At the sea

Last Sunday morning, Garry and I drove down to the sea of Azov to find a place to take the students for their promised trip to the sea. They have been working very hard baling (and stacking) thousands of square straw bales this month, and Garry promised them three days at the seaside when it was done. We spent the night at a place in a village just past the holiday city of Kirviloka, where we often stay, and reserved rooms for later in the week. We found out the difference between a lux and a half-lux room. We got the kids rooms with air-conditioning (they didn't turn it on) a mini fridge, an electric kettle and a shared bathroom in the hallway. Our is the lux room, with the addition of a private bathroom and kitchenette with a microwave, larger fridge and a hotplate.

On the way back to the village Monday morning, we stopped and bought seven kilos of peaches, so Monday afternoon I made ten jars of peach jam, while Garry ran around. On Tuesday I packed for the sea, and not just for us, since I was going to be making meals for the students to eat. I was prepping by browning farsce (ground beef) and freezing it and some of the veggies and spices to make cooking on a hotplate easier.

Garry, Max and a few of the guys worked on putting giant pieces of  tin (steel?) up on the equipment shed. The only injury was when Max got stung twice when he found hornets up on wood around the corner  of the building. They got about half of the siding on. They were joking it looks like a big blue wall.

The plan for the sea kept changing, at lunch time only half of the students were going to go, so we were only going for three nights, but by three o'clock I was back to packing for six nights and two groups of students. Wednesday morning at five am we were off with five guys and two girls (the single and childless group, we were calling them).

We had said goodbye to Scott and Shannon the night before, as they were going to be going to Kyiv the following day with Victor for their flight back to Canada. They gave all the students some produce from their garden, potatoes, carrots and onions. Julia posted this photo of her with them Wednesday evening. For reference, Julia is less than five feet tall.

The drive actually only took three and a half hours (it took us four on Sunday) and we only made one stop for gas and a bathroom break, in spite of Sasha saying he had to go from about an hour into the trip. That was when we hit our only stop and go traffic from the road resurfacing taking place. It will be great when its finished as the highway was in pretty rough shape. However, no painted lines makes some drivers pretty creative when there's an extra lane for passing for only one side. Going south was paved in places and the northbound lane was not so there was often a six inch drop in level and the shoulders were only finished (dirt level with the road) for a short distance, too.

The staff was a little alarmed when we arrived, Garry had said we needed rooms for our friends and as he helped get them settled in their rooms, the lady asked if the students were normal. Garry assured her they wouldn't be a problem and they weren't, but Sasha's exuberance and Leila carrying her stuffed dog Muktar that she talks too can take some getting used to.

Anyway, they had a great three days swimming. or walking around (the village is a mini seaside fun zone with food vendors and games, but less people than our usual city, so hopefully we'll be less likely to pick up the virus since I have seen exactly two masks since arriving) playing UNO, watching television in their rooms and eating whatever I cook.

Garry is driving back with the first group (right now, Saturday morning) and returning with the married couples and Valentina with the baby, at least that's the plan, I'll have dinner waiting around five o'clock.. .  the same meal  (ploff a rice, chicken and carrot dish) as yesterday, but only Garry and I will eat the menu twice. Sloppy joes and spaghetti will make another appearance, and a lot of salads and boxed cookies. Here's a photo of where the meal magic is happening. I brought my crockpot, and I'm making a lot of holodni chai (ice tea) to drink.

The only drawback to our ground floor room, near the trellised patio we're eating at, is the ant invasion, I have the honey jar in a bowl of water and the bread and sugar are hiding in the microwave. Garry's computer had a dozen walking on it when I picked it up to start this post, so I have been stopping to pick off the stray ants walking across the keyboard. I have squashed and drowned many, but they keep coming back.

 On Tuesday evening everyone except Kolya (and baby Matthew) were going to come at some point, but yesterday one of students said he was going to come, so I guess we'll find out when Garry gets back . 

