Olive Press

Next we load the crushed olives into hemp bags (a very messy job) and those go in stacks of 5 under and olive press – we have two kinds at the Jerusalem Center: This one which presses like a cork screw and another that presses in a teater-totter action. Many times the first run of olive that comes out of the press runs red.

olive crushing technique

Like this! We just keep going around about 50 times and then the skins are broken. Normally this is done by a work animal

Olive Crushing

This is when we crushed olives and pressed them. Another very inspiring day. There are many very important steps. First we picked the olives and then you must clean them and crush them. The crushing is important because it breaks the skin to allow the oil to come out when we press them. This here is the olive crusher.

The olives go in the basin and then 5 students line up along the beam and rotate the large rock around to crush the olive skins.

Sheep hearding!

This is me hearding sheep! (actually I was first in charge of the goats but I hearded sheep next:) It was the neatest experience and I will not forget all of the things I learned while I did it. Our object was to split up the sheep and the goats and so once we did that we were to get both groups to the watering hole- have them go around that – and then into their pen. Holy moly! It was really fun and really hard. The sheep only really know how to follow. When they have no goat to lead them (especially the alpha goat) they don’t know where to turn and get distracted easily. So we lead the goats where they needed to go and then I cam eback to help the sheep hearders with their silly sheep. The best way to heard a sheep is not to lead from the front (like most people think) the best place to be is in the back and to the side. This way you are more pushing the sheep forward and making sure they stay close together while they follow the alpha goat. So... here are some parallels we talked about after we finished this experience. First off there are two parallels to the shepard. The shepard could be Christ - many times in the scriptures He is called the Good Shepard. The sheep would be us and the alpha goat would be the prophet with the other goats being the apostles and our church leaders. Something we talked about was that the shepard never works alone - most times he will have other shepards or his goats and dogs to help. Hence the prophet and his apostles. I also thought about how Christ really has shown us the way and he is our leader. So maybe the shepard can be Heavenly Father and He trusts Christ to be the leader who leads us to water and to our final destination. One thing I loved talking about is that the shepard noramally does lead from the back BUT he goes wherever he is needed. If there is a predator or some wandering sheep he will move there. I learned so much from this experience and I now read the scriptures about shepards and sheep with a lot more insight.

Kendra and Goliath!

Slinging rocks in Elah valley! AKA where David slew Goliath! We chose 5 small rocks out of the same stream bed that David did and tried to hit a tree on the other side of the stream..... well I know that David had lots of practice but this should not be that hard. It was though! The first three rocks did not even make it into the ditch; the next one ploped very unforcefully in the steam bed and the last one barely made it across the brook. HA HA! But it was awesome! And considering my goal was just not to injure anyone on either side of me - I guess you could say I met me goal/ I slew my goliath :) (wonderful side note!: As I was walking back to the bus 2 or 3 people were taking their last swings and one of them hit me even though I was standing behind her! It rocked (litterally:))

Dome of the Rock!!!

This is the DOME OF THE ROCK!!! I look out on it every morning from my balacany and so we decided to go visit it. The dome sits on the temple mount which is where the 1st and 2nd temple of the Jews was built and subsequently destroyed. Now this beautiful mosque for the Muslims sits onto of it. Hence some not so happy debates but it is great to learn about and it was a neat place to visit. :)

Me on a camel!!