Thursday afternoon Garry bricked the septic system, and the guys were working on finishing drywall, among other things.
We had found out that Jack's young English student friend Glab and his dad would be driving back to Kramatorsk on Saturday and would leave after breakfast. Pastor Yura from the same city would be coming on Friday evening with 8 people from his church. Garry was planning to have them build some picket fences for the Crawford's yard and Yana. They would be staying overnight.
Or so we thought. However, we had a lovely dinner over at the Crawford's house and thought we were ready for our guests. There was a thunderstorm during dinner and Garry wondered if it would be too wet to pour cement. We had assumed Yura was bringing guys, and planned to put 3 or 4 on the couches at the Crawfords, up to five at the old girls house with Max's mother, and if needed we had a couch that pulled out. Garry and Jeremy drove to Nova Lenya for tile and other stuff.
When Victor arrived around ten pm we discovered that it was Yura and eight women, so he went on our couch, three ladies to the Crawfords and five at the other end of the village. Garry said he'd pick them up at seven for breakfast at our house.
We were up early, Leila was crying at 5:20 and Garry got up to find out why. Everyone in the house heard her. She had slept in (she never does) and was very upset. Garry drove over to the barn with her so she wouldn't run all the way. He brought back some milk for me.
We had oatmeal, eggs, toast, juice coffee and tea for breakfast for 23... two of us, Nelly, the Crawfords, four guys on the team, the father and son who came Wednesday afternoon, Yura, eight ladies and our three girls...23!
Then Jack and crew were off to the house, Garry to the barn to get the forms ready, and me to the kitchen to make food for lunchtime for about 35.
I wondered if he still planned to have the Kramatorsk church people build a fence, and they did, in the shop. Nelly helped them find some clothes in the storage room they could work in. A few wandered back to the house after a couple of hours, because they were cold. It was cold, too, snow flurries and windy.
Shannon was heating up plovf (rice dish) leftover from the night before to go with my Oliviah salad (potato plus everything) gretshka (buckwheat), giant meatballs and fried shredded cabbage and carrots. Unfortunately everyone did not get to eat at noon as planned.
We ended up putting the food in the classroom to eat. The five ladies who had stuck it out in the shop building wanted to wait until all the guys had eaten, but we had Nelly explain that they would be a long time even if everything went well. The cement truck had arrived right at twelve. Jack and his crew walked over from Yana's house, so those people all ate.
Of course it did not. They were nailing supports to the forms because they were bowing. Even Garry's septic system cover pour went wrong. Shannon waited for them to come while I headed home to start dinner.
Around this time I was talking to Victor and found out that the Kramatorsk folks were staying two nights. Since we were planning on a student meeting around seven o'clock, I went with chicken noodle soup. The three ladies who stayed here had tea, bread and honey with Nelly while I was waiting with Shannon at the classroom.
Shannon said the cement crew (including Scott and Yura) ate around three o'clock when her and Scott carried the leftovers in the house. Garry said that the walls held, even though they are a little fat in places.
We had soup after the guys stopped working, and a short student meeting with a couple songs and a short talk by Jack. The Kramatorsk folks were there too. Then we went home, Garry got a shower and went to bed while Jack, Jeremy and I hung out with the Kramatorsk folks for a while. They had me call Scott and Shannon and they and Mick came over because Yura and friends had brought gifts for us and cake because it was one lady's birthday Friday.
Eventually everyone was where they belonged to sleep and Yura got promoted to the now empty bedroom (remember Gleb and his dad drove home that morning) to escape from the cheeping chicks in the living room.
Sunday morning I made pancakes (I make them every Sunday for Garry and the girls) using today - a dozen eggs, 16 cups of flour and milk, some oil, sugar and baking powder and soda. Lots of peach and cherry jam to spread, coffee, juice and green tea. 19 people sitting down to eat (Valentina was in Dnepro, and Nelly missed breakfast) with a little smoke in the air from the butter on the hot pans. I cooked pancakes for an hour and a half and kept them hot in the oven. We even had some leftover pancakes.
One of the ladies decided I needed slippers on my bare feet and brought me a lovely pair of knitted ones, so I put them on before they left.
The Crawfords took the Kramatorsk people in the van to Dnepro while we went to church in the village.
The guys did a little work on the ceiling in the afternoon and dinner was a much smaller group to feed, just ten of us (plus saving a plateful for Leila, who was out.)
Then Jeremy and Garry were off on their almost nightly drive to Zaporosia for supplies.
When Garry got home he said he was going to get the kitchen floor tiled at Yana's. I brought him coffee around 10:45. He came home around 12:30. Almost finished. He said he had to move his saw and stuff outside to continue working on the floor but it was too dark to see what he was doing out there. He turned on some lights but that made the roosters crow, which made the neighbors roosters crow, so he'll have to finish tomorrow.
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