Back to normal

Back into our normal routine, anyway. Garry has conquered jet lag and I'm getting closer to a normal sleep. We have been working like crazy on the the house next door.












The Crawfords were supposed to arrive this week, but have been delayed so we will have a couple weeks before they arrive. The house will be ready by then, except for the gas hookup, which may not happen until next summer! We have purchased a couple of electric  heaters for them to use. Hopefully we'll have time to test the jacuzzi tub before they arrive!

Not thrilled that the brown floor paint we though we bought was brick red
in the green bedroom

I finished painting after I took this photo, still the wood floor to paint and the tile for the backsplash, so I'll be too busy to write again until next week.



Garry has been busy getting everything else finished, he has spent a couple days with the students pulling up irrigation tape so the corn field can be plowed. Most of the fields are plowed. The wheat was planted while we were in the states and is already up. The corn was harvested and was 13% moisture (very low, that's good) and did about 200 bushels to the acre. Non-irrigated corn in the area did 60. The vegetable farmer's irrigated corn did better than ours, but we had trouble getting water to the whole big field. They have already bought a pump to solve that for next year and are buying equipment so additional acres can be irrigated next year for corn and alfalfa, paid for by profits from selling corn.

They also got the roofs on the sheds that were built last month.




This morning Garry and the students built pens for small calves during class. There were six born in in the two weeks we were gone and they had been tied outside. Healthy when the weather is nice, but the colder weather has arrived and this morning it rained.

All's well that ends well

At least I hope so. Garry finally arrived home at two in the afternoon on Wednesday. He got to Chicago on Monday and got on the plane for Vienna that afternoon, feeling pretty good. He had gotten an exit row seat on the plane.


Unfortunately there was a mechanical issue and the flight was cancelled. He deplaned and was re-routed though Munich, where he arrived late morning. His connection to Kiev did not come in until after ten pm, so he booked a hotel near the train station Tuesday night and a third train ticket for Wednesday morning (he had bought one for Tuesday evening Sunday afternoon that he couldn't use).

My flights went well and I had two seats on the train Monday night, I put my suitcases in Garry's original seat. Victor picked me up at 11:30 pm and I slept on the couch at his house, since it was so late. I thought I might stay in the city until Garry arrived Tuesday night (it was about the time he was boarding his flight to Vienna at midnight in Dnepro) but when I woke up I discovered his flight had been cancelled and I thought he might still be in Chicago, so Victor drove me out to the village after I got some groceries. The students were happy to see me and asked when Garry would arrive.

We also had to quick plan Leila's birthday party for Wednesday. Leila is one of the girls that live in our house, and she wanted to invite all the students for dinner today. Which we pulled off, with Victor picking up more groceries for me before getting Garry from the train station.

I did cooking class this morning at nine am ( I called Garry to make sure he had made his seven am train) and I cheated a bit, we made pudding to fill the cake roll Leila asked for and fruit cup or fruit salad as everyone else called it, for the party.

At eleven am class was over and I was working on lunch and boiling eggs for the oliviya salad (think potato salad with meat and peas and carrots to boot). After we ate lunch, Victor and Garry arrived after two. Garry carried in and unpacked his suitcases.

Garry went all over the farm and fields checking out everything they had gotten done while he was gone. The wheat is planted and most of it is up and the corn was combined starting Monday. It yielded about four times as much as the nearby farmer without irrigation I think he said.

 Meanwhile, Nelly and Leila and later more of the girls helped me prepare the party food. We made the salads. Leila did the tomato, cucumber and onion one herself, we did the oliviya, the girls peeled potatoes to mash, chicken legs went in the oven. Nelly and the girls prepared four kinds of open-faced sandwiches that Leila had asked for (she had planned the menu with Nelly)- liver pate, cheese and kolbassa, cheese and garlic and anchovy or some kind of little fishes.

The birthday party went off before six pm (we were trying for five) and was a success. Afterwards Leila cleaned up (have I mentioned how much she likes to clean up?) The cake roll was messy looking (and to cut)  but tasty.



























About eight pm Garry and I were thinking about sleep when we realized he did not have his briefcase with his computer and passport in. I messaged Victor, thinking he'd left it in his car. Unfortunately Garry was half-asleep when he got off and somehow left it on the train. He said he slept most of the trip and did not get his computer out. Victor called later and said it was on the train still and thankfully he was going to pick it up in the middle of the night.

Garry also lost his headphones on this trip, he thinks he left them on the plane in Chicago, but if he's still got his passport I'm happy. He's been wanting better ones anyway.

Well it's after one am here and I haven't slept (Garry went to sleep as soon as he heard the briefcase is on the train still) so off to fight with jet lag... Good night

update- Victor brought the bag this morning and everything was still in it, passports, computer and even two hundred dollars!
Garry woke up for the day around three am, shortly before I finally got to sleep...

Flying back

Garry's project was dedicated on Friday and he helped finish off a few details before going shopping for skid steer parts yesterday. He is still there in Mississippi with his older sister, and his dad who will drop him at the airport on Monday morning. I will be flying out today, Garry tomorrow, we'll be back in the village for Leila's birthday on Wednesday, and we need to throw a party.

Now that our trips are over it will be time to get back to work. We need to finish off the house for the Crawfords before they arrive and it looks like the sheds they built this fall still need the metal on the roof.

A few more pictures

Week two crew- Garry and our sons are in the back row

Garry tells me they should finish the build today. Our sons will start the twenty hour drive home. He may just go to Jackson MS and sleep until his flight on Monday, he says.

Cousins who once lit matches in my bedroom

Working hard on "vacation"

week one crew

As you read in my last post Garry is spending two weeks helping his family build a group home in memory of his mother in Mississippi. He has been working so hard his shoulder that is so sore he can't sleep he tells me. On Saturday our two oldest sons  joined him there.


I have gotten some photos of him last week, he is hoping they will finish the project on Friday. Sunday we both head back toward Kiev (or Kyiv, which is the new English spelling) where we meet up Monday afternoon to take the train to Dnepro.

I have been hanging out with my dad, watching baseball and tiling his shower/bathtub, which took longer than the two or three days I'd planned but I am putting it back together today. 

I was here for his 81st birthday, which was our son Micah's 33rd birthday and this was the first time they have ever spent their birthdays together since Micah was born on my father's birthday while we were living in New York State. Micah and Crystal and Andromeda were here for a few days at the beginning of my visit.




Just discovered Garry accidentally made his flight leaving on Monday instead of arriving so I'll be taking the train by myself on Monday. Opps, never noticed or I'd have stayed another day.