March 18: 6:30-14:00, picking clementines with volunteers from a mechina.
March 19: 8:00-16:00, picking and packaging clementines and avocados.
March 20: 10:45-18:00, picking clementines with volunteers from a mehina and day workers from Nave, delivery of 250+ kg of fruit to a warehouse in Mivtahim.
March 21: 5:15-13:00, picking avocados with Ben's old friends from the army. (Afterwards we ate jahnun.)
March 22: 8:00-9:00, Cleaning up a bit in the garage.
March 24: 9:00-15:00, Picking 200+ kg of avocados and delivering them to Mivtahim with 200+ kg of clementines.
March 25: 9:00-13:00, Ben's teenage grandson showed me how to support heavy branches of the avocado trees so that they do not break.
March 26: 8:30-13:00, supporting branches in the other avocado plantation by myself.
15:00-18:30, we got a late order from the warehouse in Mivtahim, so I went with Ben and another grandson to pick clementines and avocados and then made the delivery.
March 27: 9:00-15:00, Picking and delivery of avocado and clementines to Mivtahim, about 250 kg total.
March 28: 8:30-11:00, Checking the branches with two teenage girls from a nearby Kibbutz, we finished early and helped prune mango trees in Holit.
March 31: 7:30-15:30, harvesting clementines and avocados with two Canadian volunteers and Thai workers borrowed from a neighbor.
April 1: 7:45-15:30, harvesting and packing again with just the Canadians.
April 2: 8:15-23:00, Ben and I loaded a car with over 600 kg of fruit and made deliveries to several friends of his along the way to Jerusalem, his friends sell the fruit to their friends and send Ben the money.
April 3: 9:30-16:30 Deliveries to the warehouse in Mivtahim and a friend who didn't get his order in the day before.
April 4: 8:15-17:15, collecting left behind ladders and other equipment from the clementine orchards.
April 5: 6:45-9:15, locating empty crates and full trees in the orchard, marking relevant rows with ribbons.
April 8: 5:45-16:15, clementine harvesting with volunteers from the JNF, with Nalong (a Thai worker on loan from a neighbor) on the tractor to move the full crates around.
April 9: 5:45-16:15, clementine harvesting again with Nalong, another group from the JNF and a group from Leket. Delivery to Mivtahim.
April 10: 6:00-16:00 Clementine harvesting with a crew of 7 loaned Thai workers, volunteers from Leket. Quick avocado harvest (solo) for delivery to Mivtahim.
April 11: 6:00-16:30, Clementine harvesting with the seven Thai workers in one row and ten soldiers in another. When the soldiers finished their row I took them to the avocados to check the branches. They went home with all the avocados that had fallen to the ground over the past few days, a few bags of clementines, and an open invitation to return (to volunteer or for a beer).
April 12: Today! I expect another ten hour day of harvesting, with three Thai workers (one neighbor needed his back) and a dozen soldiers.
I've been a little tired to keep up with the blog. But Ben seems less tired and more hopeful. I work hard and connected him with Ori from Talmei Yosef to get groups of volunteers for the day when we can. Ben spends less time breaking his back and knees and more time on the phone, arranging buyers for the fruit and getting more day workers and volunteers to come. And Ben doesn't need to meet the volunteers to explain to them what to do anymore, I do that.
The volunteers that come are fantastic. None work as efficiently as the Thais, and it's unpredictable how many will come and when, but each one is a gift.
I moved back to the house in Talmei Yosef after a two-week break living in another volunteer commune in Yated. I've made plans to move out again next week when a woman in the Moshav travels to the states and needs someone to care for her pets.
I love the photo. It speaks volumes.