Chicks, geese and cooking in the rain

 The power was out for a few minutes last night, and then there was one phase missing. The ladies were done milking, so no one had to run the generator- the milking system runs on three phases electricity. However, the ladies' little house, and some of the other houses in the village (and our well for the house) were without power. No one told Garry it was still out in the morning (our house was mostly on), so there was a delay in milking until he found out when the milk buyer lady drove in, then the generator was on, the house was off until they finished milking. Around ten am, the power was back on in all the village with all it's phases. It was the same line that was out last week.





Today Victor planned to bring his daughter Dasha; his neighbor "white van Victor", and some of his relatives, including some that have lived in the US for 20 years,  out to the village to cook shishlik and other picnic activities. Of course it was raining in the morning, but they came anyway. They arrived around noon, when it was still raining, so they came inside, took a barn tour, Garry suggested that they could cook the shishlik over in the new barn all cement and dirt, they did some prep here, admired the house feed the baby, played with the baby kitten . The rain slacked off, Garry took his rocket firing stuff, and they headed over to cook about 10 kilos of meat, plus all the fixings, veggies and bread.

Dasha brought her bicycle

Picnicing by the "new Barn"

Cooking indoors

These guys were enjoying the puddles!

I walked over later bearing some missing paper rockets (I found them while looking for my shoes), having put Polo and the two bigger kittens in the house after they tried to follow me down the street. It didn't matter if they had muddy feet, I was already going to be washing the floors, with all the ins and outs after the rain, the dirt here is mucky sticky when it rains, and ends up on my floors, even when people put on slippers as they come in. It's a farm, and it isn't just manure that sticks to your feet when it rains!

I wasn't planning on eating, but everyone keep handing me food, so I ended up eating some of everything. Our friends the Weins stopped by with a few friends and they were handed food and ate shisklik, too!
The skies were a little gray, but the rain stayed away, and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Little Seroroska walking his baby brother Bogdan

Dasha playing with Puppy

Later the party continued until 6 pm, when the other Victor and his relatives headed back to Dnepro, after we had come home for a nap- and Andrei went over and ate food after he finished feeding the cows for the day. Our Victor and Dasha were around until after the cows came home, he picked some strawberries to take home.  Garry and I went for a walk to the magazine (store) and saw little Seroshka watching his baby brother, and got him to pose for a photo. It was cooler today, but babies tend to get bundled up in Ukraine.



Opps, I forgot to load the baby chicks and hen picture I took on my walk!