Furry piranhas needs education

This afternoon we walked to the park nearby for the dogs to run off some steam. We have not taken Pita to the fields yet, since she simply cannot manage such long walks just yet. She is still too small. There was a couple sitting on a blanket on the grass, and we let the dogs off the leashes. Barak is very aloof and never approaches strangers, while the pup of course (also being a Pit bull) ran straight up to them, and they were of course enchanted. Right now she does not scare anybody, but in time she will have to learn to stay with us and not run up to unknown people. Anyway, they started to play with her, and of course she used her teeth. They just kept on triggering her. At that point I started to intervene, upon the woman explained that she didn't mind. Then I explained to her that this little pup is actually not allowed to use her teeth on humans, simply due to the fact that although it might be cute now when she is 9 weeks old, it will not be that cute when she is a 9 months old muscled Pit bull. Then I added that she is actually a Pit bull and not a poodle, and that she has to learn good behaviour. They understood and looked a bit embarrassed. This attitude is precisely what makes ignorant people lose control over their powerful dogs, and it really ticks me off.

Visiting Goshen

This picture was taken the weekend before we got Pita, but I just love it and want to share it. We took a walk out to the fields with Barak, to where Goshen is resting, and we put new flowers on her grave. The sorrow feels somewhat lighter now, and if nothing else, a brand new baby pup will keep our minds busy.

Me and Barak by Goshen's resting place

Trading places

OK, there is something peculiar with my dogs. My Bully pup is taking corrections like an attentive German Shepherd, while asking my adult German Shepherd to respect boundaries is like banging your head to a wall. He is stubborn like, yes, a Bully.

Usually my dogs have free access to both the house and the backyard, through a constantly open back door, but while I clean the house I expect them to stay outside. Goshen always respected that, but Barak, he still never learned. He keeps trying to walk inside while I have soap all over the floor and it drives me crazy. Today was the first "cleaning house" experience for Pita and I began to ask both dogs to stay out. Pita was laying on her pillow on the porch, and she did not leave it until I was ready, while Barak tries to trespass as usual. I guess that it was not only my request, but also the fact that I was messing around with water, mop and a floor scraper, but nevertheless, I am very proud of her.

Pita being a good girl while Mummy cleaned the house.

I prefer to educate my dogs with as little corrections and physical reinforcements as possible. The emphasis should be on positive reinforcement, but I am also aware that with a powerful dog you cannot avoid situations where things get physical.

Barak was 2,5 when he came to us, and poorly educated, alas, he has demanded quite some physical corrections to learn to respect our boundaries and integrity. Little Pita is a carte blanche, completely undestroyed, and however she develops, I cannot blame anybody else. She also needs physical corrections to learn not to jump, nibble, charge at the cat, and so on, but with the obedience it is different. I have taught her all the basic commands without touching her. No pressing on the butt to sit down, no jerking on any leash - only voice and treats. The only correction is that the treat/praise is withdrawn when she doesn't do what I ask of her.

I have made the family agree to not use certain commands with Pita yet, since I want to make them absolute. I only ever say these commands when I have her absolute attention and when I feel certain that she will obey, because every time you say a command and the dog gets off the hook, that command is weakened. I also only train these things in the kitchen, so far. Obedience commands need to be taught in several steps, and successively you increase the level of difficulty, by adding time and distraction. Taking a pup to the park to start practicing obedience is like putting a 9 years old kid in a PhD course - not fair.

So, me and Pita we still do obedience in the kitchen, but I started to increase the time she stays in a "sit" or a "down" before she gets the reward, which is the first stage of "stay", and in that moment she was showing attitude. She got pissed with me for not rewarding her instantly, but now I think that I got the point through that I just ask her to stay for a longer time in the position. Educating a pup means walking on a fine line. If she makes mistakes, you can almost exclusively blame yourself. Either you moved too fast, with time or distraction, or you simply did not register the signs that the pup has lost her motivation and attentiveness. A pup in Pitas age has a concentration span of 5-10 minutes, and after that you do more harm than good. Divide the training into many short sessions during the day, and never try to teach the pup something when it is tired or winded up for some other reason. It is useless. Pita gets three scheduled sessions every day, one before each meal, and also ongoing lessons about "who's in charge" during play.

