Holidays

Garry was feeling pretty bad after his ankle surgery, he was taking the pain pills for the first week, but he is feeling better now. He has to stay completely off his foot for 8 weeks before he can put any weight on it, so he will be even better on his crutches in February, it will be three months at least on them. His bigger problem is he can't carry anything while crutching around the house, so he has to have help to do anything.

He hopes to get to church in Steinbach on Sunday, on the 8th we are supposed to talk at the services at Emmanuel, that will be after he two week checkup, when he hopes they will take the cast off for a walking boot, even though he can't walk on it, he hopes to be able to shower in a week or so.


I didn't even take any photos on Christmas Day, I couldn't get my charger to charge the camera. It was just a little busy getting ready for Christmas, but I did get it propped up and working the next day so I could take photos again.

There are some photos on the trade school blog that Maria took for us of the students enjoying Christmas. Here's one of a couple of the boys "working" on the farm and Polo of course. Looks like there isn't much snow there, we have a couple feet here in Manitoba.

Home for the holidays

Our growing family

Garry had a busy couple days after arriving home before his operation. On Saturday night it was the farm Christmas party and we got a big family photo. It was held in the new gym the boys just finished, they laid the floor earlier that week. 

welcome!

Hungry?

The kids really like to dance- I think it's why we have a band

Its snowy

There really is a shop attached to the gym

The boys plan to get the backboards up as soon as they arrive. We watched them play in Winnipeg on Monday evening before Garry's operation. Since it was snowing hard we stayed overnight in the city since Garry had to be at the hospital at 7:45 am.



He is home and as long as his foot is up, in the recliner or in bed its feeling OK. They had to make a one inch incision to remove some bone chips that were floating around, but its screwed together and he can't put any weight on it for 8 weeks. Then it will be another month on crutches with the walking boot on. Of course he wants to fly back the beginning of February, but we'll see.

He has ruled out going to church for Christmas eve, its still much too painful if its not raised.

Hey, he's on his way...

At least I think so... he should be in Toronto and boarding his flight to Winnipeg soon. I am at the hotel waiting. He has a pre-op appointment tomorrow morning, so we are staying overnight... plus he is supposed to land a half hour after midnight!

Before leaving he took all of the students bowling. In the last post I did there are photos of the second year students. Since then the first year students went bowling last Friday...

Here they are in the classroom with Garry

Then he took the grads bowling and to Mc Foxys to eat like the other groups. If you are wondering its fast food. Mc Donalds in Zaporosia is closed for remodeling.

Garry has his ankle fusing operation on Tuesday so I am sure he will be very busy until then while he can walk on two feet for his first couple days home... as long as he arrives on time tonight!

He arrived at 4:30 am, his flight was delayed out of Toronto because of the snowstorm there, I got back to the hotel with him at 5 am, we were upgraded to a suite for free, but I think he's sleeping until we need to leave for the hospital appointment,

Fun and other things to finish

Garry has been busy. I video chatted with him Friday morning his time (Thursday evening here). He was up early and went over to the freestall barn to help milk between times that we chatted. He tries to get there a couple times a week for the morning milking. So far it was only the one Sunday morning that he milked by himself when no one showed up but him. He told me he wanted to sort more springing heifers out of the freestall barn so they could be moved to the calving barn (the old barn).

Last week they moved the wooden calf hutches from the old barn to outside the free stall barn so it will be easier to feed the calves milk. With so many cows calving (three more this past Sunday) the students were getting tired of carrying large amounts of milk over to feed the calves, so now they will move the fresh cow and calf over there after they calve. When the calves are weaned they will be moved back. There are 8 pens in the hutches. Garry was amazed that they were able to move them with any of them getting damaged, because he built them from chipboard five or more years ago. He had to remove the steel roof that was added and then they picked them up with the loader tractor and carried them for about a kilometer!

