Thanks for visiting!

Somedays when I am writing my blog posts I wonder if anyone is reading them besides a few friends and family. Last month I discovered that we have stats of page views and there are more people reading than I thought! Thanks for visiting our blog!
If you are wondering we have been viewed in more than 20 countries, but mostly in the US and Canada and had over 700 page views in September- wow!
Any way we had a great visit with Garry's parents for the last two weeks. It was so good to see them and for them to see what we are doing here. Garry's mom is ready to read up on Ukrainian history.
Garry dropped them off at a hotel next to the airport in Kiev yesterday afternoon. He was unable to find the one they were booked into by the travel agent in Canada, even though they drove around Borispol (where the Kiev airport is acually located) for two hours. So if all went well they should be on a plane between Paris and Toronto right now.
Garry got home at 12:30 am - right before the Phillies game started on TV. I will admit I dozed off a few times but I did see most of the game. You can see my Phillies shirt where the cats are all sitting on me this afternoon on the couch. Only one is a house cat, Mooska and her kitten live outside but we are trying to make it friendly. You'll be happy to know we plan to look for a new camera now that we have decided that the flash is broken on this one- which will eliminate dark photos like this one!
On Thursday I went for walk with Garry's mom down the street, we even checked out one of the old Mennonite cemetaries (there are ony a few gravestones left- many of these cemetaries were vandalized in Ukraine because of the German on them post-WWII)It was cold outside, windy too.
Garry and his Dad had been busy with getting three loads of hay with Maxim, and after dinner they went to check out heifers for sale. Maxim went and paid for the one they bought and walked her home on Friday afternoon while Garry drove to the airport. She is open(not pregnant), but looks like a big Holstein and Garry checked and she has all her working parts so he saved her from being butchered (they were going to sell her for meat) Now we'll need to get her in calf soon!
It was a pretty long walk- she was from another village. Maxim knocked on the door as he came in, so I ran out and took the picture. Maxim left this morning (Sat) to visit his family for a few days- it is his 21st birthday on Sunday. His mother can take care of him too, he has caught a cold this week.
Today Garry had a few visitors- including some guys from the Canadian-Ukrainain dairy commission- they are very interested in our barn. It rained most of the day. Victor came and picked up milk and then it was Saturday night pizza and McGyver night with just the four of us- the pizza was much spicier than last week when Garry's dad was here for it (he's a meat and potatoes man- no hot stuff!) I have included a photo of Seth and Jonah with their Grandma Verhoog- if you compare it to the photo of us with the lilacs taken in May 2009- you can see our teens have been growing up in the last eighteen months.

Crimean trip-part II

Wednesday morning after breakfast we headed toward Sevastopol for one more sightseeing stop before the trip back to the village. With the help of the trusty GPS we headed into Sevastopol and found the UNESCO world heritage site, Chersonesos. Greek colonists settled in the area around the 6th century BC.
We walked around the grounds seeing the Greek ruins, museum and a restored Orthodox church that commemorates the baptism of the Russian Price Vladimir in 988. The building site is believed to be where early Greeks had built their temples and later Christian churches. The church was restored and opened about 10 years ago; it was turned into a museum in early Soviet days, and had been open to the elements since sustaining extensive damage in WWII. It has an upper and lower sanctuary and is beautiful inside, and has a photo display explaining the building’s history on the walls of the steps to the upper floor (in 3 languages- English included) The statue outside the church is of Saint Andrew (the disciple) who is believed to have first evangelized the area.
There were a number of English-speaking tour groups on site- we even found the Mennonite Heritage tour group from Canada among them and talked to a few people. We ”overheard” an English-speaking guide when we first arrived, learning about the mint site, and the restored church while following a group from England.
Then we toured the medieval Greek collection, which along with items of everyday use like pottery (pictured), gaming dice, coins and tools included many Christian items in the collection with pieces of church decoration and crosses. One of the museum ladies noticed we spoke English and gave Garry a binder to use as the titles were in Russian.
After that we checked out the theatre (you can see Garry and his parents sitting in the top row of seats- it was in use from 3 century BC- 6th AD when it was filled in and Christian churches were built over it- the remains of one are standing. Finally we wandered among the uncovered foundations to the left of the entrance inside the two walls that provided protection for the city, before heading to the car and the long drive home around noontime.
Reading the booklet we bought in the way home, I decided we could have headed over the hill by the church toward the seashore for more ruins, but we can check those out when we take the boys in the springtime.
We found a buffet-style restaurant and filled up with gas(we even found a LukOil- Garry just got a 15% discount card last week) in Simferopol (the capital city in the middle of Crimea) around 2 o’clock and Garry happily passed cars and talked about childhood memories until we arrived in Zaporosia (25 Km to go) about 7 pm and made a quick stop for some cheeseburgers, Big Macs, and fries – we even got the boys some to take home- that’s where I took the night time photo of the city lights around 7 pm.
Arriving in the village at 7:30, Victor told Garry he had a surprise-so Garry and his father went out to the barn to check how things looked after being away for three days. Garry knew that the manure had been hauled to the field while he was gone. It turned out that Zera had just calved (too bad it is a bull calf- Garry was hoping for a heifer, of course.) Thursday morning they were up early, and got the last three loads of hay back here before lunch.

