Moo-oosings by the Verhoog family

Hello from Egypt

2012-02-19T15:33:00.004+02:00

That's right we went from minus 20 to plus 27 last Sunday. Garry is enjoying snorkling, playing beach volleyball and water polo- mostly with Russians and Ukrainians.

Its a nice resort- we have checked out some evening shows at the hotel. One had a guy who walked on braken glass- and then laid on top of it - and a bed of nails with four Ukrainian girls from the audience standing on him. We are going to be very brown in another week.

Nine months later...calves

2012-02-12T01:20:00.004+02:00

As you know Garry bred a lot of cows in the village last spring, and he was delighted to go to a house in the village last week to breed a cow - a little early he told the lady, because the cow was only fresh 40 days, he is trying to get them to call him after 60 days. Next to the cow was her heifer calf from the AI Canadian bull Garry was using last year, born on Christmas day. The lady was ready to have another next year, because the calf is growing so fast.

On Friday Garry was called to Pervey Mai (first of May)a nearby village where he bred a number of cows last year. A lady wanted him to check her first calf heifer that had been milking for a few months, because she had not noticed her in heat (ready to breed) As far as Garry could tell, all is well with her, so maybe he or Max will be back there soon to breed the cow.

The lady was excited to show him the big bull calf and set of twin heifer calves that her two cows he bred last year had. She has the twins in a little room heated by a wood fireplace, since it as been so cold. It seems like everyone wants to have him breed their cows again, because the calves are so big and grow so fast. Yana was showing me in our barn in December how the AI bred ones grow so much faster than the regular ones.

Oh no!

2012-02-12T00:39:00.003+02:00

What do you not want to see when you arrive at the airport? Flight delayed 3 hours!
We are flying a small Ukrainian airline to Sharm El Sheik UT air I think, and I was not hoping to see this- we were thinking when we arrived at 12:15 we'd be heading through check-in soon.

We left home at 3 pm with Maxim, our suitcases, all the church milk for Sunday morning, and a guy from the village who had asked Max for a ride to Dnepro. Max handed Kolia a breathmint when he got into the front seat- Max and I were sitting the back with a crate of smetana and the carry-on wedged between us. It didn't help the alcohol-cigarette breath, but he was happy for a ride and chatted for a while.

We dropped off Kolia at the outskirts of the city and brought the milk, cheese and smetana at Victor's house where the guys unloaded it- milk will easily stay cold until morning in this weather. Unfortunately Victor's German shepherd escaped from the yard and Garry and Max had to help Dan catch her before we left. We still got to the train station with time to spare.

We left Dnepro at 5:11 on schedule and Garry remarked as the train got going that it felt like we had a flat tire. Normally the train has a rocking sensation as it goes down the track, we were pretty tired of the shake and rattle by the time we got to Kiev at 11pm. Around six a mother and grandmother got on with a 3 year old and sat behind us- that child sang loudly until 9:30 with a few breaks for air. No one seemed upset about it. Garry got hungry - I had packed some brownies, since we were in the dining car (back half of our car)he bought a sandwich and chips and brought me a warm Coke.

Ukrainians would never drink cold pop in the winter- you would be sure to get sick. Ice cream will give you a sore throat in winter also. At the Metro grocery store last summer they put in little coolers by the checkouts. I bought one a couple weeks ago and realized they had turned them off - who'd buy cold drinks in the winter? last week I discovered one of ten was still turned on and got a cold drink.

Many people slept or watched the old Soviet movies they show on the televisions - they got the one working facing us around the time the little kid got on- one movie seemed to have the Russian Julie Andrews in, it had a big musical number with whistling truck drivers, and she was either in overalls - I think she pumped gas or a fancy dress going down the stairs in Odessa at the end, I think.

We pulled the luggage over to McDonalds from the train station - which was colder than normal inside- had some burgers and cold french fries and then pulled them back through the train station, down the stairs- escalator wasn't working and found a van to the airport for 30 grivna a person, he was full at 10 before 12 and took 25 minutes to get here, only stopped for 2 maybe three lights. Went through some yellow ones fast. Seats are packed - Garry is reading a book across from me and people are getting their luggage encased in plastic for 30 grivna. It's very popular for flying here- maybe no one will open your luggage?...

The people flying the other airline to Sharm El Sheik who were supposed to leave after us are going through check in now...nothing to do but wait and hope we get there sometime on Sunday morning.

Saturday morning

2012-02-11T13:04:00.002+02:00

There are little fine snow flurries drifting down from time to time this morning. Must be warmer this morning, some snow came crashing off the metal roof so it must be warming up for the first time in weeks. Saw one of the Saturday customers going out the gate pulling a little sled with two bags of brewers grain and a tin bucket balanced on top of the sled.

