Together again

 

After hours of flying and showing my documents to land in Ukraine at every airport, Garry picked me up in Kyiv Monday afternoon. I was hungry so we stopped at Mc Donalds before getting on the highway. 

Interesting story once I got to Kyiv, I used my vaccine certificate to enter the country, after the Air Canada lady said my record of vaccination wouldn't work becase I wasn't two weeks after my second shot yet. I knew that, but I still needed to fly sooner, because my Ukrainian resident card was expiring on July seventh. I had gotten a test as backup, so I had used that in all three airports because they had to check documents before boarding every time.

The drive back went well, we are still taking an alternative route to and from Borispol airport because that bridge that was out when I left is still under construction. Garry made good time with a decent four lane highway for a good part of the trip. We made it across the not as good roads without any tire trouble. Ukraine is looking green with all the rain so far this year. The road was wet when we got to the village, but we didn't have to drive through a lot of rain, just the occasional shower.

The day after we went into Dnepro so Victor could help us with getting my documents redone for the year. We went out for lunch, pizza and salad, to celebrate our anniversary earlier this month.  I actually slept well the first two nights, not as good Wednesday even after grocery shopping and  canning ten jars of pickles and ten of jam, six chocolate cherry and four chocolate raspberry, trying out some new recipes.   Now it's four am Thursday morning and it's getting light out, the roosters are crowing in the village.                                                                           

and then it rained

 Sunday evening a thunderstorm rolled over the village with half an inch of rain. Another inch fell overnight, giving the alfalfa a good start on growing third cut hay. Of course, Garry was wanting to get the irrigation system going to get some urea fertilizer on the corn. Monday and Tuesday they finished getting the big field ready, although they were worried that they wouldn't get enough water pressure because there was a big leak in the pipe before the neighbors field. However they were able to get started and they had a ton on the field by five o'clock Wednesday. Garry tells me he walked the first layflat hose line and there were a number of driplines that had to be reattached. With the fields already wet from rain, he had a lot of mud stuck to sandals by the time he got done. 

The guys got half the smaller field connected to the layflat, Garry's hoping to get fertilizer on both fields quickly, because there is  rain in the forecast again, with a lot of rain predicted for Sunday and Monday. Luckily they missed the storms Tuesday that hit Dnepro and Zaporosia with hail.


Garry has a load of concrete coming Friday morning, so he was going to the barn early on Canada day to get more of the driveway between the dairy barn and the "old" heifer ready to pour. What a way to celebrate our wedding anniversary, this is the first year we've been apart in 43. 

If you're thinking I should be there by now, that was the original plan. I changed my flight last week to the fourth of July so I could get my second covid immunization. Which I got today, feeling a little feverish twelve hours later, but it's nothing like having the real thing!

I've also been able to spend more time with the kids and grandkids, including camping and hiking over the weekend. When I was out of breath on an uphill climb, I thought six weeks ago I was out of breath walking slowly around an airport, so I guess I am getting better. 

More hay

 They baled 3500 bales of alfalfa, and 1500 bales of oatstraw with more of that to do Saturday. Might rain Saturday night.

Haying

 Today they got a thousand bales of alfalfa baled. Tomorrow they will start on the oat bales. 

Garry also got a photo of him in the corn field so you can see how it's grown.

 

He also sent me a photo of some WWII shrapnel they found in the field.

Back to work

After a busy week in Kramatorsk,  Garry drove back to Dnepro leaving his apartment at four am Saturday. Pastor Yuri rode along with Garry because he was teaching at the Bible School in Dnepro that morning. Garry got busy as soon as he returned to the village. He got a call to breed a cow for someone before he even got home.

He picked the peas in the garden and got a bowlful to freeze. While he was gone they had gotten the driplines in the corn fields and started connecting them to the layflat hoses. Garry is anxious to get them ready, not that the plants need water, but the corn needs fertilizer, which they apply during the summer by adding it to the irrigation water. Of course, it rained while he was gone, two and a half inches. They finished connecting the driplines in the large field Tuesday and just have the small field left to roll out the layflat and connect all the driplines now.

Garry decided to mow the hay, starting with the oats in the new alfalfa seeding. (Oats are a nurse crop for the baby alfalfa plants). They are about four feet tall (or about a meter for you metric thinkers) and thick. In fact, it's still too wet to bale yet on Wednesday, but they will start baling the older alfalfa field. It was 24 degrees at seven am with a predicted high of 33, so it will get drier. Sunday when they started mowing the forecast was calling for rain midweek but now it's moved the rain to Sunday.

He even made cherry jam Sunday afternoon with Alona and Vika stirring the pots. They also helped make salads for Monday's student dinner. They managed to not get rained on this week. 

Almost a Vacation

 Garry had been looking forward to his trip to Kramatorsk to teach English at Pastor Yuri's camp (VBS). He thought he'd have a restfull week, teaching three 40 minutes English classes for five days, living in an apartment. However, it hasn't gone as he planned.

First, his plan was to make the four hour drive from Dnepro after attending church there on Sunday. Saturday night he discovered that it was this Sunday that he'd promised to help Tanya with her student oral testing, not next Sunday like he thought, and it was from four to six pm. He ended up leaving Dnepro about 7:30, with the van piled full of humanitarian aid from Morningstar church for their sister church. He said he grabbed his suitcase and put it in the front seat so he could find it when he got there.

Which he did about 11:30 Sunday night. His phone GPS worked well for directions until he got to the city. If you don't know where Kramatorsk is, we haven't driven there is years, since the war in the east because it is much closer to the front than we are, in fact, early in the war it was taken over by the non-Ukranian side, but returned to government control before the 'ceasefire'. Anyway, Garry used his tried and true method of finding a place he can't find, he hired a taxi to follow to where he was going.

