I'm back

I returned to Ukraine last Friday afternoon,  and immediately noticed how hot it was while waiting for the train to Dnepro. Garry tells me that 26 of the 30 days it was over 30 while I was gone. That's in the 90s for American readers.

My knee was/is sore from running to make my connection in Montreal.  My left knee is a little gimpy these days, and the plane from Winnipeg landed 15 minutes late and I was only supposed to have 50 minutes before takeoff.  When I got to the gate, it had been pushed back 15 minutes.

Sunflowers are blooming already 

Garry met me at the train station at 11:25 pm Friday night. We did stay in the city but returned the village before nine am Saturday, Garry wanted to make feed for the cows. He picked me some cucumbers and green beans.  I froze beans  (Garry did some while I was gone) and made sweet pickles.

Saturday evening we went into Zaporosia and talked for a couple hours at the hotel with a MCC board member whom Garry had met with Mel Wiens back in Steinbach years ago. We also picked up the vinegar and sugar so I could finish my pickles.

Garry's iced coffee came in a wineglass! 

Sunday morning we went to church in the city at Morningstar.  They kept blowing the breaker, probably because they were running the air conditioning.  Afterward Garry was helping Marina with the fourth Sunday afternoon of testing for the English institute next month (he did the three previous test days too). I didn't help much, I  read a book much of the two hours.

So far my jetlag hasn't been too bad, I've been sleeping 4-6 hours a night, which is more than I usually get the first week back.

Garry has been not quite as busy for a couple days. They finished baling the oats and peas before I returned.  He was hoping the combine would show up Monday to start the wheat harvest. However the guy is still doing barley in a nearby village.  He may get here Wednesday or Thursday.

Monday Garry had some of the guys helping clean up around the barns. It was overcast and we got some very light rain in the morning.  I picked veggies in the rain at 5:30 am until 7, when I burned the garbage. Sasha Borchuk told Garry it was hilarious that I was burning it in the rain. I spent the rest of the day freezing zucchini,  green beans,  beets and onions,  and making more pickles.

 This morning Garry was hunting down some guys to do some straw baling straw (if you're thinking,  wait, how are they baling before combining?  The big farmer combined their barley and asked if we wanted the straw. ) Garry was helping move the full wagons to the barn to unload.  There was some excitement when the tractor pulling the wagon caught on fire as the tractor started pulling away from the pile. Garry jumped off and sent one guy riding in the wagon for a bucket of water (they were near the barn). He tried throwing dirt on the fire (some wires had ignited, I think he said the flames were more than a foot high) with the other guy, but Tolik didn't quite get the idea and chucked clumps off dirt instead of loose handfuls to smother the fire. They did get it out, the tractor (our oldest Belarus) needs some repairs before returning to pulling wagons tomorrow.

The worse result of the fire is that Garry hurt his right knee jumping off the tractor and was hardly able to walk tonight when we went to the movies.  Garry had bought tickets last week before I got here. He found out one of the cinemas in Dnepro has started showing one movie once a week in English.  We saw Rocketman. We walked out very slowly after, but Garry says it felt fine for driving.

We did not get a significant amount of rain,  the guys are watering the big corn field now. It's more than seven feet tall, they are still having trouble getting enough water on that field but they hope to get it wet enough to move the pump to the hayfield for the weekend.