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Leah's summary entry

Here are some glances at what the group did here over their 10 weeks on Lotan.

Here is the whole group at the end of their straw bale house building day. Each year, after some classroom intro into the topic of building with straw bales the groups start with a pile of bales and turn it into a small house within a few hours.

Garden classes last for the first few weeks of the program. The students learn basic gardening skills such as composting, seed sowing, planting, how to create a garden from scratch just about anywhere...as well as topics of baxic soil science, methods garden planning and plant classification, and basic plant biology. border="0" alt="image" name="image" width="800" height="600" />
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The mud building is fairly on-going throughout the time students are at lotan. Here is one photo of mixing mud by hand (Macrina--don't eat that!!) and some finish work being done on two mud camels in the playgound. alt="image" name="image" width="800" height="600" />
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This is the group's final mud bench project:

And then there is free time...although not much of it. Two students decided to do some serious redecorating on the inside of their dome--Alison and Andy used a beautiful shade of blue pigment to "paint" the inside of their dome blue. They pulled a perfect "Tom Sawyer" and got the whole group to help them finish in the end.

The end of the program is a special time for both us as faculty and for the students as everyone starts to see all the pieces of learning coming together into one big picture, Students give presentations of individual and group projects and at the end there is a certificate ceremony when they get their certificates for both the Permaculture Design Course and Ecovillage Design Curriculum.

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Alison, Andy, Macrina, Julia, Laura, and Sam:
Thank you so much for all you gave us while you were here!!
Come back to visit!!
Love, Leah and the Lotan staff

Alison's photo essay from the Beduin project

The site before we began work. You can see that is it being used as a trash yard, with cardboard boxes piled up in the center.

This is Andy and Sam making observations of the site and considering the options.

We had one day to work on a design process. We used permaculture ethics to come up with a design

We began to dig out pathways, form elevated sheet mulch gardens, dig a pond, build compost bins, and assemble a 12+ person bench with 3 tables out of tires and trash.

This is the final work we have done. We worked for about 16 hours, and did not spend one cent. The design has changed the family’s life, and they are looking forward to incorporating our permaculture ethics into finishing the project.

Alison's report on the Beduin Permaculture project

Bedouin Permaculture Project
As a group of six students involved in a study abroad program focusing on sustainability in Israel, we were invited to stay at a Bedouin family’s house and begin a permaculture project on their land. Through a non-for-profit agency called Bustan, our group stayed at a Bedouin family’s house in Tel Sheva for 4 days. During this time we were asked to design and begin to implement a permaculture design project.
Day one was a tour of various Bedouin unrecognized and recognized villages in the area. Through this we developed a somewhat comprehensive knowledge of Bedouin history, culture and relation to the Israeli government.
Days two and three were designated for designing the project. Much time was spent observing the property in order to begin formulating appropriate, unique, and practical uses for the land. Things observed included testing of proportions of silt, sand and clay within the soil, history and previous uses of the land, orientation to the sun, wind direction, and frequency and amount of rain per year. After these observations were collected, interviews with the family were conducted in order to create a design that was specific to the needs of the family members. Some of these needs included food production, recycling, and leisure. From there the designing began.
Techniques used in the designing process were random assembly, zones and sectors, patterns and edge effect, and input output analysis. From a rigorous 36 hours of making base maps of the property and implementing designs on these maps came a final product. This final design would include a 15 person mud bench with three mud tables, elevated garden beds with pathways crossing through the entire garden, a compost bin, tire planters for potatoes, a fish pond, and space for a mud oven and taboon.
Days four and five were left for physically working on the property. On day four, we collected materials and cleaned off the area being worked on, loosened and leveled the garden area, made a compost and straw bin, began to dig out pathways through the garden that would consequently create elevated beds on all areas where no path was being dug, dug out the fish pond and lined it with clothing, and placed tires where the mud bench and tables would be.
On day five we continued to work, finishing all of the pathways, tilling all top soil on the elevated beds, covered the bed with nitrogen and carbon rich material, lined the beds with tires filled with stones and dirt, put and first coat of mud on the bench and tables, lined the bench with cement and tiles, made tire planters and planted potatoes, and started the compost pile.
Throughout the entire process, the family helped up work and build. During this process we taught them as much as we could about permaculture and the reasoning behind every aspect of the project. After we had left the property we left the family a comprehensive list and overview of how to complete and maintain everything on the site.
The most amazing aspect of this project was that we gave the family an area for leisure and food production without spending a penny. The resources we were presented with were already on site or in proximity to the site. These included cardboard, trash, tires, earth, cement, scrap wood, and stones.

field trip to Elaine's orchards

visiting our amazing neighbors the Neot Smadar community

pizza party

interior decorating in the domes

Working with Dr. Elaine Soloway at Kibbutz Ketura

dinner time

straw bale class

the less romantic side of composting

Julia discovers natural toothpaste

fruit break in field kitchen

geodesic sunset

neighborhood garden

classroom moment