Hi Folks,
We are hoping things are working out well for you this week in your endeavors. It is a blessing to know the things we do here at the end of the age. Use the gifts you have to assist others in the Body.
With this being the last day of February and tomorrow the first of March we will do a session on a "Typical March Calendar" tomorrow to once again show you how easy it is to determine the start of the Month of Abib when not in the Land. Some reading this don't want any part of that they just want someone else to do the work for them and give them a simple answer. Too bad, Matthew 25 describes that kind of behavior and the results of it.
But for today we have a special treat for you old timers and especially for you guys who have participated in the abib inspections in past years. No crying now when you see some of the traditionally early locations of wild barley you have walked through.
Gisele has made her annual bus trip up to the Re'im area of the NW Negev. She likes to do so the last week of February to get a real time look at what the wild barley is doing there. We have used this general location for many, many years as an indicator of where the year is going. She sent two short videos and a dozen or so pictures to Linda last night.
See you in a few weeks Gisele, Linda will set up a rendezvous time and place with you.
Lets hope I can mix the photos and videos here for she takes everyone through a good pictorial learning process.
The first one is a short video of the area by the Junction. All you old timers have seen this location for a long time. It is actually on our brochure cover about the Calendar with Rick standing in it. With this video Gisele is giving you an overview of where she will be showing you photo's in this location.
Take note of how erratic wild barley can grow even when an arms reach away. That is because it is in uncultivated ground. Fairly good soil but not cared for.
The first photo demonstrates barley in the boot, coming out of the boot, and flowering. Imagine that, all within what would be the same sheaf if cut right now. Very good illustration for all the rookies out there. This is a basic fact of wild barley as opposed to domestic barley. For this clump is surrounded with barley still in the boot and younger. Please remember wild barley shatters between stages 8.5 and 8.9. Can't be used to harvest as it was never intended to.
We do not march around picking a bouquet of barley stocks for a wavesheaf offering. That is pure stupidity and goes against all the Biblical and Agricultural principles applied to a grain harvest. So do not listen to such senseless babbling from others that you can. Notice the wild oats here as well. In photo 2 we can see another good illustration as to erratic growth of wild barley in such locations. Some of these plants are towering over the rest. Who can give an explanation as to why?
In Photo 3 another good shot to demonstrate the differences in ages, Zadok Scale stages, in the same field. We hope the newer folks to the Abib Calendar can internalize this lesson of fact and pattern associated with wild barley. You don't and can't harvest it under the Biblical terms and conditions of a grain field. It was never designed to be used that way. It is for grazing live stock and thus we refer to those locations as "goat grass." They are indicators in this process.
However when growing in cultivated soils alongside and in the same locations as her domestic sister you find a big difference in uniformity. That is why we look for wild and domestic growing in the same good cultivated soils as witnesses to the turn of the year from winter to summer.
Photo 4 is a good shot of barley subject to a premature death. This is a common thing seen in wild barley. We have shown it to you for decades. Do not be fooled by others attempting to use such for the timing of the year.
Photo 5 is a good illustration of roadside barley and why it is unacceptable to use in the process of determining the start of the year. We established this principle from the very beginning.
Photo 6 is once again a lesson in how random wild barley can grow even with favorable conditions outside of cultivated ground. Look closely here and you will see florets on some of these heads. Yes, they are still in the flowering stages. Empty heads folks. But once again notice the differences in growth stages just in this one clump you can wrap your arms around let alone further away.
Photo 7 Premature death not the maturing process. Learn to read these things for yourselves. It is important. Notice the florets on the heads, yet the heads are changing color. That does not happen until three Zadok Scale stages latter. In the dough stages not the flowering stage thus we know a premature death has taken place. Reasons are irrelevant, just learn to recognize the results in pictures.
Photo 8 is a good photo of were 4 legged lawn mowers have been at work. This is a healthy location of wild barley. The goats and the sheep seek these locations out and then defile them while munching away. We do not use such locations for we need to be offering a Holy offering without blemish as representative of our Savior fulfilling the function of our Wavesheaf just as He did as our Passover Lamb of Fathers household. If the flocks wandered into a domestic field they would be eradicated by the owner of the grain or compensation would need to be paid by the owner of the sheep.
These very young healthy barley here are many weeks from being at minimum acceptable standard for aviv as Gisele pointed out in her communication with Linda.
Now we have another short video of the park location she also visited and which several of the previous photos were taken. A very good illustration of everything mentioned previously.
Once again, thank you Gisele for taking up this journey from your home to these locations and sharing them with us all.
All this supports a next new moon start to the Month of Abib and the Biblical New Year.
Our peace we give to you!