Now is the Winter of our Desk Content*

* or as Peter Sellers might have said, Snow  fuel like an old fuel.

We have snow.  All Ukraine has snow.  A great deal of snow.  Three days worth, at temperatures around 0C.  Heavy, wet, heart-attack type snow.  The news tonight showed Kyiv up to its armpits and Dnipropetrovs'k, too. Traffic bogged down everywhere.

We went to town Friday for groceries and I was in town again on Saturday for printer cartridges but I should have stayed home.  The side roads were either heavy or slippery or both.  The plows and sanders had been on the main streets at least.

Yesterday we stayed put.  A neighbour ditched her Lada right in front of our house and her husband called a truck to tow her out.  Andrei came out in the evening to borrow my car.  The snow was "too deep for a Lexus".  His ride out brought a whole car load of boys "just in case".  They had to push both cars from our place to the corner.  I was young and foolish once myself.  Now I am not young anymore.


I did go out and shovel the walks twice.  Yesterday and again today.  With the help of the dogs who love the snow and were rolling around making doggy snow angels.  I hate shoveling.  My experience has been that if I leave it long enough snow usually disappears...Tanya gets tired of waiting for me and she shovels it. Guilt makes me do strange things.  Like shovel.

A tractor and blade cleared our road just as I finished shoveling.  Maybe we'll even get garbage pick up tomorrow.  The highlight of every Tuesday  - will the truck come or won't it?  Will the stray dog get he garbage before the truck does?  Heart pounding stuff out here in the village.

We were going to go to Dnipropetrovs'k today but declined the honour.  Good thing too.  The mini-bus from Dnipro took 4 hours to make a 2.5 hour trip.  Next week the roads and the weather will be better.  I hope there is something good at the theatre as we will take a flat ($35) and stay overnight.

One good thing from this wet snow.  Other than slippery, the roads will be heavenly to drive.  ALL the holes are filled in with packed snow and the road is smooth.

Winter Fishing in Saskatchewan

My friend, Wayne who now lives on Vancouver Island, was born and raised on a farm near Big River Saskatchewan, where his father John, still lives. John was a logger, farmer and in the winter ice-fisherman.  He has run nets in Delaronde Lake for decades and in his early 80's is still running the nets.  Only now, the money raised from the sale of whitefish goes to the local hockey rink or some other charity. A couple of winters ago, Wayne decided to video the process of laying the nets under the ice.  This is his first ever edited video, which he finally posted on YouTube.

Exercises in Stupidity

During the cold snap last month, the water in the upstairs bathroom froze.  When it warmed up it thawed and the cold water worked fine.  The hot water worked too but we had water running down the inside wall to the downstairs bathroom, indicating a leak.  Shutting off the hot water upstairs solved the problem in the short term.  Yuri had to tear out the shower and open the wall (removing the tiles and wallboard) to get at the pipes.  He turned on the hot water to find the leak.  There was none. Dry as a three hour sermon.  So he put it all back together again.

Friends from Regina (retired Social Work professors) have volunteered to teach a couple of weeks at Zaporizhzhia and Odessa Universities every year for many years now.  They were to arrive Saturday from Vienna to Dnipro and come to our place for the weekend.  We would drive them back to Zap.  The weather has been less than cooperative all winter and Tanya worried and worried from day 1 about the weather and the roads.  It was foggy and raining when Andrei and I left Saturday morning to pick them up.  The road was terrible, like it had been strafed and bombed.  We got to the airport, to find that the fog had NOT lifted and the flight was redirected to Kharkiv.  Our friends would go more or less directly to Zap.  We drove home in the dark.  Hit one pot hole too many and flattened a tire.  Took three hours to get home, twice normal time.  Tanya was an unhappy camper and chewed out her "Mule" for having gone in the first place.

My internet connection stopped working last week.  I would dial up through my mobile phone, KyivStar would recognize my computer but fail to log it onto the network.  I could use Tanya's modem and my notebook to stay connected but what a pain.  Today Volodya came to fix my internet and work on Tanya's notebook.  He fought with the internet connection for an hour and no luck.  It would not log me onto the network.  Finally he turned my mobile off and on.  Everything worked perfectly after that. 

