Day 11: Still rockin'.

So I am still clearing the road and collecting rocks for the dam. I rolled a big rock and a snake was under it looking at me. I peed a little bit when he looked at me, but I think he peed a bit, too, because then he took off! I described it to Avi, and he said it is harmless. The skinny fast ones are not poisonous he said or they wouldn't have to be so fast. Makes sense to me. They have a sidewinder type of snake here that is deadly, but I've not seen one. Avi said in their 11 years here he has seen only 3.

Then I saw a woodpecker. I thought I was imagining it because what the hell is he pecking? But Tamar said that there are some. So, no mirage.

My foot so you can see the size of
the stones.

The rocks that I'm moving are pretty big and weigh quite a bit. I'm getting a good workout, for sure. I'm still a bit soft around the middle, but I have jam and toast for breakfast everyday, and the girls keep making us cakes. Sheesh, so much for my desert weight-loss program.

My shadow standing over
my pile of rocks.

The road gets more and more clear each day, but jeez is it tough. I've been thinking about those who were forced to do such labor, and that makes me really sad. The Athenians claimed to have a big D Democracy, but out of the 300,000 or so people in Athens a full 1/3 were slaves. Don't even get me started about America; "Django Unchained" covered that pretty well. There is nothing that can be done about the past, but what am I doing to make the future better. Is it really okay to enslave people by creating a system whereby they will never earn a living wage?

This is the view into the orchard towards the greenhouse, which is in the background. This is only one view, and the orchard is about five times what I've shown.



As we were walking home we saw this ant highway. Of course ants are everywhere, and they create great pathways from their homes to the foody-goodness that they find around. But I was amazed by their efforts because they wore a path into the sand and killed the vegetation across the pathway. I found their home, which was in the ground by a bunch of rocks (Did you just go, "Like, duh"?). I could not, though, find the other end of the trail.

Shelby was cleaning the boxes that the fruit go in for two days. I'm not sure how she still had a smile on her face, but there it is. There is so much work to be done all of the time, and much of it is repetitious and absolutely necessary. But I am a creature of habit who likes a regimen, so I'm in a perfect place. I'm smiling, too!