Before I leave...

Well, my bags are almost packed for Ukraine, I had to redo some packing after talking to Garry last night. I won't  be bringing any snow, although there's plenty here, and Garry tells me the students are wishing they had some there. I fly out of Winnipeg at 6 pm tonight.  As usual, I've been busy packing, putting things away (the boys tend to rearrange the furniture after I leave) and saying goodbye to the kids and grandkids for the last couple days. Monday night I went into Winnipeg and watched the boys play men's league basketball.  They won, too.

Meanwhile in Ukraine,  it's been raining,  so the work on the building site is in a holding pattern.  Here's a couple photos Scott sent on Monday before the rain started yesterday.  Sounds like its going to rain for at least a week. The septic system is bricked up and the hole for the cistern is about a meter and a half deep now.

Talked to Garry this morning (late afternoon his time) and the small milk truck came today ( I think he said it can take 1700 liters) so it didn't get all the milk from the milk tank. Since the cows are giving so much milk now, only 5 milkings (there are 6 in two days) fit in the tank. Since they needed to get the tank empty to refill it, Garry was making cheese in his new giant pot he bought for the cheese house on the kitchen stove, and was hunting for citric acid in the cupboards.  

He tells me that the cooler for the cheese room was installed this week, there's just a few more things to get, like a gas stove we can run on propane,  and he'll finally be making cheese out there.

Garry has been keeping busy in the kitchen, last Sunday he made cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting (he made the cream cheese too) and this week he posted a photo on Facebook of cherry chocolate cake he made (two years ago he froze so many cherries with the girls we'll never eat them all).

 I made bagels Sunday morning for breakfast for some of the family, so as not to be outdone in baking! However, we had lox and store bought cream cheese on them!

Clean up

While I'm trying to get stuff organized for leaving (basically pack, decide what goes now, what goes later, what to do with everything else,  wrap birthday presents, send mail, and so on) Garry is keeping busy in Ukraine.

Today he was teaching English in Dnepro from midmorning until late afternoon,  then took the students shopping in Zaporosia in the evening.  They really enjoy the trip to the mall and the groceries are much cheaper than they are in the village.  They usually spend a little of their salary on fries and hamburgers because there's a McDonald's,  too. I had a nice hello with the whole gang as they were leaving the mall, minus babies and mamas, who stayed home this week.

Work is progressing on the building site,  they had the bigger equipment working on Thursday and hoped to finish Friday,  but had to repair the loader tractor, so they couldn't finish.  Garry tells me they did finish today (Saturday).

He says the weather looks good for the next week so he hopes to pour concrete for the foundation pad, before get ice or snow.

Scott sent me more photos Thursday,  you can see they found the cellar under the old house.
I guess by the time I arrive on Thursday I can take photos of the finished concrete pad.


The boys have finished digging the septic and will dig a cistern for water storage.  Garry plans to not run any salty water through this house, so it will be easier on the pipes, taps and hot water heater.

I forgot this photo from Garry, they are dumping the fill next to one of the village ponds and making a beach, the property owners adjoining the pond are happy about it.

Scott sent me a couple of photos after they finished.  He said he would have sent them Saturday but internet was not working in the village.  Garry told me the big walnut trees are still in the front yard. 

No bull

Garry tells me he has not taken back the job of making feed for the cows every morning.  The cows were milking so well when he got back that he let Artom keep feeding them. He just goes over in the mornings to check on how milking went, if there are any cows in heat, and other things. When Garry leaves for Christmas,  they usually put a bull in the barn to breed cows, but Max decided that the bull we have now in the dry cow pen was too dangerous to have running free in the barn. He was afraid someone would get hurt. That's just one of the reasons why breeding cows artificially with frozen semen is a good thing.

I know that we tell you that one of the things  Garry does in Ukraine  is breeding cows artificially in Nikolaipolia and other villages.  It's kind of an outreach thing, it helps them improve their cattle, people were very excited about the large bull calves that were born (although Garry recently bought some Jersey semen for people who think that their Holstein cross heifers are growing too big).  Often he breeds 2, 3, 5, 6 cows a day. I talked to him off and on today, and I'm pretty sure he breed 17 - no he says 14- cows today.

I actually video chatted with him in someone's dark barn in some village as he finished breeding his last cow of the day around 7:30 pm his time (the first ones were at 6 am) with a big dog barking and  Valentina laughing in the background.

He used to have people pick him up and take them to their house to breed their cow. He also used to get directions from Max Rudei after they phoned Max to ask if Garry could come breed their cow.