The Alupka Hotel-

I have included some photos of our hotel room at the Alupka Hotel, in case you wonder what a Ukrainian hotel room would be like. This was the mid-priced room, which included TV (Russian language satellite) mini-fridge, a bathroom , with the double bed tucked in the alcove behind next to the window wall (our 2nd floor view was a street overhead- behind the hotel- with the window closed the second night I didn’t hear the traffic) It had the "possible additional bed"- (that’s what was written in the English brochure she showed us at check-in) the couch-like one near the wardrobe- it would be great if you had a child along. The towels, duvet cover/top sheet, and two comforters were in the wardrobe. The top sheet was folded under the blanket in the hotel we stayed in Sudak last year- I think it’s to prove that you got fresh bedding!
Garry and Clay had stayed in a junior suite on the ground floor in August- which had two beds and air-conditioning- a real bonus as it was 40 C (100F) there was only one availiable this time. It seemed that the movie crew filming at the palace was staying at the hotel also- on the third floor, you could hear them getting ready for the day about 4 am, and Garry saw them trying to park the large number of rental trucks on the narrow side street at 9 pm Tuesday night after we had finished dinner- the food was great and not terribly expensive at nearby Karumba! the pirate-themed restaurant, ate there both evenings.
We got the breakfast-included price for our rooms (even after the lady came up to say she made an error and needed another 100 grivina – the rooms were very inexpensive for North Americans)you just give the tickets to the lady at the cafe in the front of the hotel. The hotel is a little hard to find on the winding narrow streets, but we recommend it!
Ukrainian breakfast is not the same as a North-American one ( unless you go to McDonalds- morning is the only time they are empty, even with the special McFresh Mc Muffin- one with sausage patty, cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and lots of mayo- I think they sell more ice cream cones on summer mornings.) It was a great breakfast, the first morning with had bread, with butter and cheese, tea, two fried eggs and really tasty syrnecki (think a little fried cake with raisins and sweet cottage cheese in the center.) The second morning our bread and tea came with bowls of oatmeal cooked with raisins and a second entree of blinini- you can see Garry’s parents eating breakfast- they enjoyed the blinini – thin pancakes with a sweet cream sauce.

