August 7th and 8th – Life at the Eco Lodge

August 7th
Today was wonderful.
I started out in the morning with 2 bowls of Cini Mini’s (Cinnamon Toast crunch Golan heights style). After breakfast we headed down to the campsite and changed out the trash bins both around the trees and in the toilets (they’re not outhouses thank God). Then I grabbed an apple from the dozens of apple trees growing around the campsite (it’s green, sour and delicious. But I don’t know what kind).
The Brit (Chris) taught us how to use the irrigation system and how to water all of the plants. Seems pretty simple. The “farm” is more like a vegetable and fruit garden. It’s very small.
We headed back to the cabin where Guy (Israeli carpenter/architect/boss) gave us our assignments for the day. Chris and I stayed with Guy to help him work on his deck. The first thing he had us do was take X-acto knives and start peeling the bark off of the large trees (that he had cut down and the branches had been sawn off). At first I was having trouble. I kept on trying to cut across with strong, small motions. I was getting the bark off but it wasn’t as pretty as I wanted it. I noticed that Chris’ was using soft, long motions with the blade and after studying his motions I started to get the hang of it. It began to be kinda fun.
Guy was putting in tall trees that had a small U at the top at each post/corner of the deck. With some help from Chris and I we were able to finish that relatively quickly. Guy is very talented. He’s able to visualize the future structure very well. We now had trees set up with little U’s at the top (to hold other trees). We lifted trees into the U crevices. Now we had what looks like the beginning of a porch Sukkah (which is his intention) with a perfect square with the other end of the trees (that wasn’t in the U crevice) on top of the roof. Then, Chris and I did the difficult task of bringing down and lifting up on the top of the Sukkah about 15 trees. They were heavy, but it was fun work.
That was kinda hard to describe here are some pictures for you to get a better idea.
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You can see that some of this piece is done and some of it isn’t.
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After finishing up. Guy made us some coffee (it was instant, but who cares it was male bonding coffee). We drank and looked at what we had made it looked great.
I spent the next few hours peeling the trees that served as the posts and the ones that we had put up. It was nice work. It gave me a chance to talk to Chris and talk to Canada (David). I learned that Chris is also on a gap year and I learned about the amazing stuff he’s doing this coming year (Nepal, New Zealand etc). I got to talk to David about superheroes, heavy metal (he’s a fan, me not so much. Besides ACDC and Led Zeppelin but that’s not really heavy metal) and about Canada. I also had the chance to talk to Guy’s wife, who was eager to tell us about her daughter’s service in the army and her own. It’s sometimes nice to just let people talk (:
I took a kickass nap once I laid down on the bed. I had no idea I was so tired. My hands were sore before I went to sleep but once I woke up I felt great. We ate dinner. It was ok. I shouldn’t have let Chris make it (I was asleep, it’s my fault).
After dinner, Chris and I spent time on my laptop showing each other different TV comedies/comedians. I showed him the American greats (George Carlin, Mitch Hedberg etc).
Chris showed me the British TV show “The Inbetweeners.” It actually looks really funny, I may have to watch it someday.
Now I’m exhausted and it’s time for me to sleep.
I’m really excited about building more tomorrow. It’s draining work, but I’m learning a lot.
Goodnight!
August 8th
Today we did a lot of the same work as yesterday. My hands are hurting after all that hard work. Look at dem red hands! Hahaahaa this doesn’t fully capture how sore my hands were.
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I decided to bring down my laptop to play some tunes while we worked. It was perfect when Jay-Z “Dirt On My Shoulder” came on because we were covered in dirt so we followed his directions. “If you feeling like a pimp, go and brush your shoulders off.”
I also found out that tomorrow I will work with the Russian woman (who I will now call Rachel, because remembering the fake name Sarah was stupid. I’m not saying anything bad about these people. They’re awesome) on building new structures with smaller pieces of wood. We’ll be working on the architecture together, but they’ll be more decorative rather than structural. Using small branches tied together with metal wire. It’s gonna be awesome.
The highlight of my day was probably making dinner. Last night Chris made the sauce for the pasta because I fell asleep. I love the guy, but the sauce wasn’t that great. I took the two small containers of tomato sauce dumped them in. Took a bunch of fresh basil from the garden cut it up small and dropped those in. Minced all the garlic we had and dumped those in. Threw in some salt and sugar. A small splash of vinegar and a large splash of red wine. Chris cut up some tomatoes (didn’t cut out the green, but I’ll show him how next time) and threw those in as well. Let it cook and yummmmm it smells delicious, doesn’t look gorgeous though.
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I also showed Chris a clip from Louie which he loved and he showed me a clip of the British comedian Al Murray “taking the piss out of the crowd.”
Louis CK Poker Scene (ONLY for those with a highly developed sense of humor. It’s in bad taste, but I love humor in bad taste. I think it’s absolutely brilliant, real and honest. So if you don’t like it…bugger off)
Can’t wait for tomorrow. I think I’m gonna start to cook more of the meals even if that means that I have to go into town more often.
Night!