It's time to make hay (in Ukraine)

 This week the guys are baling hay! The sunflowers are up, the corn is about four inches high, the wheat looks good, it's been fertilized and sprayed- I've seen video footage from Nikolaipolia. No one is sure what will happen when the wheat is harvested with no good way to get it out of the country, selling it may not be an option, It's a good thing we built another shed that it could be stored in last year, so it won't spoil, even if it can't be sold this year. It also good they have milk to sell so there is some farm income. Right now they are buying and bagging up brewers grains to feed the cows, since companies are making beer and Kavas again.

Our village remains a safe place, although gas and diesel fuel are in short supply in Ukraine right now, they are a little worried that the milk buyers may start to have trouble getting to the farm to pick up milk, we have two guys who come in vans from Dnepro. So they are looking into getting some more things to make cheese, like a bigger milk separator, in case they can't sell milk some days, the cheese room house will get used yet!

The milk truck comes a couple times a week, but wants to get 4,000 litres at a time and our refrigerated tank only holds three thousand! When it was cold, they were putting some in plastic vats so they had more to sell, but now that it's getting hot, they are trying to buy a larger milk tank, which has some logistical problems with the country at war, as you might imagine.

Garry gets reports from the village all the time. He had another video call with the staff from the village last week Thursday (about the time he was finally feeling better, he had a bad cold for more than a week). The most exciting news was that Yana's sister and her two girls have joined her in Nikolaipolia. They were in Yana's home village near Molachansk, which was taken over by the Russians early in the war. Her mother was too afraid to try leaving, having heard the stories about people being shot at in cars, but Natasha hired a taxi and they drove out on the roads through the fields and made it safely. Yana says it's a little crowded in her house, but it's wonderful that they are safe with her.