Just another day

The rain has disappeared from the forecast (reminds me of last summer) and the sun is shining this afternoon, although the temperature is hovering around freezing. The babushka neighbour lady was bundled up but she had her chickens out today- she is looking over the fence at them over in our yard. It's like we have everything but the eggs- they dig around in the yard and leave other stuff behind. She gives Victor a dozen eggs once a year for letting them graze over here.

Garry is off to the dentist- he brought their milk delivery and was getting more done on his bridge (he is having root canals done on the teeth next to the empty spot in his smile, since dental work is cheaper here.


The boys are doing experiments for chemistry class (all with household ingredients, but I think they are easier to find in North America.) Jonah is stirring the ice water here, while Seth looked for the safety goggles Garry borrowed last summer. We had some trouble with our bunsen burner - I do not highly recommend the wickless one, even if it is supposed to be safer- it is incredibly hard to light and keep lit- wish I had bought the old-fashioned kind. They were calibrating their thermometer by melting ice, we used half a pack of matches- good thing they like to give them for change at the store (or candies.) They are going outside to find a large metal nut or a bolt for their displacement experiment. This one uses syrofoam cups, which I brought from Canada, because we couldn't find them for an experiment last year!

Garry just phoned- he was finished at the dentist and was looking for a vet clinic in Dnepro because he needed medicine for two cows that have mastitis (udder infections) -of course he had forgotten that he is supposed to be picking up some veggies for me since we are having company for dinner tomorrow afternoon. Good thing he called so I could remind him.

I am hoping to make Greek salad, with some of the feta-style cheese I have soaking in the fridge. Garry made a batch of cheese for me on Saturday when they have excess milk from the morning milking, Last week his curds were almost like cottage cheese but I conducted a trial run with some bigger chunks and it was tasty. This week he made more, some squeaky cheese curds, and some he pressed for the feta and a soft pressed one for cream cheese. Last week's was too chunky in the cheesecake I tried but the chocolate one I baked on Tuesday was creamy. We even tried it on bagels- tasted good but needs to be whipped for a better consistancy for spreading.

Our neighbour lady on the other side, who made the batch of Ukrainian sour cream and cottage cheese Victor sold last week went to the hospital, so we have been unable to process the other days excess milk. She had her gall bladder out last year, and has continued to have health problems since. Hopefully they will be able to cure her this time, since her processing the milk products would not only help with our surplus milk, but give her work as she has been trying to get a job for the last year. Her husband is the one who is buying brewers' grains to feed his pigs, he comes over every afternoon for a couple buckets in the trailer behing his Lada. The kitten is watching him leave through the window one afternoon(for some reason he backs all the way out instead of turning around), the kittens also enjoy checking out the birds in the trees in the front yard from the other window.

The boys are taking a long time finding a bolt- maybe they walked to the store for it (or an snack.) I hear the puppies barking outside, maybe they are back.