Day Thirteen--January 5--Kibbutz Lotan, Israel

all reusable materials structure

Sleep was o.k.  I read until about 1 a.m. and then woke at 7 a.m.  funny how it takes time to rid oneself of sleep habits.

the back of my room

By 8:00 a.m. I was up dressed and ready for breakfast.  Again, not so exciting however they had a coffee machine for latte’s and cappuccinos (shout out to Amy, maybe you can expand.)

I will say all the coffee I’ve had here and in Jordan is just as I like it, strong.  Although in Jordan I did add sugar because it was extremely strong.

our tour guide

At 9:30 I went to join the tour.  There were three Russians, who live in Israel so they speak Hebrew and another couple from Italy (actually he was from the Swiss part of Italy and she was from Italy), so the tour was in English.

Our guide (can’t remember his name) explained the concept of “kibbutz” in Israel and how Lotan is one of the few NOT privatized.  The kibbutz started in 1983 by a group of American and Israelis from the Reform movement, and just in the last 12 or so years has turned to be “environmentally minded”.  They decided to reuse as much trash as they could for building. 

a mud house

On the tour we were able to see how they constructed things such as houses, benches, structures, etc using mud, straw, plastic bottles and cans.  






There is one section of the kibbutz which is just “mud houses”, which is where the environmental volunteers live.  

solar oven in the mud house area

They live off the grid as much as possible.  They have solar ovens, compost toilets, and solar panels for electricity.  Making the houses from mud creates good insulation, however, the huts did have air conditioning.  I think it is a must when the temperatures rise to near 50 degrees Celsius in the summer time.  The temperature was very mild but it is the first week in January. 

This kibbutz has goats and cows that get milked several times a day.  The main source of income for the kibbutz comes from the selling of the cows milk, so it is very important to take special care of the cows.

The tourist attraction though is the environmental center and the work that is being done here.

another mud house

The mud huts are very well designed with much decoration.  Our guide explained one of the good things about a mud hut is that if you don’t like the design you can change it very easily.  All you need to do is take some water make the wall wet and put on the new design.  He did also show that there is one step with an aluminum strip to keep the termites away.  The termites like to eat the straw that is mixed in with the mud.  


You also have to be careful not to hit the walls too hard as it is quite easy to make a hole and not so easy to fix it.  

Anyway, when making any structure they first use old car tires and fill them with bottles and cans then apply the mud that is mixed with straw as the covering.  They even have a mud shower.  In order to keep the mud from dissolving from the water, they rub oil on it so the water beads up.

what's inside all the mud

The mud concept is similar to adobe, however the tires filled with plastic bottles and cans is different.  I don’t think the native americans had plastic bottles and cans when they made their adobe huts.  

Our guide also explained that the philosophy of the kibbutz is that to “reuse” is much more important than “recycling”.  They have bins for lots of things that they will reuse in their construction.  

the playground

the playground

After the mud hut area we walked over to the “eco center”, which is where the garden is, the tea house and workshops for making the mud and other things.  

food from the garden

He showed us how the “compost” toilets work and what they do with the by product.  Unfortunately they are not able to use the fertilizer for growing food from this process because they need to get certification and it is a very complicated process.  He did though explain how they were able to use the compost they make from the food scraps.

living off the grid

The gardens were magnificent filled with lots of vegetables and herbs.   They also created these seed pods for planting.  They have seeds that they enclose with mud and throw them into the ground to see what grows.  It’s a natural selection in that whatever takes takes, they never know what is going to grow.

Unfortunately the tea house was not open today, just like the dining hall.  I didn’t know Wednesday was a holiday.  So I was glad I had come yesterday.  

He showed us a building that wasn’t finished yet, but is the largest mud structure in Israel maybe one of the largest in the world.  It is the size of a conference hall.  All the walls were up and he showed that they had to use aluminum poles to help the structure because the mud was too heavy for the size of the walls.  

After the tour was lunch.  Actually the biggest and probably the best meal.

In the afternoon I took a walk through the kibbutz.  They gave me a map with an explanation about an old Roman road that was found outside the date farm and a history of the area.  It was a nice walk that took about an hour.

the date farm

And then, around 4 Merav came to my door to tell me food had been put in my refrigerator and that the drinking water had been turned off and wouldn’t be available for at least 2 hours.

So what was in my refrigerator for dinner:  a container of cottage cheese, a not so ripe tomato, a cucumber, 6 slices of bread, a bag of milk, an onion (what was this for?), a container of goat cheese.  This was dinner?  I actually stood there looking at the food and decided NOT to take a photo.  I really didn’t want to document this low point.  I was hoping this would be the worse meal of this journey.  Thank goodness for BBM (blackberry messenger) because I was able to share this blissful meal with my sister in law Janine, which kept me in good humor.  

Then again, outside for the internet.  Trying to keep up with the blog means I need internet connection.

I was glad to have visited here and see what they are doing environmentally but I certainly was glad to be leaving.