Getting ready to go

 Well our plane tickets are bought, Garry and I fly out of Zaporosia November sixth at 4:30 am. Vienna to Toronto, then on to Winnipeg about twenty real hours later, landing at 6:30 pm. Our return flight is three months later, so we are leaving the staff and students to adjust to the new routine. Garry says he feels good about handing off the student work, pay, and problem behaviour off to Oleg three weeks ago. If we are not here the students can't come complain about his decisions, although they may try over Facebook.

The student lunchroom is going well, except for a couple guys who think they'd rather have the 500 grivna that's deducted from their new higher salary for it. Garry and I told the staff that would happen, but they need to wait them out now that they did it, they just say it's not an option to opt out.  The food is good, Valentina goes down to the new house at noon on weekdays to get hers in containers and brings it home, everyone else eats there.  Elena has helped them, but Kolya and Julia have done most of the cooking, so far.

We dropped in Monday about 12:30 with the twins' birthday presents and desserts. Misha had asked for Napoleon cake, and I made apple pie for Vasili as usual, since he prefers it to cake. It was my first try at Napoleon but they all liked it, including Garry, who had two pieces. I had one bite, since I am avoiding sugar.

Of course, we are busy getting ready to be gone so long. Garry is working on the remodel of the bathrooms at the barn, one back to working order, and one to be turned into the guard room. Three of the guys are working  rotating twelve hour shifts at the barn on the new schedule. Last week he tiled the floor to raise it up so water from the milk house doesn't flow into the rooms anymore. Today he was working on installing the doors, one new, one was reusable. Dima was his assistant since he loves the handyman jobs.

Fixing the bottom of the wall is next, I think he left Dima working on it, he's off to get a massage. Garry made the mistake of helping the students pull up drip line three days ago, so his knee is sore and this morning he woke up with a stiff neck too. 

 

One of the cornfields has been combined, the other should be done this week sometime.Garry was excited to check it out on Saturday afternoon when we got home from Dnepro. If you look closely you can see the combine in the above photo. The corn is going in the new Quonset, as planned. I can even show you a photo of the doors since my phone is working again.

Garry decided to mow and bale up the cornstalks this year as part of the dry cow ration instead of straw or oat hay they have been using in their TMR mix. There's some stacked in the shed already.

It still hasn't rained, although it's in next week's forecast. We'll see if it stays and actually rains, because it's had rain in the long term forecast a couple times this fall that has disappeared. Garry's considering replanting the first wheat fields they planted before it rains, it's been so dry they think some seed has died.

Saturday and Sunday afternoon we were in Dnepro as Garry did his last English classes for a few teachers, just two lessons for another and he's done until February. 

While we were in Egypt, Dnepro, and Zaporosia, along with several other areas of Ukraine went into red zone for covid. You are supposed to show a vaccination certificate to do many things now. Garry decided to buy tickets for the English movie showing in Dnepro Tuesday and we were the only ones in the theatre to see the Bond movie! At least we had bought the cushy couch chairs in the back of the theatre to make it worth it.  Afterwards we had interesting ( and tasty) hotdogs.

 

Egypt

 

It was a relaxing time away for Garry and I, except for a few injuries. I shouldn't have tried out step aerobics the day after I fell and hurt my knee on the beach. Garry got hurt playing volleyball and has very sore ribs, but he had fun playing everyday.

Our guests enjoyed the whole experience and went on a couple excursions, including a 28 hour visit to see the pyramids by bus. We also saw them at the pool, beach and meals sometimes. Garry took a long snorkel every morning, I went with him a couple times, but mostly did shorter swims, a few exercise classes, read and drew some on the beach. He did find his sharks again this year, they are reef sharks. This year I just saw pretty fish and coral.

Of course first thing Sunday afternoon when we got back, Max and Garry checked the wheat field. It didn't rain while we were gone and it still isn't growing. Hopefully when it does rain it will grow. No rain in the ten day forecast. They may combine corn in the next week or so.

Between two sabrallies

 That's what the students call our meetings every other Monday. On October fourth we met here at our house and I have photos to prove it. I made salads and there were pickles and... Let me check the photos because I don't remember the main course from two weeks ago! I know we had apple/pear crisp for dessert. 

Now I see, it was pierogy. Not perogies. Those are really vereniki. These pierogy are more like a fried donut filled with potatoes and meat. Valentina helped me put them together. We had made them in cooking class the Friday before also. Somehow it was easier on Friday, but everyone had two! Garry had a memorable talk, about how we can get help avoiding life's traps, complete with mouse traps and a blindfolded obstacle course. Misha was the first to try (ironically, since Misha is what you call a mouse in Russian) after he made it through with directions from his friends, his brother Kolya did it before dinner. There we're some attempts to remove a prize without being caught in a mousetrap, too. The bigger the prize, money, candy, the more likely that someone wanted to try.

Garry and Max spent the week trying to finish some projects before the weekend. One of which was that cement in front of the shed. And on the sides to seal it. Friday morning they got a lot done before Garry, Max,Yana and little Vika went to Dnepro for covid tests. Why? Did I not mention we were going to fly to the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el shiekh with them? Since Max's wife Yulia and I are both fully vaccinated we didn't need tests for Egypt, so I had cooking class with the students and made lentil soup. I gave directions and they did all the work.

Not quite enough, so they did more Saturday. Unfortunately, still didn't finish the remodel project at the barn, so there's another pour to come this week. They are pouring a higher floor in the bathrooms so water from the milk house doesn't come in. One bathroom will be returning to working order, while the other will be turned into a room for the guards with heat to warm up between rounds. It's part of the new schedule and changes for this year.

Anyway, everyone was packed and ready to go Sunday. However, we didn't fly out until 3:30  in the afternoon so Garry and I went to church in the village first. It was full, twenty people to celebrate Pastor Ivan's birthday. I went and hung out with Angelina and David in a different room during the sermon.

After the service there were cakes, tea and candies to enjoy, and then we were off the the airport. Max's brother Artom came along to drive the van home. It was actually Max's birthday on the day we left. His daughter Vika was very excited and Yana ( we used to call her the milker lady, now she's more the barn manager) was both nervous and excited. She threw up before we got on the plane.

No photo of that, thankfully, and she really enjoyed the trip. Everything was fine when we got back, too, in spite of both our ten year employees being on vacation with us.

There's plenty of photos to come from our trip, and unfortunately none of tonight's meeting and dinner because my phone seems to have died after I took them. Possibly to never to be seen again. We had shepherd's pie, coleslaw and pickles with cherry crisp for dessert. 

My phone is off for hopefully repair, but somehow the photos uploaded to the cloud. I'm still having issues with getting them here though. 

I didn't have to make a cake because Oleg and Elena helped Leila celebrate her birthday Sunday afternoon as we arrived home. There are photos of that. She really liked the cow onsie PJ's I bought in Canada.

New tractor

 While we were at the Agro expo, Max was getting a lot of phone calls, some about the new tractor. Originally they were going to deliver it on that Friday.

 Eventually it came on Monday, so they could install the GPS. Here's some photos. 

Also photos of them loading up sunflower seeds to sell. It's about a third of the crop to buy the tractor but we're saving money on taxes.

Interesting, some of the other calls were about the old New Holland, because it didn't want to start again for the guys after they parked it the first time on Friday. It's been discing. Max did get it running by Monday, and I think it's even fixed properly now. There was supposed to be someone out yesterday to teach the tractor drivers how to use the GPS system.