in Ukraine

 Reports from the farm in Ukraine, they celebrated Easter this weekend. Looks like the village church was full.

Still hosting refugees traveling up from areas south occupied by Russia, family with six kids from Melitopol (if you count extra kids Oleg's sons were visiting) staying at the old boys house and even some people that have escaped Maruipol sleeping at our house. Just think, we can help by not being there. 

Max was planning to start planting as soon as the rain stopped last week, but we haven't talked to him this week. We did find out the pair of storks are back at the farm, and this year they hatched two babies up in the nest! 

Traveling

 Our visit to Ontario and Pennsylvania for a family wedding is going well. We are just back in Ontario after the wedding, we are doing a couple of presentations about Ukraine before we go over to get the silage truck our son bought that we are driving home up around Lake Superior.

We have driven by our old house and farm (we moved to Manitoba 25 years ago) , saw family and old friends here, and all Garry's siblings (and his dad) were at the wedding this weekend. Enjoying the more spring like weather here and in New York and north western Pennsylvania this weekend, although it was snowing when we arrived on Tuesday!

Talking a lot

 Since I last wrote, we did a presentation about our project in Ukraine for the Central District EFCC pastors at a retreat (almost two weeks ago) and in ten days, we'll do another one in Ontario at our old church in Zurich. We are leaving early Tuesday morning for a  visit with Garry's family and a wedding in Pennsylvania. 

Tuesday snow was melting

Friday...

Meanwhile the storm of the century, while not that bad, has dumped a bunch of snow here in Manitoba, as you can see in these pictures. It's actually still snowing outside, so it's just as well we can't go to church this morning. We planned to attend the 9 am service, which has been cancelled, and can't attend the eleven am service because we are booked for a zoom English class at noon (8 pm in Dnepro, where the students are) so we will have to watch the Good Friday service online. 

Most of the family will be here Saturday for the planned egg hunt and Easter dinner in the newly renovated kitchen... well half renovated, at least Garry was able to get all the old flooring off and the new subfloor down, and the shiplap ceiling is half painted (I have run out of paint for the old part, which is not as white as the freshly painted part, and we still need lighting and an island, and the vinyl plank flooring. It will be a great space for family dinners, starting tomorrow!

We are on a constant news cycle here, Garry checks the news from Ukraine first thing in the morning, talks to Victor (who is now in Canada) and sometimes to Max or a student or two during the morning or early afternoon. He usually finishes his day watching the Blue Jays on television while watching youtube news on his phone.

Wednesday he had a long video chat with Max, with lots of encouraging news. The fields are worked up and ready to plant, as soon as the fields dry up some, as it has been raining. He was really excited about how easy it was to harrow up the fields in straight lines with the new tractor with GPS we bought last fall. The apricot trees are blooming, so it's time to plant. The skid steer is out of the shop and back at the farmyard with the new motor installed. We even got a video of it working. Hurrah! 

There are few refugees staying in our house, the summer kitchen and at the old boys house, most are only there a few days before moving west, most from areas controlled by Russia, even Mariupol. 

This morning we had a 15 minute call from one of the students working at the farm, he said that people buying milk always ask when Garry will be back in the village. 

Still good

 Things are still good in the village. They were able to buy brewers grain to feed to the cows last week, so they must be brewing beer again in Zaporosia. Hopefully the cows will milk a little more, it's a good protein source that we normally feed them, because they are having no problems selling milk. They are only giving away a small amount for truly needy families with kids now. They had to stop giving away more because some were getting it and then selling it to buy vodka. 

Max and the guys are working on fixing the skid steer again now, last week they had two of the Belarus tractors in the shop, getting ready for spring planting, they were hoping to start working up fields this week. The temps are approaching 20C and the flowers are starting to bloom.

The areas south of us where the Russians are in control farmers are not able to work the fields, it's too dangerous from what Max has heard. A farm that had bought five new combines last fall had them blown up, tractorists (drivers) have gone out to the field to work up the land and walked back without tractors.

Here in Manitoba we have had an exciting March break week with the grandkids. Doug and Marcie came over and helped with some of the demo of the old laundry room to open up the kitchen to the living room. Hopefully by Easter we will have space for tables so the whole family can sit down for dinner.