As for me and my house we will serve the Lord....



Friday, June 29, 2018

Storm clouds

It seems like we are always looking for storm clouds. In summer here that is the way rain arrives, fronts do not move slowly through the area, raining all day like in the fall and winter. The only way we get rain is with blowing winds and crashing thunder. At night you watch for flashing lightning in the distance, lighting up the room. Always hoping that the storm in the distance is going to get to the village and produce much needed rain.

This past week it has been hot and really humid and the storms have developed and several have come to the village ( and some have not), Garry says the ground in the sunflower field is wet for about three inches down now. Of course, Garry would like more rain. He has been able to stop buying water for the corn for a few days, but the big field will get it turned back on soon, because it is so hard to get water to all of the field. Next year they will do it differently to make it easier to get all the corn irrigated. The rain arrived just in time for people without irrigation, the regular corn was about half as tall as ours and turning brown.

Storm clouds building
Thursday it was hot and humid all day, and by the time we had to drive to Zaporosia around 4 pm, you could see two storms building around us... would they get to the village or not?

On the way out of the village we drove past the field the combine and baler were in so I could get some photos since they had decided it had dried out from the rain the day before.


Vlad driving the wagon of wheat back to the shed

Sunflower field is just starting to bloom



The guys only got one load baled before the first rain came. Not a lot but more moisture for the crops.
















The road is finished toward Zap as I said before, what a delight to have smooth riding and to have the traffic safely back on the right side of the road again. We had a few drops of rain as we drove into the city. Our weekly small group meeting had been moved up from the normal time.


 On the way home we were looking at the sky again trying to decide if the clouds were near the village, and then some rain drops were falling as we got closer. Would it be wet?There were puddles on the side road as we drove in to the village.
















Garry was sleeping, but I woke to lightning in the distance around midnight and we got a little more rain. Of course, he'd always want more...

Today, Friday the humidity built up and early evening we had dark skies, wind and finally the rain has started falling again. Not much so far, but the thunder is still rumbling.

Off to breed somebody's cow again



The wheat and straw harvest can wait, there's never too much rain in Ukraine.

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Dear Life...

It's been a whirlwind of activity around us since we arrived back in the village on Friday afternoon. Hay baling was finished on Monday and Garry's brother John left on Monday afternoon on the train from Dnepro for his flight in Kiev. I have heard that he made it home to Michigan.

Tuesday morning started on a high note as Max Boradin forwarded the good news to Garry that his study visa has been renewed by Canada immigration. Garry and Victor went to the hospital with Alona in the morning to get her registered for having the baby there.

Vika put a second coat of yellow paint on the wood targets for the corn hole game that John had helped Garry make on Sunday, he even had brought blue and yellow fabric for the corn bean bags among the goodies in his suitcase. We will make more bags when we get corn, he had made four bags with beans in while visiting his step kids family the week before.

Excuse me while I find the fly swatter... thanks Don, I believe it's one you and Sandy brought us... we have ever found a decent one to buy here, they all break when you use them to swat flies. The students, especially the ones who visit don't get why I keep yelling to close the door (zacrit devair!) The girls who live here are better at door closing most of the time. Yes, killed the one on my foot!

It does not help that we have not replaced the window screen that our thieves broke before they broke a window without one... and we have always had less screens than windows that open since we moved in here in 2009. Garry opens them in the morning to cool the house off while he drinks his morning coffee.


Anyway...I have been busy with organizing stuff that has piled up while I was gone, putting away the stuff I brought back with me, working on lesson planning for teaching at SEI next month and dealing with the never-ending number of cherries and apricots that have been picked and brought in to me. Some years we have one fruit in abundance but this year trees have had overloaded branches break under the load. I have froze and canned cherries made pies and cake and started apricot jam making this evening...

after the power was restored, after it went out after the thunderstorm that hit this afternoon while the cherries were in the canner (luckily as the timer was finishing).



 That was the big excitement this afternoon, Wednesday, (technically its Thursday morning now but that's because I woke up at one am because I forget to turn on the air conditioner in our bedroom and it was so hot I woke up)  the combine arrived and started harvesting wheat. Garry said that they got 3 or four trucks or wagons filled and had just got the baler in the field to start making straw bales when the thunderstorm hit.

Of course, we have been hoping for rain for the crops and it came down fast and furious for a short time. Garry tells me it went about two inches into the soil. Luckily we did not get the worst of the storm, even though there was some big thunder and lightning cracking and booming outside. Max drove the combine guys home to their village a couple miles up the highway and there the ground was covered with hail, trees were down and roofs were off houses.

 Garry and all the students were out in the field or barn, so it was me and the fruit in the house. The cats both moved out for the summer, Needles occasionally comes in to eat, mostly when Alona captures him and carries him in in triumph. Box is warier, or just faster. She will come up to me in the yard, but mostly hides out.

The power blinked off and on early in the storm and then went off for a couple hours as the storm was nearing its conclusion, around the time Garry and Leila arrived home in the van from the wheat field.
Soon it was just dripping out and then over, leaving puddles everywhere.

