A day at our DACHA!

You all are slave drivers!  I wasn't deliberately teasing.  So it would be better not to mention anything at all when I don't have time?  And then you have fits because I didn't tell you earlier? At least this way you knew something was up.

So, the exciting news is that WE BOUGHT A DACHA!  It was all very sudden.  We've kind of asked around and looked some, but there is just not much (nothing!) available here.  It seems that, even more than in Kovrov, everyone here has a dacha and uses it.  Maybe that's because the city here was built so recently?  People haven't had time to inherit them and end up with more than they can use?  Or maybe it's just because everything grows so much better here?

Anyway, last week we were walking through a dacha area, and Will asked a man walking by if he had heard about anyone selling there.  He said not there, but that his neighbor in another area was selling.  We walked over with him, and he showed it to Will.  He thought it had probably already been sold, though.  We got in touch with the owner, and now--a week later--it's ours!

We spent all day there yesterday (and almost froze).  Our camera wasn't being cooperative, but we still got some photos:

Letting down the ladderThis is the entrance to our property. It's like a fortress.

Climbing up
The houseThis is what you see once you get up the ladder: a little house, (the weeds), an apricot (?) tree, and a greenhouse.  There's also a chicken coop behind the house.
The "garage"If you go to the right of the house, you see these stairs, leading up to a collection of little buildings, where the former owner kept his motorcycle and turkeys and such.
Looking down from the garageI know, you can't see much.  Our little house is straight out, but you can actually see the neighbor's better than ours here.
Cooking lunch
Finally asleep!Asya was not happy with us for dragging her out there, sick and all bundled up.  While the rest of us enjoyed exploring, she spent most of her time screaming.  She finally fell asleep for a little while.  I'm sure she'll enjoy dacha time, when it's warmer and she feels well!

We have been kind of talking and thinking and praying about getting a dacha here, even since we had to leave our other one in Russia.  It makes apartment life so much more bearable!  Actually, it's about the perfect life for me.  I would be lonely in a real house, all the time; I'm used to having neighbors above and below and all around me and people to talk to when I go outside.  But I miss having a place to let the children run free and to grow plants.  Now I have both.

Will says that he was thinking he needed to really start searching for a place soon, because he wanted something before spring and thought it would be a long, drawn out search.  Instead, he just had to ask this one man!  We're so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who blesses us with even extra things like this.