Packing

 Garry has been helping the boys with harvest here, they are now finished except for combining corn. Garry leaves for Ukraine in ten days, so we're starting to pack his suitcase. I'm still waiting to see the biggest item he's bringing Max, an axle for the skidsteer, before deciding how many other things are going to make it to the village this time. 

The first part of the trip- until the 31st- he'll be joined by Jack's BC team, so keep them in your prayers. This year, Jack will be joined by Phil, for the third time as cook, Jeremy and his bride Rachel, and the other new team members, Clay, Harm and Hannah. They will travel in with Daryl Porter.  Garry will return with him next month. Daryl is going to visit pastors and do some short English outreach weeks like our Summer English Institutes we used to have in Dnipro.

Max and the guys were busy planting winter wheat when Garry talked to him last week, they had gotten a good amount of rain. They have even sold some wheat, that will be going to the port at Reni for export, the price is better than it was, but they have to pay for transport, and the price of diesel is high in Ukraine, like everywhere.

I'll try to update the blog as often as I can starting October 20th, when Garry flies out of Winnipeg at noon. 

Summer's over

It's not the best excuse, but we've had an enjoyable summer. Garry's dad came out from Ontario in July for two weeks of fishing. Of course, Garry has been out on the lake most of the summer. I flew to PEI for a week with our daughter and granddaughter, keeping up our book theme with Anne of Green Gables this year. 

 In June we flew out to BC for Jeremy's wedding to his bride Rachel. That's us in the photo at the reception after the rainstorm. We (and you through the blog) know Jeremy from his many trips to Ukraine with Jack, he does all the electrical work. 

 For you west coast people, Garry is visiting Jack right now in Salmon Arm and will be at Broadview Church on Sunday September 13th! Victor Dantsev will be there too, I believe for a little Ukraine reunion Saturday evening. Jack is putting together another building team to go to village with Garry, he's leaving here October 20th and traveling with Daryl Porter to stay a month is Ukraine. Jack's guys are staying a week I think.

They plan to build another livestock shed like last year, you might remember Garry built the trusses when he was there in the spring. They were planning to work on the new bakery building, but Max tells us that the student builders have nearly finished it. However, there are  some much needed repairs to be made in the apartments that were part of the classroom renovation in 2016. Apparently, ten years have been hard on some parts of the building. 

This year, there were good crops, because they had rain, but aren't able to sell wheat, so they have lots in storage on the farm, even if they can find a buyer to sell it to, the price is about a third of world price, because everyone has lots to sell. There are disruptions in the ability to export to foreign markets because of Russian bombing. Gas and diesel are expensive, pretty much as much as here. The corn silage was made in August, they hired the same custom operator as last year. 

 

The first day on school was September first, like every year, and little Angelika, Valentina's daughter had her first first day of school. I hear that she is really enjoying it, and here's a photo from that day. This year the village school closed and the children are going to a larger nearby village for school.

Update

 

Things are going well in the village, the rain has fallen this year, and the crops are growing well, they have not had to buy a lot of irrigation water this year. Here's a facebook video of they crops a couple weeks ago and they look great. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BW6zePzu6/

The first cut of hay was a little late, because the weather was so wet, but they got more bales made first cut than they got all last summer, and are getting a similiar amount of second cut. Video from first cut.    https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AKSsvNZV7/

Alona is working with the cheese now, one of the ladies from the village quit; so here she is bottling milk in the cheese house.  They are selling gift boxes of a variety of cheeses now, and are working on a building for some bakery equipment they were given. John Wiens always talked about a bakery in the village from the project and now there will be one.

; 

Home again

 Garry made it back to Winnipeg on time with his suitcase and backpack- although he lost his tablet somewhere along the way. I picked him up at the airport with a bag of Popeye's spicy chicken and we were at the cabin two hours later. 

After 30 hours of plane travel, he was pretty tired, but he watched the Blue Jays and stayed up until bedtime. He woke up before 4 am, so 12 hours later, he is now napping. However he was putting the docks down at 6 am and has been out fishing (but not catching) already. The lake did melt before he returned! Hopefully he's over jetlag and staying in this time zone soon. 

