More Stories from Week 1

 You may remember that some of our guys are trying to avoid being in the army and some were in the army. Andrey is supposed to be back in the village at the end of the month on leave and is going to marry Valentina, his longtime sweetheart and the mother of his two kids, so that if something happens to him, she would get a pension. He decided this in the fall and it is scheduled for April 28th (about the day Garry will need to leave). We were surprised that Andrey was accepted to serve in the army, as he is officially and actually "slow" but we think he's more using his muscles than carrying a gun. 

Garry was happy to hear that it appears Misha, who disappeared after going in the army two years ago, has apparently been reported as a POW by someone who was released. His twin Vasili, told Garry about it the first time he saw him at the farm this week. This is the first his siblings have heard any news since he was in basic training. Some of the photos of prisoners released by the Russians are showing very thin people, so we will pray he's doing okay there. I found a photo from a few years ago when we made sushi in cooking class. Misha told everyone that I taught him to make pizza when he cooked it. 

There are often guys in the village looking for draft dodgers and deserters , so they are hiding out from them. Garry said one of the village guys who helps out in the shop (he was the one who was hiding from them in the fall in a story in the blog)  can't go to the dentist because of this (the draft includes all men over 25 to 55 I think). 

Apparently, Vlad (who used to be our very young tractor driver, now a married man with a child) was at the local bar and got punched and this other guy jumped in to help, it ended up being 3 on 2 and he has a couple of broken teeth.  I guess Vlad was okay. 

Garry says they have been harrowing the fields where they will be planting sunflowers and corn, but it may be two weeks before planting happens. They have had a bit of rain, mostly damp drizzle weather that happens overnight and dries up during the day, so that harrowing to level the ground can happen. Mostly our guys are getting the equipment ready for planting. One of the things in Garry's suitcase was parts for the corn planter. 

Garry says that when he was checking fields with Max - they need to fertilize the hayfields -  they found a part of a drone. 

Garry says he often finds one of Leila's stuffed dogs Muktar (named for a Russian TV dog) in the kitchen so he puts pieces of meat sticks in his mouth when she isn't looking and she's delighted by this and laughs and then eats them.

I tried to pack Garry a pair of jeans, but he said he had lots of them there. He wore his favorite dress pants on the plane. Turns out he has two pairs of jeans there, one he was wearing to the barn to preg check cows (so very dirty). The girls are happy to wash them for him, but then they are hung outside to dry and the weather has been drizzly. So he's happy when he has a clean (and dry) pair to wear. He said Sunday the barn jeans got washed and were almost dry when he got home so he hung them in his bedroom to finish drying.