Harvest, 2012

Here are a few pictures of our recent trip to Israel this fall.

 Colorful flowers

 Small and delicate flowers just outside the house we stayed in

 Precious baby. Her eyes really are beautiful

 Cluster of grapes, one of MANY!

 "But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches..." Ezekiel 36:8
It's happening!

 Pomegranates from the Negev

 Dawn at Elon More, where Hashem made the covenant with Avraham to give this land to his descendants

 At Elon More

 Morning Glory in Hevron

 Rose in Hevron

 Grape vines on the Mount of Blessing (Har Bracha)

 Olives! We were able to help bring in lots of olives the last week or two of our trip

 More grape clusters

 Jerusalem. Temple Mount from the mount of olives

 "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them who bring good news." Isaiah 52:7

 Gamla. "The Masada of the north"

 An old catapult at Gamla

 Vineyard in Shiloh

 The Dead Sea

 Flock taking a rest in one of the barns in Itamar

 The flag

 Another grape cluster

'En Gev, overlooking Lake Kinneret, Sea of Galilee

Israeli Grape Harvest 2011

Israeli Grape Harvest, 2011

We had roughly 250 people for harvest this year, and were blessed to be able to bring in a whoppin 304 tons of grapes for some of Israel's wineries in Judea and Samaria. We had a blast!

Our clippers, or nippers depending on who you talk to, were very familiar to me and quite easy to use. Being a shepherdess who uses hoof trimmers, this was one of the first familiar things to me - the nippers were basi

cally hoof trimmers. :-)

Look at what these vines grow in! It's a miracle that they can grow, and produce such amazing grapes. It's not just

amazing, it's a miracle.

From here....

To here!!!

25,000 bottles of wine ready to be shipped out

Here's the web sites to 4 of the wineries we were able to work in:

Psagot Winery (Wine bottles pictured above)

Shiloh Winery (Vines pictured above)

Mount Blessing Winery

This is some of my most favorite Israeli wine, just in case you're trying to decide which to get... :-)

And last, but definitely not least,

Tura Winery (No pictures, sorry...)

We had some big days harvesting. A 15 ton day in the 115 degree heat (being used to the more cold and wet climate, this was quite different), and a 21 ton day - a record setter!

Harvest 2011, Shiloh revelation

Our trip to Israel this fall was one that G-d used to change and solidify many things in my life. I don’t know how I’m going to get it all down in writing, but I’ll give it a shot. It might be that you are struggling with some of the same things that I was, and it is my prayer that HaShem may use this to help you too.

We went to Israel with HaYovel to help the farmers in Judea and the Shomron (Samaria), the area some people refer to as the “West Bank”. I’ll write about that later. We brought in 304 tons grapes for a number of wineries, helped harvest olives and pomegranates, worked on the Archeological dig in Shiloh, and did some touring. We actually lived in an Orthodox Jewish community in the Shomron for 2 months. It was so good.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always known that G-d is real, He works in real ways and helps real people. He is the G-d of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the G-d who made covenants with His people who He redeemed. I could see the things that He has done for His people. I could keep going, but you get the point. But even though I knew this, I still didn’t feel it. Sometimes, the enemy got a foothold and I struggled with “Is this really real?”. Doubt. Fear. Unloving. All that ick. 3 days after we arrived in Israel, the group toured Shiloh, specifically the site where the Tabernacle stood for 369 years. We were given time to pray and seek HaShem. I has been praying “Father please, show me that you love me, in a way that I’ll know that I know that I know. I know that you’re there, but I’m struggling and I need you to show me.” There I felt His presence. It was real. It was almost as if He was saying “I love you, my daughter. I am here.” That was all I needed. That doubt, fear, unloving, all of that just fled away! I know He is there, He is real, I am His. And I feel it. It’s not just that I know it, because I’ve always known it. It’s that need people seem to have to now just know it in their head, but to feel it and know it with every fiber of their being. That was me, that is me. I asked and HaShem granted that, revelation I guess you could call it.

That was really just the beginning of what happened there. I’m going to keep writing about our journey there, so much happened in those 2 months we were there! It may take a little while though, so please be patient. I will put my experiences to writing as they come up.