Vika, who was today's student who worked through lunch (different girl everyday) couldn't figure out why the lights and shower wasn't working, she had attempted to use the bathroom when she returned after three pm; so she ate lunch in her bathrobe, after I warmed it up some in a frying pan on the still hot burner (electric stove) under the canner pot. Normally I take the plate of food out of the fridge and stick it in the microwave while they are showering.

Garry got some lights back on by powering up the generator, then took off when he remembered he was supposed to breed someone's cow - that happens a couple times a day normally- the cow breeding- he only sometimes forgets or is later than he told them when they called his phone.

 His cell even rang while he was in Canada with unknown numbers, which is usually someone speaking in Russian with a cow to breed, trying to tell him where they live. Often he is driving into a village, thinking he is going to one place and they wave him down as he passes a different house. That happened Sunday afternoon on our way home from grocery shopping with John.

Everyone starts the conversation of where they are with -you were here- last year- last spring- the place with the big dog- or rabbits or some other thing that they think is unique, but to Garry none of these help him figure out which of the many places he's been is their place and their cow. 

By the time Yana stopped in with eggs and to say that Sasha Boderenko should return the baby hedgehog to its mother by the barn, she let us know the power was back on, it took Garry a little while to get us back on the grid, the plug had melted on the generator and he had to get it out before switching back..

Right, he showed up with it after lunch for a photo op and I had put it in an empty paint/cherry bucket in the kitchen because I swear he wanted to give it to the dog when I said it should go back to its mama. Many things get lost in my lack of Russian though, because I also though he said he could it the evening. 



 At the time, we had a couple of the guys in the house, eating bread and jam while I stitched a gather into some too big swim shorts I brought back that are destined to be shorts for Vasa M now. He kept trying them on in the middle of the living room, with no worries about stripping down to his boxer briefs in front of the girls.

So out went the guys, all three that were hanging out. Garry was still trying to get the internet back up so he could work on his SEI lessons- this year we are both teaching- however he and Leila walked to the store to get me more sugar for the four batches of jam I was making.

 I had chopped apricots by hand during the power outage. Leila and Valentina had jumped in to help so even the not as ripe ones I planned to wait on were de-pitted and chopped. The eight or ten greener ones I'd pulled out before the girls helped me were eaten by Alona and the guys when they came in. Vika and Valentina had spent some more time trying to teach me the word for pit in Russian and Ukrainian. I keep forgetting it, it's the same as cherry pit, because Vika had tried when we were pitting those on Tuesday. The vowel sound changes to an i from an ah for Ukrainian, now if I could get the rest of it and remember it. Vika loves to learn new English words, which is how I tried to say ... I forget it again! Koas-stitch-ka...Kist-stitch-ka?

Soon Garry was back asking about shoes for Vlad while I was stirring the first batch of jam over the hot stove. Eventually, he went to find them and after the first batch was in the jars, Sasha Boderenko was back, he had five kilos of sugar for me from the far store, the closer one was closed when Garry and Leila got there.

Eventually my jam was done, with only a small splatter burn on my pinkie, Leila washed the floor for the third time today, the dishwasher was loaded for the fourth time- a record I think.  Some of the girls and Garry had pie after I would not let Leila finish eating Alona's soup... but that's a story for another day. The concept of  preventing catching something from someone else is hard to enforce.

Everyone went to bed on time, I think, although Valentina swept the floor after everyone but me went to their rooms.  Vika put Needles back outside, he'd fallen asleep after Alona carried him in and everyone knows he yowls to go out when he wakes up in the middle of the night.

 It's three am here, and I should be over jet lag! Back to bed as soon as I edit and upload some pics of the hedge hog for you.


Monday, June 25, 2018

Crops

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The sunflowers look pretty good even though we have not had any real rain this spring since planting.

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, plant, outdoor and natureThe corn is getting irrigated... at least most of it... the larger field is having problems getting enough pressure to water all of it effectively. They think they will buy a pump for next year. However, it still looks better than if there was no irrigation. Saturday we got a minimal amount of rain, the thunderstorms kept going around us, so that every sunflower plant had a damp circle around them Sunday morning they were sucking dry rapidly.

Garry is still smiling about his cornfields, since they are coming out in tassel and setting cobs.

 If you are wondering about the logistics of water management, two of the guys are getting paid double wages for staying in the fields overnight and taking care of the watering and guarding the equipment. They each have a little red shed to stay in and a dog to alert them to intruders.







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Image may contain: sky, cloud, nature and outdoorOn Friday and Saturday Garry and the guys started baling second cut hay and there was more than they thought, when they finish today there should be about 2000 bales of lovely green hay.

Garry wants to get finished quick because the wheat is about ready to combine. Some fields along the highway were combined already when we drove to Zaporosia on the finished highway Sunday evening for groceries (repaving and the resulting dangerous traffic all on one side of the four lane highway continues toward Dnepro however).


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Garry's brother John was here for the weekend before flying back home to the US tomorrow morning. Garry needs to get him to the train for five pm today. He brought some beans bags and plans for a corn-hole game. He and Garry built the targets out of leftover wood yesterday after church and lunch.
They gave it a try with Artom, who stopped in looking for an air compressor, I think.
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Right now they are off with Victor to try to get Alona out of baby hospital jail (the baby is not due until September) and the hospital has
 been "running tests" for a week now. Hopefully she gets back to the village before her wedding to Nikolai happens in two weeks, when the paperwork is ready. 

