Building trusses

 

I did hear from Garry before I slept Tuesday night as he was getting up, having toast and coffee and then walking to the barn... the call dropped right after he showed me a yard full of spring flowers as he walked up the street. He said he had a great time at the English class at the Mennonite Center. 

Every morning he walks over to the barn to see what's going on. 

Wednesday he worked on making trusses, with the boards he'd already cut, because his wood he ordered wasn't delivered until the end of the day. He also made a trip to Dnepro to Nova Lenya for the glue for the gussets before starting. You can get there in half an hour from the village. Or I could, Garry may be faster. 

He said they got five trusses done, they ordered new (hopefully better- slightly bigger) nails for the nailer- the ones they bought online were too thin and kept getting jammed in the device. At least they didn't get too many of the bad ones, because he was complaining in the morning that there weren't as many in the roll as what they bought last year. It only takes a day for them to come. He also stepped on a headless nail while putting the fifth truss together, when Max went to pay the lumber delivery guy. Hopefully it's not too sore today, he said he soaked his foot in salt water before I talked to him around 11 am in Manitoba- eight hours later there. 

Thursday he was cutting up boards, there's 21 more trusses to build before he leaves Ukraine. He thought he'd finish cutting boards today. He was hoping to have some help again today. 

He said they were spraying fungicide on the wheat today.

Hopefully it will be a good crop this year and they will be filling that empty Quonset barn Garry's building trusses in.  Garry's still hoping for a really good rain, instead of the drizzle they have been getting since he arrived. However the ponds are full again in the village, so it's not as dry as last year. Garry tells me that people there think the war caused last year's drought. 

Sashas

 Garry sent photos he called one Sasha, two Sasha -we have as many Sashas as Yulias in our group. 

Here's one Sasha cutting plywood for the gussets for the trusses. The table saw is one of the things that came in the famous container with the mixer wagon and skid steer, I believe. 

And the Sasha who's been with us the longest, Sasha Borchuk, grinding grain, which is his normal job. This Sasha has been picked up for the army more than once and returned to our program. 

Garry messaged he was in Nova Lena to buy more plywood and there was an air raid siren, but they kept working, but KFC would be closed so he wouldn't be able to get lunch. That means he was in Dnepro for the wood, because there's a KFC near that Nova Lena on the outskirts of the city. 

At 5 o'clock today he is guest teaching a teenager English class at the Reimer Center (Mennonite Center) in Zaporosia. He was recruited for it when he stopped in there last week Wednesday. Everyone loves getting a native speaker for their class. 

Here's that skid steer, like the mixer wagon it's been used almost everyday since it arrived, maybe eight or nine years ago, I would have to look back on the blog. Max was doing regular maintenance last week at the farm shop. 

 

More Stories from Week 1

 You may remember that some of our guys are trying to avoid being in the army and some were in the army. Andrey is supposed to be back in the village at the end of the month on leave and is going to marry Valentina, his longtime sweetheart and the mother of his two kids, so that if something happens to him, she would get a pension. He decided this in the fall and it is scheduled for April 28th (about the day Garry will need to leave). We were surprised that Andrey was accepted to serve in the army, as he is officially and actually "slow" but we think he's more using his muscles than carrying a gun. 

Garry was happy to hear that it appears Misha, who disappeared after going in the army two years ago, has apparently been reported as a POW by someone who was released. His twin Vasili, told Garry about it the first time he saw him at the farm this week. This is the first his siblings have heard any news since he was in basic training. Some of the photos of prisoners released by the Russians are showing very thin people, so we will pray he's doing okay there. I found a photo from a few years ago when we made sushi in cooking class. Misha told everyone that I taught him to make pizza when he cooked it. 

There are often guys in the village looking for draft dodgers and deserters , so they are hiding out from them. Garry said one of the village guys who helps out in the shop (he was the one who was hiding from them in the fall in a story in the blog)  can't go to the dentist because of this (the draft includes all men over 25 to 55 I think). 

Apparently, Vlad (who used to be our very young tractor driver, now a married man with a child) was at the local bar and got punched and this other guy jumped in to help, it ended up being 3 on 2 and he has a couple of broken teeth.  I guess Vlad was okay. 

