Crop report with photos!

We made it home in the village around midnight. Victor drove us home from Dnepro when we got off the train shortly after eleven pm.

He gave us all the news- there was a fire at the farm while we were gone- cause unknown but spread by dry grass and hay bales near the middle barn where they have housed some calves and heifers this summer- and they had a firetruck (or three?) come from Zaporosia  to put it out. We are down to four students (2 new) and five grads as of yesterday, so we will be looking for more.

The middle barn had the grass on the roof catch fire!

We didn't have a key to get in the house, but were able to wake up one of the girls staying in the house while we were gone. She let us in with a little trouble- we got in the door on the other side of the house and had to carry the suitcases around in the dark.

Strangely Garry had more trouble getting to sleep than I did and was still awake at 3 am, so he slept in until after 10 am before we went off to check out the crops and things. Since the boys in Manitoba were able to get me a new cord to charge the Nikon I was able to get good photos to add to today's post!

Irrigated corn field versus non irrigated next to it, same seed, less water.  Garry plans to start chopping the irrigated field for silage next this week, this afternoon the guys started rolling up the irrigation lines to save for next year.

tall tall irrigated corn

nice cobs everywhere

the green irrigated and the brown non-irrigated 

irrigated versus non cobs (non-denting variety)

Garry promised me just now that there is better corn out there, they had half the irrigation lines rolled up by six pm today. More photos when they start chopping it. We also checked out our sunflowers.

Field close to the barn

Near the highway

other side of the highway

We stopped at the shop where Max and his brother Artom were working on a tire.

Then we went to the barn...

There are some students left!

The straw barn is very full

Unfortunately the fire burned up the wooden calf hutches that Garry had moved over to the new farm. As far as I know no one was hurt in the fire, including calves. 

Back to Ukraine

I am sitting in the Winnipeg airport across from Garry waiting to board our plane to Minnesota where we hope to see our daughter and granddaughter as they are returning home through the same airport while we are waiting for our flight to Amsterdam and then to Kiev.

Success! Here's Abby with Garry
20 minutes of fun on our way back

We have had a busy week plus since Garry arrived, spending time with the family including Garry's parents who were out from Ontario and making connections with church in Steinbach the prayer team and with a couple who may be joining us in the village next year. Garry even caught some fish on Moose Lake and drove silage truck.

Garry saw the surgeon who operated on his ankle Friday morning and the x-rays show that it has fused perfectly. Hopefully as the swelling continues to reduce more sensation will return too. Now he can't wait to get back to Ukraine and get ready for the new school year and finish harvesting the crops.

On his way

Garry is , as I type, somewhere in the sky between Paris and Minneapolis. In about fifteen hours he'll land in Winnipeg (our flights had a long seven hours in Minnesota this time). He had been so busy at home with chopping corn and doing things with the students (and freezing the sweet corn in the garden) that he didn't pack until two hours before leaving for the train to Kiev.

I happened to phone him so he could look for the Hebrew book I wanted him to bring along for Max Boradin ( he has signed up for Hebrew this fall at college, and I had one of the books he needed) when Garry discovered that he had his Canadian passport but not his Ukrainian resident document, which looks like a thin passport. It was not in the cupboard where he keeps it (sometimes he has it out for some official need, like banking and forgets to put it back).  He ended up coming without it as he did not find it in time, He said it took a while to get through customs without it, not sure what happens when we get back at the end of the month!

He had just returned from a last lunch with the students, a hot dog roast at the pond, and was telling me what a wonderful time it was. Earlier this week the group from Kiroy Rog that many of our last year students were sent by had come out with some American visitors to the farm and put on a program for the students which impressed Garry very much. There's even a photo I found on facebook.






Well lots to do before tonight, I have a dentist appointment to fix a bad filling this morning (the last of my medical appointments for this trip) I have to finish cleaning, make lunch for the guys working on third cut hay (if the rain has not stopped them for a second day) and hope to help with more painting of granddaughter rooms if I can squeeze it in today.

For our MB readers, we plan to be at the early church service in Steinbach this Sunday and at the Wednesday prayer team meeting at Emmanuel next week. Its going to be a busy ten days, with Garry's parents visiting us, Garry's appointment with the foot doctor and a trip out to Brandon to meet a couple who may become part of our team in Ukraine.

here and there... again

Dnepro train station

Yes I am in Manitoba again. In one week Garry will join me here, but he's busy dealing with broken things whenever I talk to him.

 I said goodbye to him August first when he  took me to the train station so I could get the train to Kiev to get my flight (its way cheaper to fly home from Kiev unless you book way ahead). On the way to the train station he dropped off the part for the chopper that they needed to start chopping corn.


This week he wanted to start chopping corn for silage on Monday. It has been hot (40C, over 100F) and dry so they needed to get started so the corn plants wouldn't be too dry before getting to the last fields. He tried to pick up the part Friday but it wasn't ready yet. In fact on Wednesday afternoon in Ukraine he was still anxiously waiting for Victor to call and say that it was ready.



The week I left they were busy baling straw under the hot summer sun. They finally finished and they made 18,000 small square bales of straw this year. They still had the third cut hay to bale, I believe that may have happened this week but we did not talk about it.


I talked to Garry briefly on Thursday evening his time and he was trying to fix the milking system. The pulsators had stopped working and they couldn't milk the cows. He was trying to rig up the old ones from the other barn, so we didn't talk long, and I have no idea if it worked.


 I do know that they were finally chopping corn, so at least something was going right. Garry says that even though the corn plants are only six feet tall there are nice cobs so it should make decent silage if it is finished on time. 

Meanwhile I've been busy hanging out with our kids and Maxim Borodin, who liked the Ukrainian chocolates I brought him, although he shared many of them with people who work on the farm. I also got to celebrate Isaac's second birthday, hold his baby brother, go to Abigail's first Birthday party last weekend and go to Matthew's church.
 I crocheted a hungry Caterpillar for Abby to go with the party theme. Lots of family fun.

if you look closely the two little babies are here