 Occasionally someone does come get him to breed a cow now, but most of them have Garry's cell number and call him. It's always interesting to hear his end of a conversation in Russian about where he needs to go breed a cow.

 He remembers his usual customers  by a distinctive thing about their place, round window, large walnuts, near the zoo park, ect. He gets them to mention their village and which place it is. If he's going to a new place or he's unsure of the address,  he often takes Valentina or another of the students with him to help find the place by talking to someone in the correct village and explaining where to go to him.

He often has people ask him why their cow isn't coming in heat (at the right part of the estrus cycle to get pregnant) or whether their cow is pregnant, after all, she was bred x months ago. Garry went back to Ukraine with a new tool to help find out if cows are pregnant,  a portable ultrasound machine for cows.  He took it as his carry on baggage in its case.  I think he's tried it out in our barn so far, I have not heard he's used it for someone else

's cow yet.. He practiced here in Manitoba on the cows here, even on the morning he flew out.

Weekend

Scott sent me another couple photos,  and you can see that the house is really disappearing!

Garry has been doing some English classes already, including visiting Lena's English school on Saturday.  I think his Bible story was about Jericho,  we were talking about it Saturday morning his time (Friday night my time) before he went over to the barn.

We had a pile of snow Friday and Saturday.  I ended up watching Carson for parts of those days, because his mom came down with the flu Saturday and dad was busy making feed for the cows. By 4 o'clock, I had a giant drift to drive through to get back in the garage. Seth's car is usually in the garage but this week the boys are away on vacation in Texas.

I said I wouldn't drive to church unless the snowplow came, but when I couldn't back out of the garage in the morning I shoveled the sidewalk to the front door and stayed home.

Andromeda's third birthday party was postponed because of the storm from Saturday to Sunday afternoon,  but it was  just St Labre kids and parents there, except for her grandma.  The kids had fun playing in the gym. I had bought a parachute to play with, and it was a hit. Andromeda was very excited about the cake and the candles. She sang along and then blew out the candles when we got to her name in the birthday song.

Garry is happy that I have booked my flight back to Ukraine for the 29th (arrives there on the 30th). I have decided to postpone my trip to visit my dad in NJ because I don't want to bring a flu with me. It's as cheap to fly there from Dnepro as it is from Winnipeg anyway.

Almost done

Or I could title this post...while here in Manitoba we have extreme cold warnings and a snowstorm on the way, Garry is complaining about mud everywhere in the village! Apparently he is having trouble driving to the farm, he can't take the little car.

He says that they are nearly done with the deconstruction of the old house.  The have saved a pile of bricks and moved them to the shed at our house.

They saved some lumber and beams to build with, Garry hopes to get Neil to make them a kitchen table from some of the boards. They also have cut up the rest of the wood for firewood and have moved it to the two houses that heat, or supplement heat with wood.  Thanks to Scott Crawford I have more photos of the progression, or regression of the house.

Garry tells me he was in the city on Tuesday and because it had been raining and stopped he had turned off the windshield wipers and accidentally turned off the headlights.  From October to April you need daytime headlights in Ukraine.
Since he thought they were on, a policeman pulled him over at the checkpoint for not having his lights on. He said the young policeman was very nice, even when he noticed the insurance had run out on the white car. Instead of impounding it, he let Garry drive home with a warning to get some right away. He actually bought insurance from a guy in the village who told him he should buy cheaper village insurance instead of the city insurance we've been buying.  Less than half the price, too.

Garry hopes to get the big loader over to finish the cleanup and flatten out the site, while the warm weather lasts.

It seems that we get a big snow around the end of January nearly every year, the students are hoping for it, as there hasn't been any real snow yet.

Here's some more photos from Scott,  it's really disappearing!

Unbuilding project

Well, prices of flights to Dnepro bounced around for a couple days this week with the Ukrainian airlines flight crash in Tehran.  Now that it's not the fault of Ukrainian airlines,  Expedia has them back in the loop, although I haven't booked my ticket yet, prices has returned to normal.

Garry has been busy, he was already guest appearing at an English class Saturday.  Friday he mentioned that they (students and all) have started taking down the old house on the other side of the Crawford's home.
This year's spring building project will be a new build of wood, a two bedroom house that Kolya Mazhara and family will move into. At some point we may build a drive shed for large tractors (the New Holland doesn't fit anywhere) or maybe a combine, on the same property.

