Collecting my seed

This week I collected the sand I need for my experiment. The site that I collected from is called Holot Mashabim (Holot means sand dunes). I'm not sure exactly how to describe working in the field there--it wasn't like working in a war zone, but working with the soundtrack of a war zone playing in the background. We were collecting sand, not another person in sight, nothing at all except sand, rocks and dried plants.....and the sound of machine gun fire (interspersed with tank fire) for over 3 solid hours. It's almost as though the visual and the auditory just don't match--like there was a mistake in the theatre and they're playing the wrong audio for the film we're watching. There must have been military training close by, just not that we could see.



This is the type of site that I collected from


The lighter spots on the hill in the background are foxholes leftover from one of the wars


The four wheel drive on this truck sure came in handy in the deep sand. Who would have thought that my experience driving in snow would have come in handy here?


This is Yaffei, one of Ariel's students who came out with me to collect my sand