Garry had a cow with an upset stomach yesterday, he gave her some baking soda to settle it down, but this morning he listened to her with his stethoscope and decided she had a twisted stomach or DA. So the vet came out around noon. At home in Canada this is a pretty simple and normally sucessful operation, where one of the cow's stomachs (the abomasum) is untwisted and stitched down but we were wondering what the vet would prescribe here.

Fortunately we didn't find out because went they checked her Garry couldn't hear the twist - you tap on the cow's belly and you hear a pinging sound through the stethoscope- the vet gave her a bunch of stuff and put her on antibiotics. He said it was a 100% cure, so hopefully he's right and the cow is fine when we get back in two weeks. Garry says she calved sometime in the last month. The milk fever cow is doing great now, back in her stall.

Packed and ready to fly

2012-02-10T16:16:00.001+02:00

Saturday afternoon we take the train to Kiev, where we will get a bus over to the airport - it takes less than an hour at night to get to Borispol, the train arrives at 11 pm, and we fly out at 2:40 am. It is supposed to be 25 C in Sharm El Sheik on Sunday.

Garry tells me that school was cancelled for the kids in the village again this week because of the extreme cold weather. However the teachers, like Maxim's girlfriend Yulia still have to go to school. There are still a number kids walking down the street to the store, visit friends or go sledding. Sleds with metal runners are very popular- in the city parents use them to pull small children along the icy sidewalks and sidestreets. Very few sidewalks are cleared of snow in Ukraine, so the sidewalks are icy until the ice melts in the spring. It may be several weeks before we can walk without slipping. CNN is talking about predictions of extreme cold hitting Ukraine again in this morning's newscast- I hope we are on the plane to Egypt before it happens!

Of course even when its cold life goes on in Ukraine as you can see in these photos I took on Saturday afternoon of the art market in Zaporosia.

I have been packing the suitcases while Garry has been trying to get the water running out in the barn to the cows this morning, he had some problems, Max must have lent out the the 1/2 inch socket set and he needed to replace a frost plug in on of the water bowls before he could turn the water on. Max got back around 2 pm and went out to give him a hand.

Garry popped in for his wallet, he needs some supplies, the car has already been in and out the drive several times already. He says three frost plugs were busted in the waterbowls, and he figured out why- apparently while he was gone yesterday afternoon someone cleaned out the heifer pens and had the doors to the barn open for a couple hours! Opps it is minus 16 C out right now, and it wasn't warmer yesterday.

Well the kittens can jump on the windowsill to eat the food with the other cats so they are set while we are away, I am putting out a big bowl of water, and I am sure Max will give them some milk in their dish too, since Box has pretty much weaned them, they are so big now. They will miss sitting in my lap "helping" me crochet, they are getting better at not attacking the yarn.

Now I just need to make Friday night dinner pizza and make sure I remembered everything I want to bring for two weeks, the snorkeling fins take up some space, so we have one large and one medium suitcase to bring on the train- less than went we flew home in December, in case we have to drag everything up three flights of stairs and out to a bus.

Dnepropetroesk in Winter

2012-02-10T16:10:00.000+02:00

The buses are full

I have taken some photos in Dnepro lately- for those of you who have been here in July for the Summer English Institute you can check out how different it is from the summer.
Looking across one of the valleys of Dnepro- it's a city of hills

Heading downhill on the road toward the factories

Heroes of Stalingrad - one of the five main streets- was rebuilt this summer

Driving down the hill toward Karl Marx boulevard

Downtown along the tram tracks

Most city centre (mall) has a parking garage- here's one of us going down- you drive around in tight circles to the top where there are two levels of parking- I took some on the rooftop

Crossing the bridge over the icy Dniper River

On the left bank

Looking out the front window

2012-02-09T19:34:00.002+02:00

I wanted to get a picture of the bigger bird pecking away on the apple tree in the front yard, but he flew away by the time I got the camera. I took some of his smaller friend that came along after him. The big guy headed out to the willow trees by the street and I couldn't get him even with the new camera. The zoom is great for these guys. Even the kids going down the street with their sled.

Delivery again

2012-02-09T15:11:00.004+02:00

The feed truck showed up before dark on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it left more than an hour later, still full of feed. Maxim and Andrei spent more than an hour trying to help the driver unload it, Garry spent an hour out there in the cold also, after he got done talking to our son who had called from Canada. They filled the truck with feed without checking the auger that unloads it- which was full of something frozen at the bottom of the truck. The driver asked if they could just shovel it out and upstairs into the feed bin, but Garry rejected that plan! The driver wanted to leave the full truck here, but Garry told them they had to find a warm place to put it until it thawed.

