A Wall of Light - Edeet Ravel [63]
• Whereas this past year we succeeded in planting only 30 dunam of vegetable crops, in the coming year we will aim for 200 dunam.
• We will put in 300 dunam of silage and pasture.
• We have completed a small but highly satisfactory greenhouse, and we plan to expand our modestly constituted landscaping and vegetable nurseries.
• As compared with last year’s planting of 10,000 trees (mainly pine) we expect to plant 20,000 in the coming year.
• The 30 head of cattle will be housed in a brand new barn before the end of the year, and we expect the herd to grow considerably. We will also build a two-storey chicken house to take care of 4,000 laying birds.
• Our twenty-five thousand lira building budget calls for, in addition to the barn and chicken house, a permanent housing unit for members, a children’s house, a laundry and a garage.
• We are prepared to do contracting work for the installation of electrical network in neighboring settlements. Our carpentry shop, because of its excellent machinery—including a joiner-planer, shaper-borer and table saw unit, band saw, radial saw, press, plus many handy smaller tools and gadgets picked up in the States—will enable us to do considerable outside work.
• Our shoe repair shop, located in a cozy corner at the rear of the village, now includes sewing machines, a cutter and a skiver, and a burnishing rod, and although we now do all our repair work and turn out home-made sandals, in the coming year we also expect to begin making our own shoes.
• And by no means must we fail to mention that we expect to be receiving a D-8 tractor with bulldozer.
So, in the coming years, we shall keep building. More than anything else, we want new comrades on other high and windy hills in the New-Old land of Israel; and from among all the newcomers who make up this 20th-century Return, we shall greet more warmly than all the rest those who come from our native land, those to whom we dedicate this record of our first year, the pioneers of America.
Dori
Mummy takes me to an office in Akko. It’s not as much fun as our last trip. As soon as she’s finished she says we have to go back because she has to pack. There’s just enough time to buy me a lemon Artik. It drips on everything and Mummy gets into a bad mood cleaning up the mess.
While I was gone everyone learned how to fold their hands so that the finger on top goes in one direction and the finger on the bottom goes in another direction and it looks like one long finger. They won’t tell me how to do it because I was away.
I ask my brother David and he shows me the trick. Then we play cat’s cradle with string. My brother is very good at cat’s cradle.
Then he shows me how it’s better when you hold a kaleidoscope up to the light. It really is magnificent how the shapes move and change like snowflakes. David says that no two snowflakes are alike. I wonder how so many shapes can exist because millions of snowflakes have been falling for millions of years.
My brother kisses me and kisses me. He’s a good brother.
Alphabetical History of the Conflict in the North District (1948)
abandon abortive accept accessible account accuse actions advance advancing affiliations aged agreed aide-de-camp al-Bi‘na al-Malikiya al-Mawasi allow Alma Amir ancestors announce apologised appointed Arab Arab Affairs Committee argued arm armed armoured arms army army-age Arraba assault asses assist astonishment atoned atrocities atrocity attacks attempt attitude attorney general August authorities avoiding Avraham aware away Ayelet B-17s babies back Bar’am barbaric barred Baruch basis Battalion battle Be’eri Bedouin behest believed belongings Ben-Gurion benign Benjamin Bir‘im birth bizarrely blacken blame Bleida bodies body bombing bombs bones border border-clearing borders born boy bread Brigade Brigade’s brigades broadcasts brother brushfire budge bureaucratic buried bursts C-47s camp campaign camps Captain capture captured car Carmel caught causes