Last week ...tonight... or just today, tonight!

I promised Garry that I'd get a blogpost up today (really yesterday here in Ukraine but who's counting.) However, I was foiled by being super busy as usual.  This morning, Tuesday,  is my favorite morning of the week, because all the girls who live with us (actually all the students) go to class with Larissa for three hours. But I have three hours to do anything I want without anyone wanting to help if I'm cleaning something... or looking insulted that I didn't let them do it.


Today the something was the "arch room" which is kind of a hallway made from the old Mennonite chimney/fireplace space in the center of the house. Victor used to use it as the dining space for his bed and breakfast and until about five years ago, our dining table was there, until it seemed too crowded as we added furniture.

Three years ago, a clothes dryer moved in there, joining the bookcases that started lining the walls. I don't use it often, in summertime everything is hung outside to dry, but the girls have overtaken my indoor folding drying rack, so I was drying the load I washed Monday while they were out today, when I remembered I wanted to wash the floor in that space. The girls wash the kitchen floor, and the hallway from the outside door, past the bathroom at least once a day, but the arch room gets less attention.  It was my chance to wash without someone taking over for me, so I moved everything,  including the dryer while it was running (dryers here don't vent outside, instead you dump a container that water condenses in). I got a little voltage tingle from standing on the wet vinyl floor when I pushed it back while it was running.

The reason I wanted to clean under the dryer was I had run a load last Tuesday morning for our visitors before they left and as the dryer and the floor under it heated up I was smelling urine.  I figured it was something the puppy had left behind in the winter months.  It gave me a good reason to start some spring cleaning before Jack arrives next month with a building team.

Speaking of Garry's little pal, Happy,  she continues to get into trouble by chewing on things.

My chair at the kitchen table looks like we have a pet beaver, and some helpful person (assuming one of the girls) locked the dog in the guest bedroom sometime tonight and when I found her at 11:30 while locking the outside door she had pulled the tent from under the bed, chewed on it, chewed a hole in the good blanket... I need to get him to talk to them about her not being in there, it's the room where I have been putting things so she doesn't destroy them.

All winter the girls were keeping their barn boots in the bathroom because she would chew on the tops of them if they were by the door. They are all in the entrance Garry built now, since we finally got the outer door unlocked, so barn coats and boots go out there. It's a little cold with temps dipping below freezing right now, but spring is around the corner!

So by the time the girls got back from class, the arch room was looking good, my clothes were dry and dinner was ready. Garry had to drive out to the field to talk to Artom (as I was putting the food on table), who started harrowing to level the field they hope to plant in alfalfa this week (don't know if he finished before the drizzle got heavier.  By evening it had changed to snow flurries that were making the yard kind of white. ) Max had gone to buy the alfalfa seed, and Artom was concerned that even though the top was thawed, there was some frozen ground under he was hitting with the harrows.

Garry had been outdoors working on repairs to our picket fence, after trying to get the bathroom sink to drain better. One of the added bonuses to being group home parents is our one bathroom gets overused with us and four long hot shower loving twentysomething young ladies!

Unfortunately as Garry continued looking for the problem (turned that there were several blockages slowing down the water) one part broke, and when the girls came in I forgot I needed to tell them not to use the sink, so after lunch I had to use my mop inside the bathroom cabinet before Garry fixed it, since the sink was not connected to the drainpipe at the time. His first try, a old drain part from the old milkhouse was the wrong size, but he did find the exact one he needed in an unopened package in the cheese room, so it was fixed after lunch.

I just realized that I  am never going to get to telling you about our visitors or trip to Kiev or the sauna last week, so I'll try to write about it tomorrow!

 Garry and I went bowling this afternoon (it used to be our game until he had his ankle operation two years ago. Our excuse was he plans to take the students tomorrow morning for an outing and Nelly couldn't get them on the phone to make a reservation.  I think we'll try to go more often,  I mean the two of us, because we can still bowl. Garry had some good games, and I made a big comeback in one, finishing with three strikes to beat him 158 to 154.

