Starting a sewing business

Vlads   mother has been working many jobs in the bazar, mostly as a sewer.  With all the covid shut downs, she was one of the first to find herself with out work, and even now as things are starting to open up again , the bazars are still on shaky ground, especially with talk of another round of shut downs.  We have an apartment available for her in Tokmok in a nice area that has room in it where she could start her own sewing business working from her home for custom jobs.  Here is a little suit that she recently made for Vlads son Artur.  

So here is the catch .. Vlad is trying to find her a good sewing machine and the materials that she needs to start business.  We are looking for a start up for her of $600.  

between the guest house and the main house on the farm we have a small orchard and flower gardens and part of the chicken run .  We now have the intire big orchard fenced off for the chickens, so we would now like to expand the garden area and possibly make an out door Movie screen on the side of the garage .. so the boys are had at work today reclaiming this land. 

Here is a shot from in the green house .  You can see all the plants ready to move to the fields in a couple weeks as well as some potatoes in bags . in the back half of the green house you can see the spinach that is being harvested now.  

Yesterday , vlad took Marat into the city with him to buy tractor parts, and while there Marat purchased a air sprayer for fine detail air brush work.   We are looking forward to seeing his artistic flare in projects .  Here he is getting instruction on how to use it. 

 

A few updates from around the farm.

A few updates from the farm.  We have a new neighbor across the street from the farm.  There is a very nice family moved in there, and he is a mechanic.  He has agreed to take Marat on as an apprentice , and they are starting with painting cars.  Marat LOVES it and the neighbor thinks Marat is GREAT.  We are so thrilled that this is working out .     

Sibera is doing well.  She has graduated from Law at the international University and is now at school taking further courses and working part time in the legal profession .  Its so nice that we are still able to be in contact with her and touch base every now and then, like this day that we were able to take her out for coffee.  

Today on the farm it was potato planting time. Potatoes are the first crop to go in as soon as the ground can be worked.  S this was the first plowing of the spring for the tractor.  We have special plow attachments as well that go behind the tiller to make either mounds or ditches depending on what we are planting.  

Another spring job is to dig out and clean all the irrigation ditches.  

Back in Canada it is finally warm enough for the green house to be opened up , and we have it in full use.  I have been moving and repotting plants all day.  

 

Difficult situation for a couple of our friends.

The kids on the farm have been pretty busy in the green house.  They are getting the seeds ready so they can plant outside in a couple months.  as you can see there is a good crop of spinach that is ready now.  

They have still been doing a lot of food hampers for those in need .  This week they were at a village that had not received any help from us yet, but another organization had contacted up for help. 

We had an "Upset" this week .  While Vera and Oleg where at the orphanage and delivering groceries, someone broke into their home and stole both the humanitarian aid  funds and all their personal funds.  It is hard on the heart when you are doing your best and putting everything on the line, and you get hit with a situation like this.   They see such incredible needs and try so hard to meet them.  This can really deflate your moral if you let it.  Total they lost about $650.  That is enough food for about 50 families.  We were able to send her $200 right away ,  later that day I received the photo of these two boys who almost lost their food ...  There are others that we have not yet replaced.  I would like to do an awareness drive for more food hampers for them.  I would love to return for her what was stolen in Biblical proportions .. I know our God is bigger then this .  Please use the donate button on the top right of the blog if you are able to help at this time.

Pause

So todays lesson for me is that sometimes the pause is put in our lives for a reason.  A pause gives us time to put things into perspective, a time to organize our thoughts and a time to understand the whole picture .   If you are like us, life just seams to move faster and faster all the time , and in the last year we have been forced into a PAUSE. 

We get updates from the kids on the farm, and last week the computer programs between there and here were not playing nicely with each other and the first draft came through with no spaces between the words. 

HelloeveryonemynameisLyoshaiamanewboyonthefarmandireallyliketobe partofabigthefarmfamily.Iwanttotellyouabitabouthowarethingsonthefarm. Therearealotofthingsgoingonhere.Ihavefunwithboyswhilewearenotworking, wecelebratebirthdays,ChineseNewyear,orweplaygames.SinceIdon'thavea spasificjobyetidoeverythingicanhelpwith,unloadthecoal,packit,packthefood bagsforthefamilies,workinthegreenhouse,helpAigulyainthekitchen,sweep

outdoor.IalsohelpNurlaninthebarnsometimes.Welivefriendlyatthefarm,it's beenawhileformetounderstandwhatthefarmisandwhatdowedohere,butnow iguessigotthepoint.Thefarmisabigfamilythatbringsthegraciousmessageto people.WhenihaveafreetimeichatwithmyfriendsfromredRiverorphanage. Thanksforthiswonderfulopportunitytojointhefarmfamily.lyosha 

If you slow down and read carefully you can understand what is being said but understanding is slow going, and difficult to grasp, I even have to re read sections a few times to be sure .  BUT add a few spaces or pauses, and suddenly I can read it easier , understand it better, and despite all the pauses being added,  I can read to the end much faster..  The pauses did not slow me down, but sped me up and made the message clearer.  

It made me wonder about the work in Kyrgyzstan, Despite the pauses, we are coming through this with a better understanding of the needs before us, and a clearer picture of our roll. It will make us stronger ! We are optimistically  looking forward to things opening up and us being able to return, but with a deeper appreciation and understanding of the need to come behind those living in Kyrgyzstan and supporting them in the work.    

Here is the original Post from Lyosha .. with the spaces added . 

 Hello everyone my name is Lyosha I am a new boy on the farm and I really like to be part of a big the farm family. I want to tell you a bit about how are things on the farm. There are a lot of things going on here. I have fun with boys while we are not working, we celebrate birthdays, Chinese New year, or we play games. Since I don't have a specific job yet i do everything I can help with, unload the coal, pack it, pack the food bags for the families, work in the green house, help Aigulya in the kitchen, sweep outdoor. I also help Nurlan in the barn sometimes. We live friendly at the farm, it's been a while for me to understand what the farm is and what do we do here, but now i guess i got the point. The farm is a big family that brings the gracious message to people. When I have a free time I chat with my friends from red River orphanage. Thanks for this wonderful opportunity to join the farm family. lyosha

A couple days ago I got a message from the baby hospital. They are full to capacity with sick kids , The parents care for them at the hospital and bring food for them .  They put the food in the fridge with the name date and room number .. That has worked well for years until the fridge broke and the food spoiled .. We needed to do something quickly, and we did not have time to put that need out there .  Yesterday we delivered a new fridge to them .. We are hoping to get some help with this , It was $250.  Not always easy to find sponsors after the fact, but some times we can't wait.    

Tomorrow we will do some updates about the gardens , and life on the farm.  

Have a great day everyone .. and ask yourself , what is this pause teaching me ?

 

Happy Woman's day

Woman's day is a very big day in Kyrgyzstan , and we have3 started the celebrations a little early .  The actual day is March the 8th, but getting around to everyone in one day is a bit much .   We start the celebration off with friends arriving back in Kyrgyzstan.  They have a week in Bishkek before heading to the south , so they are staying with Kamala.   

They cooked a great meal to start the celeb rations off .. I am sure this was appreciated buy Kamala. 

Vera and Oleg had no problem deciding what to give out for Woman's day this year .  With so many in need, a couple bags of groceries is just perfect . 

Thank you to everyone that has been helping us with this. We are hoping to do another food drop in a couple days in time for the actual Woman's day if we get more donations.  Speaking of donations, we still have a great need for food and medication at the shelter.  If you can help out, it would be greatly appreciated.