Water, water...anywhere?

This is a story about water. Yesterday morning I woke up and the CNN news weather was telling me that heavy rain was moving across western Russia, across Ukraine and then into western Poland. I remembered I had clothes still on the line- I had hung out a load Garry had washed the afternoon before. Garry had come in a few minutes before and said he was planting seeds in the garden because it was sprinkling, so I ran outside in my robe to grab the clothes before they got too wet. Luckily, ladies outside in robes is perfectly normal in the village- or housedresses anyway- so if anyone saw me, they didn't think anything of it. It was still pretty much dry out, in fact I washed two more loads, hung them out, and got each batch down as drops began to fall yesterday!

 In spite of the forecast, we didn't get more than enough to wet the top of the car last night either, so Garry is still hoping for a good rainy day. He has been out digging up corn seed everyday lately, some of it has roots and sprouts, but some did not get deep enough into the ground with that old corn planter, and is too dry to grow, so he's hoping for rain. Plus it would get the alfalfa growing, so the cows will have some to eat soon. A load of brewers grain was delivered this morning, we are feeding (and selling) a lot of it with the hay gone, the village cows are not going out to graze as a herd yet, but you see a few people have their cows tied out in the yard to eat grass during the day now.





 Yesterday morning I did get wet, though, while I was running the water into the sink to wash the dishes. It took me a few seconds to react, when the faucet suddenly fell off into the sink and water shot straight up under the cabinet, and over me, as I washed a glass. I turned off the taps and Garry helped me screw it back on, as he happened to be walking through the house when It happened. It must have gotten very loose for the water pressure to push it off like that!



Today I did a little furniture rearrangement, the table is back in the kitchen/living room area. I am going to set up the arch room as an office for Garry now.

The irrigation project

the line from our fence to the road still needs to be buried

Garry took some photos of the water line irrigation project on Tuesday when the guys were working on getting it under the road - they had been having trouble with the procedure, but Garry suggested a smaller line for this section, and that is what they decided to do. They built this machine, it's a hydraulic pump geared down turning a cut-down flight from an old combine auger to bore under the road. It worked beautifully, they would go two meters, pull it back and then add another section of pipe. It rolled on the pieces of angle iron you see lying the bottom of the trench.

 This section was a success, but there are a few remaining parts to do, like digging places for the garden hookups by hand, and putting the big black pipe running over the ground on the edge of our yard in the ground. They couldn't do this with the tractor, it needs to be trenched by digging with shovels. As people get their gardens growing getting everything done may become more important to finish so the water starts flowing.

That's Maxim in the orange coveralls, with some of the village guys working on the  water line

The tulips are in bloom

Water is coming.....

Just after lunch today, I heard a strange, yet familiar gurgling noise from the bathroom, once again the cistern was empty and we were out of the water. If I had know we were running low, I wouldn't have done another load of laundry this morning! Since Maxim left yesterday for a few days to visit relatives in Moldova, Garry got Andrei to talk to the neighbor Seroshia to see if he could go get a load, and a couple hours later, they backed in and unloaded it, so showering and dish washing is on again!

Andrei and little Seroshka give a helping  hand