Over there

 I haven't updated lately about how things are in the village. We get a lot of information from the students on facebook, including this photo of one of our three Sashas with the tractor the farm bought last year. 

 Garry talked to Max last Sunday. The sunflowers are harvested, they have even sold some- for about half world price- two loads so they could buy some fertilizer for planting winter wheat. Fertilizer is available to purchase, but most farmers are not using it while planting this year because the price is extremely high. Max decided to only use it on the bad fields and not put any on the good fields (where we have used lots in the past) to save money, but still take care of the land- and the future crop for next year. 

They have had lots of cooler wet weather, but Max said they had about half the winter wheat planted when they spoke. It should all be planted by now, they were just waiting for the fertilizer to come. The only crop left to harvest is the rest of the corn crop, which will be combined for grain. Max says it looks similar to last year/s crop. The farm is still able to sell milk, and are experimenting with cheese production, as you can see in this photo. 

They are raising chickens for meat in our old barn- the tent barn- in cages. We got some photos taken at a party in our house, along with some fun videos of charades, it looked like a party with the new girls, probably a birthday. By the way, both of the new girls are named Julia! 

That's one of the three Sashas with the new Julias. Of course, our original Julia is back in the village with her husband Dima, so there are three Julias also! You might notice Needles our cat in the window, both of the cats are alive and catching mice, I hear.

Two of our former students, one from year one- Max (not the one who came to Canada) and one more recent guy, Vlad (not the tractor driver) that we have heard from are in the army. They both volunteered, one before the war, the one had been living in the area that was taken over in the spring and his wife and kids were still there when we chatted. It's a relief when you see they have been on facebook recently, along with a few other former students. Keep them in your prayers, along with the students and staff in the village. Some nights they can see the missiles and the anti-missile activity in the sky.