Easter and planting is done!

Sorry I didn't write in a week, between

 computer and phone problems to solve and the busy Easter long weekend,  I just didn't get it done.

Thursday the students and Nelly and I made Easter paska bread for cooking class, and decorated boiled eggs.  I had to hunt for a recipe that only took two and a half hours instead of six. They were a bit disappointed not to eat them as usual,  but I said we'd save them for the Easter picnic.

The guys finished planting corn Friday or maybe Saturday morning. They had to get a couple more bags of sunflower seed to finish the last acres because they had run out.

Friday evening we had our last meeting for our SEI follow up group so Garry and I drove into Dnepro.

We had a couple former students out for the holiday weekend, Andrey, who is working in Dnepro,  is often out for weekends, and Losha, not the artist one, but the other Losha from three years ago, he's attending an agronomist course at a trade school, it's the first time he's visited but he often calls Victor to talk on the phone.

They were in on some work and fun activities with the students.  Andrey helped bale straw with Max and some of the guys Saturday.  If you're thinking, wait, how could they bale straw in April? While they were planting sunflowers last week, they discovered that the field next to them had never been baled last summer or worked up, and we are running out of straw bales (and hay, hoping to bale some next week) so they baled almost three wagons of straw. Max said the baler worked great, Garry had been trying to get it ready to use on Friday,  the last thing they baled in the fall was plastic water line tubes, and he said they were stuck everywhere in the machine.

Saturday morning I drove into Dnepro to get groceries for the big picnic planned for Sunday afternoon.  Then with Leila's help I made a lot of salads and put them in the fridge.

Sunday morning I made hot cross buns after Garry got a 5:30 am call from Yana for a cow that was calving.  Then I made pancakes for breakfast while my buns were rising again.  The buns were done in time to take half to church in the village at ten.  The rest went in the picnic bins, except for the warm one Garry ate.

Alona and baby Danil were already in church when we got there, our visiting guys and the three girls from our house attended with us and Nelly.  The Crawfords left to go to Dnepro at 6:30 because Scott was speaking at the early riverside service at 7:30.

After the service,  which had lots of singing and Bible reading, and me holding the baby, we were told to stay for tea, with lots of stuff to eat. Meats, cheese, blini, paska bread, candies, colored boiled eggs, and my hot cross buns,  which got me a thumbs up from Pastor Ivan.

By two Garry went down to the pond to start the fire and set stuff up with a couple of the guys.  By three everyone was heading there with all the food.

The first shaslik meat went on the fire while some students played volleyball in a circle and with the cornhole game. When the first batch was done,  more meat went on to cook and we prayed and everyone loaded the thin plastic plates with salad and just two pieces of meat- mostly Turkey breast- and started eating. Later there was so much shaslik to eat we had leftover pork. The girls are still eating leftover salad.

Sasha got his jeans wet getting the volleyball out of the pond when it rolled in. Then he nearly set them on fire trying to dry them.

Everyone got a little wet when a rain shower came over just as Scott was speaking, giving his personal testimony (with Nelly translating) to the students.  They were really quiet and listening,  even had questions.

The frogs were not quiet in the pond, however!

Sunday night Garry and I were tired and went to bed early, I was so tired, I was asleep already when Garry's phone rang. He stumbled over to where it was plugged in, and answered it. It was his dad, calling from Ontario at two in the afternoon.  Garry thought it must be four am and told him that,  then  I told him it was actually nine PM! They had a pretty good chat anyway, once Garry woke up, and then Garry went right  back to sleep, leaving his phone beside the bed.

Monday morning Garry had canceled classes,  since Steve was coming to talk and play games with the students at four PM.

Garry thgot a bunch of the students working on finishing the trusses at eight am with the promise that he would take them to see the Avengers movie when they were done.
 I went with him to Zaporosia to pick up some more plywood.  We got all six sheets on the floor by the checkout when the cart upset. Luckily we didn't break anything. On the way home Garry mentioned that his phone wouldn't charge, so I googled it, and the fix worked when I tried it in the afternoon.
They got all but two trusses done by three, and so they finished this (Tuesday) afternoon and are off to the movies in Dnepro now.

Every one had a good time with Steve and Jo and the students stayed playing pingpong and eating the Easter goody bags I had made up for them.



Meanwhile, we, with Jessica and the Harders headed to the Crawford house for our first annual small group Easter potluck dinner. It was a good time, Steve, Jo and the kids had brought their crokinoe gameboard.

Visitors and photos

Before 

After

Yesterday I was continuing my spring flower bed cleaning outside when a marstustka stopped.  It was Max Fetisov from Kirvoy Rog and some American and Ukrainian visitors. 

I took them on a field tour looking for Garry but it turned out he was at the shop. Garry had told me he'd be planting sunflowers at lunchtime. 

We finished up with a tour of the barn where afternoon milking was still happening. They got to see some of our guys they know.

Newest student Sergey in orange

Kolya Mazhara was over at the barn for milking and Max asked him how different guys they'd sent were doing and Kolya asked Max to send better workers.

Around the time we were getting ready to go find Garry a van pulled up and the driver asked me for stow-sorik-tree (143 - numbers I know) and I pointed over at the Crawfords house, and then fetched Nelly to translate. Turned out they were there to hook the house back up to the gas. Last year after the teams were here, the gas company had cut our line so it took almost a year and considerably more money than expected to get the gas hooked back up, but it's happening now. Well they were working on it again today.  Next winter they will be cooking and heating with gas.