Finished! and SEI picnics

The students and everyone else were very happy to finish baling straw, stacking bales on the wagons, unloading them off and restacking them. The last few days they've been going upstairs in the barn here. On Thursday night there were nine wagons (they borrowed several) lined up behind the house by the barn, waiting to be unloaded. Friday they finally finished baling and today there were just three wagons to unload.

I think I heard they were baling for someone else today though. The students that worked so hard were excited to get paid bonuses and tonight when they made the weekly trip to the mall, Vika was excited to replace her broken cell phone with a new one.

Garry and I spent a second Saturday (Garry actually swam in the river, too) on Monastery Island in Dnepro picnicking with Summer English Institute folks. Last week we had about 12-15 people show up but today there must have been 35-40, with a number of kids in attendance. The Crawfords finished their quarantine and were able to join us. It was nice to reconnect with people, even though we aren't doing three weeks of teaching this July because of the virus. We decided that meeting outdoors was the best option for 2020. You can sere the difference in the group photos (although both times not everyone was in the picture).

We will drive down to the sea (of Azov) tomorrow to find a place we can take the students for their promised trip to the sea after the straw is done... before third cut hay is ready to bale in a week!

Still baling straw

The combine finished the wheat last week, but the straw baling will continue until sometime later this week. On Monday they didn't have to unload all the straw they baled as they started delivering to the people who get goods instead of cash. The wagon just dumps it in front of their house, if they have one share they get a small wagonload, if they have more they get a big wagon full.

 They were still unloading some of the wagons, Garry was feeling a little sorry because he accidently knocked Vika over with a bale of straw when he was unloading a wagon Monday afternoon. She stepped back just as he threw it down off the wagon. Leila and Vika are both helping stack bales now.  The students get bonus pay for extra work like baling. She had a sore neck when we went over to Scott and Shannon's for the hotdog roast at five. Since they are back for a couple weeks, I asked if they'd like to host this student supper. Scott talked about teams and running a good race to the end.

The weather had cooled off again, nice for baling, but some of the students had jackets on, as the wind made it chilly outside. Everyone enjoyed the food, especially the big cookies Shannon had made to go with watermelon for dessert.

About nine pm Garry came to bed and there was a thunderstorm brewing, so he was hoping for rain. As you can see in the photos I took on Sunday the sunflowers (they don't get irrigation) were very dry, the bottom leaves have dried up even as they are blooming.

We decided to watch Jaws on the television, we saw it in theatre on one of our first dates (Star Wars was the first date, this was the second or third date after going to the shore in NJ). Just as the shark was about to get someone early in the movie there was a tremendous bang and everything went dark. In the whole village, I believe. 

 The power wasn't back on until about 9:30 this morning. I saw Scott outside around six so I knew which gas stove we could heat up some water for making formula when Valentina ran out of bottles in the fridge before seven am.

Scott said there was only three tenths in the rain gauge, but everything looked pretty wet this morning. Garry was hoping for more rain, but there was only a sprinkle today. It was too wet to bale straw, though. They had the irrigation water going on the alfalfa all day.  The corn is growing really tall, Julia and Dima did the fertilizer in the water last week while the other students were baling. Garry said a couple days everyone was working that wasn't taking care of a baby.

Here's the cornfield on Sunday afternoon.

Away from home

Sometimes we really miss being home in Canada, even Garry. I normally take several trips home to see the grandkids every year, and we've always both been home at Christmastime. We were both going to go to Manitoba in April for Max Boradin's graduation from Providence University College. Of course that never happened due to Covid19. We are very proud of Max; he worked really hard to improve his English and get his degree.

Max had hoped to come home to Ukraine this year, and we recently booked his ticket for a month long visit in August. He has a brother who recently got married that lives in Kyiv so he can do the two week quarantine at his apartment. Max has been in Canada for five years and has been homesick this last year. Hopefully it all goes well.  He plans to work on a Masters degree in Canada next in teaching English, which he hopes to use to support himself when he returns to Ukraine.

