In the village

 

Garry made it to the village on Saturday before noon. Max picked him up around 8 in the morning, Friday night he slept on a cot at the ministry center in Kirvoy. He told me even though most of Ukraine is celebrating  Easter next week according to the Orthodox calendar the village church is celebrating this weekend with us. 

Hopefully I can add some of his photos and publish this post, I thought I got the last one up Friday, but the internet at the farmhouse is having problems. I did get one photo uploaded of what we called "the upside down flowers" which were always the first to bloom in the village.

On the way

 Garry flew out of Winnipeg around 8 am Tuesday, I only had to drive back home from the airport. We had light snow overnight, so there was some snow on the roads, but were there around 6:20. He ended up with only one suitcase, and carrying that ultrasound machine box through all the airports (he says it got heavy) and his little backpack. He got hot, and managed somehow to stuff his hoodie in the backpack and just wear his jacket.

He met up with Daryl in Montreal, they had five hours between flights, and Garry got to go to the lounge with Daryl and filled up on free food. He had an exit row seat on the seven and a half hour flight to Vienna. He got a two hour nap on a bench there before their flight to Moldova. They were checked into their hotel room to shower before dinner. I know his bag arrived because he was wearing the one Tshirt that was in it when he video chatted with me. He wished he'd worn one for the plane, I think.

Thursday was their slightly unplanned rest day, there was a mix-up on which day Adam would be there, and a second night at the hotel was much cheaper than rebooking the flights. In the morning they had a leisurely breakfast and took a walk down to the market. Garry said he bought Alona a new beaded picture kit to make. 

Tomorrow morning they'll be on the road to Ukraine. Two hours to the border and how ever long to go through and then seven or eight to Kirvoy Rog. He wasn't sure if he'd get to the village on Friday or Saturday. They actually had to wait for Adam's suitcase to arrive so didn't leave until four in the afternoon, so he won't get to the village until Saturday. It looked like the border crossing was going well when he called me.

Leaving soon

 Just two more days to get ready to send Garry off to Ukraine. Last week he found out Max needed parts for the mixer wagon, and the company is from BC, so they shipped them to Steinbach Wednesday morning and hopefully they arrive by Monday afternoon. They weigh 20 pounds (20 at one pound each) so he may be taking a second suitcase if they get here, because he already has parts for the mower and the John Deere corn planter to go... and a few gifts from me for everyone. 

The donated mixer wagon came in the shipping container that Jack put together years ago, and it gets used everyday. It's the second time they needed new knives for it (they will weld them into the tub to turn and chop the feed around to mix it). They eventually wear away so much they are ineffective. 

Hopefully how to get them in a suitcase will be my only problem!

Getting ready

 

Well I had my heart ablation on the 10th and it went well, although they aren't sure the problem is solved. Time will tell, and so for now I stay on the meds. I'm starting to feel normal again, it was a slower recovery than the first one.

Meanwhile we are gathering stuff for Garry's trip, we'll see what I get in the suitcase around those things Garry is packing- he's bringing some parts to repair the corn planter. Just think, he'll be there for corn planting this year. Hopefully the snow will melt while he's gone! For now, he's here for another 8 days. 

This week he went fishing on Lake Winnipeg Thursday with a friend from church and caught a pickerel too big to keep. By the time he's back home, hopefully the ice will be out of the lake and we will be able to get out in the boat.

Dates are set

 Tomorrow morning I'm having my heart procedure, so I thought I'd update the blog. Garry and Daryl leave March 31st for Moldova. They arrive there on April first and will have a day to recover and maybe see the sights before Adam arrives late on the second and they drive to Kirvoy Rog the next morning. 

So Garry won't get to the village until the third, and he flies back April 30th, but he'll still have a few weeks there. He says it's ten degrees Celsius in the village today (he was talking with Max Rudei's brother Roman, who's here at the farm in Manitoba.) He also found out Max was able to order the part to fix the payloader from China, but it won't get there for two months. It broke a couple weeks ago and fixing it was going to be very expensive, now it's less money but more time. 

So three weeks to get his bag packed with gifts and parts for the farm, and his toothbrush and a change of clothes. One of the Yulias had her birthday recently and they had a celebration for her.

Update- four years

 Just read last month's post and here's an update, three weeks ago I had another rapid heart incident, Garry drove me to hospital in Winnipeg, where they shocked my heart back into rhythm, and I stayed there for a few days while they adjusted my meds. Now I'm scheduled for a redo ablation on March 10th. 

Four years ago, we were packed and ready to fly to Ukraine when Russia invaded, it's still hard to believe it happened and it's still happening.

One morning I had a messenger call from Ukraine, there was a hang up, so I wrote Hello in reply to Valentina, and got back a stream of letters, so I sent back Hello Angelika (her little daughter) and sure enough, Angelica called back and was delighted to videochat with Garry for a few minutes. The kids are always excited to see him when he goes to Ukraine.

Garry has had some updates from Max, the cows are still milking well, although they are using generators a lot, as they are lucky to have as much as eight hours of electrical power with the rolling blackouts due to damage to the power grid this winter. They have not been able to sell as much milk and dairy products through the stores in Zaporosia, mostly because people have left the city. The milk plant is also buying less because they have trouble processing milk with the power outages. However they have started a home delivery service for buyers getting large orders, to make up for these problems.

With my procedure scheduled for March 10th, Garry is planning to go to Ukraine in early April this year. He's doing some ice fishing and I'm taking it easy crocheting and birdwatching until my procedure. 

Cold January

 While the temperature here in North America is very cold right now, the temperature in Ukraine is a bigger problem. Last winter it was above freezing almost every day (colder at night) so it was easier to live with the power problems caused by Russia bombing infrastructure. Unfortunately, this year it is much colder. When we lived in Ukraine, the news stories would be about how the temperature might drop to -10 or even -20 C at night, because that's the lowest temp they would ever see, so it was dangerous for street people, so the government would be opening warming center tents for them, now they have them for the people who are in apartments without electricity.

In the village they generally have 8 to 12 hours of  electricity daily because of rolling blackouts caused by Russians blowing up substations and other damages to the power grid. I think I heard that the power is off about 8 pm now. If the electricity is off they have to run generators to milk the cows and make cheese. 

 I have seen a number of photos of snow in the village, that's Julia above by the snowy trees and her husband Dima at the farm,  and a Facebook video I'll share here. Sledding

Congratulations to our fearless staff members Oleg and Elena on their 11th wedding anniversary! 

I had my heart procedure last week Monday and am feeling pretty normal now, the doctor thought there was an 85% chance the rapid heart won't happen again.