Maxim and Yulia's wedding

 The day began at Yulia's  parents house, about ten am the morning of the wedding, and Maxim had to work his way up to the front door to get her though a series of tests.

First he had to pass a "physical" at the end of the driveway given by these two "nurses" before he could get to the door to "buy his bride". He had his temperature taken, and so forth.

Max's family at the gate with him, his brother Andrey  in the dark suit

 After pulling all the toothpicks out of the orange, which Garry tells me had to do with what Yulia could cook for him, she had put them in for things she could make for him, and he took out toothpicks for what she cooked well until they were all gone, he finally got to the front door, where he was stopped again. He had to keep giving candy and champagne to different people Garry said.

This time he had to get past her mother, but eventually he appeared with his bride in her wedding dress.

Maxim and Yulia

Then the bridal party and guests had the first meal of the day, which included the candy and champagne at the house.

Most brides in Ukraine rent their dress, but Yulia ended up buying one for about the same amount of money, she plans to sell it to here sister's friend, who is getting married next year. The grooms buy their suit, so it is the opposite of North American weddings where the guys rent tuxes and the bride buys her dress!

 The guests formed an aisle for the bride and groom to walk through to go to the car, which took them to go pose for photos for a while indoors and out (apparently Maxim had an hour nap at the studio while Yulia had her photos done.)

Garry said Yulia's mother threw chocolates and coins after them which people picked up for luck.

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After photos they went to the restaurant in Zaporosia for the ceremony  and banquet.

Garry says there was a nice area set up outside the restaurant for the ceremony, which had many parts which were like a wedding in North America and then the big meal was served inside.

the guys in front waiting for the bride

Andrey was the best man for his brother

Flower girl throwing petals in front of the bride and her father 

vows

 Max had relatives come for the wedding from  Moldova, where many of his parents family still live, his parents were in Ukraine when the Soviet Union broke up and became citizens here. His uncle came from Moscow too. An aunt and uncle stayed at our house, Garry said.

With his mother and brothers

His brother that lives in Kiev was unable to come, he lost his job this spring when he was sick for two weeks and had just started a new job and could not get time off to come for the wedding. 

Maxim's  family that came for the wedding

Now for the food and fun at the banquet!

Meat and potatoes course

dancing

Yulia is captured by pirates

What will Maxim have to do the get her back?

He and Andrey have to dress like girls and dance

more dancing

 fancy cakes

sand mixing

candle lighting too. Yulia has a scarf on now, like a traditional  married lady

Jonah's grad

We went to the event we came to Canada for today- Jonah graduated from high school in Morden. Our last high school graduation, thanks to his sister, who has been his "parent" for his last two years of high school after he and Seth decided to come back to go to real school.

Jonah did very well, graduating with honours with distinction (over 90%) and having high marks in AP English, law and Physics classes, and winning a scholarship award. He and Seth will be living on campus at the University of Manitoba in the fall where they will share a room, he will be studying science and Seth agriculture.

Just a few more days and we will be flying back to Ukraine.

More haying, fishing and hanging out with the family

Micah packing the hay pile

This may be Garry (there were three trucks going)

 Garry spent three days last week driving truck for haylage making, while I cooked dinners for the guys and took Luke back to the doctors (the rash on his hands is looking better now) before going fishing on Thursday and enjoying some family time celebrating Jonah's graduation a little early on the weekend- we go to Morden for it on Wednesday afternoon. Sunday we enjoyed going to church in Steinbach, singing in English and visiting with friends.

the merger- it takes 3-4 windrows (rows of hay) and makes one big one

Garry driving beside the chopper ( I rode for a couple loads)

A truck getting filled with chopped hay  (from further away)

Garry driving the big tractor up the pile

covering the pile with plastic 

and with tires to hold it down

tractor dumping tires up top to move around

Sun is setting Wednesday evening and they are almost finished!

Haying Manitoba-style

Garry has tried out all the equipment for haying, I mentioned his haymowing until he ran out of fuel on Thursday night/ Friday morning at 2 am. On Saturday the boys were hoping to get some hay done, as long as the rain stayed away. Well really haylage, because almost all the hay here on the farm goes into the big silage bunkers. Garry packed the silage pile (where you drive over the loose stuff to pack it done and get rid of air pockets, which cause it to spoil instead of ferment) drove a little truck, drove the self propelled (no Tractor needed) chopper down the road, and rode along while our son Josh drove that same big forage harvester in the field, and helped fix some things, too.

The trucks dump their loads and the tractor makes it into a pile in the bunk

Rain, rain, stay away!

Dinner is coming!

Chopping into the trucks, Garry is on the right inside the cab

 The storms were all around, as you can see in the pictures, but they didn't really get rained on, and Garry will be helping with hay for a couple more days this week. I brought them all a nice dinner around 6 pm, with ribs, steak, and potato salad, I had to run back and make one more plate, as there were two extra guys driving truck instead of the one I expected- they were going with three trucks yesterday.

Rainbow over the corn silage bunker....

 Then I feed 80 calves for son #3 and drove son # 5 to the hospital, to see what was causing his rash ( red bumps on his hands, feet, elbows, ears- bad reaction to antibiotic cream he was using on his hand) and got home at 2 am with him and Benadryl for the itching .....and discovered my crockpot roast still bubbling away, so we won't have to slice that lunchmeat for Monday's field food.