That top ten cool things about Ukraine list

Top ten cool things you can see or do in Ukraine (and not in Canada)-I've been working on this one all February, trying to get some ideas from the boys for it, so its not just my opinions!

1- See dogs use the crosswalk (and/or cross on the light)- this one is from the boys- sorry I never have my camera to get a good picture of this!
I hear that Ukraine is trying to “cleanup” its semi-friendly homeless dog population for the Euro-Cup, but I don’t know why- they are one of coolest things about Ukraine – people feed them- you can see them tossing dogs bones and scraps, and best of all (with the crazy traffic) those city dogs cross the road at crosswalks, with or without people using them, and even cross at the lights. I think they have figured out the babushka method of crossing the road- stay close to the grandmother while crossing the street- who’d run over a granny?
One of our friends was walking up to a pedestrian crossing where the light wasn't working with a middle-aged Ukrainian woman. There were two twentyish guys standing there- so she said in English they'd go when the boys went. One guy said something in Russian to his friend- turned out they were going across when the babushkas did!

2- Cherry verenikiy -think pyrogies filled with cherry pie filling. In Ukraine they are not pyrogies (that’s a more pie-like thing or a fritter even. But you can get verenikiy filled with kartoshka (potato- Seth and Jonah’s fav), mushroom/potato, and liver/maybe there is potato in there but you can’t taste it (not our favorite- we bought some frozen ready-to-cook ones accidently the first summer and fed them to a stray neighbourhood dog) or cottage cheese. Now we can read some of the ingredients, so we stick to potato.


3- Walking to the store- I think this tops Seth’s list. Everyday in winter, sometimes twice, the boys walk down the street to one of the stores in the village. They buy our daily bread supply but mostly they are there for candy bars, and when its warmer- one of the many kinds of ice cream bars. Jonah wore sandals on his feet until there was snow in December, and I’m sure they will be back on his feet as soon as it melts- like he’ll be ditching his coat for a windbreaker or less.

4- The circus- Near the top of the boys’ lists-as seen in an earlier post in February.


5- You never know what you’ll see on top of/behind a Lada on the highway- Rugs, furniture, lumber and steel, roofing materials, anchored to the front hood and the back of the roof rack. A load of hay like in the photo, or hay in bags on top, animals- cows,pigs, chickens in crates- in a trailer behind, vegetables in a trailer, boxed and tied on top and/or cabbages and watermelons piled to the roof in the back seat of the car is a sight.

6- Shishlik- Ukrainian BBQed meat- stop at a restaurant in the summer, or buy a bucket pre-marinated and really to skewer and cook over a wood fire – Garry likes pork, I like chicken, it comes with skisklik sauce (pretty much ketchup) and thinly sliced raw onions in vinegar.


7- High heels- Ukrainian women get dressed up to leave the house. Yana, the 27 year old that milks for us, gets all dressed up to walk down to the village store- she looks like a different person! Go to the mall and the girls look like models, dressed in the latest fashions, and walking around on incredibly high heels. In fact, many middle-aged women are in high heels, walking the city streets for miles. Garry tells me that the president of Ukraine- recently said that Kiev is the place to be in the spring when the women start to undress and skirts rise- or something like that- I think he was recommending it for a summit.

8- Fruit trees- as written by Jonah-in Ukraine there are apple trees, cherry trees, peach trees, pear trees grape vines and walnut trees and we don’t have very many fruit trees in Canada. In Ukraine people have fruit trees in their front yard and they get a lot of fruit from them because of the warmer climate. (compared to Manitoba anyway!) He missed nectarines- and yes all these grow in our yard, and Jonah loves applesauce.

9- Fruit juices- Ukraine sells more kinds of fruit juice than you can think of- cherry is our favourite (you can mix it with Coke to make cherry coke too), black or red currant, pomegranate, mixed types, green apple types are tart, and even red orange juice. Ukrainians also love to drink compoot- boil some fresh or dried fruit and drink the liquid- with some very cooked fruit floating in it, cherry is most popular, you can get it at Puzata Hata all year.