 On the way into Zaporosia as the light rain was falling, we stopped to take pictures as were going around the traffic circle, because we saw a huge flock (or murder) of crows. They seem to gang up in the early spring.

Farm shows, English groups, and Spring

It's not quite spring yet in Ukraine,  but we are getting ready.  This week we had temperatures above freezing during the day but below freezing at night. Max has been missing out on sleeping at night.  One night he started plowing the piece of land we were able to rent that was not plowed in the fall. Garry tells me that it is one third to half done. However they switched up and Max spread fertilizer on the wheat fields before we have no more freezing nights, as the forecast is calling for warmer weather,  which means mud, and they'd have to wait for it to dry out to get the fertilizer on the winter wheat.

This week the guys unloaded a delivery of irrigation pipes, about a kilometer I'm told. We got more fertilizer,  too. Garry and Max are helping out some of the small farmers by buying some fertilizer for them, if they have money to buy it, while getting our fertilizer.

On Tuesday morning Garry and I were at the classroom early because the Crawfords wanted to take photos of all the students to print and frame them to give them for Valentine's day on Thursday.  Afterwards Garry and I went to Zaporosia for opening day of the small farm show there.

Garry and Andrey

We think they sell herbicides 

Max and Garry 

We met Max Rudei and his brother Andrey there. Andrey used to live at our house a few years ago, but he's been working on ships as a welder recently.  His last trip they had a storm with big waves and the whole crew was scared they'd sink. When they got back to port they didn't get paid,  so he's not sure he wants to go back!

The announcer lady

We checked out some booths and I took photos to make an exercise for the students (the six regular,  not grad students) to do a scavenger type hunt on Wednesday when they visited the show,  and Garry and Max met with a representative from a feed company about buying calf feed.

Garry and I went out for lunch afterwards, an early Valentine's dinner, we even ordered steak at Melrose,  an "American style" restaurant chain. They have one in Zaporosia,  and several restaurants in Dnepro.

Close up of a tire

Wednesday morning Garry, Nellie and Scott and Shannon went to the farm show with the six students and they really enjoyed the activity of figuring out what the close up photos were of. They all had the answers at the end and Garry bought them all lunch at the vendor outside the exposition as promised for completing it.  Meanwhile,  I enjoyed a relaxing morning at home and made the three girls at home soup for lunch.  The new girl,  Inna, was on the field trip.

Wednesday evening Garry and I were off to Kamyanske (former Dniprapajisk) for our first meeting there in 2019. There are people who take the train for an hour from that city to Dnepro for Summer English institute. We will to be going there once a month now, the teachers there get a big group out and we all enjoy tea, cookies and candies while we talk.

Thursday morning I was getting ready for cooking class and Garry was off to another village to breed a cow. The Crawfords came over to set up to give the students their Valentine's day gift photos, along with heart shaped cookies Shannon made. The students were really excited to receive the photos.

We were in the middle of making two kinds of cupcakes,  chocolate with pink frosting,  and walnut honey ones when Garry came in with a dozen long stemmed red roses (like four feet tall) for me. Everyone admired them.

We had a staff meeting with two possible translators, with both Nellie and Victor able to make it there (last week we had to cancel when neither was able to attend.) There were leftover cupcakes, Shannon brought cookies,  and Victor brought cherry and apricot buns, so there was plenty  to eat with our tea. Scott did the devotional, everyone was updated on problems,  and we prayed together.
Thursday evening Scott drove us to Zaporosia for our small group meeting, which was encouraging for all of us.

Friday night we were back in Dnepro for our 40 days of Purpose English "book club", a smaller group than we've had some weeks but we had a lively discussion about ways of worshipping.  We will read chapter 14 next week.

Driving around

We have put some miles (or kilometers) on the car in the two/three? weeks we've had it. It seems like its using 7 liters of gasoline versus 12 liters of diesel to drive the big van. So we are saving some money on our trips to Dnepro and Zaporosia. In Ukraine diesel and gasoline are about the same price per liter.

