Good Morning Folks and Happy Prep Day to you all.
Linda and I are looking forward to the Sabbath rest. Still busy remodeling yet another home. We laugh as we suggest we are creating it in our image and likeness. That means lots of ripping out and rebuilding. You would think in our 70's we would be more docile.
Bridget and Brenda still work full time and are currently both building new homes as well. Must be a bug going around.
Today we will play some catch up so to speak. Some are wondering about the lambs so lets start with that. In doing so please be mindful that we are talking about lambs from both sheep and goats. And then we are talking about different species of each and whether they are farm raised for milk production or in the care of the Bedouins. All very important to our understanding, for as man has tampered with everything else, so to with the sheep but not as much with the goats.
We have addressed all of these aspects in detail in the past and they are available on the site if memory serves me well.
So lets get the goats out of the way first. They are the earlier of the two to drop their lambs. That is a simple fact in the Land. We have shown pictures of this over the years to establish it As a pattern we look for starting in early December and into early January. After that they are dropping regularly. Sheep on the other hand are different. The 2 primary species in Israel are Awassi and Assaf. Now be careful with these. Awassi are the native bread across much of the Arab world that is occupied by the decedents of Ishmael. That includes the Promised Land as well. These are what make up the flocks tended to by the Bedouins. These are the sheep we look to for accurate timing purposes. To date the Bedouin Awassi ewes have just started dropping in the past month. In the first 4 pictures you can get a good view of the situation as of today.
Zoom in on the first photo and you will see a few lambs. But are they of the sheep or the goats in this flock? Make a choice.
The next three photos show three different Bedouin flocks in the South with both sheep and goats. Look at how heavy the ewes are with their lambs still inside. Any day now for many of them. The ones that do not look bloated have probably already dropped recently. I say recently because the Bedouins do not let the new borne travel with their mothers until they get stronger legs. We have shown you pictures of lambs kept at the encampments during that faze in the past.
Now for the Assaf breed. They are the product of breeding Awassi sheep with a German species of sheep with one purpose in mind, milk production. These are the sheep you see on farming operations in the North of the Land. They have been manipulated by man to produce more milk, a lot more milk, which is a growing industry around the world. The demand is increasing continually. Now for the defining news. They start dropping lambs in November and continue right up through March. That can be used to distort the reality of the timing of the new year. Hopefully most who speak to these things understand that.
So, in summation the witness of the lambs is right on schedule for an early April Passover. They will be in abundance and more importantly less than a year old.
We have not forgotten about the witness of the grapes either. There is just nothing to report on it other than the vineyards are being pruned right now as they are every year at this time. Here is one of our favorite wineries at work this week in the next two pictures.
Once again, right on time. That is for the older varieties established in the Land. Be careful of the designer ones as we have spoken to for many years.
The next 2 pictures clearly tell us it is the second half of winter and in fact mid February. The domestic almonds are in full bloom this week.
And then there are the white Egrets flooding into the NW Negev right on schedule once again. Why? Because they are governed by instinct written into their DNA. Remember bird species have an enzyme which is located in their brains which is regulated by the increase or decrease in the suns light. Thus it works for both the "spring" and "fall" migrations.
In this photo of the Egret notice all the wild oats moving along through the head stages after emergence. Once again, right on time as you old timers know from their pattern over the years. Keep in mind these are the early ones, many more to follow across the Land.
No White Storks migrating into the Land yet. By pattern some of the early groups will make it in the last week of February and on occasion this upcoming week. But these are a few birds, not the migrating tens of thousands which herald their witness to the turn of the year. There is the resident flock at the dump in the Jordan Valley as there is every winter in the Land. It consist of about 1,000 birds dinning on all that nice garbage. So don't get confused on them being there or their movements up and down the Valley. They are wintering over birds.
Then we have another good contrast picture from Evgeny of the Upper Jordan Valley. The winter wheat is well into the head yet the wild barley "goat grass in this case" on the hillsides is still very young.
Keep in mind there is roadside barley in numerous locations around the country which is in the head. You old timers know this is a result of a green house effect caused by the rocks and or pavement generating heat during the night and also funneling any moisture to these strips along the roads. 30 feet off the road everything is still very young. However you can get a micro environment like in Ein Mab'ua which many can bring to memory. Once again, we have demonstrated these patterns over the years so if you are not aware of them you can go back into our archived records.
We are hoping this helps fill in some of the blanks that some of you are having. Keep at it and don't give up on it. It is a part of our way of life in the Body.
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