Our Crimean Trip- part one

We are home from our trip to Crimea with Garry's parents- if you are not familiar with the different parts of Ukraine, Crimea is south of the main part of the country and is on the the Black Sea. It is the same Crimea of the Crimean War and Stalin loaded up the native Tatar poplutation into cattle cars during WWII and sent them to Uzbekistan, many have returned to Crimea since independence. It seems that the USSR gave it to Ukraine as part of an anniversary celebration so they took it with them when they left. There is still a Russian naval base in Sevastapol (last winter they got the lease extended for 40 years I think- in a cheaper gas for Ukraine deal- natural gas is very important in this country as most people cook and many heat with it.)
Anyway we drove down there on Monday morning and after a stop in the rain to check out the dried fish for sale near the "border" (Crimea does not really have a border crossing- it is there from the old days- but it is a little like Quebec) The weather was overcast when we had lunch at a Tatar restaurant in Bachisarai- then we visited the Khan Palace, you can see Garry's mother Mary checking out the Fountain of Tears made famous in a Pushkin poem.
After visiting friends we headed toward Alupka where we had hotel resevations. We got off-course but did not realize it as Garry turned on the GPS enroute and it said we were heading to Alupka. We wereas the road twisted and turned its way over the mountains, we twisted through the yellow leaved forest, through some rain and fog, meeting the occasional car or van, we began to worry that there would not be a way down and we would have to repeat the trip. Finally we came out of the fog - and Garry made us get out and admire the view as we were on the famous scenic overlook of Yalta. It was dark before we were down, and Garry managed to find the Hotel Alupka without taking a wrong turn(an amazing feat if you knew how many turns down narrow street was involved) he had stayed there in August with Clay, one of the members of the Summer English Institute team- and it took an hour to find in daylight that first time! After a late (8 o'clock) dinner at a nearby restaurant we headed to bed.
In the morning we headed out on a walk to a nearby park after breakfast and were amazed at the view up toward the mountain! The park was full of huge (and unusual) trees, swan ponds, and was the upper grounds of the Alupka or Count Vorontsov's Palace which we also toured. Built in 1828-1848 it looks like an English castle with some some other influences including India, in some ways it was even grander than Livadia Palace that we toured in the afternoon. The blue drawing room was incredible with white stucco flowers on the blue tinted walls and gilt and white Russian Empire style funiture. We could not tour some rooms as there was a movie crew on site, we think the guys inside the front entrance (their coats read security on the back in yellow letters)were extras for the film which is a comedy set in Napoleanic times. There are three sets of lions going down the terrace which overlooks the sea.
We took a taxi back as the rain was coming down as we walked out of the grounds, and then took the taxi to Livadia Palace (the white palace in one photo) which has a large display about the Yalta conference (think WWII- Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin) and has a display about the last czar and his family who built and used this palace as their summer residence. We also toured the palace church.
After lunch at a lovely (and expensive)Ukrainain-style restaurant, we had the taxi take us down to the Yalta waterfront where Garry's mom got her feet wet in the Black Sea, and we all got wet as the rain came down a little later - we headed into Mc Donald's where they enjoyed coffee and we all had raspberry pies. The sun came back out and we worked our way back up the embankment and finished the afternoon with a stop at the Swallow's Nest castle - the taxi dropped us right by the back gate.

Sunday

Garry was up early to feed the cows, and his Dad went out to help before breakfast. We left for church just after nine am, getting there with a few moments to spare. It was cool in church this week- after the temperature dropped to 6 C on Friday, it has not warmed up. After the three hour church service (it was a communion week) we took Garry’s parents to Puzata Hata for lunch.
After lunch as we were driving around the block to go to the art market, we drove by the big Orthodox church, and Garry took his parents in to see the beautiful interior. There was a wedding taking place as they went in, and I snapped a photo as they came back out. In Ukraine official weddings take place in a government wedding building, but some couples have a second religious ceremony.
Then we walked up and down the art market- Dad’s ears were getting cold, since he was wearing a sweater over his dress shirt. Hard to believe that he was wishing he had packed shorts on Wednesday! Some of the sellers were wearing gloves as there was a rather cold wind blowing this afternoon. We made a few small purchases for Christmas presents. Garry turned the heat on high as we drove through more of downtown, past the circus building and over the bridge- you can see the view from the bridge in one photo.
We picked up a few groceries for Seth, Jonah and Maxim as the four of us are off to Crimea in the morning until Wednesday. Victor will be out to check on things on Monday as we are leaving very early – we plan on having lunch with friends down there, and then going to a hotel near Yalta. Hopefully all will go well here while we are gone, and there will no problems with the cows. (that’s what Garry is thinking)The boys have promised to get all their schoolwork done, eat good food and hopefully clean up after themselves (that’s me thinking)

