Work Team

The men from Salmon Arm, BC arrived here about 10:45pm on Tuesday and went straight to bed! Breakfast all week is at 7am at Garry and Teresa's, followed by a devotional and prayer. Work usually began at 8am.

Lunch is hauled down to Yana's house and is usually soup and sandwiches and includes all the students who are working that day. Suppers are back at our house or Verhoog's, depending on who is cooking that day, and is generally just the Canadians (and the girls who live at Garry and Teresa's).

Lunch at the job site

There are a number of projects on the go, the main one being Yana's house. (Yana is the Barn Manager and has worked for Garry since he bought the herd of cows from her former employer about 9 years ago.) It had been totally gutted and some concrete poured last week, as well as some studs put up to frame in new interior walls. This week there is insulation, wiring, drywall and mud happening on the inside.


Yana's kitchen through demolition dust

Leila sweeping up debris in the future bedroom
 

The empty kitchen

Looking through the living room into the bedroom

Drywall going up

Outside in the yard is a work zone, too. A new septic tank was dug and lined with bricks and a new cistsern was dug, both by hand!! There is work happening over at the dairy barn, too. A heifer shed is in progress. Scott has been over there helping take off forms, installing a steel beam, and setting up forms for more concrete.

Jack measuring the depth of the septic tank. It's 11 feet deep!

Vasa digging the cistern

The heifer shed in progress

Forms coming off

Max welding the steel beam

Raising the beam without a crane

 

 

I have kept busy at home doing some cooking of evening meals, some yard work in preparation for a new fence along the street (which is another project on the go this weekend), helping Scott clean up the construction debris from our back yard, and a bit of language study.

Our first flowers - crocuses, with bees buzzing inside!

A different variety

Wednesday morning Scott, Mick and I went to Dnipro. All three of us needed to order new glasses and Scott had a dentist appointment. Victor drove us to a little optical shop and was a busy translator for each of us. We can only imagine how long the process would be without Victor's gracious services! They dropped me off at Ozerka (huge market) so I could get a few groceries and some fabric to make aprons for the milking parlour. The clerk in the fabric store even spoke a bit of English! After I had made all my purchases, I took the tram to the mall where the dentist's office is located. I got to read my book while I waited for Scott to be finished. The dentist was able to rebuild his tooth for a fraction of the cost of a root canal and crown! Then it was home to make supper for the team!

Ozerka. This is the view of the fresh meat area.

Wednesday evening a young man (Glab) and his father (Radion) arrived from near Kramatorsk. Jack (from Salmon Arm) has been Skyping with him for a long time (1.5 years) teaching him English. They listened intently to the devotionals and testimonies in the mornings and talked with Nellie, the translator. We trust the God is doing a work in their hearts. They left this morning after breakfast. It is a full day's drive over some pretty bad roads to get home.

Relaxing before supper

 

Relaxing after supper

The days are long and hard for the team!

Late last night (Friday) Pastor Yuri and a group of ladies from a church in Kramatorsk arrived. We got three extra guests who slept on the hide-a-beds in the living room. They came to build relationships with Glab and his father, (and to help with some of the work, too!) but the time for that was very short! (Maybe a little mix up in communications somewhere!)

The breakfast crowd

 

 Notice the incubator on the table

Today is a very cool, windy day after a thunderstorm last night. The ladies are cutting wood and building fence panels for the new fence that is to go up in our front yard to keep the neighbourhood cows out when they make their way to the pasture in a few weeks. The men are continuing the work at Yana'a and at the barn. I'm helping with lunch (left over Plov - a yummy rice dish - from supper last night), doing some laundry, office work and studying Russian - all in the comfort of a warm house!! (Scott put on as many layers of clothing as he could before going to work at the barn!)

After breakfast Garry opened the incubator and discovered that two of the eggs are cracked. The chicks will be hatching very soon!! Yikes! We are not really ready! There is an old shed to be torn down and a fence to be put up, but at least the chicken house is functional and they will have lots of room in there for a few weeks. Garry said he would make sure that we have food for them later today, and a little hut to put in our porch to keep them in for a little while.

Two eggs had cracks!!