Unfortunately the only photo I took had my finger on it.  It was really sunny out. As you can see Max Rudei was talking to the crew and we are getting lots of guys for the money.

I walked home after the tour and took the opportunity to get photos of the heifer barn construction progress.

Weekend

I forgot this photo of Garry checking his sunflower field on Thursday yesterday.

 This afternoon I  spent some time weeding my flower beds where the tulips are blooming.  It's going to take a couple more days to finish the job.

Yesterday Garry bought some tomato plants to  set out in the garden when he went to teach in Dnepro.  He planted them when he got home in the afternoon, and put up his second little tent over them. We watered the pepper plants under the first tent, they have been fine under the little fabric tent this week in spite of the frosty mornings.

It was too muddy to get in the garden earlier in the week, when its wet it just balls up on your feet, and is very slippery to walk around.  It also packs the soil so we stay off it until it gets drier.  It was pretty dry under Garry's cold frame windows in the garden,  but some of the seeds he planted are up. More should be up after getting watered.

Peeking under the tent 

The bees are buzzing around the cherry trees now. Earlier in the week the ground, cars, roofs were spotted with falling apricot petals. 

Wishing you a happy Easter if you are celebrating the resurrection today.  Next weekend we will celebrate Ukrainian Easter with the students,  I'll post some photos. Meanwhile I am enjoying this card that came from Canada last year.

Today we went to church in the village with Nelly, Leila, and our newest student Sergey. Sergey showed up at our house at 7:30 this morning so Garry invited him to stay for pancakes before church with us and Leila. Valentina went to Dnepro Saturday morning with Garry to visit her friends from Central Baptist church, and returned this afternoon. Our other student in our house, Inna,  left on Thursday to celebrate her birthday and spend the weekend with her friends in Kirvoy Rog.

Election and other driving things

Well, the second round of voting for Ukrainian president is tomorrow.  If you are thinking,  what, you mean the election is on Easter Sunday,  Ukraine follows the Orthodox calendar so it's not Easter until next week.  There was a big debate last night between the two candidates left on the ballot,  the current president,  and the television star who plays the president on the show Servant of the People. 

With the election winding down, lots of billboards now have for rent signs on them. I did get a photo of President Poroshenko's new billboard which is supposed to show he'd be tough on Russia. 

We've seen lots of patriotic displays in the years since the war started, it seems everything has been painted yellow and blue,  the colors of the flag.  The sign basically means praise Ukraine. 

We have been watching this high rise that has been going up quickly this year near the river in Dnepro.  We always take the river road to get downtown where Garry teaches, and every week it is more finished.

I forgot to say that Valentina came with us to Zaporosia Thursday around five to buy the compressor.  We stopped off at a sharohmah stand and I took a photo of Garry and Valentina wanting for our dinner on the go.

Afterwards I finally got a photo of my favorite road sign. Every time we drive under it, I say I should get a photo of it, they just put it up last year,  but there's always been all those ways to go! It's self explanatory.  All you Manitoba folks thought Winnipeg has the real confusion corner!

The most common reasons for city traffic problems... disabled car, minor collision waiting  for police investigation or ocassionly a broken traffic light.

We were following this car last Sunday in Dnepro while going past a market.
Wishing you all a blessed Easter tomorrow,  unless you are here in Ukraine, where it's Willow Sunday. He is risen indeed. 

The sun came out

Thursday the sun reappeared and Garry and various helpers went back to making trusses. However the compressor broke Thursday so after the afternoon staff meeting we went to Zaporosia to buy a new one so he could work the air gun to shoot hundreds of nails into each truss. He got another four hours of building in after we got home because our Thursday night small group was canceled. 

Team leaders, Kolya and
 Valentina stirring the pots of spaghetti 

Friday morning he was working mainly solo until cooking class was over. The grad guys and girls all come to my class.

 Who wouldn't want to come when we eat what we make. Some of the students have even made some of the recipes at home. It was a fast class yesterday,  by 10:15 they had finished eating their one pot spaghetti and were walking home with a package of frozen ground beef for every two people. 

Kolya and Oksana are having a baby boy so I gave them an outfit I crocheted.  It's the first one I've done from the pattern and I'll have to make it a little bigger for a Verhoog baby.

However by the time we left for Garry's English classes in Dnepro at 1:30, all 21 trusses were finished or the parts were ready for the guys to assemble that afternoon.  Next they will have to turn them over and glue and nail the other side before they can hire a crane to help put them up.

I still haven't walked over for a photo and Garry is too busy to remember to take one. However I got a picture of the gates Max is welding together in the shop when we traded vehicles (the old Mercedes van isn't working,  so Max is driving one of ours, which is why I need to walk over to the new farm for photos). We drove the little car to Dnepro .

However, Monday will likely not see much done on the barn, because it will be dry enough to plant. I am told it should take about a week to plant the rest of the sunflowers and the corn. Thursday afternoon Garry stopped and dug up a sunflower seed from the field to see how they are growing. Look at the little sprout!

We just had a couple of frosty nights Wednesday and Thursday, but next week it should be in the 20s (70s for Americans). By then the sunflowers will be up and the alfalfa growing taller,  we need to cut hay soon, we're running out in about two weeks.