One day while driving to Zaporosia we saw a truck and we had to get a photo for our Steinbach Manitoba friends.

The van is for driving bigger groups of people or if what we are transporting doesn't fit in the car, like on Wednesday last week when we drove into Dnepro in the evening to pick up the milk jugs so Max could sell milk on Victor's route on Thursday.

Garry also drove the van one Tuesday after the village school asked on Monday if he could drive some students and teachers to a program in Zaporosia.  It turned out to be a dance competition.  He said some small girls were belly dancing and some older kids performed hip hop. The most interesting part of his morning was how they found the school.  The teachers were unsure of the address of the school it was at, so they had him drive across the city and follow a certain martshutka (van) around on its route, which actually led him back to the correct school building near where they came into the city!

Friday night we drove the car to Dnepro for our English group study, and a few errands. On the way home around 9:30 pm we got stopped at the police block post because one of our headlights was not working.  We had been told that if you tapped it, it would come back on, and it did. In Ukraine you get five minutes to fix it before they write a ticket.

We were trying to hurry home because Nellie had called around 8:30 to say we had surprise visitors,  the two guys who went on walkabout in the fall had showed up to collect Sasha's ID he'd left without.  They were sitting at the table with Nellie and our girls when we got home. We rapidly found the stuff they came for and they walked off at ten pm into the night to find a way into Zaporosia. They said they had train tickets for the morning, back towards  Kiev where they had found work.

Instead of relying on that grace to get the headlight working, since we stayed home all weekend, Garry and Max tore it apart and fixed it. Well the car was home all weekend except when Garry went and bred cows in nearby villages.  Or when he drove over to the farm.

Last week Garry was teaching the students a new milking protocol that includes pre and post milking teat dipping with a disinfectant.

We are in the middle of a calving streak, Saturday morning he got a call to help deliver a calf at 5:30 am and there were three born in about an hour. We don't remember having three born in one day in Ukraine,  so a record breaking day.  All three fresh heifers (first time they gave birth) calved safely with two heifer (female) calves and one bull calf. He sold quickly when someone arrived that day to buy one born earlier last week, they bought both bulls.  It seems they sell better this time of year.  Yana says it's because once they are finished drinking milk the grass is growing. We keep all the heifer or female calves so they can grow into milk cows in about two years.

We walked to church Sunday morning,  temperatures were around freezing but all the snow has melted now. Nellie was back on Friday morning so we had translation again. Last Sunday we sang the hymns and followed along with the Bible verses, but the sermons in the village are in Ukrainian,  so our limited Russian doesn't help much.

It was the birthday of one of the ladies that attends the village church. Sunday afternoon she had a bunch of the students at her house for some cookies and candies after they were at the youth group at the other end of the village.  They all call her Tanta (aunt) Valya.

Next Sunday we'll go for our once a month visit to Morningstar church in Dnepro and hear Scott Crawford's first sermon there.  He will have someone who will translate it into Russian for the rest of the congregation.



There were two more calves born today, one calf in the morning and another this evening before milking.

This afternoon we drove Inna, the newest member of our household into Zaporosia to the dentist,  she had a bad tooth pulled and she'll need a few more visits to fix the rest. We had to buy antibiotic and pain pills for her on the way home.

We saw this firetruck driving down the highway on the way into the city and when I saw it again on the way out of the city, I took some photos.  I assume that it's not the newest one they have.

I don't know

Ya nizniyou... I say that a lot since I returned to Ukraine. I don't know. Often because I just didn't understand the question, sometimes because the question is where is Garry and I really don't know.

 I have been working on trying to improve my Russian with Duolingo, one of the ways the Crawfords are learning Russian. I can do it on my phone, it even sends daily reminders to do it by email. Some days I still don't get it done, however, I've learned a few new words, and now Garry has started using it also (he's already ahead of me). It combines translating from English to Russian, or Russian to English, with speaking (repeat the phrase, that's not quite right, three tries and the message changes to OK, we'll try that later) Sometimes I get it right or some of the words right, different words right on each try, even things I thought I could say the computer says no, that's not quite right!