Garry is not sure he wants to go home and quarantine for two weeks and then do it again on returning here, but I think I will try to go in August. He's considering September, but who knows what will happen with the virus.

This past week we got to see photos of all the kids and grandkids together as the border between Saskatchewan and Manitoba became two week quarantine free, and Matthew and family were in St Labre for a visit. The grandkids are enjoying cousin time hanging out together, and it makes grandma wish she was there. Of course, without Covid19, Garry and I would have been teaching our first Summer English Institute lessons today, so I wouldn't have been there anyway.

Saturday evening we got to see the wedding of Garry's nephew in Ontario via the internet, it was very small wedding due to the restrictions, but they are starting their life together as planned.

We were saddened by the news that one of our prayer supporters from our home church in Steinbach passed away this week. She sang in choir with Garry and always sought us out when we were home to encourage us and ask about the family.

It's hot

Best title I could think of... because it's hot. Saturday Garry's car informed him it was 39 C (102 F) outside, and it felt like the grass was shriveling up under your feet.

We had a pretty good couple days away to remember our anniversary. After 42 years, it sometimes seems like we have always been married! Tuesday evening I drove to the hotel, since Garry was exhausted, they had put 32 trusses up in total and he went up on the roof in the heat for several hours. He says he's not as young as he used to be.

Victor had arranged to meet us around nine am to renew our Ukrainian resident cards, so we had an exciting morning getting photos and waiting outside offices. We walked around downtown Dnepro a bit and had a nice lunch out on the first (yes, Canada Day, we got married in New Jersey) at a Georgian restaurant, then returned to the airconditioned hotel.

 A couple hours later, we regretted our choice as we had upset digestive issues. Maybe restaurants running below capacity are not always the best thing. We had a lovely river view from our hotel room, the last night we went to KFC in the interest of food safety as we were just recovering.

Friday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then it was back to work. The guys had added more boards to brace the big shed, but Garry had them add a few more. Which was a good thing, because around four o'clock we had a big thunderstorm develop right over us and the wind blew like crazy and we had a huge downpour for twenty minutes! A couple hours later, they shored it up some more with the help of the neighbor with the big loader. The wind even had the corn plants in our garden and some of the ones in the cornfield leaning the next morning. 

The combine had started on Thursday harvesting wheat, the big trucks were waiting in the village when we drove in waiting to fill up. So most of the wheat is being sold right out of the field this year. Crop is good, but not great. They fill the trucks, then pile wheat in the Quonset shed, and refill the trucks when they get back around midnight. The bridge in Zaporosia is closed to trucks during rush hour times, so they can't go over until seven pm, if they aren't there between ten and two I think.

Since the grain was coming off, they had already baled some straw, we ran out of straw for bedding the cows weeks ago, so there were bales to unload. Garry also decided that the corn now desperately needed the irrigation water, so they have been challenged to try to keep it going 24 hours. So he was just getting into bed when Victor brought Scott and Shannon from the airport around eleven pm.

We talked to them in the morning and got Garry's parts for the forage harvester, and lovely gift spicy Doritos and and yarn from Canada. Saturday evening we picked up groceries for them while making the student run to the grocery store in Zaporosia because they have to quarantine for two weeks.

Sunday it was quasi-former student Vlad's birthday and he brought Coke and little cakes from the store over, Garry rounded up some students I found a present and cut up some fresh from the garden cucumbers. We tried out the relighting candles. Everyone thought it was fun.

Garry says the corn is starting not to curl up in the heat, the irrigation water was off for five or six days so it was behind when the 100 degree days came. They have to clean out the filters by the pump every couple hours, one night it blew apart and we sent water into the pond. There is more pressure than last year so they have to adjust how they use the water.

Wednesday it's supposed to cool off, Thursday's predicted high is 24 C, so the guys are looking forward to that, because there's lots of straw to bale yet.