Some photos of the farm

Now you can see what Garry's been doing (with Maxom and Jonah) while I was gone- at least the results! Here is the view of behind the summer kitchen (for those who have been here this year- where the lean-to roof fell in last winter)Unfortunately when they were cleaning up the block wall collasped on the side of the other shed they were keeping so the roof is supported by bracing until it can be rebuilt, as you can see. I didn't take a photo of the other driveway - the little shed over there is gone, so the driveway will be straight now.
The corn silage pile is under that white plastic, and the chopper Garry borrowed from the Ukrainain- Canadian Dairy Commission is in some of the other photos as it has not been picked up yet for someone else to use. Garry says it worked perfectly.

Now Garry and Maxim are working on the concrete pad for the manure storage- in the photo they are forming up the wall for the end. Seth and Jonah helped them mix cement to finish the floor as they were short about 6 yards when they poured two loads from the cement truck on September 1st. Maxim will keep making sections of wall while we are gone to Crimea for a few days.

Back in the U....

Did you know that Ukrainians do not like it when you say "the Ukraine" instead of "Ukraine"? It's a country no longer part of the USSR is the reasoning I heard from my English students the first year we came for Summer Institute. I hear "the Ukraine" all the time in Canada, so if you are planning a visit here, remember it's just Ukraine.
Anyway Seth and I are back in the village, getting to Dnepropetroesk just before midnight on September 1st on the train. Garry and Jonah met us at the station with all our baggage. I just made my connection in Frankfurt (the plane was delayed out of Toronto) and long lines at passport control took an hour to get through in Kiev, so Denis and Seth were beginning to think that I had missed the plane! They had no problems with their flights and breezed through customs.
Garry and Jonah attended the school opening ceremony in the village on the morning of the first, where all the first graders are presented to school by their parents (he said that he felt funny in his shorts as the parents were all dressed up) in their little suits, them after some presentations and introductions of the classes, a little girl ringing a big bell led the classes into the school. All the students in Ukraine wear suits - black dress pants for boys, skirts for girls, white shirts and black jackets.
There was some rain last week and again on the first, some of the millet has sprouted (Garry dug some up to look) now we will see if it has enough moisture and heat to do someting in the next 6 weeks to get a crop to cut for silage.
Anyway we are heading to Crimea for a couple days of vacation before starting school next week.

Garry bought a cow!

Garry bought his first bred heifer last week- a Russian red one, the kind you see most often in our area of Ukraine. We found out Holsteins are more popular between Livy and Kiev when driving across Ukraine in June. He is going to be looking at more for sale on Monday. Maxim is helping him buy them as Victor is on vacation with his family- except Denis who is flying back on Tuesday along with Seth. He has enjoyed his visit to Canada. I found out that my granddaughters even include him in their prayers along with their uncles.
I am flying back on Tuesday but on different airlines than the boys- we are supposed to meet up in Kiev to take the train- I am supposed to land on September 1st at 1:30 local time with the boys getting there at 11:30 am. So I am busy packing and enjoying time with the family here as time grows short. My camera is full so pictures to come... this week I painted a Noah's Ark mural in the church nursery in Piney, and took the girls (2 and almost 4) overnight to Aunt Jessy's for Corn and Apple Festival in Morden.

Quick note from Manitoba

Yes here I am in Manitoba, at the end of a busy Monday- I went to Piney and painted most of a mural for the church nursery and tagged along as four of our sons played church league slow pitch. Meanwhile Garry is just getting up on Tuesday morning. He was busy last week and has his corn silage chopped and the pile covered. He planted the field of millet and if it rains soon in Ukraine he will have a crop to make silage from.
I have one more week of fun here before I fly back to Kiev. Our son Seth and Denis D. leave the same day- different airline, before you know it we will be starting schoolwork. But for now I get to enjoy comments like- (on seeing a blue vein when trying to pull off my sock)"Coloring! Grandma who drawed on you?" from Havilah age 2.

