March first- here and there

When I was a child, I often heard that March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.You wouldn't think that it roared in with a big snowstorm in Ukraine, not Canada, would you?

Today in Manitoba the gravel roads were slippery from melting snow turning to mud, and we nearly wrecked the new water pump that was installed on Monday at my son's house (everything breaks when I'm in charge) because an outdoor faucet had gotten turned on and the warm sunshine thawed it out and it pumped the well dry this afternoon. Thanks to our friend Adrien, who came out for the third time, the mystery of why the pump had stopped working was solved and I was able to get the dishes done tonight and help wash a little girl's hair... and listen to her read a book and sign her envelope for school, it brings me back to doing the same things with our kids.

I have been having fun playing Uno, helping one granddaughter make her first crocheted doll clothes, waiting for another to come home from basketball, matching chores done with computer time (I am the holder of the password) and going sledding with our preschool granddaughter.

I went down the slide with her twice. Luckily we are in a warm spell, with the temperature just below freezing (until today) because she did the whole two and a half hours. I helped her carry the sled up the steps many more times. Meanwhile, the girls parents are in Nepal with 30 C weather (think hot, like 85 F, I didn't convert it).






Meanwhile they have had two snowfalls this week in Ukraine. Wednesday night Garry cancelled his SEI followup class in Kamskoyea and today the snow was so deep he couldn't back the van out of the driveway.



 The milk truck couldn't make it to the village to pick up the milk and the girls said the snow was up over their knees when they came back from morning milking. Garry said the wind was blowing and it was cold and snowing, in fact it is the biggest snowfall of the winter.





Yesterday the girls taught Garry to make vereniki (pyrogies in Ukrainian) from scratch, they made them, boiled them and then fried them. Garry said they (he?) ate way too many, and they all were very full afterwards!



With any luck it will all melt in the next two weeks and be warm and dry when I get back to Ukraine!