Yesterday evening we took the dogs to the park and they ran around freely. Barak has not really figured out whether he can play with her, but she surely tries to play with him. He is slowly coming around, though, and he is not keeping her on the same distance anymore and his patience is expanding. During the night she even went to his bed once and laid down beside him, and although he finally moved away, he actually stayed with her for a moment. I am sure that she is breaking him down slowly, slowly... ;)

Welcome Pita the Pit bull

It has been a few intense weeks since Goshen passed away. Already when she was still with us, we discussed getting another dog, so when the sad loss hit us, it came natural to immediately plan for a new canine member in the family. But, what? Puppy, or an older dog? What race? Buy, or adopt? Yoram's ex planned to take puppies from the Dogue de Bordeaux Marta, but now we suddenly found us in a situation with one grieving and lonely Barak, and we felt that we did not want to wait for her to get into heat, be mated and give birth. That would take at least another 3 months.

However, we borrowed Marta for a few days, just to cheer Barak up, and it helped. He did not refuse the food anymore, and he had someone to play with. I started to make plans. Close to Netanya there is a shelter run by Yuval Mendelovitz (Facebook page), aka the Angel of Pit bulls. He is the only one in Israel that in an organized way rescues and rehabilitates Pit bulls and other stigmatized dog breeds. I am well acquainted with the breed and know that it is a superior dog - in the right hands. A Pit bull is a working dog, with a lot of energy and will power, and without proper guidance they can definitely develop out of hand, but that goes for any powerful breed.

The day before we were supposed to visit Yuval the first time, Marta's owner told us to not get a dog, since they did not have room enough for Marta, and that they most likely would like to give her to us. Yoram and Marta share a special love, and we were all happy. She was already functioning in our home and we looked forward to taking her. The next day we were told that they either wanted to take a litter of puppies on her, or have us pay some money for her. We discussed it, leaned towards paying for her. She is pure-bred, but without papers, and I am principally against backyard breeding. However, they asked for much more than it cost to adopt a Pit pup from Yuval, and since that felt more appealing for all other reasons, we were in doubt. The next day, Yoram gets a phone call asking why he is not picking up the "lady", upon he shares that he wants to discuss the matter. Then he is being told to forget that, she is ours, free of charge. He picked her up. We notice that Barak was signalling that she is about to go into heat, and then we decide to neuter her. We thought that just to be nice, we share this with the previous owners, upon which they got frantic and started chanting about "misunderstandings" and that they definitely want to take puppies from her. That made us boiling mad, but the dog moved back home. We don't want to "borrow" a dog! What were they thinking? That they would save some food money from keeping her with us, and then take her back? Heartless idiots, really!

Now, we were determined to go to Yuval, and last Friday afternoon we packed Barak and the kids in the car and drove to his place. We had a discussion about our life, about Barak and our cat Karma, and we all agreed that it would be most appropriate with a puppy. Barak will get used to her in his own pace, and she can also get used to the cat while growing up.

When we saw "our" pup, a female from Inbal's litter, I melted immediately. I noticed that one of her eyes will stay blue, while the other one will turn amber, and that did the trick! She also seemed very gentle. We finished the deal and took off home with our 9 weeks old baby girl. Yuval had given her the name Lynn, but we decided to rename her to Pita! It lays better in the mouth, and cuts better through the air than Lynn. Our little pup got car sick on the way home and threw up all over me, and since she also was very dirty from laying with the litter in the shelter, the first thing she got when she got home was a good bath, and I also cut the tips of her claws with Yoram's nail clipper. She kept us up all night the first night.

Pita, the Pit bull girl

Pita resting in the park

Odd-eyed Pita

Now Pita has been with us for five days and she is making amazing progress, but we are also working determinately with her. She is almost house-broken, except that she still cannot physically control her business all the time. She sleeps all through the night, except that we take her out a couple of times during the night. I am feeding her three times per day, and then she gets to eat as much as she wants during 15 minutes, and then the food is gone until the next meal. I also use her motivation before every meal to do a short obedience session. She already knows "sit", "down" and "come here" (although in Hebrew), and she has started to sit down right in front of me also on other occasions, just to please, so she is a very clever little dog. Now when I have a small pup, I am seriously considering engaging in formal obedience with her, not for competition but just for fun. She definitely has the drive, and the intelligence.