Garry says they have been harrowing the fields where they will be planting sunflowers and corn, but it may be two weeks before planting happens. They have had a bit of rain, mostly damp drizzle weather that happens overnight and dries up during the day, so that harrowing to level the ground can happen. Mostly our guys are getting the equipment ready for planting. One of the things in Garry's suitcase was parts for the corn planter. 

Garry says that when he was checking fields with Max - they need to fertilize the hayfields -  they found a part of a drone. 

Garry says he often finds one of Leila's stuffed dogs Muktar (named for a Russian TV dog) in the kitchen so he puts pieces of meat sticks in his mouth when she isn't looking and she's delighted by this and laughs and then eats them.

I tried to pack Garry a pair of jeans, but he said he had lots of them there. He wore his favorite dress pants on the plane. Turns out he has two pairs of jeans there, one he was wearing to the barn to preg check cows (so very dirty). The girls are happy to wash them for him, but then they are hung outside to dry and the weather has been drizzly. So he's happy when he has a clean (and dry) pair to wear. He said Sunday the barn jeans got washed and were almost dry when he got home so he hung them in his bedroom to finish drying. 

Easter again

 Garry got to celebrate Easter again Sunday in Dnepro at Morningstar. He took this photo when the service was starting. He said it was full a half hour later. Marguerita went with him. There was a lunch at church afterwards. Since it was Orthodox Easter, he said he saw people carrying their baskets to be blessed at the churches in the city.

Unfortunately, the van wouldn't start again when they were ready to leave, so he called Max and once again, it started when he got there. When he got back to the village, Alona had made a special meal for Easter with pork and potatoes, so he had to eat some, although he was very full from church. He said it was very tasty. She also baked paska bread for the first time.

Monday he was busy cutting more wood, his additional 2 by 4's won't come until Wednesday now, but he drove into Nova Lena to get some plywood that he'll cut up tomorrow for the trusses. He said on Sunday they'd try to fix the van, but they didn't and he drove it in to buy the plywood with no problems this time. 

Pizza party

 I complained Garry doesn't send photos of people so he sent some from the pizza party! He made it back in time. There's Elena getting out pizza and Oleg with his guitar. 

Their oldest son David

Hello Julia! 

If like me, you say what's on that pizza? 

Garry says chicken and lettuce on that pizza. Looks like they bought it, too.

That's Valentina with her son Nazar. Looks like it was mostly people who live in our house. Garry says its pretty noisy. They had cake too, for Nikolai's birthday earlier this week. 

Garry plans to go to church in Dnepro at Morningstar on Sunday, Marguerita is going to go with him. We'll see if he takes any photos. Garry still hasn't sent any photos of himself so you can see his haircut. 

Friday (and Saturday)

 

Friday morning Garry used his ultrasound machine to preg check more cows, I believe Yana had found 15 three to five months along cows for him. He was worried when the first cow wasn't pregnant, but the other 14 were pregnant, so another good day. He was going to do the rest Saturday morning, the ones bred 35 days or more, he said there might be about 20 to check. 

Afterward, he went to work on cutting wood to make the first truss. He tacks it together, so when he's finished he can take it apart and then cut all the pieces for the rest of the trusses they will make for the shed. He said he had problems reading the faded tape measure and cut a piece the wrong size, so he went to the village store and bought a new one. He was hoping to get the first truss done, but the electricity went off at 12:30. He knew it was supposed to be off from 2 to 5 pm, because it was scheduled, but apparently not exactly when it happened.

He had told me when he arrived that Max said there weren't power outages like in the winter, but that doesn't mean there aren't scheduled power outages, he said there have been a couple days with four hour outages, and one night it was out for 12 and came on at 8 am. 

He said they had some leftover wood around, so he didn't have to buy that much stuff - mostly boards- to make the shed, they will need to buy some truckloads of concrete and Max has ordered nails online for the nailer. So I guess next week they will be building. 