Leaving Ukraine

 Wedding I found a couple more videos from our friends and staff in the village, just click on the orange words to see them (a new window will open). This first one is from yesterday's wedding ceremony, and if you use translate, you may get a little choked up like I did. Here's the translation- Yesterday, 28.04.2026 a new family was formed in our charity project. Andrew and Valentina do not know their own parents, family and shelter for them became the home of Harry and Teresa Verhug (our founders), who became father and mother to all participants of our project in the village of Nikolai-Pole. The wedding took place the day before Gary left back to Canada, now he's on his way. Andrew and Valentina are glad Gary was able to attend this celebration!

 I sent a crocheted wedding gift for them. Garry said it did make Valentina laugh, two peas in a pod in wedding outfits. She has a great laugh.

If you click on this one, it's another farmer Garry facebook post, you can see Garry during Saturday's tour. If you're on Facebook you can follow them, their posts are about the cheese, and celebrations. Tour

Saturday morning, Garry sent these photos, you may have seen that six people died in an apartment building in Dnipro, the fuel depot was hit also, and he could see smoke driving down the highway. I've gotten better at not worrying when he goes, I know the village is safer than the cities, and he's mostly in the village. 

Garry is safely back in Moldova (no van problems, hurrah!) for his and Daryl's flights early tomorrow (Thursday) morning. That's tonight here, since they are eight hours ahead of us in Manitoba. He's scheduled to land in Winnipeg at 5:30, just in time for supper.  Here's a photo of the pile of trusses, he plans to go back in the fall to help build the shed.

Busy Tuesday

 

Yesterday Garry was not feeling well. He said that he did preg check some cows with the ultrasound machine. He has been teaching Max to do it so he can check cows when Garry is gone. However, Garry went to bed in the afternoon and was feeling pretty sick when I called Monday night. I was glad to hear he was a lot better in the morning. 

Tuesday  dawned sunny but was mostly cloudy with a high of 12 Celsius.

They were hoping to plant corn Monday, but Sunday's rain delayed it again. They did get the pre-plant spraying and cultivating done today (Tuesday) but decided it was still too wet to plant when they tried one pass around the field. So they will plant tomorrow while Garry is enroute to Moldova for his flight Thursday morning. 

 

Today was the big day, Andrey is home from the army and he and Valentina got married! They have two kids, so I guess you could say it was a long time coming. They went into Zaporosia for their appointment at the official government wedding palace. 

They had a wedding party back in the village. Garry said Alona cooked a big dinner with roast pork and potatoes and salad.

Here's a few more wedding photos

Andrey will try to get a compassionate release from the army because his son Nazar is disabled and needs extra care. Angelika will start school in September, she is very normal. 

Garry finished packing his suitcase and will get a ride at 6 am to meet Adam and Daryl in Kirviy Rig for the drive to Moldova. I'm thanking God that he's feeling better for the trip home, he is supposed to land in Winnipeg at 5:30 Thursday evening. 

Weekend

 

selfie time on the farm

One of the things they do is give farm tours, with information about farming, and cheesemaking with photo ops and snacks (for a small fee) to schools and other groups. 

That's Margo stirring the pot of cheese in the cheese house.

Bagging up cottage cheese

Oleg with some samples after a tour, served under the porch at his house.

There were a couple tours this week, including one on Saturday from the Reimer Center (where Garry did the English talk) and Garry sent photos.

Garry said they ate hot dogs after the tour.

He also said they finished all the trusses now. 

Sunday he went to church in the village, and in the afternoon, took our young ladies and kids to Dnepro for an excursion but you'll have to wait for those photos, because I don't have them yet.

Garry had the same problem with the van not starting as before- when he was trying to go home with the girls, Max drove to the city to help and they finally figured out the solution- there are two keys on the ring that fit in the ignition, but only the chipped one starts the van.  Garry also went to pick up some fresh parsley and dill for tomorrow's cheesemaking. 

It was the alternator that was the problem when Adam was driving it last week, both vans are now fixed and they traded vehicles back on Saturday. Daryl and Adam were back in the city for Sunday again. On Wednesday they will be heading back to Moldova for Garry and Daryl to fly home on Thursday.