Summer draws to an end

As summer draws to an end, Sergey treated the boys to a trip to Issyk-Kul and then camping up in the mountains .

The first hint that they were a long way up into the mountains was that there was green grass .. it was not all burned off from the summer heat ..  But the biggest tell was when a heard of Yacks passed by. 

I had a friend come buy my Canada home today and we got talking about the apple trees, so I took him out for  walk in the orchard to show him how they were doing.  I was shocked when I saw how much they had grown in the last week alone.  Kent figures that the one we picked will do him for lunch.  As we were talking about the apples, I got a text from Alina on the farm , and suddenly my apples in Canada did not seem so impressive.  It has been such a dry summer, and we were not able to irrigate this summer so I did not have high expectations , but I was wrong!

We had a tourist organization bring a group out to the guest house for the weekend, and while the boys were away, they took over and spent the day harvesting apples for us. 

We had three more tons of coal donated since my last post .. This will leave us with about 95 tons that we will need ..   If you can help that would be awesome.  I made the conscience decision today that this is just too big and out of my hands .  I can't stress about this anymore , and have decided to put it back in Gods hands. 
(Where it should have been in the first place.) 

I do have another need .  This one if from our boy Nick . 

Nick would like to continue his schooling but has run into a snag.  His transcripts needed to apply at a new school  are still at his last school. and will not be released until he finishes paying off his student loan.   He still owes $2700, and has asked if we would be able to help  him with this and either hold the loan for him or find a sponsor to help him pay it off .  He would like to set up a repayment schedule so that he can get this debt behind him. Of course like anything else there is a back storey that we will not get into, but  He would like to move ahead now and needs our help.  Many of you who have carried student loans know how oppressing that can be.