On the Farm

Tuesday morning we woke up bright and early to catch a ride out to Nickolaipolia to spend some time on Gerry and Teresa Verhoog's dairy farm. Dez has been asking for weeks to go see the cows so it was finally the day! 

This is the current barn and Garry started four years ago with about 40 cows (I think he has 120 right now). They use this barn for the trade school students to learn - so far the only course they have offered is a dairy nurse program and in fall they will start another group. 

We traveled down the road to where the old village collective farm barns are - one of which has been purchased and is being renovated to be their new barn. The barn is massive! I can't remember the exact numbers but they are hoping to have between 150 and 200 cows in here. 

They had a team here in March (?) who worked really hard on the barn and were supposed to have a few more over the summer, however with the current political situation many teams have cancelled so Garry is hoping that the barn gets finished on time for the start of the school year. There is one team that is hopefully still coming but if anyone knows any people with construction experience and free time this summer, let us know!!

On one end of the barn will be a classroom:

There are two bathrooms complete with showers being built in the barn as well:

The yellow you see in the roof is....

....chimneys painted as Ukrainian flags!!

 Garry has been digging a well to supply the barn with water and was working on that yesterday.

Dez was happy to help:

A neighbour with a load of gravel came by:

 All afternoon Steve was helping with cement for around the well.

 It was a beautiful sunny afternoon so we sat outside in the yard for lunch and had some "bootter brat" which is sandwiches. Garry was telling us stories about the village and how he got all of his hired men. He also brought over some weed....and by weed I mean literally marijuana! It grows wild in the village, here is August with a bunch:

 ....but if you're thinking any crazy thoughts, don't bother! Apparently marijuana in the wild is not potent at all, it has to be cross-bred and made specifically to be hallucinogenic (- or whatever it is -) and this stuff may as well be lettuce leaves!

Garry and Teresa live in an old Mennonite house:

Nickolaipolia is one of the most preserved Mennonite villages around because it was largely untouched by any wars. There are many Mennonite houses, a church and a school still being used as a kindergarten here. 

Shortly after lunch I could hear the boom of thunder in the distance. This slow-moving storm eventually worked it's way over us and made for some beautiful pictures over the garden and barn. 

This cow was really curious of Dez and August:

Teresa is currently in Canada preparing for their son's wedding so I offered to cook some supper for the crew: Garry, two hired guys who live with them, Masha their translator and another woman who was out there to learn about attending the trade school in fall.

At the evening milking time Garry taught Dez how to milk a cow! You can see how thrilled Dez was obviously!

In the milk house:

It was a lot of fun to be out there and we look forward to more opportunities to be there in the future! Please pray for students to apply so the trade school courses can go ahead in September as well as for the barn to be completed in time!