Buchty!

Recipe Serves 4 (pictures served 400!)

-1/4c sugar
-1 ½ c hot/warm milk
-½ package yeast
Mix together and let sit till frothy

-A little less than 5 c flour 
-6 T Margerine
-1 T vanilla extract
-a little lemon zest
-½ t salt
-1 egg

mix together with yeast mixture Let sit 45 minutes to 1 hour or till risen. Punch down if it gets out of hand.

generously flour your work surface and preheat oven to 170 degrees…Celcius ☺ A hair under 350F


plop the dough down –  or if you're feeling proper....Place dough on work surface

be sure and flour your hands!




roll the dough out to between ¼ and 1/8 inch


cut into 2 or 3 inch squares


spoon filling (jam or nutella or stiff pudding or cottage cheese whatever you want) onto the center of the squares


form into balls around the filling be sure and pinch shut


Coat each ball with melted margerine and put into pans


Bake for 25-30 minutes


after they come out, brush sugar water over the finished buchty. Then Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Best eaten warm. The best part is they count as a meal!

Another Language mistake

Dino is one of the dogs here at the ranch. He is very territorial, it took Micah about 2 months to get friendly with him. Dino and I have a tentative relationship at best. And sometimes he is downright hostile. And when he barks outside at 3AM like last night I'm downright hostile. 

Today though, I realized why he just looks at me when I tell him to go into his house ("Do Miesto" - literally your "place".) I have been shouting "Dino, do Mesto".....Dino go to the city!

Poor dog, he is not being disobedient, just very confused!

This is the last week that we will be collecting questions for an upcoming FAQ (frequently asked questions) newsletter, so please e-mail and let us know what you would like to hear more about! (at this point it will be a really short letter)

 I set up a new feature on our website. You can now subscribe to receive these website updates (more detail, more often!) via e-mail. Just click the Subscribe via e-mail link in the right side column. 

The past week or so has been a busy one, we ate meals with two families, attended a conversation class and our bible study, went to the Bazar (second hand home goods), found a great new place to hike, and a spring with fresh mineral water (it's an acquired taste but we're on our way) we also got directions to a natural hot spring.

A missions group from East Main Church in Grove City stopped by Wednesday to see the Ranch and we went with them in the afternoon to the Tatras national park. It was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed the break and the native english speakers :)

It seems like every day something new is added to our home. We now have a kitchen area with vinyl floor, tile backsplash, a refrigerator, microwave, cupboards and a sink. The stove should arrive over the weekend, but I have no clue where we will put it!  Or where we will plug any of this in. We only have one outlet in the downstairs until we re-wire.

We also have new carpet and all the sawdust is gone! 

Along with all his work on our cottage, Micah built some shelves for the terrace kitchen, and helped put up a stage for the program that was here over the weekend 

(notice they were using a minivan to help them pull it up)

370 kids came for some sort of day program! It had a mystery theme, a policeman came (and read from isaiah!) and they basically ran all over. Some sort of safety training meets VBS...I think... It was one of the events that the ranch is just the location for and Micah and I have no real clue what was going on :)

I worked this week to design a logo for the YFC Slovakia training center "Timothy Centrum" and a flier of the upcoming Crown Financial seminar. I also am working on compressing a 64GIG video file to fit on 2 DVD's. I am meeting with only moderate success.

I also helped in the kitchen last Friday making Buchty (a baked roll with filling, we used chocolate) for lunch for the kids who were coming. That was a LOT of fun! (once Mirka gives me the recipe, I'll post the step by step)

For those of you wondering about the status of our visas, we are waiting to hear back from the FBI about our criminal records. After those arrive (hopefully by next week) we will really step it up. But for now it is a waiting game.

We met this morning with our language teacher to discuss some new options for lessons. We have the chance to join another class of Slovak learners or continue with private lessons. We ask that you would continue to pray for wisdom for our decision making. We also appreciate your prayers for language learning, we need a lot of help.

Please continue to pray with us for:
~Language learning and lesson decisions
~A smooth process for the visas (that the FBI clearance comes soon)
~For YFC Slovakia as we gear up for summer events (school ends the 1st of June)

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Meet everyone!

Micah & I are so lucky to have such great people here at the Ranch. It is like being part of a family. I thought we could introduce everyone. I'm sure the rest of the staff woudl appreciate your prayers, and later when I tell a story about Odo or Lubo or Zoe, you will have a face to put with it.

First the Kloters from Switzerland: Simon Angie and Zoe

Simon was in a band that played at CampFest a few times. In 2006, he worked in Presov for a few months as an internship requirement for School. Simon, Angie and Zoe moved to Slovakia last November. They plan to live in Slovakia and work with YFC long term. They are currently staying in one of the cottages and are planning to build a house near the Ranc. Simon is heading up the new training program of YFC Slovakia, "Timothy Centrum" he deals with the logistics and any communication that needs to be done in English. Angie is a mom and helps Simon part-time. Zoe is a little over a year old and unbearably cute.

