Post jet lag- I hope!

After more than a week of sleeping for three hours, lying awake two to four hours and then catching more sleep around five am I slept all night last night! Mostly anyway so I am hoping jet lag is over.

Monday the snow started and Garry drove to Zaporosia in the afternoon anyway. He got home at eight pm and said the road into the village might be closed in the morning. Tuesday morning we had no classes for our students, since it is the day that Larisa comes from Zaporosia to teach her class on Christian ethics. She had phoned early in the morning to say that she had shoveled her car out but no one had been down her street yet. I am sure no one minded the day off.

Later Tuesday afternoon Victor came to the village, although he said he got stuck in the road coming into the village, mostly because there was a Lada stuck there already. Victor told me that at his house in Dnepro the snow was right up the the stoop, as high as he could remember. They had a meeting with our only current private milk buyer, the guy who makes cheese and pays ahead of time for his milk. The reason we started selling to the milk company instead of all the private buyers was the fact that most of them were so far behind in paying for their milk that they never would catch up, so Garry cut his losses after five years and he is happy with the decision six months later.

Wednesday morning was cold and sunny outside, it got down to -19 C (-2 F) overnight, and was pretty cold all day. Garry taught first after making feed for the cows and then he brought them to the house to have my cooking class. They had requested making hot cocoa and an oatmeal dish. I didn't have the ingredients for the requested pumpkin oatmeal but while looking for a recipe for breakfasts on the internet that morning, I found Ham, cheese and egg Oatmeal. That sounded like a winner, although I had to substitute kolbassa for the ham, and chopped onion for chives. It was a big hit during the taste test besides being easy and inexpensive to make, and great in a country where oatmeal can be for any meal. The egg was fried and served on top of the oatmeal.


Wednesday afternoon Garry had an appointment in Zaporosia and Nelly and I went with him. We drove out the end of the village instead of the road to the highway since Max told Garry it was plugged with snow, he'd had to take the tractor and pull three different cars out there. So here's that way and some of the city.

Sidewalk clearing is never a priority in the city. It will warm up and melt sometime. 

Garry has continued his winter hobby of puzzle making with the help of Alona, who lives with us and anyone who drops in. He is doing a tank puzzle with a lot of tanks on after finishing the yoga cow puzzle our kids gave him last year. Its a keeper, he glued it onto cardboard. Now I need to to find a wall to hang it on.









Friday at lunchtime Garry and I left the village via the highway so we went out the usual way, it was open but really only one lane was plowed through where it had drifted when the wind blew. We tried to get a photo, but I don't know if you can really see how deep the drifts are. Dnepro had some snow filled minor streets and some icy ones where cars were sliding and some main streets that were fairly clear, with pretty deep banks on the side of the road.

Both days we were out we saw some snow removal going on as some parts of the highway had drifted.

 Something was going on at the police check on the highway, looked like some kind of protest.

The weather is supposed to warm up over the next week, not above freezing though. Someday soon I hope.