A Day on the Farm...

Because I can now upload pictures while using my host sister's computer, my posts are going to be out of chronological order until I get all of the first things uploaded...so while this drives me absolutely nuts, I still want y'all to see everything that I have been exposed to thus far! And many of these events require a post devoted to just that subject. Without further ado...A Day on the Farm :)

On Sunday, April 17, I was supposed to get together with Brendan and Jamie to lesson plan for the classes we would be teaching the next week. When arranging where we would meet and at what time, Brendan asked me if I would like to come to his house to lesson plan. Sure, no problem! Little did I know what else it would entail :) luckily, Jamie was along for the ride.

Brendan lives on what I would classify as a farm, in the middle of the city. Everyone in Oster uses their backyard as a place to grow food...and in some instances, to raise animals.

Here is the view of part of Brendan's backyard.
The far right patch of soil (by the building) is the spot where he and his host family just planted potatoes. Brendan's loving host family showed Jamie and I the video of Brendan planting...I only wish I could get my hands on it! Too funny :)

One of the main purposes of me going to Brendan's was to milk a cow. Yep...you heard me right. Brendan's host mom, Olga, wanted me to have the opportunity to do this, even though I have milked a cow before! I'm not sure whether it is uncommon for guys to milk a cow or not here in Ukraine, but Brendan and Jamie were not offered the opportunity to partake in this event. They did, however, have the pleasure of watching me milk it :) There was not much room to snag a picture of me milking the cow, but rest assured...I did milk it! Olga was of course MUCH faster and much more efficient than I was.
They have a mom and a grandmother cow. They are 5 and 7 years old if my memory serves me correct. And the newest addition to the barn was this cute little guy:

He was 2 weeks old at the time and the milk that we had just retrieved from the mom was then poured into a bottle for the calf.

Olga, feeding the calf...and the grandmother cow is in this picture I think.

In addition to the cows, they also had these loud guys :) This picture does them NO justice for how giant they are. Probably 5-6 feet long each...and I can't even guess at what they would weigh.


and a cute little baby piglet too. He was probably 2-3 feet long.

After doing our outside duties, we were given a feast and a first for me here in Ukraine: shashleek...aka, shish kabobs!

One more small detour was introduced to us before we could get down to lesson planning. Her name is Sasha...and she stole my heart she is so cute!

She's almost 1 year old...and a complete ham. So precious and so beautiful. She absolutely adores Brendan...and I can see why it's hard for him to get any work done with her there!


Pondering...



Oh, and I'll leave you with one other interesting animal the family ran inside to tell me about. The Ukrainian/Russian name for it has escaped me, but it was quite a site to see! His ears were amazing...and now that I think about it, he's the first squirrel I've seen here. Happy weekend!