Ludmila Jahnová

"Grandpa resisted for several years. He was also severely restricted in every way and was pressured to join the cooperative farm. It was known that cooperativ farms were managed badly. The first farmers who joined were happy to go there. They had no experience or were lazy. I even heard that some were able to plant something the other way around. Instead of the roots going down, they planted the seedlings with the roots going up. Those who farmed on their own, and there were more of them in the village who did not want to join the cooperaticve farm, on the contrary, were interested and knowledgeable. They brought the experience from home from their parents. Even my grandparents had it in their blood. They were all hardworking. That's why they didn't want to join, but the pressure from the communists was great."

"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."