10-Gassy water- not my choice in drinks, but Ukrainians will tell you it’s good for you to drink in the summertime,when its hot. It really tastes like Alka- Seltzer to me. Some visitors like it a lot- think club soda. I look for the word bez on water bottles- it means less or without, so my water is plain. By the way every product in Ukraine has a label that says bez GMO. Right- that’s no genetically modified ingredients- not sure if everything really is, but it’s got a sticker saying so!

Sunday, Monday...

Sunday morning there were giant snowflakes falling as Garry got the car loaded up with milk to head to Dnepropetroesk for church. There was snow on the road as we got further toward the city, which slowed us down a bit- cars were driving with their lights on, as the snow was looking like a real storm. Of course, it did get over freezing by the time church was over, the snow on the roads and sidewalks melted, and puddles were forming in the low spots.

Daryl Porter was preaching at Morningstar and we were surprized to see both him and Molly in jeans- apparently they had arrived Saturday afternoon, but their luggage had remained in Vienna. It sounds like they will be really busy the whole three weeks they are in Ukraine.



This morning Victor drove out and said it was going to be another spring-like day, the temperature was 6 C when he went past the highway temp sign. However the guys spent most of the day outside with coats, hats and mitts on working on the precept (wagon) that Garry bought in January. After trying to find the part to fix it for a a few weeks, (it came in two pieces) Victor was able to find the part they needed- it was made in Russia, it came in and it turns out they have to do a few modifications to make it fit, so now you can see what the bottom of the wagon looks like. It is supposed to be a forage wagon when they are finished (we hope) So at four in the afternoon, it was snowing again, making a nice dusting over the yard, which was frozen with mud under to slide on in spots, and puddles with a skim coat of ice on top.

You can see the new door that Maxim welded for the shed that is attached to the back of the house- made out of steel and with a lock- it's where they keep the tools. Victor had replacing the wooden door on his list of projects and it got done while we were in Canada. I think the window looks like an easy way in if anyone really wants the tools, maybe they will have to beef it up next.

The Nova Lena (turns out it means New Line- think Home Depot-like)store in Zaporosia where we often went for building supplies - some of the guys from the Steinbach building team went there the first night here with Garry- burned down a week ago Saturday- it was supposed to have started in the paint department with some kind of explosion. No one was hurt but the big box store burned to the ground. There is a slightly smaller one in Dnepro where we can get stuff, but there must be a couple hundred people out of work.

Village celebration

Garry and Maxim went down to check out the celebration taking place around noon in the village. There was a program with singing with the ladies and schoolchildren as you can see in traditional costume. Garry says that the last part of the program there was a tree with eggs hanging from it (in the last photo) and the teacher asked questions and the student who answered correctly received one of the eggs and a handful of candy. From what Maxim tried to explain when we had soup for lunch when they came back, the holiday is to mark the beginning of Lent (no meat eating.) Last year I found out our Russian teacher, like many people in the village, was keeping Lent and took the bus to another village to attend services at the Orthodox church there.

There was a variety of foods from what the guys told me, all the typical Ukrainain dishes- cabbage or potato filled pyrogies. Garry says he didn't think to take a photo of the laden tables- but he said the most impressive thing was all the leftovers still there when everyone was leaving.

Food was provided by a big farmer who recently won a court case against the guy who had the former collective lands under lease- apparently he now only has valid leases for about 100 hectares. Not sure what its going to mean to us- we have valid leases for 36 hectares for the spring, but if we are farming the actual pieces (the other guy had agreed we could use the same amount of easy to reach land that was not planted in winter wheat by him) they will be small pieces all around the village, and in the middle of other fields. He was also providing free vodka (along with the coffee and tea) in an effort to get people to sign their shares over for him to farm (he's offering a deal with payment in product rather like the other guy.)

