Maybe...hopefully by lunchtime ... we'll be there

11 pm in Ukraine, and from all the barking, you would think we are in the village, but the elevator going up and down gives it away, it's Friday night and we are still in the city. Since the internet is so good here, I thought I'd give you an update- mainly that we hope to be back in the village by lunchtime tomorrow.

We have had time to sleep - for me that was between 6:20 and 10 am this morning, as I hardly slept last night! (my body is still on Manitoba time) We watched John Wiens' memorial service on vimeo this morning, before Victor picked us up for lunch at his house at one o'clock. We had some really good fish soup, and a potato main dish, then hung out and talked, which kept Garry from taking a four hour afternoon nap like the day before!

 Max phoned from the farm at 4 pm to tell Victor that the snow has been cleared from Zaporosia to the village, so it might be open from Dnepropetroesk too. Since it would be dark in an hour, we decided to try to get out there in the morning. While Victor was driving us home, he had a phone call from Turkish Air, our suitcases came in on today's plane! So we will be leaving the apartment around 8:30 am, since the office will open at nine, and hopefully get them easily and head out to the village.

From what we have heard on the news, there were 600 stuck vehicles on Ukrainian  highways (or maybe just this one) the major roads in the city are somewhat cleared, but still snowy, so traffic is moving slowly. A long line of big semi trucks are parked along the highway leaving the city, so we will likely have them rolling ahead of us.

view from the apartment window

An hour ago I heard a car outside spinning its wheels, the sideroads are a mess, a set of tracks, or maybe partly plowed, most are only one lane right now. Looks like the predicted highs won't even come close to the freezing mark for the next week, and if it gets warm in a hurry; there are huge piles of snow, waiting to melt and overtax the city drainage system. Some kids were not in school because of the low temps (neg 23 C plus windchill = really cold for here) It's a good thing we are used to Manitoba weather.

From what we have heard from the guys in the village, none of the milk buyers had been there since Monday (the storm was Tuesday, and I am thinking it looks like there is a foot of snow out there, instead of 8 inches.) There is 1600 litres of milk in the tank and they have been separating some into cream  to sell and the ladies are making cheese (like cottage cheese) out of the skim milk.

 Max tried to go to the gas station yesterday with the tractor and got stuck in the snow. There were still people in their cars, begging Serosia to pull out their car when he pushed Max out with his payloader. He told them he could take them into the village, but where would they go if he got them out? the highway was not plowed yet, they would just be stuck again.

The lady who buys a lot of our milk is from Zaporosia and had told Max she would be there as soon as the highway opened, he should just call her, so hopefully her yellow van got there this evening. Apparently she was anxious to come as she was all out  of milk to sell.

I"ll charge the camera tonight so I can get some photos on the way to the village Saturday, praying that the road is open and we have a safe trip there, and then Victor back to Dnepro. From what I understand our van will not start because of the low temperatures, and the guys are dealing with frozen water pipes and other things that make taking care of the cows more difficult in very cold weather.

We may have to pick up more groceries, we have eaten some of the stuff we bought on Wednesday here in the apartment. We do have a couple boxes of cereal, we will have milk when we get back, although the guys are probably thinking Saturday will be pizza night...