Dig for-a-day, Secret Bullet factory and planting trees

After a delightful buffet breakfast on the magnificent terrace restaurant overlooking the Old City (see pic), we met Avi and his 3-quarter length light brown khaki’s, and drove to the site of the archeological dig we were participating in. Phil, a sweet and chatty Chicagoan who had made aliyah/immigrated to Israel in 2002, was our “dig master”. I am not sure if that is an actual term. Phil instructed us on how to use our pick axes and trowels; thin part of axe is what you pick with (silly Lorna) and thicker end is apparently decorative per Phil. He then lead us below into the cave where we would spend the better part of the morning digging, sifting, shvitzing and occasionally finding pottery and bone fragments which we’d place in the “find bucket”. Livvy was a natural and had no problem uncovering oil pot handles and bones while the rest of us found rock after rock after rock; except my mother who took two swipes with her pick axe before calling it a day and finding a nice rock to sit on while the rest of us toiled away. "I'm so glad we did this dig Lorna, thank you" she told me afterward, "because I was going to go on a 10 day archaelogical dig but now I will cancel it." Mom is very glass half full.

Eventually Justin uncovered some drinking bowl fragments, I found an oil pot base, Chloe discovered that her hair looks really shiny in cave lamp lighting, and David turned his attention to trying various subterranean yoga poses to the crowd’s amusement. Please see pics.

We then carried our heavy buckets of dirt and fragments to the surface. Having paid for the privilege of digging all morning, I at least expected some bedouin sherpas to appear, spritz us with cold Evian mist and carry our heavy buckets to the surface, but that is sadly not the way it is done here. Instead, I lugged 2 huge buckets up the steep and creaky steps to the surface, and was enlisted as the "bucket pourer" while the more skilled archeologists-for-a-day sifted through it all (note to self, do NOT stand downwind of sifting at future digs). Once this task was complete, I poured my own local canteen water over my dusty face and then followed Phil as he led us to the mouth of a recently discovered cave that we were invited to crawl through. Foolishly we accepted (only my clever mother demurred) and soon were literally crawling underground in the dark feeling quite claustrophobic. We then headed to lunch (hummus but no falafel) and the Ayyalon Institute, site of the secret underground bullet factory which from 1945-1948 supplied the Israeli Independence fighters with ammunition. A brief ice cream stop and then onto Neot Kedumim where we each planted an oak tree which we hope to come back and visit one day with Chloe, Justin and Livvy’s children.