Ludmila Jahnová

"When they fertilized the land and picked out the stones,later they were allocated a completely different piece of land, usually further away, which had been uncultivated until then. The better field was then given to the cooperative farm. This was repeated again and again. Or they allocated land so senselessly that one farmer had to ride over another one´s land. That's what my grandpa paid for. He arranged with one farmer to exchange land, because then they would both be closer. They were both happy, but when it was found out, grandpa was sentenced to six months in prison. That was his first imprisonment. Later on, it happened to him for second time."

"There were still four seasons back then, but when the dam was fully filled, at least the first half of winter was suddenly milder, it could be felt. It also stopped raining as much. We knew that it was raining in Opava, or a little bit away from us towards Olomouc on the other side of the dam, but nothing in Leskovec. I explained and imagined myself that when the mass of water evaporates and goes upwards, it creates something like an umbrella. Later I read in many places that this was really the case. The first half of winter became suddenly a few degrees warmer than a little further away. That was saying something. The water, at least in the first half of the winter, was partially warming the area. While the air temperature changes quickly, the water temperature doesn't jump around as much. The water had accumulated some temperature and was giving off that heat gradually. When the freezes hit in the second half of winter or towards the end of winter, the standing water in the bays had frozen and cooled. Those changes were very noticeable during the rains."