So he didn't get a lot of sleep before his first day of teaching. Garry is a go to bed at nine guy most days, but he figured he's catch up on his sleep on Monday night. Turns out VBS started in the morning but he was there until lunch at three o'clock. His classes went okay, although he was finding it difficult teaching the youngest group since most of them know very little other than my name is________. They are learning animals with pictures, but the oldest group was easier he said. 

So he got back to the apartment and took a nap in the air conditioning, someone from the church brought him dinner (rice and chicken) and around seven pm, he went to the nearby grocery store to buy something for breakfast. He took the van there, I called him around that time, so I was thinking he'd call back soon when he returned to the apartment.

I got a call from him late afternoon Manitoba time, and was like it must be two in the morning, why are you calling now? He was just getting to bed. When he returned to the apartment area to park, some man started yelling at him about where he'd parked. Parking spots are a problem, since most Ukrainian apartment building were not really planned to have parking for cars, and more and more people have their own car.

Anyway, Garry decided to head up to his rented seventh floor apartment, but the guy got on the elevator with him. Garry figured to avoid confrontation and the guy knowing where he was living by getting off and walking up. As he reached his floor there was the guy with a very large friend coming down from the floor above. They wouldn't let him get to his door, and the big guy punched Garry in the head. 

Garry phoned Yuri, the other guys called the cops and said Garry was drunk and driving to endanger children, and had parked in their parking spot. Garry said he had parked where he had been told to park when he arrived the night before. Garry ended up taking a breathalizer, theycops said there weren't any reserved parking places. Then everyone insisted he go to hospital to get checked out, then they moved him to a different apartment, so that's why he was going to bed at two am.

He got about three hours of sleep before getting up to teach Tuesday, he said the morning sun was bright in the apartment, so he left as soon as he taught his classes and didn't stay for lunch. He picked up a pizza on his way back to the apartment (he says this apartment building is just behind the grocery store, so he can just walk there) where he parked in a muddy spot that no one would want. Then he went to bed until late afternoon, when he went for a short walk. He was going to get some groceries, but a big bang of thunder had him hurrying back after buying a cup of coffee from a kiosk. He said he poured right after he got back to the building.

He'd talked to Max and they had gotten all the dripline in the corn fields and were starting to attach it to the layflat hoses. That takes a while to do, but the irrigation system will be in place soon. Not that they need it yet, I think he said something about Max almost getting stuck in the mud in one field.

Here in Manitoba, the boys were making haylage for the last three days, so I have been doing a lot of baby and Carson watching with daddy mowing hay, and made two field meals besides. There are 12 or 14 guys working on the crew, driving trucks, tractors and choppers, so it's a production to make it and bring it to the fields now. Our daughter-in-laws take turns and I make some when I'm here, too.

More rain?

 

It's like Manitoba and Ukraine have switched weather this month. I have been in the extreme heat, with some huge thunderstorms (and even power outtages) while back in Ukraine, Garry has had cool wet weather. while it's been a little cooler here, his weather hasn't changed much. He had a student dinner outside Monday eveing which ended shortly after the rain started. He said they were still eating when it started but the hotdogs did get cooked over the fire this week.

Early in the week (Tuesday) they got ready to pour the next batch of concrete. Around two o'clock they finally finished getting the ground in front of the 'old' heifer barn level and ready to pour cement.  Garry likes to get a full truck since transportation costs remain the same. The area in front of the feeder gets hard to drive on when it's wet weather so they are upgrading to cement to drive on, and upgrading the maure storage so it holds more than a couple days worth. More cows means more milk made and more manure pushed out every day when they clean the barn, so a taller wall and larger pad is happening too. The truck had been ordered for four o'clock, but they had to cancel it when the skies opened once again and it poured, just as they finished leveling the ground. 

The next day they didn't get much done. Garry went to the city and got his renewal done for his resident card. Mine expires on July 7th, which is why I have a return ticket for June 25th. Victor has to go twice, because you are supposed to do it three weeks ahead. We used to do this in the fall, but every year it

They did have two dry days, and even got back to putting drip line in a couple times, however it is not finished. Thursday they did get the concrete poured, and put drip line in the smaller corn field until the rain came down around four o'clock. The big field isn't finished but they thought it might be wetter. All the fields are a lot wetter now. They got an inch of rain Thursday and another inch today, when the rain started around ten am as they finished taking the forms off.

Garry tells me many sunflower fields have powdery mildew with all the wet weather. So far our fields look good, after we had some problems with it a few years ago, the guys have purchased seed varieties that are resistant to the disease. Garry tells me that someone got the guys to cultivate up their pumpkin field for them, about 75% of the plants were dying, they planned to replant it, however there's been two inches of rain since. 

Hopefully the wheat doesn't have problems with mildew, right now the plants are just starting to look a little yellow in the setting sun I'm told. Also hoping all these rain storms doesn't flatten too much of the fields. The wet grain heads get heavy for the stems and the wind knocks them down. Garry thinks the crop will be ripe two weeks later than last year, with all the cool wet weather they've had. 

Garry tells me the cherries are just starting to ripen and he found two pods on the Chinese peas in the garden. He's worried a bunch will ripen and get old while he's away next week. He is going to Kramatorsk to teach English at the church's kids camp. At least he is feeling better today, he had a bout with food poisoning Thursday afternoon and went to bed right after the cement was done. So the exact timing of Thursday's rain is in question, but he heard it on the roof and there was an inch in the rain gauge this morning.