Post # 100- two different Sundays

I just noticed that this will be post #100 when I was logging in- wow it seems like I have been talking a lot in the last year, since most of the posts have been in the last 13 months! You may have noticed that Jonah and I were playing with the blog page last week and changed the background and some of the fonts. Let us know if you like the old plainer look or the clouds better!
Well this Sunday our little family of four were split up by half a world and half a day- Garry and Jonah went to church in Dnepro after breakfast at Mc Donald's (air conditioning) and sat in a very hot church- they had a translator for the sermon- one of the Nigerian medical students that attend Morningstar, a great guy who has become very proficient at Russian, he even leads praise and worship singing. Inspiration for those who are struggling to learn Russian! Then they went home and cooked frozen french fires with cheese and put some of the salsa I made before I flew to Canada on Friday.
Meanwhile the rest of the family were still sleeping here in Manitoba- but we woke up to about a cool wet morning- maybe 15 degrees C. Seth wore a long sleeved shirt, and the little girls had sweaters on. We all (daughter Jess and all her other brothers and Garry's parents visiting from Ontario) went to Piney to hear Matt (eldest son/ pastor/ new dad) preach from the book of Amos- follow the Lord and turn away from evil. After church we went over to Matt and Kari's for lunch (we brought most of it) for a another family dinner - - before Garry's parents headed off in their motor home to go to Yellowstone. They last went camping there when Garry was in high school(1973?) with a station wagon and six kids - one still in diapers, so it may be more relaxing this time! we had dinner all together at the farm the night before- when Xaris (almost 4) thanked me for the chocolate cake "Grandma thanks for coming from Ukraine to make cake"
I had an interesting time coming here- about 20 hours of flights/airports after leaving Kiev at 5:30 on Friday morning(the 13th - tickets were cheaper) but arrived in Winnipeg at 6 pm through the magic of time zones. The day before Garry put me on the to Kiev about 1 in the afternoon, you can really see the corn crops are turning brown with the lack of rain- some areas are worse than others- one place there was a firetruck and guys with shovels fighting a fire on the side of the road- many fields had a firebreak plowed around them to prevent crop loss from careless smoking. I also saw some greener corn go by in the back of a truck- chopped for silage, closer to Kiev. The bus stopped a couple times to let people off, twice at bus depots, a couple more times at villages closer to Kiev, twice for the car sick boy and his Mom to get off and once for the little girl who got to pee on the side of the road with her mother's help. It did have air conditioning as promised, so it was OK- I arrived at the airport about 8 pm and waited until 3:30 am to start going thorough the lineups for loading- no sleep but I did get a little on the planes. But no problems at customs anywhere and I arrived on schedule and got to see baby Keziah Friday night- she was at the farm with her sisters to welcome me home after Jess picked me up at the airport!

Photos of that

Here's Garry putting up the cupboards he assembled for the milkhouse, and the field of corn he hired a farmer to grow for silage- he hopes to get a chopper to use to cut it on the 20th of August. For some reason the new blogger editor did not give the option of loading photos, so here they are - Teresa

Hot off the presses

It was 43 degrees C Sunday afternoon- or if you think like me 109.4 F- I admit I have a general awareness of the metric world but my mind still understands American-style better. It is still hot- really wish the Lada had air conditioning- unfortunate that the saleman said it could be installed later- one year later and still not an option. We did put one in our bedroom which with the door open during the day cools the living room down.
Garry is busy with the baler fixing guys today- they have been here since 8 am and it is 6 pm. They have made progress at luchtime but found more things to fix on it. There was thunder and clouds this afternoon, but the rain missed the village and went to Dnepropetroesk.
I have been putting up the garden- making salsa and freezing corn, as Thursday at noon I will be getting on a bus (with A/C) for a 8 hour drive to the airport in Kiev. Then 20 hours of airports- flying and I'll be in Winnipeg.
Maxim is off to church camp in Crimea this week- quiet round here. Garry has been working on getting some of the milkhouse set up done, including putting together some cabinets for it. We went to Zaporosia last night to pick up some plumbing supplies and the store was incredibly hot inside- new store but the AC must not work well.
Note- Thursday am cooled off last night- 20- although no rain. Baler fixing guys are supposed to be back to give it one more try today- I'm going to finish packing my bag!