Anyway, he went back to the house and had lunch and a nap and then helped the guys bag up some of the brewers Kavas grains that came a couple days ago (so it lasts longer to feed later) Last fall they had bought 6 foot bags to bag up the beet pulp that Garry found to balance the ration because there wasn't enough hay to feed the cows all winter, that's what the machine they have uses. However, they were able to get some 9 foot plastic bags for free so they altered the machine to use them. 

He got back to the house before five, and the girls informed him the power was back on already. He cooked everyone at the house french fries- they have a lot of potatoes. He complained when I called that my electric stove is so slow, and he wished he had a deep fryer, or an air fryer. 

He was cooking  the last batch for himself, he said. Then he was looking in the cupboards for an extra blanket, he said the heat was turned off in the house for the year, and it was cold outside (8 C) and he gets cold at night, he's wearing a sweatshirt to bed. 

Saturday morning he said most of the cows were pregnant, I think he said three were not and they checked 17 maybe. So final count was about 45 checked and only five were not pregnant. He said these were 45 days since breeding so he'll do a few more before he leaves. 

He was in the city ordering more 2 by 4's  when I called because he'd finished that first truss and had cut about a third of the pieces he'll need to make 26 trusses. He said a couple of the boys were helping so he didn't have to carry and stack wood, he was just  using the saw and cutting them. Garry said there's enough boards left to cut on Monday before the rest of the wood he needs is delivered. He's cut enough to make eight, the plan is to build the trusses and actually build the shed when he comes in the fall.  He was hurrying to return to the village because there was going to be a pizza party tonight. 

Running around

 This week Garry has been keeping busy. On Monday morning he and Marguerita went to Zaporosia to drop Alona and Danil at the hospital to maybe get his tonsils out. Mothers always stay in hospital to take care of the kids. They were supposed to pick up a cake because it was Nikolai's birthday (yes, Danil's dad) but they forgot to buy one. 

In the afternoon they drove to Dnepro to pick up some crates to put milk bottles in when they are selling milk. Garry said he was surprised to find they went to a familiar place to get them. It was the building where we went to church for years as Morningstar rented the auditorium for services. At that time it was an old military truck driving school facility. 

Unfortunately, while they were running errands, the van wouldn't start again. This time Garry tried the fuel pump trick, but it didn't work. Garry and Marguerita hadn't had lunch by late afternoon, so they had waited in a cafe, and Garry was getting a huge burger when he called me to tell me about it. Max did come this time, and the van started when he turned the key. It's beginning to look like a timing thing- just wait and it will start.

They did get a cake this time, but he was pretty tired by the time he got home. Tuesday he was  busy running around the village looking for tools. Remember how they weren't going to build anything this time while he was there? They did so well selling the bull calves they were raising last year that they are going to keep more this year, that they decided to build another heifer shed for bull calves.

Wait, isn't that what they were building in the fall with Jack's team? Yes, but that shed - and the first two sheds -are full of heifers. They didn't get started building trusses on Wednesday, however.

Garry and Marguerita had to drive the van to Zaporosia again (he said he had her drive there- she is part of staff, and drives the milk delivery van sometimes) to take Valentina and her little boy to an appointment about his need for special assistance. They have been trying to get him officially classified so they will get assistance. He's two now, but can't do normal things, like sitting without pain. 

Garry was supposed to meet with a British man about how to set up a self sustaining farm mission while they were in the city. He talked to him for an hour at the Mennonite Center, but then the van wouldn't start again... they had already picked up Alona and Danil, so Garry walked everyone down to a cafe and bought them lunch, because the building he had been in was closed. 

Meanwhile he was waiting by the van for a mechanic to come look at the van. He'd called me (yes, he calls when he's waiting for the van to start for the third time) and he turns the key and it starts, and he went to pick up the girls and kids.  So they were able to proceed to Valentina's appointment- not really appointment, they had to wait in line for a couple hours, but not have to come back the next day. 

Oh, I forgot on Monday Max had them take potatoes to sell somewhere in Zaporosia, but they only sold half of them. I don't know if the mechanic ever looked at the van, or if he'll be calling me from the city while he waits again. 

Thursday and Friday mornings he started using the ultrasound machine he brought to preg check cows. On Thursday 14 of 15 were pregnant, but they were the very pregnant ones, more than 5 months along (it takes nine months).