She is also not as gentle as she was the first day. ;) After becoming "warm in her clothes" she has started to show a very high energy and a lot of confidence. When she is not sleeping she is all over the place and the kids have not really figured out how to deter her from putting her sharp puppy teeth in their legs, so we have to supervise them all the time, except when she falls asleep in their arms. She is also getting boulder every day with Barak and she is challenging him to play by nibbling his tail, balls and groins, but he does not play with her yet. He just gently, but firmly, corrects her and his assistance in educating her is invaluable.

Thus, little Pita is not a beginners' dog, but of course we knew that from the start. She will need lots and lots of exercise, boundaries and discipline, but also endless love. She also gives endless love, just like the Pit bull is bred to do. We have a whole dog life of endless love ahead of us. Aren't we lucky?

Our beloved Goshen - Rest in Peace

Goshen laughing, one week before she passed away

We have unexpectedly lost our precious Goshen. I have been crying comfortless for days and it is not until now that I can gather myself to write about it. Saturday morning she was happy as usual and we had planned to go and visit Yoram's mother in Karmiel. For some reason, I did not feel like going, and Yoram left alone with the kids just before lunch. I cannot say if that was intuition or destiny, or just pure coincidence, but I am so happy that I stayed at home, because right after they had left I noticed that Goshen was acting strangely. She went out and laid alone in the garden and I went out and called her up on the porch, and then I noticed that she was wobbling and could not stand up properly. I immediately checked her and noticed that her gums were completely pale and that she was breathing heavily. She did not even want to eat a chicken heart, but she did drink some water. I called Yoram and explained the situation and they decided to come home earlier than planned. I feared some kind of poisoning, but could not figure out what that could be.

When Yoram came home she was not any better and we tried to reach our vet, but he was off duty and he recommended us to go to a clinic in Haifa that backs him up when he is gone. We had to carry out a very weak Goshen to the car and we drove there. The young vet on duty started to examine her and took blood samples, but the blood initially seemed OK. Her tummy was not hard or swollen either, so we could not explain her shock state. Not until she examined her tummy with ultrasound, she could see something suspicious on her spleen, some liquid accumulation. We also took a few x-ray shoots on her, which confirmed the same. By now, a new blood sample revealed that she was actually loosing blood, and the accumulation in her tummy was just that, a big hemorrhage. The young vet called in the head vet of the clinic, who explained the condition and prognosis. He said that there was a 70% risk that the hemorrhage was caused by a tumor on the spleen. This type of cancer is called Hemangiosarcoma and it is very common on some larger breeds, and German Shepherd in particular. It is a blood-fed type of tumor that rarely is discovered until it suddenly bursts and causes a sudden death from inner bleeding. What he could have done was to open her and remove the spleen and send it to biopsy, but since Hemangiosarcoma is a malign type of cancer, and also very metastatic, the risk that it had already spread to other tissues was very high. Besides that, Goshen was already too anemic to safely be put under general anesthesia, so although it was excruciatingly painful, we understood that we had reached the end of her life.

I have never seen Yoram cry before, but now he broke down like a child, and so did I. Gal was also with us, and at first I don't think that he understood the reality in what was going on, but when he did he cried as well. I was sitting face to face with Goshen when she got the sedative and the anesthetic that put her to sleep and I can swear that I saw peace in her eyes, acceptance and contentment. She was OK with passing on and satisfied with her life. No fear or stress, or signs of disagreement. Although I found it sad that this did not happen with our regular vet, who has known Goshen all her life, I am also grateful that it was on a Saturday and we were home and could take care of her. I cannot even begin to imagine how it would have felt to come home from work to a dead dog. Now she had company during her last day in life.

We put Goshen back in the car and drove home. Yoram went to the neighbor and borrowed some shovels and I went in and took Barak out. He smelled me differently already in the house and when I opened the backdoor to the car, he saw Goshen and smelled her. He jumped up into the car and sat down on her, just as if he was claiming her for the last time. Then he jumped back out and looked away as if that was enough. We put him back in the house and drove out into the fields to a spot that Yoram had thought of as suitable.

Goshen's last resting place

We laid her down in front of two small trees that are standing solely on a small hilltop, viewing out over the Jezreel valley. We covered her with rocks to prevent the jackals from digging her up and we put some flowers. I opened a bottle of wine and we toasted her and thanked her for our time together, and then we all went home to a painfully empty house. Everybody cried themselves to sleep and the kids were calling her name in their sleep all night...

