New skills and an "interesting" drive to work

Back to work today, but luckily for me this would be no ordinary work day. Today was my first day helping Guy at his latest eco-building project. I was up bright and early at 5:45 (trying my best not to wake Jehn and Carolyn who could sleep for another 2 hours!!) so that I could get ready to pack the pick-up and trailer full of stuff to take down to the building site. 

The early morning view looking towards the Syrian border

After a quick stop-off in the outskirts of Majdel Shams to pick up bags of gravel, sand and cement mix for the last foundations (the sand was simply lifted in its bag into the back of the pick-up with a forklift!) we set off. What followed was a drive to the building site (on the slopes of the Sea of Galilee) through some of the most "interesting" territory in Israel. But more on that later. 

Soon after we arrived on-site Guy put me to work by showing me how to make concrete. We spent the morning making batch after batch of concrete (we were soon well oiled, concrete making/pouring machines!) and pouring the last of the foundations in the corner of the house. Instead of using steel to shore up the foundations we simply threw rocks dug up from the site to strengthen the concrete. Now that's using local materials! From now on, Guy will be building here using locally and sustainably sourced wood.

The building site

"Building guru" Guy mixing the perfect cement

We took a break for lunch at around 12:30, just when it was getting too hot to work (I'd drunk 5 liters of water in a little over 4 hours!). Luckily the lady who's house Guy is building lives just across the olive grove, so we had a cooling dip in the pool followed by amazing sandwiches made by Guy. To finish the day we tidied up after ourselves before hopping back in the car for the mid-afternoon drive back to Nimrod. 

Now, I mentioned the "interesting" drive to work. It was "interesting" because for about half of it we were driving no more than 500 meters from the Syrian border (300 was the closest we got and you could see over the UN zone into Syria). Guy told me a lot of fighting had been going on recently in the towns just over the border. I never thought I'd ever be this close to the border so it was a complete surprise for me.

"On the road again", driving south parallel to the Syrian border
(about 400 meters from the left of the photo)

 Whilst driving through this area I was reminded of how active, both in the past and the present, the military has been/is in the area. On pretty much every side of the road were fenced off fields with mine warning signs every ten meters. The tank crossing points on the road were also a very current indicator of how active the IDF is in the area. We passed a number of IDF bases with tanks parked outside on the journey to and from the building site.

Mine field warning signs along the road 

Tanks definitely have right of way in this area! (one of the tank crossing warning signs)

 So, a truly unique commute to work today and a new skill learnt :). Can't say the project has disappointed me so far :). Thanks for reading and see you next time.