Busy week with Garry's parents

Buying plastic tablecloths by the meter

Garry's parents and brother are here for a two week visit, flying back to Chicago through Istanbul from Dnepropetroesk next Wednesday afternoon. Garry takes after his father, who never wants to sit still! Even on days when no excursions are planned, he keeps busy, picking up and cracking walnuts from the yard, where there are about a half dozen English walnut trees, or helping with the farm work. We have gone to the circus and visited some markets, Garry's mother even bought some blouses here in the village on Thursday, which is market day.

Garry's paents in front of the circus

Garry decided to buy a small hammer mill, so they can grind the "compicorn (ground grain) here in the barn instead of loading up up bags, grinding it a the village mill, then bagging it up taking it back home and then putting it upstairs in the barn in the bin.(check out last month's posts for photos) Garry and Maxim looked at few models, and they chose one to purchase and it arrived this week. Here are a few photos of the mill in action.

Garry's dad adjusting the mill

/barley into the top

ground grain out the bottom

Garry's dad pouring another bucket into the cart

 They are putting the compicorn into the new feed cart Garry designed and built, with Maxim welding the metal parts together. It can close up when not in use, so that animals who get loose from their stall or pen cannot eat a pile of grain. That is not just a waste of money, or a bellyache, it can be dangerous; they could die from something called grain overload, where too much grain in their stomach will become toxic.


Maxim is wondering if they should move the mill upstairs and grind once a month, because when the mill is working, a lot of dust flies, white powder will be all over the barn downstairs, he says. It is still under discussion. They cannot run the mill during milking, as it runs with an electric motor, and we cannot run it at the same time as the compressor for the vacuum for the milking machines, and the milk cooling equipment, not enough dweesty-dwaset  (electric power- it means 220, which is normal European current.)

John, Garry and his father with the team visiting the kids

This week Garry drove his brother John and dad to Donetsk to an orphanage where John sponsors a boy on Tuesday, they were gone all day, bringing stuff for the kids and playing with them, including shooting off paper rockets (see May 2012 posts for more on that.) They met a team in the city and followed them to the orphanage.  Today they are off to another orphanage near Kharkov, and his mother went along with them.

Sunday morning Garry's dad will be preaching the sermon in Dnepropetroesk at Morningstar church.