Goshen's wonderful view over the valley

Welcome Karma!

Karma
A petite semi-long haired tortoiseshell tabby girl

I knew somewhere deep down that our family would not be complete without a cat, but with two notorious cat-chasers in the family the cat needed to be made of a special material, brave, but cautious and smart. Destiny would bring us that sooner or later, was my belief, and Sunday evening she arrived.

The dogs were inside and the cat was meowing in the backyard so we went out and talked to her and gave her some food. She seemed very confident, so we took Goshen out first, since she is the easiest one. She was just sitting still watching the cat, however intensely, and since the cat did not mind the dog, Yoram took Barak out as well, but on a leash. He was very excited, but had no choice but to sit still.

Suddenly the cat jumped off, and both dogs tried to charge after her. Goshen stopped on commando, and Barak was hanging safely on his collar. We took the dogs inside and within minutes the cat was back. We said goodnight for the night. In the morning she was outside and she got some breakfast. In the afternoon I bought a muzzle for Barak on the way home, since I knew that he would nip her if he got the chance. He had it on for a while when we spent time together on the porch. He quieted down so after a while, so I took it off. I wanted him to smell her so I let him stretch his nose over my lap, and suddenly, without any notice, he just took her foot in his mouth! I almost panicked, bent his mouth up and disciplined him harshly. The most strange thing is that the cat only meowed and did not seem to care more than that. It did not scare her, and she did not take off. Obviously it did not even hurt. It is possible that he did not bite her hard, but still fought me to not let go.

In the evening Yoram came home and he just let her into the house, and she did not hesitate. I was very nervous over Barak, but Yoram assured me that he would not do her anything when we all watched over it. He did not. I guess that I just did not trust him, and that energy probably affected the whole situation. From that moment, indoor coexistence was no problem.

What still is an issue is outdoors. Whenever the cat wants to leave the porch and go out in the garden, the dogs prey drive is involuntary, at least in Barak. Goshen has understood to let her be, but Barak just cannot control himself, so there we need to supervise thoroughly. And of course, we never leave them alone together anywhere just yet.

Comfortable on the running washing machine

Bottom line is, that she is a brave little cat, our Karma. She walks between the legs on the dogs in the kitchen, and if they get too close, they get a paw on the nose. She stretches out purring on the bed, while the dogs keep intense attention to her. It sure complicates our lives quite a bit, since we need to be more alert, and we cannot just open the back door anymore and just let the dogs out without checking if she is there. Sometimes, Barak is simply leashed in the yard, but sometimes not. Depends on how much effort we can spend. I am working with a lot of positive reinforcement, by rewarding Barak when he is calm around the cat, but if he charges after her, he will get punished, because that is a nono!

The cat has learned exactly how to navigate around our home. She knows how to pass the dogs to get out of the back yard, and when she wants to get back inside, she meows on the front door. In the evening she comes inside, during dinner and the evening chores, and then we spend some time with her in bed before we let her out for the night. Even if all the animals learn to get along, I think that she will stay out during the nights. After all, cats are nocturnal animals. Tomorrow we will take her to the vet to get her spayed. I guess that we are her family now. Since you cannot own a cat. A dog has owners, while a cat has personnel. We will cherish every day that she chooses to keep us.

Sedulous wins...

... or shame on him who gives up!

Happy boys with a mountain of pancakes!

About two years ago I moved in with a four years old and an eight years old, who never had eaten anything else but white bread, white pasta, breaded schnitzel, burekas, Bamba and Bissli. We took off on a bumpy journey together, since I have different ideas about food than they were used to. We have taken baby steps, blended with a lot of friction, and had periods when the little one refused all food, period. Their father also saw the need for a change and we fought the battle together, sometimes with frustration, but with as much wisdom and patience as we could bring forward.

For a long while we were stagnated at a few vegetables, tuna, fish schnitzel (containing mostly soy), egg and an occasional fruit, but I wanted to introduce more veggies, more fruits and berries, and above all more fish. Canned tuna, with all due respect, is not a sufficient source of omega-3, and I dreamed of getting them to eat salmon. Maybe 6 month ago, I made delicious salmon cakes ones, which the big one tasted, but rejected, while the little one refused to even look at them. That was a loss that I grieved.

