Here and there

 Yesterday morning Garry talked with Max in Ukraine for a bit, it's amazing how normal everything is there, same little problems as every year with crops and neighbors, who think there's some reason our crops are better than their harvest besides the fact they don't use fertilizer, and with students not wanting to work more for extra cash. Max is looking to buy a big loader tractor of our own instead of fixing the neighbors and hiring him to pack down the silage pile, and then listening to him complain. 

The big job of pulling up the irrigation line in the corn fields is happening, in spite of not everyone asked wanting to do it, the neighbors are harvesting pumpkins and extracting seeds to dry as usual, Max was at their processing barn, so some of the other village farmers said hello to Garry.

The village church celebrated thanksgiving recently and took some photos, here's a few of Oleg, Elena and family and with some of the students.

The school in the village is being conducted remotely online so as not to have the kids all in one place in case of missiles, although the village is still fine. For those wondering about the status of the village, we are in the northern part of Zaporisia region that is still controlled by Ukraine. I found a handy map talking about the recent "vote to join the Russian Federation". All the white surrounding the city up to the line is part of our region, and we are right at the top left. The Russian line has been the same since very early in the war. 

I still remember a conversation I had with Masha when Ukraine was getting rid of the Lenin statues after 2014. She said her parents had put their Soviet era pictures in the closet "just in case they needed them again." They live in the city, so I guess they don't need them now. Masha is living in far western Ukraine with her husband and son. 

One year ago we were putting up the second Quonset shed that has been so handy for storing grain that they can't sell this year, they even stored some of the wheat for others in the village. 

Meanwhile back here in Manitoba, we are at the home farm, not the lake, while Garry drives silage truck every day from eight am to eight pm, the boys are making corn silage. We hosted our small group (lifegroup) from church Tuesday evening for a fall kickoff meal at the farm gym. Next weekend we are in Price Albert SK to talk at our friend Clay's church. They were supposed to send a team to teach English next summer in Dnepro, but that was last year, before the war. One (family) of our Ukrainian friends from SEI  Dnepro is now living in Prince Albert, so we'll see them too. 

The day we left the lake to go the farm I caught the big fish, a 17 1/2-inch small mouth bass, as you can see it's a little cooler on the lake in September for our morning boat ride. We have started taking our three mile walk before fishing.