Monday and Tuesday are also holidays from work it seems to celebrate international womens' day. Victor came out on Friday and gave me a box of candy for womens day- and when he and Garry went to the town office to find out where the two new shares we leased are (signed the papers last week), they brought chocolates for all the ladies who work there- 8 boxes if you are counting. By the way the pieces of land are on opposite sides of the village- one is somewhat close to another one we got before.

Changes

It’s 4:20 in the afternoon and the temperature outside seems to be hovering around the plus 2 C mark (maybe 35 F) with more mud and bigger puddles than yesterday. You can compare the melting around the summer kitchen with yesterday's post. Spring must be here because the neighbour lady has let her chickens out to graze- I have heard the roosters crowing for two days now, and at four I went outside and got them on film checking out our front yard- it’s like we have our own chickens but they never lay eggs over here- she has them well-trained.

Garry has cut back on how much corn silage the cows are getting to eat and increasing the hay – they found out yesterday that they can buy more hay from the same man they bought it from in the fall, as soon as it dries up to move it. They are still getting brewers’ grain and some soybean meal for the high producing cows. Yesterday, the cows almost made it to 600 liters in a day- 596. Maybe today- I haven’t heard the total, and the water bowls may not have froze last night. Yesterday morning it was -17 C and they had to get them working again in the morning, after 2 days of unfrozen ones. Unlimited water whenever you want it is is a good thing- I'm sure the cow in the photo would agree!




In this photo you can see the latest attempt to make ID signs for the cows- they are made of wood with the names on with permanent marker- the calving information is on the duct tape so it can be changed as needed (something both sturdy and removable)
The pretty cards on the wires took a beating from the wind after they went up in October- half of them blew away.

One of the neighbours is coming over and buying brewers’ grains everyday to feed his pigs. The big dairy farmer got part of the load that came on Sunday (instead of Monday like the brewery had told us- we had to hurry back to pay for it) so he could try out the new ration Garry recommended. He must be sticking with it because he had Victor ask if Garry wanted any of the next load (no- we still have plenty piled up- got more than Garry wanted of Sunday’s load- good thing the weather’s cold!)

This morning Garry went to the dentist for his noon appointment and took Needles the cat along to visit a vet in Dnepro for his operation. Needles is- er was a boy, by now I guess, we duct taped the clothes hamper shut to make a cat carrier(Box thought Needles was playing a game inside- she could see him in there). Last night I put the cat food away- the kittens are on the all-you-can-eat system- until he left, the little kitten (who’s female) was happy when the food reappeared. Hopefully all goes well and Needles will be up to playing- or just sitting on Jonah while he’s sleeping soon (this was taken this morning- but he's there on Jonah's bed most mornings!)





Garry arrived home with an awake but wobbly cat. He says the cat threw up on the way home- in the clothes bin- he was a little wet. Good thing I didn't let him eat anything! Needles insisted on climbing up on the radiator behind the Mennonite bench to recover, as you can see in the photo. He was sleeping off the after effects of the drugs there when I finished this entry.

More like spring

It was more like spring today- at least the snow was soft and melting a bit- look you can see bare ground aroung the summer kitchen where the milker ladies live. Polo discovered that the equipment storage shed gets nice and warm with the sun shining inside on the metal sides, he decided it was a great place to nap this morning. There was some soft mud in front of the barn and on the driveway where Garry was driving the tractor to load up the manure to take to the field (they are piling it there for spreading when spring really arrives- and it dries out.) I think he was trying to show Maxim that the job could be done faster- of course everything goes faster when Garry is driving! Victor was along for the ride, but was going to speak to a visitor that had walked up the lane.




Meanwhile Maxim was busy welding the supports (onto the stalls)for the lines for the vaccuum system for milking the cows with machines- the day will come sometime this spring. We need to get machines and a milk tank ordered and bought. Garry wants to see the one the company in Dnepro wants to sell him before ordering- it looks really short and flat in the flyer they emailed, so he wants to see one in person. I took a photo of the pipes all welded together when I went out this afternoon. It looks a little short- but maybe they were thinking of short people milking the cows- I remember how far I had to reach up on my toes while milking with the pipeline in the old tie stall barn!
The pictures of the vaccuum line are at the bottom of this post, along with one of the four heifer calves that were born in our January heifer calf streak. The big December heifer calf is closer to the door, along with Zera's bull calf from October.