Nowadays they both are very interested in what is healthy and not, and our meals often involve discussions about food and health. They also see their father and me eat with a good appetite and filled with joy, and also that we prefer natural and healthy foods. The other evening we had bought a small jar of pickled herring and a jar with fresh mackerel in oil. Only for the two of us, of course. No unrealistic expectations here! Imagine our surprise when Junior wanted to taste the herring! And he found it tasty, and had a few more bites! Me and Yoram were sitting with our jaws down on the table.

A few days later, last Friday, Yoram said, let's make salmon for everybody. We had recently bought 3 kg of Norwegian salmon from our local fish dealer, and we took out an appropriate piece from the freezer. No attempts to hide anything, we just cut it into mouth-piece chunks and fried it with sesame oil, teriyaki sauce, ginger, garlic and sweet pepper. On the side we had fried potatoes. Delicious, juicy and a little sweet. We put potatoes and merely a few pieces of fish on each plate to not overwhelm the kids, and now it was time to drop our jaws once more. Initially, we had to encourage them slightly, but the big one took a piece of salmon to his mouth, and here the wonder happened. His face broke out into a big smile, that for us was worth a thousand bucks! To his surprise it was actually very tasty. They both finished their plates, and we felt more accomplished than ever before.

Yesterday we had a BBQ quite late in the afternoon which cancelled our customary Shabbat evening pancakes. Today I am home alone with the kids and I promised to give them their pancakes today instead. They have Passover holiday and Yoram works his last day before the holiday. I asked the kids if we shouldn't do the day the other way around and eat pancakes for lunch and something more proper in the evening after their water polo. I also promised them as many pancakes as they could eat. They were hooked on the idea. Then I said that instead of only having their regular chocolate cream or honey on the pancakes, I would do two other fillings. I made one with mashed strawberries and banana and one with grated apple, cinnamon and some honey. Both of them had one pancake each of the "new" things, and the rest with chocolate or honey, and I did not mind. Just tasting the other things was more than I could have ever asked for half a year ago. I ate seven, Ziv ate six, and Gal ate five, although the two last ones went down very slowly for Junior.

We are beginning to find harmony in relation to food. Food is no longer a power tool for the kids, but instead something that brings joy and pleasure to our lives, and the kids feel the same way. We are still balancing on a fine line, but the worst obstacles have been overcome.

Blueberry + Sabra = True

Srulik

Sometimes Israelis that I know well ask me how I cope with the infamous sabra mentality. It happens after they see me interact with some totally cold and arrogant person who almost seems to evaluate whether I am worthy of his service, or not. Truth is, that although I am a pretty well-grounded person, with a "water on a goose" ability to shake things off, I was sincerely moved by this behavior for quite some time before I started to just ignore it.

However, I don't think that I ever took it personal - I was rather fascinated with how people had become that way, and of course there are many aspects that together forced this tough surface onto the native Israeli Jews. Because it is only the Jews. Never that you go into an Arab establishment and they look at you as if you would have arrived from outer space.

The term sabra was coined by the early Zionist movement, mostly in the kibbutzim and moshavim, where the new generations of Jews grew up, born in Israel and with Hebrew as their native language. At this time, the kibbutzim were strongly ideological communities, far from any happy-go-lucky hippy collectives. They consisted of hard-working people who went as far in their communal lifestyle as to keeping all children in children's homes, separated from their biological parents. This created a few generations of more or less emotionally detached individuals, and I have heard Israelis explain this as an altruistic sacrifice to get through the difficult times during the build-up of the Israeli nation.

This is certainly not an excuse for later generations, but the Jewish collective memory of the pogroms during Diaspora, as well as the fact that Israel has been under constant existential threats from neighboring Arab nations, from the beginning up until today, can also explain the tough and thorny skin on the Israelis. I would not say that Israel is a destination for the convenient traveller, who wants to meet cheesy (and false) smiles wherever he goes. I even know Jews who made aliyah, but gave up and moved back into Diaspora again, not only because of the sabras, but life in general, which can be quite demanding and frictional. I guess that a challenging life needs to be up ones ally to really thrive here.

The nuances in the behavior differ between a tough guy in a sandwich bar in Ramat Yishay, and a snobby barista in Tel Aviv, but the essence is the same. What furthermore is the same, is the soft and sweet inside. It is always there - you just need a little patience to penetrate, and when you succeed the love story is a fact. With the roughness of the sabra comes also a strong spirit that inspires you in ways that I would not replace for any superficial friendliness in the world. For me, sabra is something genuine and honest, and the blueberry is thriving among them.

