Priceless !

We are a week away from Seniors day .. I have advanced the funds so they can start packing gift bags and preparing for the day.  It will work out to $10 a person and we have sent $750 to start with .  If you would like to sponsor one or two that would be amazing.  If more then $750 comes in , we will have no problem delivering as many gift bags as we raise funds for .  

 A lot of us talk about Freedom and about being tired of isolation .. But stop for a minute and think of what it looks like for the men at the men's home.  They have been in full lock down for 18 months.  

Today they had a reprieve.  Today a group of them along with a couple of their nurses and the driver from the home got to go on an outing to the Kashar.  Emagin the feeling of freedom .. No gates and walls or fences .. just wide open space to relax.  Tanya did an amazing job with the food as well 

 This is a day that they will remember for a long time.  We are blessed to have on going sponsorship to off set the cost of events like this.  All in, this event was $200. but the real value for these men ..Priceless !

Apple pickin' time on the farm.

Today we had to take a break from food deliveries and do some more harvesting. 

Despite the drought , we were able to bring in about 70 more bails of hay .. this is about 25% of what it would be on a good year, but at least we got some ..many are just leaving the crop in the fields .

We had a group of travelers that came for the weekend to help us with the harvest. 

apples picked and sorted.  Leaving us with over 1000 lbs of apples to put into the cellar . 

They had a meal of monte when they were finished .. I am jealous.. Aigoola's monte is so good .  

Look over the shoulders on the right .. That is one huge pile of egg plant . 

Meanwhile back in Canada , I am just about ready for my first harvest.  😁

 

"We've been every where boy"

What a busy few days it has been for our friends.   Lets start with Dave and Sergey.  They are delivering food to families from Tokmok in the north to Jalabad in the south . 

Aiperi has also been very busy in an undisclosed location.  She is working here in a tent village brining food to those in need.. She said that the needs are so great that she was getting nervous when she got to the end of her hampers. They are all so desperate . 

Vlad was busy today bringing some of the kids from the village to the bazaar to get some clothes for school .

Back on the farm , the guys were busy packing the next batch of food hampers that will be delivered over the next few days . 

Some of the boys were working in the fields harvesting some pumpkins that will be delivered with the next batch of food 

This evening after work the boys had some classroom time where they are learning about Goal setting and being motivated .. Icecream is always a good motivation tool .

Getting ready for Seniors Day

We have started processing some of the apples .  Using some of the reclaimed lumber from last week,  They were able to build several drying racks, and have begun drying apples ... Something I could never pull off here in Canada, the squirrels and chipmunks would have the racks empty in a day . 

The dried apples are reconstituted with water and boiled , this makes a really nice apple compote .. like a mild juice . 

We have also started to collect stacking crates that we can use to put apples into the root cellar for the winter .  

Our friend Dave landed in Kyrgyzstan this morning .  Already he has been out to see Auxana and delivered her coal, and canning supplies for the winter .  She was very happy to see him as you can imagin 

We are quickly approaching Oct. 1st , other wise known as SENIORS DAY.  this is a big day for the elderly in Kyrgyzstan and something that we like to celebrate with them every year .  

 We are currently collecting donations towards this event.  This year we will provide food hampers for them, but add some sweets and special treats as well.  We are looking to raise $20 per senior. and would like to have at least 60 packages to deliver .   donations for this can be made at the top right side of the blog.  Just put seniors day in the memo line . 

Trusting the vision

 It has been 5 years since we planted 200 little twigs into the field and called it an apple orchard.  I have to tell you that nothing stretches your faith like farming .. 

The twigs were not much more then marshmallow sticks. 

Then a couple years ago they were rigorously pruned to look more like grape Vines ... Trusting the vision ... 

A branch growing on the horizontal will produce twice the fruit of a vertical one , and allowing light in will produce bigger fruit .. then having them in the chicken run is a organic way to keep the bugs down .. 

Well today we are seeing the end result 

The fruit is beautiful 

And they are so abundant 

We will make a storage seller to keep them fresh so that we can deliver them to the orphanages during the winter when fruit pric s are too high for them to normally include fruit in the diets 

We have plans now for two small projects if the funds come in .  We would like to purchase a fruit press to make juice along with the canning supplies ($200) 

And the other project is to build shelves and boxes and put in a fan in a root cellar to store apples at the right temperature and humidity. ($200) 

As I look at the pictures , I can't help but think what my grandson Aiden would say