Dashing through the snow

Saturday afternoon looking toward the barn

Garry has been busy since we returned late Wednesday night/ early Thursday morning? He did some things Thursday and was off to Zaporosia as soon as we woke up Friday morning for a meeting at New Hope Center (we are still in the throes of jet lag, Garry normally falls asleep around 8-9 pm and wakes up at 1 am for a couple hours- at which point I am lying in bed, still awake, watching TV and finally falling asleep around 2 am. He falls back to sleep at some point and we wake up around 7:30 or almost 8 am and get on with our day).

He told me he should be back for a "just us lunch" since Max B is off to English classes in Zap on Tuesdays and Fridays.

 I gave up and ate the lovely ploff I had made at 2 pm, it was starting to snow at that point. Garry told me it was blowing across the road pretty good when he got home, and he was worried the road could be closed in the morning. There are some big banks along the highway, from the storm on the Monday before New Year's day (which is bigger than Christmas here) when Max Rudei had to stay in Dnepropretroesk overnight after driving in to get something fixed on the car. The highway was closed for about 24 hours, similar to the storm that closed it when we returned last year from Christmas, and spent three days in the city. Apparently he even towed a much larger van at some point, because he bought good snow tires after we left for Canada. The highway is mostly one and half lanes open now, instead of two, because of the plows having to go around stuck cars, which caused ice buildup.

Garry nuked his lunch to eat around 4 pm,and we talked about the fact that it was maybe 10 C (50 F ? really? it had to have been colder) inside the living room (we need to made some adjustments to the heating system for when it is going down to -20 outside) which is why I was crocheting fingerless mitts to wear in the house with my double layers, wool sweater, flannel lined jeans and had spent a good deal of the day under the blankets for warmth with all those clothes on (ironic, considering I have been complaining about hot flashes, huh?)  Then  Garry was driving back off with Max Rudei to breed a cow in some village (Morose-nika, if I remember correctly) a few kilometers away while I started the pizza dough (I only made four pizzas since it was just the two of us and Max B, since Andrey is working for an uncle in Moscow for the winter.)

Garry and Max got back as I was making the sauce and rolling out the dough. Max had a laugh because Garry forgot it was Friday, when we were talking about having company on Sunday. Another symptom of jet lag, forgetting the day and or date! Garry said it had taken a long time, more than an hour to go breed the cow, because of the snow blowing and they had stopped to help unload a truck of lumber in that village after breeding the cow, because the truck was parked in the middle of the street.

The guys were worried about whether the scheduled milk buyers would show up, since the milk tank was nearly full and the roads were bad with the snowfalling. The cows are producing about 800 liters of milk a day, but while we were gone there were a few times that they couldn't sell milk when the buyers didn't show because of snow, or one who celebrated the holidays a bit much. Luckily one did make it before the evening milking, or Garry was going to have to separate that milking for cream and cheese making.

I made the pizza sauce extra spicy since Max is a hot pepper fan like us. So is Max Rudei, who I am pretty sure snagged a couple pieces this morning before going with Garry to another village to breed another cow. Last night we got caught up on replays of college football bowl games again in the middle of the night, and I crocheted a second fingerless mitt in bed, waiting for my tireness to overwhelm my internal North American set clock!

Garry told me that the snow had stopped early Friday night and so he had no trouble going to breed the cow, or going to pick up Masha from Zaporosia for a meeting with the group home parents at 4 pm, and then another meeting at 6 pm about the house we are buying in the village for the new group home for next year's students to live in.

Afterwards I made some quick mac and cheese to eat, Garry and Masha put together his new puzzle of our granddaughters (Xaris' black shirt gave them the most trouble). We popped popcorn and took a TOFEL online practice test with Maxim Boradin, since we plan to send him to study in Canada this fall.

 At 11 pm everyone turned in but me, since I am writing this. Masha will take the 9 am bus back to Zaporosia for church in the morning. She's happily sleeping in the green room next to the new radiators, thankfully the heating system is able to keep up now with the temperature rising to around freezing by Saturday morning and the house is closer to normal although  I am still wearing my sweater. I had to take it off when we went to the boys' house for the meeting as it was at least 25 C (like 80 F) in there!

Well, I am off to get some sleep, hopefully, since it is after midnight and we will go to church in Dnepropetroesk in the morning and meet our friends at the airport in the afternoon... and I need to put some stuff in the crockpot in the morning for dinnertime and change the sheets on Masha's bed for our company ... and remember to stop and buy butter and kitty litter tomorrow...  and find my stuff for teaching English Monday morning!

Do you want to build a snowman?

Here is that snowman in the village I promised to show you in my last post (yes, it is really tall, since Garry is 6'5" or 196 cm if you think metrically)

 It was built last Friday in the village, apparently it was finished by the disco attending young people around midnight!