Our new home in images

Green garden

Fragrant Citrus flowers

Colorful trees (Judas tree, Cercis siliquastrum)

Home + dojo = Hojo

O'Sensei watering us with knowledge

Endo..rphines and hardened noodles

Check yourself!
Why do you do like you do?
How are you being perceived by your partner?

I have just spent 10 days in Stockholm. First a week-long seminar with Endo Sensei, and then a few days more with the local heroes Jorma Lyly and Jan Nevelius. A whole week of Endo seminar consists of a yudansha part, only for black belts, and then an open weekend seminar. An Endo yudansha seminar is a privilege to attend, since it so rarely happens that you know that you actually will enjoy practicing with each and every one aikidoka present. It is extremely crowded on the mat, but every person in the room is advanced enough to handle such a situation and we all practiced under the highest concentration and commitment.

This kind of intense practice makes you transcend into breathing, feeling, thinking, dreaming and talking about aiki. As we practice, we refine not only our bodies, but our minds, emotions and spirit. This week led me to a metaphor of the refinement of your physical qualities - how another person perceives you when you touch each other.

Most beginners can be compared to unboiled pasta. They are stiff and inflexible, but at the same time very easy to break (their balance). The separate body parts cannot move irrespectively of each other and they often feel reluctance in their bodies for certain movements. They avoid deep contact and fall in a clumsy way as they go down. Then they learn from the teacher that they should relax...

After a while they can do that, and then they become like boiled noodles. Over-boiled noodles to be more precise! Now they learn how to fall softly and follow their partner, but they also move excessively, like the wobbly noodles they are. They do not keep their physical integrity and they show a lot of openings. This is a time where the more advanced aikidokas need to take care to not hurt the "noodles", since they in this stage often are quite ambitious and very enthusiastic due to their newly-discovered flexibility, and they happily let people throw them around although they are not really yet collected enough to always stay safe on their own.

The next phase is the longest one, since it will go on for as long as you keep on practicing aikido. This is when you turn into a metal spring, that gets thicker, tougher and heavier, without ever loosing its elasticity and ability to store energy. If you think of it, it reminds a lot of the physique of a wild animal. This is the quality of a true warrior...

Landed here for 5 minutes

Jan Nevelius has been here again and we have had five days filled with wonderful aikido revelations. He also visited Tivon one day, as well as our own little hojo, which was an honor. What happened there will stay there, but it did involve aikido, yes. The result from everything is that we have a lot of new material to work on, mostly in our own dojo, where we are more free to express what we want for ourselves.

On Wednesday I go for my annual February vacation in Sweden, which will span over four packed weeks, in Malmö, Stockholm and Västervik. I will manage family, friends, as well as a week with Endo Sensei.

My new job has somewhat eliminated my efforts to keep a steady pace on this blog, and my boss would probably be happy to know that. Nevertheless, I am not planning to shut it down just yet, since we are living in interesting times here in the Middle East.

Review of our move...

My guardian angel, Goshen

More than 10 days without any post and I do feel that I have neglected the writing, but for a good reason. Moving takes time and energy, and on top of that we have both been working full time. Destiny was however working in our favor, and our dear friends, the Jaeger's, had a visit planned since months back. Then all of a sudden it happened that we needed to move over new year, and "chick chack", we were blessed with the greatest support, both practically and spiritually, in the middle of all the mess.

We have moved to another neighborhood in Tivon, obviously a very nice one, if you ask the ones who know. We have a nice garden with great potential, and we are only 100 m from a descent into a wonderful wadi. That is also what I value the most, garden and the closeness to nature. We moved on the 30th of December and when we woke up on new years eve, me and the Jaeger girls went straight out into the garden and started raking leaves, completely procrastinating the kitchen than needed a basic unpacking to be able to handle the little come-together that we had planned to welcome the new year. Yoram came back from some errand and told me in his softest fashion that maybe there were more important things than leaves, right there and then, upon which I hissed at him a bit, but then went in and rolled up my sleeves. As it ought to be, since I would not have wanted him to arrange the kitchen under any circumstances.

