Chicken Pot Pie

Yesterday the guys went for a drive to pick up some more bee families to bring back to the farm .  I don't really like being stung so I just stayed back at the farm.  We had some guests at the Kashar so it was a good excuse . 

We are so thankful for the donationas that have started to come in for the needs that we posted like the new roof on the apaartement  and the help with many other things   We have tried to prioritize , which is not easy .. 

we started with a cell phone for Baktagul , She did not know that she only had 30 days to register her phone she brought with her before it would be locked out and not usable (new Kyrgyzstan law)  she is aproching the end of the pregnancy so it is important to have a phone. 

The longer we wait to fix the roof, the more potential for damage inside , so yesterday the guys started purchasing the materials .. we are scedualed to replace the roof on Thursday , so that gives us a few more days to get more materials we will need . 

It was time to complete the road registration for the truck, but it did not pass inspection because the tires were to old, so this is another thing we had to do right away so that we are ready to do water deliveries as needed. 

a couple days ago Julie and I went to visit a young mom that we have been helping for almost a year.  She inharited a small house from her grandmother .  It needs a lot of work, but she has been working hard to do the repairs.  There is a bit of work that is too much for her so we would like to bring the guys and a team in the fall.  Before we do any work, we will get the documents in order for her so that once it is fixed up, people do not come out of the wood work and take it away from her . This will likely cost about $250 so that will give us something to work on before August. 

We brought her everything she needs to make ploff , including a bag with a rooster in it.. that just leaves me 5 more roosters to send to new homes . 

The house needs things like a repair to the heating system, some structural repairs to the outside walls , and the entrance hall being used as a kitchen could use a make over. 

we have a couple chickens that keep flying over the fence and digging up the seeds in the gardens , so last night when they all went inside the boys helped me to clip their wings.  It was kind of funny , they all took it in stride except for the two that had been flying the coop.. they were not happy .. But their option was simple , clip the wings or become chicken pot pie. 

Another need

 A couple days ago I shared about a few needs that we have found here.... Or should I say have found us.   We do have another need that is rather urgent.  

The roof over our Bishkek apartment has started leaking.  We had the roof redone about four years ago , but upon inspection we see that the poorer quality materials are no match for the hot summer sun and the cold harsh winter. 

Our guys from the farm have taken a look and will be able to put on a new roof next week , done right with good quality materials .. we are fortunate to have a few out at the farm that know what they are doing and are willing to do it.   They just sent me the parts list, and it will cost $900 and will have a 15 year warranty on the materials .

This is another great place to be a blessing to us if you are thinking about how to help. 

Another busy day

We had intended to take today off .. Tommy is on his way home and we are ready for some down time .  Bit looked at the weather report and the rest of the week might be rain .

Yesterday I posted about some needs that we have , and we have tried to figure out what we can do here to help meet some of those needs .

We have had a garage in town for about 12 years now, but don't really need it any more.  We have decided to clean it out and then sell it to help with some expenses .

 So now we are cleaning up and finding some good homes for what's left.

Maybe tomorrow will be a day off....

some current needs

I have been putting off this post for a while .. we have been working away at what we can and as additional needs arise I have been saying "Thats for a special blog post" or an opportunity for others to be a blessing and in turn be blessed .  So here is what we have that We need to find sponsors for.  

Romina and Sabina    These are Kamala's neices that she cares for.   The school that they attend is almost two hours across the city.  This is very difficult for them to spend four hours a day on a bus.  We have been trying to get them into a school closer to home but the schools are so over crowded that we can not find anything.  We did find a private school that has very high standards . This school is $200 a month each.  This has sort of risen in priority and things have been deteriorating at their current school with one of their class mates killed in a school beating. We would really like to get them moved sooner then later.   We are still working on other possibilities but as of now, this is the best we can come up with. 

Julia   is a special young lady that we have known for several years .  She first crossed our path when Julie was teaching at an english school and Julia was a student there .. she then became a teacher and an art teacher volunteering with kids from the orphanage.  She has also worked with us as a translator with teams.  When she is not volunteering or teaching, she works as a Barrista in a little coffee shop where we do our grocery shoping. She has dreamed of going to collage and taking Linguistics, so we have helped her to enroll and paid her deposit .   We will need $1200 per year for her tuition, the first half  payment in due in August . 

Vika   This is Kamala's youngest neice that she is caring for .  She has a lot of emotiional issues that they are working through. Life with her has been very demanding . We were able to get her into a very good preschool  where she is thriving . She is still a little emotionaly insecure for grade one so since she has been doing so well we would like to keep here here for one more year. The program including meals is $400 a month, however we do have a sponsor that is covering about half of that so we are looking for $200 a month for here 

Baktygul    is back in Kyrgyzstan.  She is expecting and her documents were not in order in Turkey so she had to return to Kyrgyzstan.  Her boyfriend had promised to support her but as soon as she go here he has not helped at all.  For her to be ready for the birth with all the hospital expences and things that she will need , we are looking to find her $600.  We have her hospital start up pack purchased and ready, and we have her in a good home with meals provided and many other supports in place. So we are hoping that the one time $ 600 will arrive before the baby does .

