Why we need a Greenhouse

Tanya went to Dnipropetrovs'k today to pick up my invitation from her sister in Abakan. It was sent by DHL to the tune of $50 which is an improvement over last time when it was $100. DHL has an office in Dnipro and do not do inter country delivery, so we have to pick it up. I will head out at 11:30 tonight for Kyiv to put in my application for a Russian visa.

I would love to know what takes a month to get a personal invitation from a family member? The application for an invitation went to the local OVIR which is the police department that registers all residents, permanent or if foreign, temporary. Since Luda is no longer working outside the home, the invitation had to be done by my brother in law. Do they check out Luda and Valerie? Do they check me out more thoroughly than if I were simply a tourist or going on business? In the latter situations ostensibly you are under the "control" of a tourist agency or an approved business.

It is comforting to know that Russian xenophobia is many centuries old and not just a carry over from Soviet times. Also, I just learned from another book I am reading "Holy Madness - Romantics, Patriots and Revolutionaries 1776-1871" by Adam Zamoyski, that the idea that the West is plotting against Russia is also at least a couple of centuries old. "From the early 1840's, the Slavophiles propagated the twin notions of a great Western Conspiracy to crush Russia and of a noxious Western 'disease' threatening to undermine her spirituality." So it isn't Nicholas, Stalin, nor Putin.  It is Mother Russia.

We will be gone to the end of April and Tanya is worried about her garden.  She moved most of her plants to the passageway between the house and outbuilding where they are cold but not freezing, just to delay their growth.  The tomatoes are shooting upwards and all the other tiny plants are doing well too so it may look like  jungle when we get back.  Katya and Yuri will stay here while we are away.  Katya will look after the plants and Yuri will be repairing our kitchen sink drain which plugged solid or collapsed a few months back and has been waiting for spring to repair. He will have to run an entirely new pipe.  Above ground and above the cement.  Pictures later I hope.

Here is why we need a greenhouse.  We are looking for the person in Zhovti Vody who builds them but he moved and we haven't found his new location yet.

Plants are started in a flat box covered with plastic wrap then transplanted
into individual cups when they are big enough

They were growing very well in the front entry by the window and radiator. 
Too well to last until May to put in the garden.

Some of the tomatoes

The black stacking crates were 50 cents so we bought 13 (all they had).

The community garden area.  It was cold, foggy and wet this morning. 
Snow from last night still on the ground in patches.