It was supposed to come before lunch today (Thursday) but it was about three when it pulled into the drive- hopefully it is actually getting unloaded this time. Even Ukrainian dinner (lunch) time is around two. The guys ran out of grain this morning, so Maxim was ready to go pick some up today, but Victor called this morning to say they had called him to say it was coming.

Garry took off at one o'clock with 400 liters of milk in the car, plus the smetana -sour cream and cottage cheese, if he managed to pick it up at the neighbor's house- he came back for his phone he forgot because the gate was locked and the big dog was inside. Victor sells the milk on Thursday for 8 grivna (about a dollar) a liter, which is better than Canadian price. Of course, in the summer the price here in Ukraine drops to half that or less! Hopefully it is warmer next week Thursday so Victor can get his van started to come out for milk (it's a diesel engine) or Max will have to take it in.

Garry had to drive to Zaporosia first to pick up our plane tickets (Victor already has our train tickets to Kiev) because they weren't there when he went in Tuesday.
Then he was meeting Victor in Dnepro, they need to get a power of attorney done so Victor can take care of signing for the house down the street we have in the process of buying for about two years. Garry was going to sign the papers today, but the lady needed one more official's stamp or paper to sell it, so it has to be done while we are gone. Then Garry is playing basketball tonight, luckily I reminded him to carry his gym bag with his shoes out the door!

The feed unloading must not be going well, its been an hour and Max has not come in to money to pay them yet. Hopefully they are getting something out of the old truck, I can hear it running out there. Just stopped, maybe it's done... Max came in smiling, it's in the bin. He took some water out for the boys (the guys working) and found 3000 grivna to pay for the grain. Now we have feed for a month or more!

Today seems to be warmer than it has been, Garry and Maxim got the water running to the cows for the day instead of watering them with buckets, like they did on the really cold days. The cows should be able to drink all day today. I did ask if the reason was also because Max's brother returned home yesterday so they'd have to carry it all themselves. Garry laughed.

Yesterday we went into Dnepro in the afternoon to meet some people, and then went bowling at 5:30 at Most City mall (its near one of the bridges - most is bridge) and it was really cold walking in. When we left at seven the wind had died down it seemed warmer (only -12 C) outside. Looks like the forecast is calling for warmer weather with snow next week.

Back in the deep freeze

2012-02-07T14:48:00.011+02:00

The cats are having a great time running and chasing each other around the living room, Needles is enjoying his second kittenhood playing (and napping) with Box's kittens. The little guys will be as big as she is soon, she is such a small cat to begin with and is really skinny now.

We enjoyed a two day break from the extreme cold, but it was back this morning with a howling wind to make it feel like -33 C (that's about where it is in degrees F if I remember where the scales converge correctly) This morning the guys just carried buckets of water out for the cows to drink, because it was so cold in the barn that the knew the waterpipes and bowls would freeze back up as soon as they got the water running to them. The wind really makes a big difference to how cold the barn is. The plastic canvas sides are fine as long as the wind doesn't blow!

Garry tells me that the sick cow is still in the pen with the calves. She hurt one of her legs a little when she was down, and is limping a bit, so he will keep her in the pen a few more days so she can heal up. The ladies just milk her in the pen by hand into a pail. I think the calves may be getting a little extra milk with her there.

This morning we ran out of water in the house- it wasn't frozen, the cistern was empty! I was making bagels this morning when we discovered the water had run out, Garry had used it to make coffee when he got up. So I had flour-covered hands and had to try cleaning up with antiseptic hand cleaner, which doesn't work really well, I can tell you.

If you remember, the town water truck has broken down, and so Maxim was delivering water last week. Right now- 3 pm - I am watching someone trying to back the tractor/watertank into the right driveway- I know the tractor wan't fit under the gas line there, so this should be interesting. Too bad I am recharging the camera, and can't take a photo of it trying to back in the narrow slippery driveway- looks like it stopped, hopefully before hitting the line!

Looks like the top of the tractor fit under the gasline- not sure how, Garry always told me it wouldn't fit under there, guess we can wash up the dishes soon. Garry just got back from Zaporosia (picking up the plane tickets) and is assisting the effort- he just came in for a stocking cap (toque for Canadians) because he was wearing his farmer's hat (baseball type) and his ears were freezing with his new haircut.