Milk sales

In yesterday’s photos you may have noticed our current milk cooling system. Garry has not yet located a milk tank (like at home with automatic refrigeration) so we are cooling milk the old-fashioned way- like most of Ukraine. Garry bought the water tank – and milk cans from the lady farmer who sold us the herd of cows. We are currently doing wage negotiation with the milker ladies, trying to find a way to pay them that everyone can agree on- they want to be paid 7 ½% of the milk sales each- Garry and Victor had understood that they were getting that much between them.
This morning the lady with the van was in to buy milk while it was still dark- last week she picked it up Friday evening, and then did not return until Monday at noon. She used it to make cottage cheese, which she sells in the market along with the milk. Garry found out that she has been selling at the market for 14 years, since she was eighteen.
There was a lot of milk as the other buyer does not come on the weekend either.  So Victor (and his mother-in-law) found people in the city that wanted milk, including his neighbour. So Victor will come out to pick up the milk from Saturday morning and afternoon to sell (and Friday night if it’s here).  He is coming later today as his sister, brother-in-law and mother came to celebrate his birthday.  
Before breakfast Garry got his cards up over the cows so they can go back in the same stalls. You can see them in the photos inside the barn- that big pile in the background of one photo is the pile of hay he's been bringing home. He got the ladies to write the names and their birthdates on them– turns out that a couple cows are ten years old and one is twelve. The cards also show how much milk they are giving and when they will be calving, which will help them get the right amount of grain. Five of the cows are due to calve near the end of December, and about a dozen in January so we will have a lot of dry cows soon. If you don't know- cows get a little vacation from milking for about 6-8 weeks before calving. However Zera the heifer is going to calve in about 2 weeks, and Garry is still looking to buy more cows.
Garry and his father were busy finishing up the steel on the front of the milkhouse. It was a bit tricky as not all the angles are quite straight and they were cutting with tin snips. Garry and Dad got the steel tacked on then drove to Zaporosia before lunch to get more screws- they had borrowed enough to get it up from the sides of the milkhouse (they are colormatched) They ended up with white instead of off-white, but got it all screwed down securely in case the wind blows hard.
Victor came about 6 o'clock with a cake that looks like a hedgehog and his daughter Dasha(she's ten). She had fun checking out the new baby kitten - it's a month old now. They had pizza with us and cake after we sang happy birthday. However Dasha got the present- Papa let her choose one of the boys baby hamster to take home. the little guy is all set up to go home in a 2 liter Pepsi bottle with the top cut off, complete with shavings, some food and a bottle cap of water, as soon as evening milking is finished as Victor needs to get 200 liters of milk for his orders, now they are on their way at 9:30- Dasha remembered her hamster but set down her bag with her cell phone in- guess we'll have to bring it tommorrow- wait-- in comes Dasha- she must have noticed before they got out to the highway!
By the way sorry about how dark some of the photos have been lately- I seem to have a flash problem with the camera- that's why you are seeing alot of outdoor shots- and no photos of the birthday cake!

October already?

It feels like fall today- about 6 degrees C (what's that maybe 50 for the American readers?) with the wind blowing and really damp. Yesterday it was raining in the morning. Garry and I went into Dnepro with his parents after breakfast while the boys worked on their schoolwork. The rain increases the number of cars on the road so traffic was moving slowly as we headed downtown to the Central market.
After checking for laying chickens for sale (we have been talking about getting chickens for eggs- but there weren't any) Garry and his Dad went one way and his Mom and I went the other- wandering past the stalls- they bought everything from sausage and smoked cheese strings to a variety of fruit. Garry's mother tried on scarves and we ended up buying two of them, shampoo, and a tablecloth after we met up with Garry thanks to our cell phones -
"We are standing in the rain next to the hats...where are you?"... "Standing next to the hats inside the building near the fruit and the guys selling pomegranate juice."
Garry had also bought a pair of rubber boots- his feet were soaked, my sneakers were wet too- you had to watch out for puddles and buckets that were being used to catch leaks in the aisles where the roof over the stalls did not quite meet up, and the rain was running in as it became a steady rain through the morning. We were home before three with Garry driving through some puddles, windshield wipers flapping madly (only one speed- we were in the red Lada as the green one was supposed to be painted)
The rain became heavier as the afternoon progressed and it was still pouring when we went to bed after playing Rummikub. I called my father to wish him a happy birthday but the cell phone cut out mid-sentence. I did get to talk for a couple minutes first. I sent Micah an e-mail to say happy birthday since he was coming back from his trip with his brothers to World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin (yes twenty five years ago I had a baby on my Dad's birthday)
Garry went out to check how much water was collecting behind the barn on the cement, he was worried that it might get high enough to come in the barn and get his hay pile wet.
I took some pictures outside this morning- Garry figures we had the two inches that was predicted for yesterday. He went to Zaporosia this morning after breakfast to buy a sump pump to get rid of the giant puddle you can see in the photo. It did get behind the cows but the hay seemed to still be dry. They did not let the cows out for their morning exercise, since they'd be wading over the cement.
It looks like we'll need a little more slag- you can see the tracks the tractor left on its way to the silage pile as he fed the cows this morning. When they got back from the Nova Lenya store, Garry's dad tried to turn on the lights in the hall and it wouldn't work- the power went out here shortly after nine and come on (on the third try) at 12:20. We had one last meal featuring fresh sweet corn today- looks like we'll have frost this week.
They went to work on installing the doors on the miilkhouse, and got both done - one going outside as shown, and one going into the barn. They plan on finishing the steel on that triangle over the outside of the milkhouse Saturday, the steel is finally in.