The TV is according to my wishes squeezed into the smallest room, and the largest living room we are turning into a permanent hojo = home + dojo! But the hojo part is of course a joint desire! We came over some used, but decent, white tatamis and we have already laid out some of the mats on the floor. We will decorate the room in a dojo kind-of fashion, but the room will also serve as a cozy corner, with lots of pillows and blankets for good moments between aikido practices. On Tuesday evening we made our first aikido moves in the room, a completely spontaneous moment with the kids. We taught them to roll and me and Yoram threw each other in a few strong tenchinage's. When we started we were cold (houses here are freezing in the winter time), but after a few rolls, all of us took off the warmest clothes. Immediately, I had the idea that tatamis in the whole house would heat up the whole house... ;) Then we made dinner. This is the spontaneity that I have been dreaming about for so long, having the aikido as a closely integrated part of your life, enabling you to practice whenever you want, however you want, in addition to the scheduled practices.

The garden was not completely enclosed by a fence when we moved in, and that was one of the things that we needed to fix, since having the dogs in the garden will enable me to work full days without taking them out for a pee. However, some of the parts of the fencing area turned out to be more difficult than others, with heavy vegetation and other stuff, so the security of the fence is growing gradually. Goshen is not the problem, Barak is. Goshen showed already during the first few days, that she would stay in the unfenced garden as we left in the car, while Barak was leashed to a tree in the back yard. Goshen accepted, went back to him and came out and greeted us as we returned. Barak, on the other hand, turned out to be more difficult to contain, as we expected. He is after all a male, with intact balls (although they right now hang on a very loose thread), and he has the "vagabond gene". He wants to roam the neighborhood, and hadn't it been for his notorious prey drive on cats, then I would not mind if he took his tours ones in a while. He is of no danger for humans or dogs, but the cats should watch out. In the garden, his focus is on finding the weak spots in the fence, and we keep closing them. I think that this weekend we will close the last one, by cutting down a big bush and extending the grid fence in its place.

So, we are busy settling, exploring, decorating and placing our scent on the place. On February 2 I leave to Sweden for four weeks, and when I get back, the spring is here. I cannot wait to really dig my fingers down in the garden...

Jojo is quite busy...

Happy New Year from the Shanir Sanctuary!

Merry Christmas!

This year we are alone on Christmas eve, and although Yoram has to work half the day, it is on a Friday, so we can actually celebrate a bit. I set up a home-made glögg to soak yesterday, and today when I tried it, it tasted remarkably well.

I have boiled a batch of rice porridge for later making a saffron pancake in the oven. Other than that we have some herring, smoked salmon, and palamida instead of eel. I will make a Janssons frestelse. When Yoram comes home from work we will go to Afula to buy some pork products. They have a sausage that reminds a lot of Prinskorvar. Maybe I can find a small ham and some minced meat to make Swedish meatballs.

Yesterday I stuck some cloves into a couple of clementines and that is about as much Christmas decoration I could manage this year. At least it seems like I am advancing every year. Last year Christmas went by completely unnoticed. Maybe I have some kind of tradition up running once we get kids together...

Saffron buns, my style

My saffron buns

Since margarine (plastic!) is not crossing the threshold of my house there are some things that are not possible without access to real butter. The butter crisis in Israel is over, luckily, which enables baking again. To get a little Christmas feeling I baked saffron buns from whole wheat flour. I have gotten used to always choosing whole grain products of all staple foods, and I think that it works well for sweet pastries as well. It is just a matter of habit. I used Israeli white cheese (gevina levana) instead of kesella and pomegranate seeds instead of raisins, and loads of saffron!

At first, the dough did not leaven as expected since the cheese chilled the dough too much, but after putting the bowl on top of the toaster oven, things started moving. The somewhat experimenting recipe turned out very well for a first time and even the picky kids liked them. During the whole afternoon I terrorized the Jews in the house with my Christmas playlist. Christmas eve is next Friday and we are free from the kids. I am thinking about taking the opportunity to make some kind of Christmas dinner for me and Yoram. Last year the Christmas passed totally unnoticed. That will not do when I get kids of my own, so I better start building our intercultural family tradition.

House with a garden!

We are moving, already on the 1st of January! Now when I have a reasonably consistent income we can finally afford to leave this dump flat, with its moron neighbours. We did not look for long before we found a cute house with a nice garden, although it took some negotiations before we settled around the agreements. First offer was an unreasonable increase of the rent already on the second year, as well as us having to do all the painting ourselves, but after my brilliant husband cast his spells, we ended up on no rent increase and the landlords will do all the painting. We will just choose the colours and move in to a renovated house.

