Phone Woes

This morning we are getting a light snow. The weather isn't so bad. It is mild, but cloudy and murky. It is a let down after the nice days of the last 2 weeks. But I have inside work to do anyway and there are 2 good marathons on the tube so........you make the best of it. Upside, this is the worst of the precipitation for the weekend. Originally rain was predicted for 3 days, but now just this little dusting of snow. I can live with this. It's the several days of murky clouds that gets you down.
I have been trying to call Rakieta all week. The phones are acting crazy again. This gets very irritating. I swear they use Spaghetti for phone line and they must use pie tins on the cell towers. Such is life in Burkina Faso.

Kitty Cat Woes

See this cat? This is Batley and she is pretty cute and loved around here most of the time. HOWEVER.....she likes to sit eye level with humans. That means she spends a lot of time on tables and desks. Guess what else sits on tables and desks. Small, shiny objects. She insists upon throwing these things around and dropping them onto the floor. Then she chases these small objects until they lodge into cracks and crevices she can't reach. Well, she has managed to lose my little case full of digital camera memory cards. There were no less than 5 of them in the case and one had all the African pictures on it. Needless to say, I have torn apart my first floor looking for these tiny. priceless objects.
Luckily, I have put many of the pictures on the blog............Otherwise, our African family would never forgive us.

Washer Woes

Last week Matt washed his clothes and had no problem letting one load take over 2 hours because the water was coming out very slowly. So I gave him the ultimatum. It had to be fixed before the week was out. He waited until the last possible minute and then I had to deal with the cussing and swearing and tantrums but we did change the hose filters. Unfortunately, as is the case with this man most of the time, no test run. So on Matt's laundry day, he promptkly starts his laundry again and disappears. Many HOURS later I went in the laundry room to check on the chicks and it was STILL filling. So I did something profound and actually looked in the washer. This time the water was just dripping into the washer. The problem was actually worse than before. I switched temps to at least get the load done and of course I gave him more than an exasperated look. (Remember everyone, it is MOTORCYCLE season.) Anyway, now everyone is home from vacation and that means a lot of laundry. So yesterday we loaded the washer by bucketful. This morning I greeted him with the sternest attitude I could muster first thing out of bed and made it clear we had a date in the laundry room. This time we actually let the hoses run and as soon as I took the new filter out of the hose, there was at least a quarter cup of chunky rust sitting there. Mystery solved! Now the washer is running wonderfully.
So folks, when I tell you that the rust in the water in the thumb of Michigan is so hard you can chew it, it is no joke. Too bad we can't mine for rust. We'd be rich.

Springtime

The weather here is beautiful today. Last week was until Thursday night. Then we had 3 straight days of rain. Luckily it was a slow drizzle. We had a lot of snow to melt and the ground was pretty frozen so it would have been a bad thing to have heavy rain. As it has turned out, things are damp but not soggy and the temps today were around 60 and sunny. You can't beat that. Hopefully the rest of the week will be just as nice. Tomorrow the surveyors are coming out to reset the markers on the property. It looks like that is coming together for us. I am afraid to get excited just yet. I love being over there, but until we sign the final papers I don't want to get too attached.
I have 2 baby banties and another trying to peck his way out. They are pretty cute and seem strong. Hopefully they stay that way. My last batch all died. Weird, they lived at least 3 weeks, but they must have just not been very healthy even though they looked fine.

A Few Pics of Hawaii

Whale watching

Turtles heading out to sea

Merry at Buddhist temple

Jeni in tree

Jeni and Kyle at Aquarium

Girls in front of Hawaiian royalty

Girls all dressed up for luau

Humpback whale's hump

Update On Us.

Merry, Jeni and Kyle are off in Hawaii this week. Travel club was rough and tough, but they all persevered and were able to pull off the trip to Hawaii. There were about 12 of them who went. They are having a blast.
Myself, I am enjoying the week not having too much structured time and I am actually getting most of the stuff on the to do list done.
Today was a great day with the horses. The girls really understand what we want them to do now and it is going to be a really good spring/summer/fall with them and the lesson kids. In fact, Copper even called out to me to go to work. That is a first because everyone who knows Copper knows how much she hates working,
Matt is really getting the motorcycle riding bug since the weather is getting so nice.
All in all things are going pretty well for the Kalinowski clan.

Olga has internet!

I don't write about Olga often because communication has been pretty hit and miss, but technology is now allowing us to become close even though we have never officially met. For those of you who aren't aware, we hosted a little Russian girl many, many years ago. She went back to Russia and went on to be adopted by Americans. However, before she left her orphanage, she gave Olga our information. Eventually we got a letter from Olga out of the blue. In those days, translations were so tedious as they had to be translated by hand. I bought a very good translating cd as we got involved with Rakieta several months later so at least I could type in English and translate it into Russian characters. Otherwise we may never have gotten the relationship off the ground.
Anyway, Olga just informed me that I was not writing back fast enough (something all the girls are accusing me of-I just can't seem to get control of my time because of all work involved with the grandparents and their passing) and that she now has wireless internet so she can talk all the time. I am not sure if she has internet via phone or if she now has a computer, but Olga is now officially online! I will assume that there will be nonstop communication now if she is like most other young people. So as soon as I get a new photo I will post it here.
This is pretty cool. When we met Olga, I had to address her packages and letters in Russian characters and Rakieta's family who only spoke tribal dialect required 6 months of actively looking for a translator to communicate at all. That seems a like a lifetime ago now. Rakieta's family now has internet skills, multiple cell phones and a mailbox sponsored by us and now Olga is able to be online regularly.
I thank God a lot for the gift of modern technology!