Ranch Life by Barry Kantrowitz

The beeping of the alarm rings distant, like a blurry light at the end of a tunnel. The noise keeps getting louder and more intense after every beep, soon pushing me into consciousness. I look at my clock after hitting the snooze button, its 8:20, I've got time. I then tuck myself back into my warm covers, remembering the pleasantries and freedoms that sleep has to offer. I drift back into limbo. I'm gone.
The same obnoxious beeping goes off again in my mind as my eyes open up slowly and check the time, its 8:50! Without even giving a thought as to how cold the apartment was or how tired I was, I quickly jump into a pair of overalls, strap on my boots and put on my cowboy hat. After davening, I go for the door, turning the knob to find that it's locked. What a surprise. I rummage through my closet to find a neon green key with a pocket flashlight attached to it. I dart back to the door, thrusting the key into the lock and turning. I decide to take my bicycle with me, being that it's the only way I can get to the destination I have in mind. After fitting my bicycle vertically in the elevator room, I press zero, counting every four seconds as it changes floor numbers, until it reaches the ground floor.
I get out and my bike collapses back on its two wheels. The ride there is mostly downhill, barely pedaling as I rip through the wind and feel the breeze pull back on my curly brown hair. My blue eyes begin to tear as the gusts of air press against my pupils. As the descent begins to even out into flat land, I turn up my gears and begin pedaling onward. The nicely paved road soon turns into a jagged, rocky desert trail.
When we arrive there we park our bikes underneath a steel awning next to the corral. I look around and see just mountains and desert, parts of it shaded from the clouds. We then go to the side of the barn and attain our utensils; a rake, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow. We roll it all out into the petting zoo, the precursor of what is yet to come. Being that basically all the animals in the zoo are birds, it's fairly easy to rake up their messes and change their food and water, except the duck's.
After cleaning the petting zoo, we then move to the horse stables. This time, we haul out a bigger wheelbarrow and bring out the pitchfork, a necessary device in the cleaning of the stables. There are around 10 horses and one pony, Monty. We then proceed to strap the bridles onto the horses and walk them into the corrals, where they run and gaze gracefully among their kind. Though horses are a beautiful species, they leave an awful mess that takes some time to clean, that's where we come in. After around 3 hours, we take a lunch break. Usually taking place around the cafeteria, our lunches consist of food we brought from home or a barbecue with hummus and pita, supplied by the owners of the ranch, Yeshai and his father Ami.
After eating, we finish up on the horses, driving pitchforks into bales of hay and placing them into the food tanks. When we finish the final raking and dumping, we take a couple minutes out to play with sandy, the youngest of three dogs that Ami owns. Once all of the tools are stored away, we go to the back of the stables, where there are numerous irrigation pipes of all sizes. Some are loaded on a tractor, some stacked already on the ground. We then proceeded to aid Ami in the unloading of the tractor. Ami is an aged man of great wisdom. His hands are callused like the ground or the rusted pipes that we unload.
When we finish taking the pipes down, we all hop on the tractor and go on a 30 minute tractor ride with Ami to the main irrigation fields, to where we load more pipes onto the tractor. The field is beautiful. All there is for miles is sand and more sand, but over there is this giant patch of green, sprouting plants such as alfalfa and hay, reminds me of the Garden of Eden or something that's flawless and beautiful. When all the pipes are loaded, we head on back to the ranch, where we stack them on the ground with the others.
After doing all the pipe work, we head on back to the corral, where we lead all the horses back into their stables so they can eat and rest in a clean environment. Sometimes we clean off the horses and let the pony run around, followed by them going back to the cells and eating some more. When everything is clean and done, we are free to go. We bid farewell, get back on our bikes, and start pedaling home.
All in all, I have to say that volunteering on the ranch is definitely one of my highlights of Arad, if not the year in Israel. From the views, to the people, to even the cleaning of the cells, working here inspires a good and rewarding work ethic, as well as a love for nature and all that resides in it.