It is an old house, where the kitchen, toilet and bathroom are not too modern, but that's just the way I like it. I am allergic to new houses with a modern and clinical style. Houses like that have no soul and it is very difficult for me to feel comfortable in such a house. Right now I am planning the colours for the different rooms and it will be ranging from deep fuchsia to lime green, ochre, colonial blue and black. The kitchen and the bathroom will be quite creatively decorated.

There are four rooms and a pretty large hall. Except for the master bedroom, the boys' room and a combined TV room/office, we have decided to make the large living room into a permanent dojo. However, in between practices, it will also serve as a cozy living room, by just spreading out soft mattresses, pillows and blankets on top of the tatamis. Finally, my dream comes true to be able to practice aikido whenever I want, totally spontaneously.

Now there is no nursery included in this plan and after all we are planning to get pregnant during next year, but on the other hand we will not stay in this house forever. During the infant period it is definitely sufficient, and as far as I am concerned, the TV can give room for a nursery. ;)

Anna Veeder on Newsmill

For you Swedish-speakers I want to share my good friend Anna Veeder's article on Newsmill. Probably the sharpest reaction I have seen so far on the Stockholm suicide bombing.

En självmordsbombning? I Stockholm? Förlåt en luttrad israel, men är det inte hopplöst ute? Känns så... Netanya 2003.

Swedish blue eyes...

Yoram told me this morning, that the first time is the most scary one. Then you get numb. I don't even think that most Swedes got scared when the first suicide bombing on Swedish soil took place yesterday afternoon. Their naivety strikes me. The first eye witness went up to the trashed body and tried to resuscitate him, after removing a keffiyeh from his face. In the interview he said that the first thing that struck his mind was that the guy probably was a terrorist, and that he understood that something had exploded on his stomach. Hello?!? Did it cross your mind that there might be more explosives that did not trigger yet? A sane person would stay as far away from him as possible.

Luckily, the pathetic idiot only succeeded to kill himself, and he did not even succeed to shred his own body properly to pieces. His shortcomings make me think that he probably acted alone, and was not backed by any larger terror organization. But on the other hand, he might just be so stupid that he fucked everything up, although he had a mastermind behind him.

Nevertheless, those who think that this was a one-timer should reconsider. Radical Islamism is spreading and the global jihad hates everything that our freedom and democracy stands for. Imagine yourself all the possible targets. But, on the other hand, like Nima Dervish said: The ones who says that it has nothing to do with Islam is wrong, but the ones who blame all Muslims are also wrong. It is important not to further stigmatizing all Muslims for what some extremist lowlifes are on to, but we need to prevent terrorism.

I have lived in Israel for one and a half years now, and although no suicide attacks have been occurring here lately I am myself stripped off of any naive illusions from living with these people who grew up under a constant terror threat. I just hoped that the Swedes would never need to get numb. I guess those days are over.

New style

I have switched to another web browser, and since the blogger formatting is not compatible between the browsers, the text will look slightly different from now on. It really disturbs my aesthetic eye, but what can you do..? After a while we have forgotten how it used to look. Maybe.

Work & Horse & Hound

My first two weeks at my new job have been totally fun and inspiring. Except for the design part, I am now also taken care of public relations and promotional materials. The future plan is that I will also start doing software quality assurance.

Yesterday I went riding for the first time in almost two weeks. I was alone in the stable and I mounted Noor bareback and brought the dogs for a trip in the fields around the moshav. We were out for a few hours and I was laughing at Barak most of the time. When he is at home, he is poking for activities and stimulation constantly. He still runs away occasionally to chase cats. Basically, he needs to get a lot of steam out. However, when we take him out like this, riding or running longer distances, he wants to turn back home all the time. Every time we came to an intersection, he wanted to choose the one that lead back to the stable. When I (and Goshen) chose another path, I could really see him sighing deeply and changing direction towards us. Far down in some olive grove he just laid down flat on the ground and refused to move. Goshen, who is almost 9 years old and full of arthritis, never quits and hardly pants, while Barak's tongue is hanging to the ground and he looks like he has rabies from all the white foam around his face. Pathetic... ;)

In the beginning Barak was the leader, but not for long

Goshen is not a quitter