About that...

When we got back from Ukraine, Maria moved into her own place, just a few feet from our door- the old summer kitchen or Malinky Dome (the little house). It got insulation and stucco in the fall when we did the big old Mennonite house.

With the ten person combined teams arriving on March 26th I have to get her to move out for a week so we can have room for everyone. She's going to stay with the local pastor who invited her stay last year.

This morning Garry was off early to meet Victor to order supplies for the team's building project. They tried to do it last week but left when the store said they couldn't order everything Garry wanted. A few hours later, Victor got a call saying that they could get the plastic Garry wanted after all.

It's foggy this morning and cool. You can see the progress the guys made on getting the ground leveled out for the building yesterday afternoon (in spite of the rain) in the photos I took this morning.

The alfalfa and oats did get planted in the field yesterday, as scheduled. They got more harrowing done this week, but it seems we need to train some of the grad boys to do it (Nicholas can't wait) because tractorist Sasha quit yesterday afternoon at 5 pm, effective immediately. He found a better paying job, which is fine, except we are in the middle of getting ready for spring planting.

Needles does like staying outdoors

Unfortunately, the timing of the announcement meant we were still at home when it was time for our weekly Bible study meeting in Zaporosia, so we missed it this week. Max had asked Garry if he had a few minutes to talk as he was coming in the house when it was time to leave for the city. Garry, Max, Sasha and Artom sat in the living room talking for about an hour in Russian. Garry was disappointed with the lack of notice. He had let Sasha's wife go as a milker lady in the fall and had paid her three months salary as severance. We really look forward to the fellowship in English each week, so it was disappointing to not go.

Our other Thursday Bible study/ staff meeting (in Russian and mostly translated to English) took place in our living room as usual, with tea and Victor's buns and oranges. He picks them up every Thursday on his way to the village to teach his weekly class with the students on beekeeping.

Of course the day had started with the water system to repair in the barn and continued with the rain that made everyone cold and wet while working outside on prepping the pad for cement (and had them tracking balls of mud stuck on their shoes into the entrance hall every time they walked in, even though they take them off to go further). Garry is also ordering rebar today that needs to get placed before the concrete is poured.





Here are a few more pics from the Old barn I took yesterday...

Heifers in the pens

the cats drinking milk
bull calf behind them

Chasing the fresh cow out the door
and over to the new barn