Next comes Milos Pasternak

Milos is the Manager of the ranch. He is in charge of the day to day running and decisions at the Ranch. He is a certified engineer, and knowledgable about almost everything. The most common thing you hear around here is "...ask Milos..." about any and everything. Milos has a great laugh, and sense of humor. He has 5 kids and is treats us like we are just an addition to that (a good thing).

This is Milos' oldest son, Ondrej. We call him Odo

He is taking a year off School and helping here at the ranch. He is training to be an architect, and is helping draw up Simon & Angie's house. (this is a different Ondrej than was here last summer, that Ondrej no longer works at the ranch)



The rest of the staff lives and works at the ranch 7 days and then has 7 days off.

Lubos is Micah's favorite. He is also called Lubo.

He is from a village just down the road and we have also gotten to know his family as well. Lubo speaks "intermittent" English. He is not afraid to try new words and is constantly comparing similar words...girl, grill, growl? Lubo cooks and helps with a little of everythign else here. He is also very encouraging to us. Everytime we learn new word Lubo celebrates with us, "Progress!"

Lubos works with Mirka,

Mirka was part of a group that I traveled with to Bratislava a few years ago. She takes care of the cleaning and serving guests. When there is a big group, she also helps cook. Mirka makes the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. (Sorry grandma Henry and Meghan) In the past, Mirka has gone with us to the foreigners police.

For a long time we only knew Miro as "the cook" because when someone talked to us about him they never used his name.

Miro does not speak any English, but will occasionally try a German word or two :) He lives in Liptovsky Hradok, with his wife and 3 kids. He was very glad to discover that he is 2 years younger than my dad. This morning he went with Micah to get the tires changed on the car. when Micah asked how much it would cost he told him "if you go 20 Euros. if i go with you 5." Miro knows just about everyone in town. I am going to get him to teach me to make soup. He and Micah have coffee every day at three.

Last but not least is Danka.

Danka takes care of cleaning and guests and office work. Last summer Danka made us feel very welcome here at the Ranch while we are still adjusting. She is a very nurturing person. Danka speaks English and German as well as Slovak and sometimes forgets who she is talking to and what language they speak. It's complicated around here: German and English with the Kloters, English with Micah, English and Slovak with Stasi, Slovak with everyone else...


Now you have faces to go with the names so when you come visit, you will know who's who.

Micah and the chainsaw

Sometimes, pictures just speak for themselves. Like this story of how Micah put a hole in the side of our house with a chainsaw and how now our downstairs is full of sawdust and light!

Gardens and Language Mistakes

I have started a small flowerbed here in front of our little cottage. Last week at this time this bit of earth was bursting with green and life.

I spent a lot of effort hoeing and raking and convincing micah to chainsaw and pick-axe. The result is a spot of ground where nothing is growing at all.

Everyone is interested in my efforts. No one seems concerned that all I’ve done so far is kill everything I touched :) and the strawberry seeds I plated don’t seem to be doing anything either!

I plan to transplant some wild violets, mint and blackberries from down by the river and plant some wildflower seeds I brought from home. I also have some pumpkin seeds that I bought last week on a whim.

I keep trying to tell people that I have never really had a garden before or at least not since I was in Kindergarten. Over the weekend I made the error of telling someone that this was my first zahoda instead of zahrada. Just a few letters difference. What I actually said was “I don’t know what I am doing. this is my first toilet” 

I will not add a toilet to my garden. I am thinking more along the lines of a terra cotta dwarf, just in case my real skill is killing plants.

Latest from Slovakia

We have not disappeared. the thing is, the internet this week is painfully slow! so, i have some news, but no pictures to back it up. i have a number of posts in the works though, and once the internet goes faster than 1 kb/s, maybe you will get to see some :)

Micah and I are starting to get the paperwork together to reapply for our visas. We hope to have everything done long before we need to so that we can avoid another unplanned trip to the United States! Please pray with us that this goes smoothly. There is a lot of bureaucracy here, sometimes you have to submit one piece of paper before they will tell you what the next one you need is. Add to that, the Foreigners Police office is an hour away and that none of them speak English and you might begin to see why we are starting to reapply a few months early! We are currently waiting to hear back from the FBI.

Thank you all for praying for us. We have definitely felt your prayers as we adjust to life here. It is so good to know that we are not here alone, we also have your prayers with us. We can use prayers especially for continuing to adjust and learn Slovak. Also that we will be a blessing to the people here in Slovakia.

We are collecting questions for an upcoming FAQ (frequently asked questions) newsletter, so please e-mail and let us know what you want to hear more about!