Frosty mornings

It was a busy week, mostly because it was a teaching week. Garry and I teach classes on alternative weeks. We shifted starting time for classes to 8 am for the first year students, and moved into the new classroom at the "new farm" since we last taught, so we did a little switching around. Monday morning Garry drives into Zaporosia to pick up Maria for the "week" (Monday through Thursday), since Garry had been teaching the first class of the day, that meant he'd pick her up at seven am instead of eight, Sunday evening we realized we could switch classes around and he'd still pick her up at eight and I'd teach English first period.

So Monday through Thursday I got my exercise for the day walking to class and back (I might not have mentioned I've been walking more to lower my blood pressure, along with cutting back on salt, so far I have lost five pounds, we'll find out how it's working in December). Then Garry and Maria  drive over for the rest of the morning (we are trying to keep Garry off his feet as much as possible because of his bad foot, and ankle). In the afternoons they start at two pm with the second year students, and I take over the last hour at four. In between we have dinner and try to get everything else done, like the weekly staff meeting Thursday at one o'clock, and the occasional cow for Garry to breed somewhere. This week the senior students are learning to trim hooves so I ended up driving the van from here to there with them every afternoon, since Garry's class was here.

Monday and Tuesday were lovely sunny mornings, but Wednesday was a frosty walk as we finally got the first frost of the season. Thursday I walked all the way back to the house before Garry left for class. He told me he was looking for his cell phone, and couldn't find it anywhere. Maria had phoned it and the message said it was turned off, and the battery had been charged the day before.





After they left for class I looked for it in the bedroom, and then remembered that someone had been doing laundry the night before.. probably Garry. I opened the washer and started pulling out jeans, shirts, something clanked against the bottom of the washer... I pulled out more jeans, socks, twenty grivna, another ten grivna...and a cell phone. I stuck it in a jar of rice, to hopefully dry out. When Garry got home he pulled out the SIM cards and put it in Max's old phone, so people could call him.


Monday we had visitors, they had called a couple weeks ago, a Canadian man who had family visiting and some Ukrainians who came with them. Garry talked to him Sunday evening and told me to make a pot of soup. I had made salad and soup, but had to make it stretch a bit and grab an extra table when Garry said "We'll be in for lunch in ten minutes" and I asked how many for lunch?  and he said there would be ten ...  and I asked with us ? "No, plus us and Maria." I cut up more bread from the store. One of the young ladies with them knew one of our students because they had met when she did some work with orphans. They enjoyed a tour of the barns, the new group home, and the classroom.

Wednesday and Thursday after classes Garry and some of the students spent an hour helping the babushka next door with cleaning up her garden (Max Boradin will be pleased to hear this, he was always helping her.) Wednesday afternoon was cold and windy, and two of the girls came to the house with bloody hands after cutting them on cornstalks, I applied  band-aids after they washed up in the bathroom, and found gloves and a hat for one.  The babushka told Maria to tell Garry how he was such a wonderful person that everyone in the village loves him. Yes, it is the babushka who used to not like us when we first moved here and got the cows, if you are wondering.

Look for more photos on the other blog

Thursday we raced out in the van after they finished in the garden, to go to our weekly Bible study in Zap after dropping Maria off at home (she lives with her parents) I locked the door as we left, although the handle had fallen off earlier that day, and when we got home after nine pm, we couldn't open the door even though I unlocked it because the center of the knob had fallen out inside the house. The other door was locked with the thumb screw, because I can't find a key for that one, so we weren't getting in that way either. We couldn't find anything square to stick through and turn it, so eventually Garry pried the handle off  and we were in. The Blue Jays were just starting their game so we stayed up until 1:30 am watching them lose.
Friday was just as busy, we drove to Dnepropetroesk in the morning, after a later start than normal. We got up at 7:30. and removed the rest of the handle and put a brick in front of the door to keep the cats out. Garry dropped me off at Metro (Like Costco, but a German company) to shop for groceries while he went to the market to find a turkey for the trade school family (like everyone) Thanksgiving dinner today... and a new door handle, which he installed when we got home. Shortly after five pm, we were off to Dnepro again for the SEI follow up group, with a couple Chicken Soup for the Soul stories to read. We had the biggest group so far for the English group, eighteen people, Garry tells me. We may need more chairs if this continues!

This morning I froze some tomatoes and peppers Garry picked up at a roadside stand Thursday, made stuffing and got the turkey- all 7.5 kilos- stuffed, into a pan (just fit) and into the oven, and peeled potatoes for the mashed potatoes with gravy, for our potluck dinner at five pm, Photos to come on the trade school blog, just click on the bird photo!

The combine came and started on the corn this morning, the first truck is on the way to the mill. Looked like 150 bushel an acre, a bumper crop finally! They were supposed to start Friday, but the guy had a flat tire on Thursday night driving here from another village and it took a day to find a tire for it.