A Family Visit - What a blessing!
Since the last blog, we have had guests that arrived and stayed for eight days and are now back home in South Africa. Our son, Roy, his wife, Maria and their amazing daughter, Eve, blessed us with a great visit. We were so happy to see some family again, although we are so thankful for video calls on WhatsApp and Skype. We were able to pick them up at the Zaparosia Airport which is an hour from our place.
It was so neat to see Eve as we last saw her at the end of June last year and she was almost 6 months old. She has changed so much and can say many words in German and English (Maria is from Germany).
While Roy, Maria and Eve were here, we didn't do a lot of travelling around, but just enjoyed being together, making meals together and taking Eve daily to see the calves in Garry and Teresa's yard.
Roy and Maria blessed us one day by cleaning out the raspberry patch. We knew it was there, but it was very difficult to see. Eve liked being out in the yard and visiting our chickens. We bought a little bottle for her to blow bubbles and she enjoyed doing that and watching them float around, although I think her Dad enjoyed it just as much or more.
On Sunday after church, we took them down to Ozerka which is a massive market in downtown Dnipro. It is an amazing place as there are so many different products for sale. Roy loved the environment and would love to have a place like that to shop at. He was able to buy a couple of things and figure out what the product was. Many of the businesses selling food will give you a small sample to see if you like their product.
One day, Roy and Shannon walked out to the dairy barn to get extra milk so they could make mozzarella cheese to go on pizza that Roy and Maria were making that night. It turned out very good, as did the pizza. Roy and Shannon were impressed that they made cheese and it turned out great!
Two days before they returned to South Africa, we went into Dnipro to walk along the embankment of the Dniper River. It is the longest embankment in Europe at 23 kilometers. We ate lunch there and once again made a quick stop at Ozerka.
Last Thursday, we met with our small group at our place for supper. We had a wiener roast, potato salad and chips and then roasted marshmallows to make Smores. After we ate, Roy played the guitar and we sang a few songs together. It was a beautiful evening!
Shannon and I continue to work at the yard. Since we are getting a new gas line put into the house, we took down the old line to make a trellis for the two rows of grapes we have in the back yard. There was a metal trellis at one time, but the former owner's son cut out the trellis so he could sell the metal. Today, we cemented the two end posts to each row in place and tomorrow we will string a line to get the middle posts at the right height. We will then weld the 40 foot pipe to make our trellis. Once that is done, we are going to put on two coats of paint and it should be ready for the vines to stretch upwards.
The last few days, some of the students trenched a summer water line in for us to the well. We also put a tap in so that we can water the garden and flowers. The regular water is quite salty, so it will be a nice change.
Saturday night, we lost our water for a day and a half. The pressure switch control died on us. Once we got the switch on Monday and it began to rain, Max and his brother Artom, got the switch installed and we had water again. We take running water for granted until it isn't there.
We had another Russian lesson yesterday with Ulzana. Shannon continues to gain ground and I seemed to have hit a road block. The key is to keep pressing forward one day at a time and hopefully the light will come on one day.
We had a very good rain last night. We had about 7/10 of an inch that added to the 3/10 we had a few days ago, so we have had good rainfall lately. The second cut of alfalfa will soon be ready to be cut.
As we look ahead, Scott is preaching at Morningstar Church this coming Sunday. And July is now staring us down as we prepare for Summer English Institute (SEI). We both know what we are going to teach on, but the challenge is preparing 15 days of classes. We will both be doing 4 classes a day over that period.
It was so neat to see Eve as we last saw her at the end of June last year and she was almost 6 months old. She has changed so much and can say many words in German and English (Maria is from Germany).
While Roy, Maria and Eve were here, we didn't do a lot of travelling around, but just enjoyed being together, making meals together and taking Eve daily to see the calves in Garry and Teresa's yard.
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| Roy & Eve delivering gifts...popcorn, peanut butter and chocolate chips and more |
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| Going to the barn to get milk |
Roy and Maria blessed us one day by cleaning out the raspberry patch. We knew it was there, but it was very difficult to see. Eve liked being out in the yard and visiting our chickens. We bought a little bottle for her to blow bubbles and she enjoyed doing that and watching them float around, although I think her Dad enjoyed it just as much or more.
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| Roy and Eve blowing bubbles |
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| Eve and Papa Scott |
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| Eve feeding Garry's geese some grass |
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| Roy searching for cherries |
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| Family photo |
On Sunday after church, we took them down to Ozerka which is a massive market in downtown Dnipro. It is an amazing place as there are so many different products for sale. Roy loved the environment and would love to have a place like that to shop at. He was able to buy a couple of things and figure out what the product was. Many of the businesses selling food will give you a small sample to see if you like their product.
One day, Roy and Shannon walked out to the dairy barn to get extra milk so they could make mozzarella cheese to go on pizza that Roy and Maria were making that night. It turned out very good, as did the pizza. Roy and Shannon were impressed that they made cheese and it turned out great!
Two days before they returned to South Africa, we went into Dnipro to walk along the embankment of the Dniper River. It is the longest embankment in Europe at 23 kilometers. We ate lunch there and once again made a quick stop at Ozerka.
 |
| Along the Embankment |
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| Along the Embankment |
Last Thursday, we met with our small group at our place for supper. We had a wiener roast, potato salad and chips and then roasted marshmallows to make Smores. After we ate, Roy played the guitar and we sang a few songs together. It was a beautiful evening!
Shannon and I continue to work at the yard. Since we are getting a new gas line put into the house, we took down the old line to make a trellis for the two rows of grapes we have in the back yard. There was a metal trellis at one time, but the former owner's son cut out the trellis so he could sell the metal. Today, we cemented the two end posts to each row in place and tomorrow we will string a line to get the middle posts at the right height. We will then weld the 40 foot pipe to make our trellis. Once that is done, we are going to put on two coats of paint and it should be ready for the vines to stretch upwards.
The last few days, some of the students trenched a summer water line in for us to the well. We also put a tap in so that we can water the garden and flowers. The regular water is quite salty, so it will be a nice change.
Saturday night, we lost our water for a day and a half. The pressure switch control died on us. Once we got the switch on Monday and it began to rain, Max and his brother Artom, got the switch installed and we had water again. We take running water for granted until it isn't there.
We had another Russian lesson yesterday with Ulzana. Shannon continues to gain ground and I seemed to have hit a road block. The key is to keep pressing forward one day at a time and hopefully the light will come on one day.
We had a very good rain last night. We had about 7/10 of an inch that added to the 3/10 we had a few days ago, so we have had good rainfall lately. The second cut of alfalfa will soon be ready to be cut.
As we look ahead, Scott is preaching at Morningstar Church this coming Sunday. And July is now staring us down as we prepare for Summer English Institute (SEI). We both know what we are going to teach on, but the challenge is preparing 15 days of classes. We will both be doing 4 classes a day over that period.
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