Made it back for company

Well, in spite of more than a hour delay leaving Minneapolis, I made my connection in Amsterdam for Kiev (there was a computer that had to be checked out before takeoff) and found Garry standing outside the door, reading the Kyiv Post when I walked out of customs with my luggage, around 1:30.

We had a good drive back to the village, arriving around 8 pm Tuesday. Fall is setting in, and lots of tractors out working fields, trying to plant winter wheat, or combining sunflowers as we drove. It has been a rainy fall and everyone is planting much later than normal. Garry said it rained almost everyday of the three weeks I was gone.

What is unusual about this gas store? Look near the till- Slushie machine-
 only one I've seen in Ukraine!

Fall foliage along the way

That's second growth canola

Slow down for that big hole on the bridge! Narrow bridge, too.

Big puddle

When we got back we met a couple Canadians from the Mennonite Brethren that Garry had invited to stay for a few days, Victor had helped them settle in a few hours before. Victor had also got the heat running, it has been a cold fall. I went to bed, Garry talked a while to our company, one speaks mostly French. The other had visited us before with John Wiens, they had driven from Moldova, where they had visited orphanages.

I got up at nine am and made breakfast, and then dinner before we hurried to the airport in Dnepropetroesk to pick up Garry's parents and brother John, who will be staying with us for two weeks. Thursday morning I did not do as well, Garry made muffins for breakfast, and all the guys and went outside to work on the grain bin he is making upstairs in the barn. Meanwhile Garry's mother and I slept in until 11 am!

Cows heading to the barn, snow is melting as it hits

At 11:30 the cows returned from the field with the village herd, because it is a not raining, but wet snow today, it will be the end of the year for herding, I think. Now it will be our turn in the spring, when the cows are more difficult, as they don't know the routine yet then, now they are very docile, and our turn would be coming up soon.

Wednesday the big field where the corn was chopped for silage was finally planted in wheat, Maxim and his brother Andrei finished it before dark. They planted on Tuesday also, Garry says the new seeder worked really well. The other field they planned to plant will probably not get done now, hopefully we have warm weather again to get the wheat seed out of the ground and growing.

This sweet pepper looks like it has a long nose growing on it.

Good thing Garry decided to pick the peppers yesterday there are some green sweet peppers, but mostly hot peppers to put in the freezer, a bucket full. He saved them for me to do, I thought he would have to do it before I got back.  Looks like the snow is melting as it lands, for the most part, so we'll see what happens. Garry has headed out to see Dnepro with the guys, while his mother and I stayed home to rest up, or catch up. Nice hot soup for dinnertime?