Tanya  works with seniors, families with dissabilities, the mens home and so many more in need .  we have some sponsorship for her but we are running about $100 a month short to cover her needs and this is difficult for us to cover and some help with this would be great .

Alina    has an unexpected need. She developed some problems with her teeth and some nerve damage. They needed to pull some teeth right away and give her some braces to try to realine the area that is pressing on the nerves.  The work being done is $700.  This is something we have gone ahead and started, but could really use some help with this . 

 

Respite and self care is so important when you are looking after others. We have noticed that many of those we work with are close to an area of burn out. We would like to have a fund of about $100 a month that we could use to  provide some time apart for our workers as needed .  

So those are all needs for the girls, so its only fair we put a need in for the guys. 

We need some new tires. We need six tires for the truck as they are starting to get a little craked and we have coal season coming when we will be puting heavy loads as well as using the truck to haul water in the summer.  We also will be needing tires for our car .  In total I need to find about $800 for these needs. 

 Of course there is more, but this is a good start for now.  Please join us in praying that one way or another these needs are covered.  

New phone

Back up and running with my new phone .  All the apps installed and signed back in .

These were the last pictures on the old phone .. seconds before I tripped on all those ropes on the bridge .  

Tommy cought the first fish of the day 

 Nuric came for a visit on his birthday .. we gave home some vitamins and peanut butter.

Rehoming the roosters one at a time .. with each rooster we have everything needed to cook ploff. 

Max and the boys poured the ramp connecting the side walk to the cafe .  My friend Logan will be a le to do laps around the house now with his wheel chair. 

working around the farm

Today we did some more side walk ramps to make everything more excessable for Logans next visit to the farm . They wanted to have them done for his last trip, but there was too much snow.

While we were working Nuric came for a visit.  Its his birthday tomorrow.  I gave hime a bottle of Vitamins and a jar of peanut butter. 

The sweet peas were ready to transplant so I made a second trellis for them out of Apricot branches. 

we still have too many roosters so we went shopping todaay and bought enough products to make up five food packs that have everything needed to make a big ploff meal.  

So that food pack, a package of garden seeds and a sack with a live rooster in it makes a perfect blessings pack . 

We also did some more gardening , planting sunflowers out and around the yurt.  They will look great in another month. 

I hve been trying to take it a little easier today .  My back is still very sore from my fall yesterday.  I am also a little discouraged that my phone is not starting up.  Julie and Kamalla picked up a new one for me today .. tomorrow I will start the long hard process of restoring all my apps . 

We have baracaded the cement ramp , mostly from young Vlad .. so far he has tromped along and steped in it three times .   actualy more like 6 times if you count him manuvering over all the obsticals that we put up to stop him . 

 

oops

So my friend says that if you are going to laugh about something in a year from now you might as well laugh now.  So here is our Laugh for the day .

I took the guys fishing after work today on our way to the hot springs.

the fish were very large .. like 3 or 4 lbs each.  I caught one and the guy on the net could not get the hook out of its mouth so he took the net and ran for his plyers .. I was using a broken rod and could not get the bail to open to give him line so I ran with him.  There was a narrow bridge crossing pond... it was covered in nets and ropes .. I managed to get my feet tangled and since I was running , I kept going when my feet stoped .. 

Here is the problem , when I landed my head was too far over the edge of the bridge and I was poff ballance.  I tried to grab the bridge to hold on , but it caused me to pivot and my head went down and my feet went up and twisted over my head .. driving my head right to the bottom of the river... 

I hit with enough force that my phone and glasses came out of my pocket and dissapeared into the now murky water from me stiring things up trying to get out.  

after about 15 minutes of trying to scoop it out with a Net, Sergey went in swimming and shuffled his feet around the bottom and managed to find it and get it to the surface.   

I am relieved to have the sim card and also not have the phone datta floring or in this case sinking around .   We have managed to dry it out and get it to start but it is glitching .. We are hoping it will hold long enough for me to clone it to a new phone . 

So if all goes well, I will have some photos of the day shortly.

Gardens prepared

 Sore and tired but a lot accomplished... That's how I would describe today .  Tommy and I tilled the garden .  We had the boys bring over old manuer and spread it out then we rottilled it into the dirt to break it up mix it to make good planting soil.

So lots of mixing and stiring then dumped it down the rows  

I got a photo today from my grand daughter and her friends cheering us on.

This is the first time we have tried the landscaping cloth . It will help with both weeds and water retention ,and being white it will help with over heating in the hot summer 

Now we are burning little holes that we will plant through.

We have a can on the end of a stick that we heat up with a torch. This makes a clean hole and seals the fabric from tearing.

Here the boys are mixing the dirt 

Vlad is back to the farm now and was working along with the rest of us.

Tomorrow morning we will start the planting.  Root crops and salads will grow between the cloth and in the cloth we will plant Tomatoes, Peppers, cucumbers, cabbages, and egg plant.  Then we have another big garden that will be planted with sweet corn.