Today was easy when it wasn't hard. I woke up at 1:20 AM, worried. (I know it is wrong to worry, but old habits are hard to break) . It was about money. Yesterday I finally got the money I had sent myself from my account in California. That account gets my social security check. So I take the part of it that is not needed to pay off my credit card debt and send it to myself in Crimea. That system went well for awhile but the last two months it took more than a week to get to me and required my repeated attention to make it over. Once the money arrived I started buying building materials. Yesterday morning I purchased 7 sacks of plaster, 8 panels of wallboard, 25 sacks of concrete, two ceiling lights, a sack of potatoes and a lot of hardware, then rode with the delivery back to our site. The ride was in a Uazik truck. Whats that? It is old Soviet Army vehicle that now does duty as a delivery truck. It is no luxury vehicle for sure. Elim, the Tatar driver told me he wants to sell it (He is asking $2000 for a truck that must be at least 30 years old). Anyway all these items in the truck were asked for by my crew. If they knew I was so low on money I would not be able to pay them on time, they might have shut up...naaaah. They love working here. Check out these pictures of what we have been building.
Ivan and Vlada did art in the shade this morning.
Vlada didn't want her picture taken I guess. OK we are
going to get to the building pics next.
Andrae arranged the fill dirt in the future picnic patio.
Where did we get all that dirt? Well, from everywhere.
Did you ever notice how much of this planet is dirt?
The local "stadia" gets its mid-day milking just
down from our picnic patio. While I was photographing Andrae
I noticed a neighbor lady milking her cow. Looks like milk is
a good dietary element if you need to put on some weight.
She rides a scooter up and down our road. Imagine that!
After lunch it was clear that Sasha would finish the
guest house roofing today. See how nicely it matches
our other new roofs?
Lenur got smart on a hot day and
found work to do in the shade
between the guest house and garage.
Sasha was the hero of the day when he finished the roof.
These "Tatarski Cheripitza" or terracotta mission roofing tiles are abundant
in the Crimean Belogorsk region. They can be bought cheaply but we had to scrub
them with wire brushes to get years of mold and grunge off of them.
We enjoy the result of our labors however and these roofs
should last many years more.
This week we also had fixed a problem with our electricity .
Tomorrow I plan to go to town and pay the man who fixed it.
Please pray for our finances. As I suppose anyone who has ever
done any building can tell you, building work is expensive.
We seem to be constantly coming to the end of our resources
but God is faithful.
I spent time this morning cutting stray limbs and gathering
smooth stones from our little river - cleaning it up some too.
After lunch I got caught up on my shuteye.
Stop back bye again soon, David