Volodya took Tanya's notebook back to the shop (along with her USB mouse) so I rigged my notebook up for her to use.  Hooked up the wireless mouse; dug out an old keyboard and plugged it in.  Tanya sat down to text her friend in Germany and the computer went nuts.  It started typing Cyrillic gibberish all on its own.  Sometimes her keyboard would work and sometimes the stuff she typed would disappear and be replaced by gibberish again.  Baffled, I gave her my wireless keyboard and mouse and set up her keyboard and mouse on my computer.  My computer went nuts and started typing gibberish in Latin alphabet.  Lesson - never use two Logitech wireless keyboards and mice in the same vicinity.  They cross contaminate.

Doh!

Pictures

Lunch today was amazingly simple and simply amazing.  

I love my wife. She says I always tell her that AFTER I've eaten.

Lookin' out our back door.  

Not much by snow country standards but pretty impressive for central Ukraine. 

Tanya says it is the most snow in 10 years.

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,

Andrei and Tanya got back yesterday afternoon.  The roads were a little better but still very bad.  It was warm and the snow was wet and heavy.  Andrei slid off the track in front of our place and finally called a bunch of his friends to come help.  He and I and a shovel couldn't quite do it.  He took the car into town and kept it there.

The wind howled all last night and all today.  If it had not been 0C yesterday it would be some storm out there but there is no drifting.  Andrei, Lena and Tanya set out for P'yatikhatki at noon (30 km) today.  Tanya walked to the corner so Andrei wouldn't get stuck again.   They never got to the edge of town.  All the streets were glare ice.  There were car accidents everywhere and every exit road from Zhovti Vody was blocked with a jackknifed semi-trailer.  Tanya bought groceries and came home. 

Compared with DC we are coping not bad.  I read they quit plowing the streets.  Washington City Council obviously believes that if God put it there, He can take it away. 

I used to feel that way about my sidewalks in Regina but the City soon saw it differently.  God may have put it there but YOU, home owner, will shovel it away.  Onto your lawn, not onto the streets, they added, just for good measure.  Grumble, grumble grumble.  Shovel, shovel, shovel.

Spring will come soon here.

Spaghetti for supper

Tanya and Andrei went to Dnipro today.  It was about -1 and snowing.  The roads were terribly slippery so I was glad it was Andrei who took her.  They decided it was not worth the risk of coming home tonight.  Wise move.

So I made spaghetti for supper.  Tanya cannot eat food cooked with tomato sauce as it gives her heartburn (even without all the stuff I like to throw in) so I took advantage of the situation. 

She will stay with our friend Alexandr who was our neighbour for a while when we lived in Dnipro in 2007.  Alexandr is another victim of the old system.  She worked as a computer programmer in the Soviet space program (NASA equivalent) which was HQ'd in Dnipro.  the rocket factory is still there and active.  Radiation from the computer screen destroyed much of her thyroid function and eventually led to her blindness.  She is not even 60 and looks 80.  Tanya keeps tabs on her and looks in on her every so often to see how she is. Alexandr knows that she can call Tanya in an emergency.

I hope the snow stops and the plows and sanding trucks are out tomorrow.  If not I will make spaghetti again.

Neither Orange or Blue, Just Plain White

By Tuesday, temperatures of +3 had melted most of the snow and left the streets a rutty mess. Wednesday it dropped to -3 and stormed all day, dumping at least 30 cm of snow.  We were supposed to go to Dnipro for a meeting but at 7:00 am got stuck in the driveway so declined the honour. 

 No snow on Tuesday night and by Thursday it was deep everywhere

Andrei wanted to borrow the car, later that day.  We told him sure; bring your own shovel.  It stopped snowing at dusk and the village hired an industrial loader from the farm across the way to clear the main roads so people could go to work the next day.  Zhenia persuaded him to take a side trip past our two houses, which he reluctantly did.

The loader went as far as our drive and didn't clear the rest of the street so of course, someone thought it was open, got to our place and then got stuck.

