seats... so here is your picture of a rose toilet seat! haha

Our guide showed us a lot of different plants, and we tasted most of them. This is Paige and myself tasting some pine needles...they were salty...

Shoulders (aka Mikkel) munching on some pine needles...

Paige :-)

Sara and Me in front of an Almond tree

beautiful almond trees :-)

Almond Tree

I have some flowers in my hair :-)

Tess, Jessica, Me, Courtney, Emily, and Aubreigh

We went to see this scribe who talked to us about Hebrew scrolls and then read from this Torah scroll that is 200+ years old

So this scroll is on parchment that is made out of animal skin, and the scribe showed us how to make the ink that they use to write with. When reading from a scroll, you use a special pointer (rather than your finger) so that you don't smudge the writing

love this.

The Shema, which is found inside of the Mezuza (the rectangular box in the picture) which goes on the door frame (in the Jewish culture)

We then went to check out some really old olive presses! This one is a very old press that is basically a stone that you roll around in this pit to squeeze all of the juice out of the olives

This olive press is a bit fancier. Usually, you would hook a donkey up to it and he goes in circles to roll this giant stone on top of the olives. It took about 4 students to push it to get it moving (it is REALLY heavy)

checking out the olive press :-)

We also went to this field to learn about threshing floors. This is Tori and Kara trying to plow a line in the field...It was difficult for them...

Romeo is dragging Lexie and Susana on this tool that would have been used to sift the chaff and the wheat. 

The basket that our guide is holding would have been used to shift the chaff from the wheat at the threshing floor

This stone is used to grind grain so that you can make bread!

grinding the wheat kernels

By the end of the day, we were all getting pretty tired... Lindsay expressed that feeling by sticking leaves up her nose...Kara tied flowers to the buttons of her shirt...

also, Kara is part gopher...

plant mustache ;-)

So I missed the memo, but apparently this was "wear a blue button up shirt" day... I am tempted to submit this picture to that "Awkward Family Photos" website... haha...

Kara didn't want to let go of Lindsay

and of course, here is a photo of the wildflowers :-) (I learned from our guide that when they are pollenated, they get a white circle around the middle which lets bees know that the flower has already been pollenated) 

We had a great day at Neot Kedumim! This was one of our more "fun" field trips, in my opinion :-)

-E