Yes I am here in Ukraine!

I arrived Monday afternoon in Kiev, after a few flights with some bumpy portions.  Garry picked me up at the airport along with 3 other people who were flying in for the EFCCM Europe Area Missionary conference- none of which we had met before. We found the young ladies who were the volunteer child minders for the conference, and finally we spotted a guy carrying a guitar and he looked when we said "Steve!"
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We had a great time there with good treats, eats and conversations with friends, some of which we have not seen since the last conference in Hungary two years ago. Garry took some of the Canadians into Kiev for a bit of a tour one afternoon during free time and bought a policeman's hat at the market. He's talked about getting one for years, they changed the design of the traffic cop hat two years ago, which is why they had one for sale, I think.



Image may contain: one or more people, people standing and outdoorFriday morning we met up with Garry's brother John, who was in the city with his step-kids and he came back to the village with us for a few days (they went to visit their Ukrainian dad). We had a flat tire along the way... there are still a number of holes in some parts of the roads between here and Kiev, it was a rather bumpy ride at times.

 The students were quite excited to see me- I received many hugs and Garry got right on getting the second cut hay baled Friday and Saturday. I'll try to get some crop photos up soon.

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Catching up...

In exactly one week I will be on my way to the airport... really this time. I have a full day (church in Steinbach and a trip to Morden) and full week planned. There may be time for a few additional things, but as always I will be busy.
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Image may contain: Викулик Гонтар, hat, selfie, outdoor and closeupGarry is also keeping busy, today he is helping with the pre-testing for Summer English Institute, and took some of the students to church in Dnepro. 

Yesterday he and the rest of the staff went on an excursion to Zaporosia with the students and went swimming in the Dniper River. Garry said the water was cold.
I have a few photos thanks to the students posting on facebook. It looks like they may have even taken a boat ride.
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Garry will have a few days away this week for our small group retreat by the sea, he is thinking the water will be cold for swimming after going in the river yesterday.

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Crop report

Garry took some photos while he was looking at his fields and posted them on facebook over the weekend so I can write up a crop report. Today he was hoping to finish getting the irrigation pipes connected, they were waiting for another shipment of parts so they could finish. The students and staff were rewarded for all the hard work on Thursday with a trip to the movies to see the Solo movie. Garry said he actually fell asleep during the movie, since it was late and it was in Ukrainian and he couldn't follow the plot.

Garry says the corn is already up to his knees.
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The field that was irrigated last year is almost twice as big as last year, we were able to rent the next field over, and the new corn field across the pond is almost three times as big as what we had last year. They have gotten some water on parts of the fields already.  Of course, we will need that much more water for the additional acreage, and there is a new company controlling the water, and a new tax on water, so the bill will be bigger for irrigation this summer. Basically it means that every inch of rain will save us lots of money, but irrigation will save the corn crop when it turns hot and dry.

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As you can see the winter wheat is starting to turn (change color) and he wrote that it is waist high. The sunflower fields also are looking good, although the rain promised for Sunday only amounted to a few drops.
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The second cut alfalfa has not grown very big because of the dry weather, but Garry says it won't be long and they will be making hay again. This week he needs to repair his straw/ hay shed as the posts are twisted at the back where the guys stacked the hay bales against it. They will have to move the bales and reinforce it before putting more bales there. Image may contain: grass, plant, tree, outdoor and nature

Friday, June 1, 2018

Irrigation

Apparently, there was a delay in getting the lay-flat hose delivered so Garry has been working on cleaning up the outside cattle barnyard for the last couple days with the skid steer. You might remember that last fall they built a shed for the dry cows to go under so they could stay out there during the colder, and/or wetter weather.

However, the lack of a cement pad near the feed bunk meant that the cows got very mucky when it was wet and not freezing, so they ended up mostly in the barn. Garry is trying to get it cleaned up so they can pour some cement out there to make it more useful in any weather.
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However the roll of hose was delivered last night (Wednesday) so today it was back to work attaching the plastic lines that were put in the ground a couple weeks ago to the the lay-flat so the irrigation of the new field can start. Garry shared a nice photo of the work crew having lunch in the field.

He also shared a photo of the corn, I believe that this is the field where they already have started watering the plants. They turn on the water at night when the water pressure is higher so the drip irrigation lines work better.
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Meanwhile, here in Canada, Max has gotten his application to renew his study visa sent off electronically. He still has a couple years to finish his bachelors' degree, but the three year visa is finished this summer. Max studied English for a year and a half before starting his university college courses. He won an award this spring at Providence, but being Max he skipped the banquet to work on writing papers for class.

He is back working at the farm in Manitoba for the summer, and excited about my longer stay, as he lives here in the house, and that means I am often cooking dinner for him and the other boys. Max was a guest at the wedding- we keep telling him he is family, but it's hard to get him to act like it. We got a nice photo of Max with Garry's dad, who was 87 yesterday.

So far, I have been busy babysitting different grand kids since I extended my stay.