The next day at noon, I shoveled the car out onto the single track road and we drove to town.  It was an emergency - Tanya HAD to pay for her flower, bulb, shrub and tree order.  There was a single track set of ruts, all the way to town and the car dragged the entire trip.  With ice under the snow, if I had stopped it could have been final. Andrei drove us back - it always seems easier when he does it - and then took the car to Krivii Rih.  By this time it was snowing heavy again so he stayed the night and most of the next day until the road was open.

It was dark when he brought the car back last night.  Kuchma Kot, who hadn't been home for a day or so, must have heard him coming as he appeared out of the darkness about four blocks from home and raced  for home ahead of the car.  He would NOT get off the road and let Andrei by.  I wish I had the video Andrei took on his mobile phone of that cat in the headlights running for his life.

The pile of snow was as far as the road was opened by the loader.  You can see where the dogs headed out to play and changed their minds in the deep snow. It didn't take me long to shovel the ridge from our drive, surprisingly enough.

Today was sunny and only -5.  The snowplow had gone by early in the morning, a single pass, so I shoveled the ridge away from the drive way while the hounds enjoyed racing about on the cleared track, running back to see if I needed them for anything.

The dogs love the snow and raced around the entire time I was outside.  Trying to get them still enough for a photo was tricky but they finally posed.

Zhenia's garage is at the back of his lot and he had a lot of shoveling to do.  He got half way and took a break.  I'd have stayed home until spring. Next winter we will get a snow blower if this keeps up.

A Couple of Updates

The lady who "owned" the big grain terminal in P'yatikhatki has had all charges dropped.  She is no longer on the lam and is now working in administration for the Raion. Her kids have taken over ownership and operation of the elevator.  Obviously she had a good lawyer and likely a good portion of her $20 million went to "good use".

When I slipped on the ice in Kyiv, I was lucky.  Banged my head.  No damage to it though suggestions were made that the sidewalk may have suffered.  News last night said that in January some 7000 people have broken bones from slipping on the icy streets and sidewalks in Kyiv .  In a civilized country under rule of law, a couple of good lawsuits would put paid to that nonsense.  It won't happen here.  The legal system is controlled by the political system.

Our cold weather problems are small in comparison

Tanya and I both agree we have little to complain about.  Our electricity, gas and water still work, our roads are clear and we are warm.  There are millions of others tonight who are less fortunate.  It has not been reported, to my knowledge,  how many, if any,  have died in Ukraine.  We have a presidential election going on and such bad news may be self-censored for fear of angering one or both parties.

Icy weather claims more lives; 

Cold snap kills 40 in eastern Europe ; 

Europe cold weather kills dozens

Extreme weather kills Mongolia livestock

 

Frozen Assets

The water pipes in the upstairs bathroom are frozen.  The toilet still works and there is cold water only to the sink but the shower and the hot water to the sink are solid somewhere in the wall behind the shower.  The guy who installed it was not the sharpest knife in the drawer and put the pipes behind the insulation, against the outside concrete block wall.  I wasn't here when it was done, not that it would have made any difference, I suppose. The main bearing walls are 30+ cm thick but this wall is only half that.  Not much insulating value after a week or two of -20 weather.  Why I didn't let the taps run slowly to prevent freezing is a question I have been asking myself since.  We will have to cut the pipes and reinstall them inside the room likely where they should have been in the first place.

It is cold.  Last night it was -25.  Climbed to -10 by 1:00 today and has been dropping more than 1 degree per hour since.  It is now -19  at 7:00 pm.  Our house is cold.  It was never designed for these kind of temperatures and is under-furnaced as well.  Or perhaps under-registered.  When Tanya redid the heating system in 2005 her then husband insisted on changing the old standard cast iron registers for some local built cheap ones that do not have the heat exchange capacity needed.  We have priced new ones at Epicentre in Krivii Rih at about $100 to $150 per meter.  We need about $1000 worth.

Tanya cooked up a big pot of buckwheat porridge for the dogs tonight and put a cup of goose fat in it for added energy.  The mutts were all happy.

