One week

 

We arrived one week ago, we're mostly over jet lag, especially Garry. He's trying hard to keep busy. He went to choir practice Wednesday. He enjoyed a couple quick fishing trips early this week in the new boat, before the snow arrived Josh caught the only fish, a huge jack.

Thursday it was Seth's birthday. I made his cake for the first time in about ten years.

We're here

 Saturday was a long day for us. We left for the airport at one am Ukrainian time, with Max driving. He knew how to find the Zaporozhye airport because he had picked up his mother and aunt there the day before. Max enjoyed the trip to Egypt so much he sent his mother on vacation to Hurgota, the other Red Sea spot for Ukrainian tourists.

The new Zaporozhye airport is where Austrian airlines flies from now instead of Dnepro. It is a shiny new terminal, opening just before the pandemic. Our check-in was a little more complicated for the staff, checking out what we needed to fly. Garry's ultrasound machine carry-on (for checking if cows are pregnant) required lots of looking over, but eventually we were on our bus to the plane, taking off at 4:30 am. 

We had a four hour layover in Vienna, which stretched to five because the plane had arrived late. We finished up the breakfast sandwiches I'd packed, and more of the snacks. Garry found some place to stretch out in the terminal. He had to reset his phone and took it out of the case.  There was a document check hours before boarding. This used to mean a visa, permits, resident document check, but now they also have to check your vaccine status and test verification so you can fly to Canada. 

Eventually, we were on board. There were empty seats in economy, but we were in a full row and legroom was tight. It's more of a problem for Garry than me, but when the guy on the aisle in front of us took off for greener pastures, I squeezed past the guy on our ailse to get his seat, so we both had an open seat next to us. I just handed my dessert and roll over the seat to Garry when the meal came. At least Air Canada has gone back to hot meals this year, last year's cold eggplant parmesan "salad" wasn't great.

The plane pulled up to the gate in Toronto an hour and a half before our flight to Winnipeg was scheduled to take off. We were making great time until I got pulled for the random covid entry retest. The guy told Garry it would just take five minutes but it was closer to twenty. However, all was well as we made it with time to spare as the plane  boarded a little late. Garry even had time to notice his phone might be missing, as he was looking for his power bank to charge his tablet.

We were met by a very excited Abby and her parents at the bottom of the escalator, and after drive thru Popeye's chicken sandwiches, we were on our way to the farm, where we fell in to bed at nine pm.  Saturday night, more than 24 hours with all the hours of time zone changes from when we left the village.

Sunday morning Garry was up by four am, out of the house by five I think. Time had changed, but the grandkids didn't care, so I saw Noah and Carson around six am. We had breakfast at Josh's house and we're a little late for church at the nine am service and missed the choir singing. Garry had thought it still started at nine thirty, like it did pre-pandemic, and we had to open suitcases to find his pants before leaving home. Afterwards we drove home to hang out with the kids for lunch, Garry went on the farm tour, we forgot about his family's zoom call, since it's not in the evening like when we are in Ukraine, we watched Eagles football on the big screen and had tacos for dinner at Noah's house.

Monday morning I logged in to find out I'd once again tested negative for covid, and checked the email, since I'd filed a lost item report with aircanada. That afternoon Garry went fishing on the new boat, before the weather turns colder in the next day or so. Hurray, they found Garry's phone and it's being shipped here. 

Counting down

 We're busy ticking things off our lists, we are 80% packed for Canada. Thursday morning we are off to Dnepro for our preflight covid tests, and I'll get us registered with arrivecan. Our flight is with Austrian airlines and leaves Zaporosia at 4:30 am Saturday, so we'll need to leave for the airport around one am.

Monday morning they decided to replant as much wheat as possible with the forecast calling for a little rain Tuesday, it looked like a lot of the first fields planted had seeds that had sprouted and died during this dry spell. They just used the untreated wheat from the shed for seed. By the time it was getting dark (an hour earlier than Saturday, time changed here over the weekend) they had the two fields by the highway planted. They kept planting until five am, using the new tractor with autosteer they could plant all night. They got 35 hectares replanted, or about 90 acres. 

Tuesday morning it was a little wet out when Bear and I went out to walk to the barn. I went in the milk house to look for his usual morning milk snack very cautiously. Saturday morning we were attacked by the barn cats. There's a couple half grown kittens in there, and the mother cats decided that Bear was a threat. I got my leg shredded and bit. I poured peroxide over it, applications of antibiotic cream were repeated, and somehow it hasn't gotten infected, but I don't want a replay. I took this photo the day before when no one cares we were there!

As the morning passed by, we actually got more rain than predicted, maybe enough to get the wheat up. There's more rain in the forecast, hopefully it's not like last week, when it never rained at all. There were puddles this morning and some slippery mud when Bear and I walked.

Garry has been making lists of cows that will need to go dry and will calve while we are gone. He's checking and cleaning the milking machines and pipeline, and balanced the feed ration.  The corn is combined and in the new Quonset barn. The mill has been moved from the attic of the tent barn to the old Quonset, the two Sashas were filling bags with ground corn for feed. 

I've stocked up on cat and dog food. Box is still outside, I don't know if she will come in while we are gone, I've caught her but she escaped immediately. She's not a fan of children, Angelina is a very active toddler.

Monday night we had one last student dinner. We think they eat a little less with the students eating lunch together. Kolya and Julia are the chief cooks, they both milk cows too.