Tuesday

Another bright and sunny day, we may have exceeded the predicted high of 22 C (71 F for Americans). Some of the guys are getting  too much sun, they even have farmer tans. When Garry suggested we could eat lunch over there at the site last week, I had my doubts that it would work since the weather has been pretty cool/cold, but it has been lovely.

Fresh concrete for the milking parlor

The concrete floor they were finishing last night was dry enough by lunch time to put the walls up that they had pre-built for the addition. When we arrived with lunch, there was a truck full of wood they were unloading and a cement truck that was pouring the parlor walls too! Garry and Andrei missed some of lunch so they could put the rest of the cement in the truck on the freestall curbs with the tractor loader.




 I discovered that chicken noodle soup disappears really fast- the second pot today was cream of potato spinach and it was not as popular, although it all disappeared too. The hot dogs in little dough coats were gone quick too. Thanks to Olga Maslo, who had come out with Victor and got all those hot dogs out of the plastic wrappers for me....every hot dog is individually wrapped, and there were more than 40 of them! Rolling the dough around was the easy part! The ladies/girls at the girls' group home provided a dessert they had made, pierogies (not what you think kind of like a fruit filled doughnut. They have volunteered to made borscht for Thursday, too. Here are some photos I took just after lunch of them putting up the walls and the ladies painting yellow again (blue is next.)

I'm not the only one taking photos

There are 11 holes, they had to built one more on Monday!

Yes, these are the ventilation chimneys that Bonnie and Maria are painting

Masha (Maria) hard at work

One more wall to go!

Many hands make light work

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Up it goes

 Olga said it was very interesting to watch the walls go up so fast, she had not seen anything like it before. The Ukrainian guys that are helping are not so sure than the wind won't blow the building over, since the walls are not made of bricks.

That's AJ, the other dairy farmer in the group

They had the trusses up before they came home for dinner, which was vereniki (you may call them pierogies) potato, potato mushroom and my favorite, cherry filled ones with sour cream. Oh and some pork and veggies.... and brownies for dessert. Everyone was in bed much earlier than Monday night.

Monday

Richard has to share Needles' chair

Monday morning and after breakfast we had devotions. Garry and  farmer Neil were a little late because he went with Garry to artificially inseminate a cow in the village. A lady had knocked on the door during breakfast to get her cow bred.

Bonnie carried over the morning snack to the guys, but I did not get there until we brought lunch over, as usual, so here are the photos I took then...

Lunch is ready! Soup sandwiches and ice tea ...and cookies

Everyone ate at once for the first time

It's someone's birthday....

Ready to pour the floor, and a wall is ready to go up too

Donna the hungry  guard dog 

Windows for the classroom

Licking the soup pot

They even poured cement before lunch today

Here's photos of how the work is progressing... One group has been making new "chimneys" for the barn ventilation - the old rotten ones were taken down the first day. Today they were nailed together and Garry bought blue and yellow paint to put on them (they will look like Ukrainian flags sticking out of the roof) and Bonnie and Maria (who came out to help today) painted them.

Adam was one of the guys nailing

Getting ready to paint

You can have fun while working too, right Caleb?

Two more loads of cement came after lunch, one for the parlor walls and the floor for the milk house/ classroom.

Getting ready to pour the cement walls today, putting the forms together

I made Chinese for dinner, rice and stir-fry, and since it was Chris' 21st birthday, I tried making a cake. I took one layer out too early so we ending up with trifle and cake for dessert.

Chris (the birthday boy) and his dad Jack

last piece of cake

Then some of the guys had to go back in the dark to trowel the cement to finish it. Garry had to bring them more gas, so I went along and took a few photos.

Victor found a power trowel to rent! "like an upside down helicopter"

Working in the dark

Young Neil hard at work with a headlamp troweling

Jack running the machine

It was too wet yet at ten pm...the guys were out there until 2 am.... and were all up by 6:30 to start Tuesday. Victor drove back to the city at 2 am with the machine so he could return it by nine am.

Working on the weekend

Here are some of the tools 

Friday evening Jack and Victor were able to get the last suitcase out of the airport - the one that did not arrive with them with the transformer in- so the guys were able to use all the tools they had brought on Saturday. They look old in the photo, but are brand new, donated by a hardware store. Jack spray painted them a bit to make them go through airport customs faster. It was another big day of getting ready for and pouring cement. Here are some photos I took when we brought lunch over to the barn site.

Garry has a big hammer to pound in stakes

The freestalls will go here, the center needs to be cemented to hold them up

One of the Neals hard at work

Getting the floor of the parlor ready for cement

Bonnie jumped right in to help tie rebar

A couple guys grab some soup and buns ( no bread at the village store!)

 Mostly they grab something to eat fast and keep working, on Friday and Saturday because they have not been ready for the cement to arrive, so they are busy hammering forms in place and tying rebar together .

Hurry hurry

Had to move lunch over so they can get more wood

 One team is working on building the rafters for the addition to the barn, which will be the milkhouse, and have a classroom, change room and toilets for the students.

More than a photographer! 

Another truss is finished!

Jack takes a break with lunch

Removing the forms from Friday's cement pour

It's a little stuck....

 Garry said one of the cement truck drivers was asking him lots of questions about how much he was paying these guys who were working so hard, and could not understand why they would come from Canada to do this so he  got Victor to present the gospel to him. Garry did not think his limited Russian was up to the task.

Pouring the floor of the parlor

 The last cement truck arrived an hour and a half behind schedule, so they were there until long after dark. Dinner was around 7:30 and it was pizza night, They could not eat all 11 pizzas I made so there was some leftover for lunch on Sunday. Most guys fell into bed and had no trouble sleeping... except for the ones who went back over to trowel the cement to get a smooth finish on it, they got showered and into bed late.




Sunday morning they had decided to go to church in the village, so breakfast was at eight am, instead of six; so I made pancakes instead of oatmeal and cereal. After devotions we walked over to the church. Adam, who has been in Ukraine for about six years; translated the meaning of the sermons and speakers really well for us. Garry and are able to sing along in Russian, so one girl passed the visitors a couple of songbooks, but they could not join in, since they do not know the sounds of the Cyrillic letters.

One of the ladies suggested near the end of church that they could find one hymn that we could sing along in English, We sang Amazing Grace for them. They were sure it was in their book, but couldn't find it. Then they found a hymn we could join in and sing in English, How Great Thou Art. Neal the dairy farmer can really sing out (we have two Neals) and the congregation enjoyed it very much. After the service, one older gentleman had Adam translate for him so he could tell the Canadian guests that he always rooted for Canada against the USSR in hockey and thanking Canada for their support in the current crisis in Crimea. He also said that Garry does wonderful things for more villages than just Nikolipolia. I think he said he was from a different village.

After a lunch of leftover pizza and soup that had been simmering (made from leftovers also) the guys went over to the worksite to get ready for Monday's cement work. It was dark before they were home. Garry had to go breed a cow in the village, and one of the dairy farmers, AJ I think, went along and actually bred the cow. Then they had my attempt at Ukrainian cuisine, plof a rice dish, and a salad with carrots. beets, potatoes and mayo. We had Ukrainian soda pop and candies for dessert too.