 He was planning to take the first year students bowling today, he told them that they would have an extra day of classes since he was leaving. On Wednesday he took the second year students bowling after class started that afternoon. We are down a student in that group because one of the girls took off last week, they hope she comes back. She had been getting tutoring because she wanted to go to vet tech training next year. She found a guy in a different city to leave with and won't talk to any of the girls on the phone, so her firends are upset,too.

He told me on Wednesday when I phoned while he was driving to his English group that he had finished the laying the flooring at Luda's. He was going to buy the baseboard trim if he had time to get back to Dnepro after the class before the stores closed. I am not sure if he did, since he had commented that the bypass highway was slippery before we hung up, but I am sure it will be done before he leaves next week. He said he needed to buy some scoffs (wardrobes) for the new rooms.

Apparently it was quite warm today after having snow and cold weather. He told me that he had driven to Zaporosia last night for our usual Bible study group and the wind was blowing strongly, and visibility was poor. he only stayed about an hour and on the way home to the village saw a huge pileup of cars on the the other side of the divided highway. He thought it had happened fairly soon after he drove by and I think he said there might have been thirty cars or more involved.

They decorated the classroom for the holidays

at the mall with a big tree

One week

Well it's one week until Garry goes to Kiev to catch his planes to Winnipeg. He's been busy getting things done since he will be gone for two months with his ankle operation a few days after he gets here. We have snow here in Manitoba, and there was snow in the village sooner than here, last weekend. They got a couple inches from the photos I have seen on facebook.

I came early to clean the house and get ready for Christmas and to get some paperwork going, which I got in the mail last week, hoping to have it back before we leave in February. Trying to get the Christmas cards in the mail this week.  I also got to be home for Jonah's 21st birthday party with all the kids, and have some fun things to go to like piano recitals and Christmas programs,

Micah and Crystal

I was busy getting ready for Crystal (and Micah's- she says it is his baby too so he had to come) baby shower that was on Saturday. It was a group effort, with her mother, friend and our daughter Jessica making things for it and held in Josh and Krissy's basement since the gym the boys are building is not quite ready to use yet, they are still painting this week before the floor can be laid. Garry may get to help.

I have talked to Garry a few times, so I can tell you that he is nearly finished finishing the inside of the addition that was built onto Luda's (the girls house) house last March when his father, brother, and Micah and Crystal came. It is a two bedroom addition for the family, so we can use the two original bedrooms for the students instead of the one the three girls are currently sharing. It will be good to get them separated as there is some friction between Leila and the new girls. They finished painting the walls over the weekend, and he bought laminate flooring on Sunday that they started installing Monday afternoon.

He had a busy day on Monday, they finally found a cow to turn into hamburger for the group homes- he's been looking for one for a few months and finally found one that fit the bill- not pregnant and not milking much. Lucky for them, young too. We have not done one since he bought the three houses chest freezers in the spring, and they did not freeze a lot of vegetables so there will be room for meat. It is a great way to help everyone with their budgeting as the holidays- and the heating bills- are coming.


So they killed the cow in the morning and had an anatomy lesson, as the first year students had just learned about the four stomachs of cows and how they work. Then everyone was busy butchering and grinding hamburger to freeze.

If you are wondering the students are too excited about the meat to be grossed out by the butchering. Garry recently reviewed how the group homes are spending their money they get from the students. Last week he bought the boys house some bags of potatoes, carrots and onions, since they did not seem to be eating many vegetables. Seven boys were not getting spending money and eating a dozen loaves of bread a day, so he decided to stretch their budget a bit. One girls' house eats a lot of sunflower seeds and the other spends money on fish to eat, he also found out.

Last week Garry had a team building exercise, dinner and bowling with the staff. Victor missed it since he was on vacation, but here are a few pictures.

The ladies, Yana, our herdperson (former milker lady)
Larissa, Group house Mom (looks like Luda did not come)
Maria, Garry's assistant and Yulia, Max Rudei's wife

The guys, Sergey, Larissa's husband and group home dad.
Max Rudei, farm manager, Garry and Vova , parent at'
the guys house