mid-February

It was amazing to see how much snow had melted when we drove into Dnepropetroesk Wednesday morning - it was about 9 degrees on Sunday, and the sides of the road were nearly melted away, fields were clear, except for the shady spots, and places where it had been piled. It was melting all day, with some big puddles in the low pots on the road when we drove home around 5 pm- the road temp sign a few miles before the turn into the village was working (for the second time in the last year) and the air temp was three and the road temperature was plus 2. The temp dropped below zero today with the wind blowing so yesterday’s puddles have ice on tops and the snow flurries were flying for a while, as you can see in the photo.
I haven’t posted in a couple days so here’s the latest news- after taking it easy for a few days, swallowing a few Advil when I could talk him into taking them, and some free unskilled back massages by yours truly- Garry says his back is improving, although he’s still standing up really slowly.

Yesterday it was warm (above zero) and Garry and the boys and I spent most of the day in Dnepro- monthly team meeting was in the morning, it was good to see everyone and catch up on the news. One family just returned from a vacation in Egypt the week the riots broke out- luckily they had planned to spend all their time snorkelling in the Red Sea at their resort, so their trip was unaffected. Good thing we went last year- it was really strange to watch the news last week and see fire bombs flying in front of the museum we visited last May. The boys enjoyed playing Killer Bunnies, and some playstation2 with other teens. I had brought some spicy soup for lunch, and Orben did not need to add any hot sauce. When I say spicy, I mean edible, but hot.

We made a few other stops to trade stuff with a friend at the mall, and to buy the boys a new TV for their gaming station in their room- we had been trying to find one since Garry had given the “old” one to the milker ladies when he had satellite hooked up for them in October. All the stores had lots of flat screens – but no old-fashioned cheap ones. Garry and I had bought a few small appliances(coffeemaker and a toaster) at Foxmart about ten days ago, and discovered a whole row to choose from, so we told the boys we’d take them to get one when we were downtown.

Garry is excited- he thinks he has now secured about 80 acres to plant this spring- maybe 60 in corn and the rest in alfalfa (with peas and grain as a covercrop.) On Tuesday the “big dairy farmer” that we buy some stuff off (where we bought jhome-beetpulp in the fall) sent a guy over with a wagon to buy 4 tons of the brewers’ grains. His farm feeds corn silage and straw, and milks about a hundred cows. We are now milking twenty six, and are making over 512 liters a day. We have a new milk buyer- the original two, and the new one that started buying in January can’t take it all (at least not at the current price.)






Maxim has been working on welding and rebuilding the precept (wagon) we have been borrowing for about the last year from Serosia, one of the neighbours. Every time they use it something else falls off it. He got a lot done with the warm weather while Garry was resting his back, but ran out of welding rods yesterday. I took a photo of the progress just before dark today.
They are still looking for the parts they need to fix the one Garry bought when he returned in January- as you can see it’s a two-parter! They think they have the model number now, and hope to find the broken part. You can see why Garry was checking out the nice-looking one on the trailer at the farm show. It was made by KAMAZ, the company that makes trucks in Ukraine (former Soviet-style) the most common truck on the road (think dump truck like-not pickup truck- you hardly ever see a pickup truck here.)

Finally, Garry and Victor spent some time changing/fixing tires in that cold wind this afternoon- they went somewhere and had both the front and rear driver's side tires blow when they hit a big hole going slowly (like 10 or 15 km/hr Garry says- Victor was driving.)
Hopefully Garry and Maxim have better luck driving the highway tonight- they are going to see a basketball game in Dnepro. I turned down the chance to go, I prefer games when I am the mother of the players. By the way- congrats boys I hear you won last night in Winnipeg- and what do you mean Micah played part of the game after having spent most of the day at the hospital?