Kuchma Cat has been staying out all night again for the past few weeks.  I guess business is booming getting ready for spring kittens.  He rules the block on which we live.  Last fall I had to pull him off a much larger black tom that he had choked down.  The tom was pretty wobbly but managed to get away.  All the fat Kuchma put on earlier this winter is standing him in good stead this weather.

He was left in the house when Tanya went to Dnipro to get me on Friday, jumped up on the counter (he rarely does that) and ate a fair bit of ham that Tanya had left out from her lunch.  The dogs got the trimmings around the teethmarks.  Tonight he jumped up on the counter, while we were sitting in the kitchen having supper.  Tanya yelled at him and he jumped down, glared at her, then walked over, laid down at her feet and began purring.  Tanya said "Just like all men when you yell at them".

Home to Winter

Kazakhstan was cold.  It was -20 most of the time I was there.  The morning I left Astana it was -30C with a wind.  It is normal for that part of the world and for its "twin" Saskatchewan on the opposite side of the world, 12 hours difference.

Got home Friday to heavy snow and -15 in Dnipropetrovsk.  My plane was 30 minutes late getting in from Istanbul and Andrei and Tanya were another 30 minutes later getting in from Zhovti Vody to pick me up at the airport.  It was storming pretty bad and the roads were terrible.  The storm died down and the plows were out by the time we set out for home so we had no problems.  Andrei is a good driver.

There is snow everywhere.

It was good to be home.  Tanya and I do not do well without each other and 10 days apart simply reinforced that fact.  She did get Katya to come over to clean the house a couple days before I came home, though Tanya said they spent a lot of time visiting and drinking tea.

The dogs were glad to see me.  I let them out for a run today and they came home when I called them.  Tanya had let them out a few times too and they were quite good about going back into their run when she called them.  One day though, she opened the front door and the dogs were waiting for her.  All proud.  With the elderly sun ripened remains of an elderly sun ripened goat spread all over the front step and embedded in the rubber mat (1mx3m).  Tanya pitched the mat into the yard and will scrub it when it warms up.

Which won't be for a while.  It is -20 right now and Kyiv is forecast to go to -30 tonight.  The army is putting up heated tents for the homeless in a number of cities.

Never a good time to be poor or unemployed but winter is worse.  Ran into this website which chronicles USA unemployment by county from Jan 2oo7 to Nov 2009.  Not pretty.


http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

An Icy World

It rained last night.  At 8:00 pm the temperature was about +2C.  By this morning it was back to normal and tonight it is -17C.  I was out to look after the dogs, take them warm water and make sure they had enough food.  Their yard looked like the pictures below.  The fields are still covered with snow, though the road ruts are solid ice.

Weather or Not

This morning the temperature was  -15C and tonight it is +1C and raining slightly.  The roads will be treacherous until they get salt and sand on them.  Snowstorms the past few days have stalled truck traffic across southern Ukraine.  Yesterday our big grocery supermarket was out of fresh vegetables and chicken.  Odessa stores were running out of bread according to the news.  This thaw and freezing rain won't help matters.

Andrei, Tanya and Masha came for supper tonight. Tanya and Masha built a snowman while Andrei shoveled the walks and driveway.  Bless his heart.  He is now having a sleep on the couch.  Masha is running wild, just glad to have space to move in.  Apartments are not much fun for little kids.

I let the dogs out of their yard to play at noon and of course, they had to get into trouble.  Zhenya's gate was open, they ran into his yard and were attacking the turkeys.  Didn't kill any but were biting at their feathers.  If I let them out at night, they go over to the neighbours behind us and play with her dogs, keeping an old woman next door awake.  The village has a dozen dogs running at large which don't attack chickens and turkeys, don't keep people awake at night (too often) and are generally well behaved.

Five more days until "Catholic" Christmas.  We are having the entire crew for dinner that day.  Roman, Lena, Lena's mom Luda, Andrei, Tanya, Masha, Tanya's mom Natasha and Tanya's grandmother Galina (Galya).  The wives are bringing salads and we are cooking the turkey.  Gift opening will be that day, too, rather than New Year's eve.  We will save the goose for New Year's day, Tanya says.

