A little piece of heaven

I'll post the blog that I wrote while on the bus up to Sde Eliyahu, the Kibbutz I'm staying on for two days, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to share my first impressions. As soon as I got off the bus, I knew that my stay here would be amazing. I was let off at Tzomet Ein HaNatziv, Ein HaNatziv Junction, which is right by the religious kibbutzim in the area. I waited for five minutes or so for Beni to come pick me up. When I spoke to him on the phone earlier, he told me he'd be coming in a white pickup to meet me. In the five minutes I waited for him, I think I saw around fifteen white pickups. I guess it's the vehicle of choice around here. The area I'm in, the Beit She'an valley is stunning. It's in between the Gilboa mountains and the border with Jordan. The first thing we did was drive to Ein haNatziv, where he showed me the ma'ayan (spring) that they're famous for. I recognized the entrance to the kibbutz from the last time I was up here with Emily and Amit on our way to see Ruvik. We stopped at this kibbutz and tried to gain entrance to see the ma'ayan but since we weren't members of the kibbutz we weren't allowed. This time, however, I was with someone from another local kibbutz so we were allowed in. It's a nice little spring with a rope to swing and jump in from and a little dock. The water was pretty clear and there were some fish swimming about. From there we drove along some small dirt roads to a small waterfall in a cove made by some trees that has resulted from extra water from the pipes that run down into the valley that feed into a hydroelectric plant. I'll hopefully post some of those pictures later.
We drove around the area while Beni explained what we were seeing and a bit of the history of the place. He pointed out the lone wind turbine up on mt. Gilboa. There's only one because the "greenies", as he calls them, said that the noise they make disturb the deer in the area. Just over the ridge from where we were looking is Jenine (sp?) which is, I believe, an Arab village where a lot of fighting took place. At this point we had driven up alongside one of the fish hatcheries in the area. It didn't belong to Sde Eliyahu, but to one of the other kibbutzim. He pointed out some of the birds like the comerant and a kite that was flying by. The comerant is a pest because it eats fish from the hatcheries. The kites on the other hand, along with the kesterals, are used as an active scarecrows. They put meatmeal down on their fields so the comerands will come eat while the other smaller birds who come to nosh on their harvests are intimidated by the bigger birds so they stay away. He explained that they also use owls to eat the field mice in the fields. During the mating season a barn owl couple eats between 2000 and 5000 mice and they have 120 couples spread out over their fields. Pretty ingenious idea.
Before we came onto the actual kibbutz, we drove around the fields. I got to pick some fresh dill, which smelled amazing, and see one of the trucks dump the dill it had just harvested into a big barrel. Sde Eliyahu is known for its herbs, fish, compost, and I think they also have a dairy and meat producing plant as well. We ate lunch in the communal dining hall. I was introduced to a few people and then showed to where I would be staying, the library where his wife works, and then to his house where I am now, using the computer.
An example of how awesome this place is:
"You want tea? Take some of this plant"
"Mmmm it's nana (mint)"
"Here are the cups, here's the teapot. Oh and here, rub this plant and smell. It's lemon. Nana and lemon"

We went out to the backyard and he started collecting something from the ground. Pecans. There's a whole box of them. He said the worst thing about living on a kibbutz is you eat all the time. I'm quite happy with that.
I'm going to go retrieve my camera and wander around. There are a few places I want to explore and take pictures of. Later on I'll put up my post from earlier!