 Garry had to change phones so he didn't get any photos, but Scott sent me some, so you can take a look. This house is falling down, there was a fire, the roof was falling in, but check out the construction,  it was a very early Mennonite house in the village.

If you wondering why we aren't building the addition on the church in Dnepro,  the permits aren't in place yet, we are hoping for 2021 now.

I am on my last night of staying with 23 month old Carson,  it's been fun, reminds me of when the boys were little.  He seems to enjoy playing with grandma,  too. I'm sure he's going to be really excited when we pick up mom and dad Sunday evening.

Safely back in Ukraine

Garry arrived back in Ukraine yesterday,  his only difficulty was losing his coat somewhere in the Toronto airport.  I filed a report with the lost and found,  we'll see if it turns up. He was sick with a cold over the weekend,  even staying home from church and staying in bed Sunday.  Fortunately he was feeling better Monday as he flew out of Winnipeg late afternoon.  He drove to the airport,  I just had to drive back with our grandson I am staying with this week while mommy and daddy are in Mexico.  I had to get some air in one of my tires on the way home, but we got home safely,  too.

Don't worry,  he was in his carseat for the ride, he was just enjoying his hamburger while I put the bags in the car after we stopped at Walmart. I may have bought a little more yarn.
I talked to Garry this morning and it sounds like he's got everything under control already,  and he's not feeling too bad either. I'll be joining him in two weeks or so. 

Christmas in the village

The Crawfords handed out our gifts for the students and babies at their biweekly dinner on December 23rd, and they sent me some photos.  It looks like everyone was having a good time.

Our trip west to see supporters

Garry has not been out to Salmon Arm for three years (two years ago we only went to Saskatchewan,  and I don't know why he didn't go last year) so he was looking to make the trip this year to see Jack.  A couple days before leaving on the 27th, we finally nailed down the details. 

It was my first trip out to Salmon Arm with Garry,  once he went with Max and one December he drove out alone.  We left at noon, with the family still gathered at our house for lunch.

 The first night we spent in a hotel in Moose Jaw,  and left early the next morning to drive the rest of the way to Salmon Arm.  Driving through the Rockies was amazing. 

The weather was sunny until dark and Salmon Arm,  where it was snowing,  but we managed to find Jack's house. Our lack of working cell phones meant we relied heavily on restaurant wifi on the trip!

We enjoyed Jack, Trish and Tyler's welcome and after a good night's rest Garry spoke about missions for a few minutes at Jack's church.

We got to see our Philadelphia Eagles win and get in the playoffs in the afternoon before we got to meet some of the people that hope to come with Jack in March.  Since we can't build the addition onto the church this year in Dnepro,  we will build a small house in the village (from the foundation,  not a remodel) and have a VBS for the village children. 

Garry decided we had an extra day when Jack invited him to go ice fishing and snowmobiling Monday.  I enjoyed a restful day until Garry got back around two o'clock and told me to pack up as the forecast sounded bad in the mountain passes overnight.

 We did go visit Neil and  Bonnie before driving east as darkness was falling and some snowflakes.  I had not been to Neil's farm before. It's a pretty place.

 The trip over the mountains was fairly uneventful,  although pretty stressful for the driver (Garry) since there was some snow and icy sections and so we were happy to stop on the eastern side of Calgary for the night around midnight. 

The next morning we planned out the last day of 2019, aiming to get to Fort Qu'Appelle before the new year.

Since we were driving right past Brooks Alberta we met up with friends at the McDonald's and chatted for more than an hour. Time well spent,  since we hadn't seen them in a couple years.

We thought we might make it to Matt's by early evening, but we had decided to make a detour up western Saskatchewan to visit Melvin and Velma Wiens. We hoped to get there by two or three o'clock but it was nearly five when we got there. Luckily she had decided to make us dinner, which was very welcome, and delicious. Lasagna,  salad and apple pie ala mode. Mel provided us with a map to get to Regina, and we got to Matthew and Kari's about 10:30pm. They were at friends to celebrate the new year,  but came home just before midnight.  I heard them come in, but Garry was fast asleep. 

New year's day was enjoyed by all, I made the traditional olliebollen with apple and raisins and Kari made borscht for lunch. Then they took us on a tour of the area. Garry got to enjoy listening to the girls practice their instruments,  piano, violin and guitar,  and played the game of life with them. Hopefully we'll make it to a service at their new church next visit.

Thursday morning we left around ten am, and got back to Steinbach by five o'clock for a visit with Doug and Marcie,  who plan to join the BC guys in March in the village.