Saskatchewan Morning

Winter with a vengeance.  Not -20 but -12 with a -30 windchill, snow and blowing snow.  Snowdrifts here and there, not big ones of course but true drifts.  Easier driving as snow packs into pot holes and the roads become smoother for a while again.

Man came to read the gas meter and the dogs didn't even come out of their house to see who it was invading their yard.  The cat meowed to go out, not really meaning it but knowing it was a must.  He was back in 15 minutes.

We spent all day in town running errands.  We went to several home supply stores looking for stuff to remodel our chimney.  Also went to a new plumbing, heating and electrical retail outlet.  I'm always interested to see what new things they have that I might recognize as familiar.  The one home supply store carried Canadian asphalt 25 year shingles.  That was great.  A new kitchen store carried several gadgets we had only seen in Canada before. 

At one home supply I found a glue gun.  Grabbed it quick. How many glue sticks did I want?  I dunno...25.  Turns out they weren't glue sticks but silicone sticks and a foot long to boot.  I will go back to morrow and see if they have glue sticks. Tanya had never seen one before but it took her about 5 seconds to figure all the things she could do with it.  We are going to Krivii Rih tomorrow if it warms up or even if the wind dies down and look for a winter coat for Tanya.  I am going to look for another glue gun and real glue sticks.

Water main broke on Maikovska street when we were going into town and water was roaring down the hill a couple of inches deep. We ducked down a side street to keep from icing up our wheels.  A month of -30 weather would literally destroy all the water and sewer works in this city. Most lines are buried three or four feet deep, not the obligatory 8 feet deep of Saskatchewan. City workers sure earn their pay in winter.

The news tonight says major snow storms in Odessa and Donetsk today.  900 cars stranded in Odessa.  Police are hauling gasoline to stranded cars and villagers are bunking stranded travelers in for the night or hauling tea to others who are sticking with their cars.

When we were kids, the highway ran past our place, built in the 1930's, with two bad cuts a quarter mile east and west of our farm.  We would get stranded motorists every winter that buried their cars in the drifts in those cuts.  Nice to know that this happens other places and that people respond to those in need.

Gas leaks and other winter hazards

Concrete and brick houses don't catch fire easily but they do blow up.  Yesterday we could smell gas in our kitchen.  Tanya immediately phoned the gas company and we set to work clearing out stuff so they could get at the tap and lines to the stove.  They are located behind our kitchen counters (don't ask).  We were being Watched Over from Above, as a call to the two guys who installed the cupboards brought them on the run in 10 minutes.  They were not due to go on shift at the plant where they work until later so were free to help us.  They had the counters out in a few minutes, just as the gas company arrived.

The tap was faulty and was replaced.  Volodya and Dymr put the counters back and headed for work.  All is well. Except today we have to go to the gas company and get a record book for them to record service calls.  We were supposed to have one but no one told us.

We are also extending our chimney today.  it is supposed to be above the ridge of the roof, though it seems to me it is far enough away that it should still draw. But it certainly needs new insulation.  Chimney pipe here does not come in insulated lengths for some reason, and insulation must be done after installation.  This I have to see.

Temps are supposed to go to -30C tonight so Tanya is out adding extra covers to her roses.  It is currently -12C with a strong wind.

Remembering the Farm - Storm of 1955 continued

My second cousin, Bryan (who lived two miles west of us) and his wife Joan sent me their stories of the Blizzard of '55 so I thought I'd post them for the benefit of anyone interested in the not-so-olden days.

Bryan said he remembers that his Mom drove the car to school that morning to Aroma Lake School (another one-room country school about 4 miles away). Bryan’s uncle, Mike Kump came early to pick up his children. Mike always was tracking storms and seemed to know exactly when they were coming! Bryan's dad, Henry could not get his horses from the Coulee so he borrowed neighbour John Ulrich's outfit. Henry came to school to pick his family up. Jordan Herle kids stayed at Albert Gerlinsky farm. Bert Dale (my uncle) and Jim Hingston (my Dad’s cousin) couldn't get out the drive way at Henry's to go to my Dad's place so they stayed overnight. They were installing a new furnace at Henry's place. Hwy 14 was blocked!

