What we do when we are home in Manitoba

A few people have asked me where we stay when we are home ... the answer is at home! Most Sundays will find us in Steinbach at Emmanuel Free Church, although we sometimes attend our son Matt's church in Piney. We still have our bedroom on the farm in St Labre, some years the boys attempt to store excess items in our room, but often it's just the way I left it when I flew to Ukraine. Sometimes it's a little dusty, but we have been home in the summer in recent years for weddings and babies arriving, so that helps.

The boys are whoever is on the farm and single, it used to be Micah and Noah, but they both are married now and Luke, Seth and Jonah live in the house these days. Most years when I get back I spend some time cleaning and organizing the house, in the summer I sometimes do some painting or repairs to get ready for a wedding and visitors; in winter this cleaning is called getting ready for Christmas, which happens at our house on Christmas Day, most years with all the kids, spouses and girlfriends.  So yes, we go home to our house, where our stuff is, although sometimes I feel like I don't really have a house anymore, in Ukraine we live in Victor's house in the village.

Yesterday we had an actual blizzard warning here- for most of the province, schools were closed and the wind was howling and turning the piles of snow into some bigger drifts. Temperatures were at least -36 C with windchills under -42 C (for Americans, that's where the scale converges at -42 F). It is supposed to warm up next week, maybe even around freezing.

Thanks to a dairy farmer who reads the blog who broke his ankle last year; Garry has a new way to move around. He likes it because he can use his hands, but he still uses the crutches around the house. He went off with Josh to a farm program two days this week, including Thursday in the blizzard. As you can see he walks on a pegleg and it holds his foot off the ground.

Garry will be flying out to see the team in Salmon Arm, BC February 3rd-6th before returning to Ukraine. They are putting a team together to build the cheese plant in the village this March, and may be joined by some of our Steinbach friends, We'd love to have more info on what we may need in this building, the best way to store and age cheeses (we plan to make gouda) if you know or are a cheesemaker.