helping a friend

This is "levend", a reed type plant they use for putting on rooves of houses. It is about 6+ meters long. We helped Moose clear the branches off of it and carry it too the truck.

workin'

Our friend Moose is building a house in the village. He is going to make a frame out of the poplar trees and then put the reed stuff on there for the walls and roof. They are 6 meters long and they bundle them in 20's. He was carrying one bundle, and I could carry 2 but it was hard after a while. We had to take them about 100 yards to the bottom of the hill and then take them about 30 yards up the hill to the road where the truck was. I was worn out after I carried 12 bundle all that way. The girls love helping. They were wearing their American work gloves.

Big girl

We parked at the end of the tractor lot and walked down the hill to the orchard. Moose knows the people there, and they gave us tea and water. Sure was nice of them, but that is normal K cultural hospitality.

Hick girl

She is dressed for the occasion. It's a good thing I was on the other side of the camera, we matched.

cute kid

This is Moose's son. He is my buddy, but he is really bashful around adults and ornary around kids. He is a good kid.

start of the hike

Today was a beautiful day, so we decided to put school off until tomorrow since I am going to be gone. They can do school while I am working.

This is a crystal clear spring at the bottom of the mountain. It has lots of black snails and some minnows in it.

To make any picture bigger, just double click on it.

2nd spring

this is another outlet of the spring, it runs under the road, about 15 feet lower.

nice spot

the locals say, Tea is better outside in the mountains, especially after made over a fire. We did not make it on the fire, but it sure was good out ontop of the foot hill of the mountain.

critter on the trail

Megan saw this scorpion and ran back about 20 feet. He was really cold so he did not move much, even after I took his head off with a rock.

let's have a seat

The girls and I walked all over the mountain side and up and down the rough valleys. It was time for a break.

They thought this rock was neat, a natural seat.

The mountain

This is a nice view of the mountain. some of the terrain is really rough. Megan was so proud of herself. She really did a good job.

Bread of Life

Old dry crumbled bread is being poured in on top of the wheat remains and the girls are mixing it up. Kurdish people can not eat a meal without eating bread. It continues to give life after it is old.

Notice the little lambs that got left behind for the day in the background. They are calling for their Mom and the Mom's are calling for them.

Shepherd Friends

Haybet finally stopped and posed for me. Women do not like to have their picture taken here unless they are in their fancy Kurdish dresses. We were introduced to this family way up in the mountains in the village of the girl that Tim hit in May. They bring their sheep to the cities' edge during the winter. She is a wonder woman as far as I'm concerned. She has 12 kids from an adult son all the way down to a 6 month old baby. Her husband and son take care of shepherding, but her and her older daughters do the milking. With 400+ goats and approximately 100 sheep she has her hands full.

There food in the trough is the remains of wheat grown in the area. After harvesting they bag it up for feed.

Feeding the sheep

Brianna and Haybet, my friend, are taking old bread to feed the sheep. Bread is never thrown away here. People set it out to dry, then crumble it with a concrete roller used for the dirt roofs and then it is used for animal feed.

American Football

In Kurdish and through most of this part of the world, when someone says "football" they mean soccer. It amazes us how they can kick a soccer ball around and never lose their cheap plastic sandals. We recently acquired an American type football. As we were visiting our shepherd friends a few days ago, Tim taught some boys how to throw and catch it.

Ancient

About halfway above this mansion you can see a flat area on the side of the mountain with no snow. Their is an ancient relief there from the time of King Sennacharib. Our girls love to climb up to see it with their Daddy. This just happens to be across from the "mound" in the other picture. I've read that this area was possibly the entrance area to the Assyrian empire at one time.

The Mound the Morning After

This mound is a landmark in our city. At one time there was a building of some sort on top of it. There are concrete platform remains on the top. Some have said that there was an Assyrian building on top. I've heard that regimes in the past have had lookout stations there also. There is even an old story that a rat came out of the hole at the bottom of the mound with gold in his teeth. There is an old cemetary at the base of this mound, and many people plant daffodil type flowers on the graves. These don't smell like ordinary daffodils, but have a very perfumy scent. Beautiful! Our girls recently bought "flower water" as they call perfume. It was from these daffodils.

You may also notice from this picture that rooftops are flat. Water storage tanks are on top of the homes, and every home, tent, or shack has a satellite dish no matter how poor you may be.

SNOW!!!!

Snow finally came in the city. It was really wet and the ground was too warm, so it didn't last long.

Megan was wearing four layers of pants and the top two were soaked when she came in.