My (Joan’s) story is a little different. We had school bus service at Handel at the time. Our school bus driver came around 2 o'clock to pick the kids up. Instead of going the normal route he took his kids home first. Phone lines were down and some parents were scared because, we didn't arrive home. My dad Henry Loerzel walked, from Handel School, then to Stan Graver's place 2 1/2 miles north of our place, from there Stan and my dad, kept on walking, where the bus route should have been. They almost froze to death, going from farmer to farmer's place. (They had towels wrapped around their faces).

We were stuck in the ditch 1 1/2 miles from Handel (1/2 mile east of our farm.). Our driver walked to Handel for help, leaving my oldest sister in charge of the bus and kids. We ate all the left over school lunch's we had. We prayed the rosary at least 100 times! (We were all RC's on the bus). I remember when the boys took a pee out the bus door, my oldest sister had to hang on to them, the wind was so strong.

Hours later our driver came back and said the road is blocked at the crossing, so we would have to hold hands and walk the one mile. The older children on the bus that morning wore spring jackets, no gloves!!! Older kids in the middle, little one's on the ends. I think that's how crack the whip got its name! If you let go, you flew into the ditch!

We arrived at the Railway Crossing and Gillen’s flat deck truck was waiting for us! We were so thankful that our prayers were answered! We were all split up to different homes in Handel. My family stayed at Frank Schreich's, at the Train Station. We were lucky his wife was a nurse. We froze mainly our hands, feet and faces. Four days later Ange and I were taken by train to Wilkie. We stayed in the hospital awhile. Ange was worse as they peeled her feet and hands! They almost flew her to Saskatoon by air ambulance. We must have been in bad shape!

Our driver almost lost his job over it all, as he took his kids home first to be safe! Long story short, the neighbours said he needed the job.

I remember having lots of fun sliding off the roof tops with our flying saucer that winter and going to school and church all winter in the cutter. Then in spring we had to go with horses again in an open grain wagon, which was fun too.

Remembering the Farm - The Winter of 1955 - 1956

Anyone reading through the local history books of Saskatchewan communities might notice how often the Blizzard of 1955 is mentioned in various family stories. It was an old time three day white out just before Christmas that started one of the stormiest winters I can remember.

The day started out absolutely lovely. Mild, calm, sunny. The kind that killed pioneers who didn’t know better and set out for somewhere on foot or by horse and never made it. I was in Grade Three in the one-room school in Cavell. Miss Veit was the teacher, new in the fall. Dad showed up to take my brother and me home before the storm hit. You could hear it coming. He said Miss Veit should send all the kids home. Miss Veit wasn’t sure about that until the wind hit, grabbed the school front door out of her hand and smashed it to pieces against the wall. School was dismissed.

We got home before the snow started. Dales (Dad’s sister and family) had come to visit and we knew they weren’t going home for a while. Suited me but I have no idea how we made sleeping arrangements in that small house for another four people. Or more.

Old 14 Highway ran past our place at the time. Built in the 1930’s with horse drawn scrapers, it was narrow, with steep ditches. ¼ mile East and ¼ mile West of our farm site, the highway ran through two small hills with very poorly cut banks which trapped snow with every blow, blocking the road. We often had storm-stayed company over night trapped by the drifts in these cuts. Wish my folks were still alive to check with but I think we caught a couple more visitors with this blizzard too, so our house was FULL. For four days until they ploughed open the road.

It blew all winter. The truck mounted V-ploughs made cuts through the snow drifts which filled in higher the next time the wind blew. Our neighbour Martin Glackin was skinning Cat for the RM at the time. The Caterpillar was able to push the snow back in the deepest places and open the road but by March, he had given up. He was pushing snow over 15 to 20 feet high back from the road and it blew in again. The road was closed until spring thaw.

Dad drove us to school in the sleigh or the closed-in cutter for much of the winter.

I know I have some readers who will remember that winter and would appreciate comments and corrections to my story.