Yana decided to move the calves she bought from us over to her parents place (she bought so much milk for them besides buying the two calves that she got a very small paycheck this month)- Victor drove her and the calves there this afternoon- they put plastic in the back of the Lada and tied their feet so they couldn't jump around - I didn't check how it looked when they got back- at least one calf was trying to flood the back of the car before they left. Max had gone to get traveling papers for them earlier in the week at the mayor's office because the original plan was to move them all the way to her parents new place about a 2 1/2 hour drive instead of ten kilometers! Did you know if the police stop you in Ukraine you have to prove the stuff in your car is yours, so if you don't have papers proving ownership or a receipt you could be in big trouble.

Photo trip to Dnepro

Today it was bright and sunny as we drove into Dnepropetroesk for team meeting and a dentist visit to get the braces checked out. I just snapped the photo of the crows in the field as we were going past- the whole field was black birds as far as you could see. They are the most common bird to see in the winter, except in the city where there are pigeons. There are several types of crows, one has gray around the beaks, another is gray on the throat and wings, and of course the plain black ones, many of them are hanging on the edge of roads in villages, since there are goodies to find where there is less snow.




I took a number of photos as we drove through Dnepro over the bridge to the left bank for our meeting, it got up to -4 today so there was slush and water as roads and sidewalks melted. But the wind was blowing, people are pretty bundled up yet as they get around in the city. There is a good deal of snow and ice on the Dneiper River, as you can see it the pictures I took going over the bridge. The restaurant sign on the river bank says in English that its a "meat house" I think they were going for steakhouse? Sometimes when theings get translated into English they don't quite get what we'd use - like the restaurant menus in English- a calzone is a closed pizza.

Garry heard on the news that Ukraine had to buy a lot of gas for heating with the recent February cold spell. In the city you can see some smoke stacks billowing- I think they burn coal for the city heated pipes system. I took a photo of one of my favorite apartment buildings (above) on the left bank side of the city- I'm sure it was built during the 1960's with the rocket mural on the side. The shiny mirrored building that reflects the buildings on the other side of the road is the Kino - movies.

Not spring yet

Apparently in some schools in Ukraine today there were ceremonies welcoming spring. Unfortunately it isn't quite here yet- it's snowing a little for the second night in a row.

The good news is that is has warmed up enough that the water did not freeze to the cows last night in the barn- no thawing pipes this morning, and the cows could drink all night. Milk production should go up....as the price we get starts going down- rumour has it it will be down to 3 grivna a liter soon. Garry is thinking we may need to find more people who want to buy it at 5 when we bring it to the city. He was at the dentist on Monday and they used to get milk, sour cream and cottage cheese delievered for people at the office there. So Garry is wondering if the neighbour's wife might be interested in making some to sell from our milk. That way we could sell some at a higher price this summer when the price drops to 2 grivna a liter.



Last night we went to a pro basketball game in Zaporosia and met a couple American players and their families. Ukraine teams pay well apparently, the one guy has played in three other countries in previous years. They can have 6 "imports" on their teams. One was from New Jersey and the other from Texas. The home team won the game and it was an exciting game to watch. There was a big drum being pounded for most of the game, and cheerleaders that came out in a different outfit for every timeout and game break to dance to mostly American music. They had long-sleeved traditional looking Ukrainian shirts and red satin cheerleader-like skirts to start, but got more undressed for the next round. I forgot the camera- sorry no photos!

They had become aquainted with the missionaries we know in Zaporosia, and tonight Garry and I went to dinner with them and the Americans, and had a good time. They are ready for some warmer weather too, hopefully it arrives before the end of the month, when the wives and kids are flying home. After all March is supposed to come in like a lion and out like a lamb.