Yesterday for cooking class I got Kolya to write the ingredients in Russian on the board so the other students could copy the recipe. This morning Nellie came back after a month away,  so next Thursday I will have a translator. We made vereniki (pierogies)four types, some filled with cottage cheese, two different types, salty and sweet ones, plus potato and cabbage vereniki. The kitchen was crowed, but every one helped make and eat vereniki.

The rest of the week

Its Saturday morning in the village.  It just got quiet in the house at quarter to ten. I should be getting over jetlag as its been ten days, but no one has told my brain that. I just can't get to sleep at night until at least one or two am.

Thursday night it was more like five am when I got to sleep, and Garry's sleep was disturbed,  but not by me. His phone rang at midnight, then again at three am, twice, because he woke up enough to answer it and discover it was a robocall in Ukrainian,  so they phoned back! He decided to turn off his phone.  At four am I was finally starting to fall asleep when someone knocked on our bedroom window.  It was Yana, a cow was having a difficult birth, and she couldn't get Garry on the phone so she had biked over from the barn in the dark. She had tried to deliver it with the help of Dima, who was the night guard at the barn and had telephoned her.

Garry went to to barn and came back a half hour later. The calf had been coming out with a foot back. The head and one leg were out when he got there. Cows are born feet first, followed by the head, unless its breech when you have two back legs (but make sure those are back legs and the head isn't hiding, because that's a problem too). In this case, the calf was stuck because the second leg was not out. Garry had to push the calf back in, working against the cow, who was pushing hard to deliver the calf. By the time he had pushed the calf back in the uterus and reached around and found and got the second foot coming out with its mate, and they pulled the calf out, he was wet, dirty and exhausted (mostly because he is still recovering after being sick) but excited to tell me that they had a big live bull calf.

He jumped in the shower to clean up and put all his clothes in the washer at 4:30, while Leila,  who was milking that morning muttered in the hallway that she was going to be late for the five am shift. One of the most challenging things about living with four girls is we only have one bathroom in this house (our dedicated group homes have two or three, with one for the family to use) and sometimes you really need to get in there when its being used.

Garry came back to bed, and we both went to sleep.  I don't know when he got up, I slept on and off until I got up to cook the noon meal around eleven. I was awake a lot of the time because it was Friday morning and that's payday for the students. Garry was in and out of the bedroom and at one point Sasha came in the house when no one answered the door looking for Garry and I woke up to talk in Russian about where Garry was.

I thought he was at the guys house, working on the shower but I was wrong. They did finish tiling that one this week, I think Garry is grouting it right now. That house has three bathrooms but they should be able to use the new shower next week. Max and Garry will finish the one at the "new" house (2015) now. Max was installing the cement board yesterday.

Thursday morning I did not sleep in because it was cooking class day, and we were making hamburgers with yeast rolls and French fries.  Vlad and Valera were there, having arrived back in the village the day before. We are not sure if they will be staying  this time. They kept telling me that we should be having Pepsi with it like McDonald's.  I was still working without a translator,  but we muddled through, with the students guessing what I meant until we agreed. Mostly Kolya and Julia doing the helping and translating, and Valentina and Leila (who was cleaning up). Everyone, including Artom and young Vlad, the tractor drivers, who wandered in to see the guys, got a hamburger and a few fries to eat, with pickles on the side. I was told even baby Daniel had eaten, but I did not see that, or get any photos.

Hopefully Nellie will arrive back this weekend as planned (she did not make it earlier in the week) since Garry plans to teach Monday.

Garry was very excited Wednesday evening when Alona,  Nikolai and the baby came over that he was able to hold him without Daniel crying. Garry held him all the time before going home for Christmas but when he returned Daniel would scream every time. It turns out the wifi was not working at their house, we had visitors every evening it seemed, Julia and Dima were over a lot, Dima helped with the new cow puzzle they put together. The students finished it while we were off buying semen (see previous post).