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.