He tells me the tractor isn't under the line, but they are going to lift it up somehow to get the tractor past it, Max says people in the village do it all the time. The water in the hose from the tank keeps freezing solid when they try to snake it over to the cistern.

They got it backed up right after I took the photos (battery was a little charged) of them lifting the line up, and started the water running into the cistern. You can see the deceptive bright sunshine in to the pictures, since I was taking them out of a west-facing window, the afternoon sun is getting lower, but it has been shining all day. Garry says they raised it by sticking a couple bricks under the line on top of the posts it sits on going over the driveway.

Garry is waiting for the load of compicorn- ground feed- that was supposed to come yesterday, then today, to arrive. It is hard to get the old truck backed up and get the feed blown into the bin upstairs, so it better arrove before dark. Victor called around four to say that they had called him to say that they had the truck loaded with the feed now. It is mostly corn, and little wheat, with salt and limestone added for minerals. It is really cold so they had trouble with the truck. of course. We have enough feed for tonight but we'll need it for Wednesday.

I can hear water- I'm off to flush the toilet!

Zaporosia

2012-02-06T14:39:00.008+02:00

We drove to Zaporosia on Saturday or Zaporizhizhia - it's pronounced more like the first, but normally spelled with the extra z's in English. We live closer to Zaporosia than Dnepro, but it takes longer to drive downtown because you have to drive across the dam. The dam was built a long time ago, because it was rebuilt after WWII, it was sabotaged during the Nazi occupation. It is a long winding road over the dam toward the city's downtown. Right now the high side of the river is covered with ice, after all the cold weather we have had lately, here is the low side, a little hard to see through the railing. The dam was once considered one of the seven wonders of the modern world, the rapids protecting the Chorista Island were dangerous.

Zaporosia is famous for a number of things, it was the home of the Zaporosian cossacks, the same island in the river that was home to their sich, or fort,
was one of the first places settled by the German Mennonite in the time of Catherine the Great. In Soviet times it became a steel and manufacturing center, with a nearby nuclear plant. There are about as many people living there as in Winnipeg, maybe more- but they have less malls.

At the end of the main street of the city, overlooking the river is a large Lenin statue, I noticed this summer his upraised arm seems to point toward the dam.
Zaporosia has a beautiful wide main street, named Leninia of course, with some lovely buildings built at the height of Soviet decorative design, as you can see in the photos I took of the building we parked in front of. The store advertising van shoes is a bike shop- bicycle in Russian is "veloceped" so it's name is basically velo-city - remember what looks like a capital B is pronounced closer to an English V. Leninia is lined with stores, many with high-priced name brand clothing and restaurants, including the Chinese restaurant we discovered this fall.

I did some people watching, there were a fair number of people going about their business on foot or on the buses and marshukas which were packed. Older women seem to prefer the really long fur coats, while a number of younger ladies seemed to be more concerned with fashion- I saw one holding hands with her guy, whose stacking-clad knees were peeking out between her tall boots and skirts.

I also spotted two older ladies who seemed to be outside for a smoke break, I assumed they worked inside the building, it seemed the door next to them was very busy with people coming and going. Many places allow smoking inside, but some do not. Since I am sensitive to cigarette smoke, it bothers me more than Garry. Reminds me of the old days when I used to make him shower as soon as he got home from working the Bingo in Zurich, Ontario for either the hockey or figure skating fundraiser, I couldn't stand to be in that room, it would even ooze off his hair when he got home.

The reason we went to Zaporosia was not just to go through the Mc Donalds drive thru for lunch (the inside tends to be really crowded in the winter) was to try and find a travel agency Garry remembered seeing there- and we did. There was a girl that was pretty good in English and we booked a two week trip to Sharm El Sheik Egypt on the Red Sea. We left a deposit and she photocopied our passports to start things off- she was worried that the price might be different for non-Ukrainians, but we have our temp resident stamps now, so no problems. Monday she called to confirm the price, and Garry drove in with the rest of the grivna to pay for it. Tuesday we can go back and get the tickets. We have to take the train to Kiev Saturday evening (flying out at 2 am) to get the plane- no tickets from Dnepro until almost the end of February!

Here's Garry with his new haircut for our trip (he got it cut today in the village) and the document he got at the travel place saying we have purchased an all- inclusive trip to Egypt. Tickets and vouchers tomorrow.

LOOKING GOOD

2012-02-04T15:41:00.009+02:00

It is relatively warmer today (Saturday), -10 C is way warmer than -16 for the high, although its a long way from crocus weather!

The brewers grain was flying out of here when Andrey opened sales this morning, sometimes three customers were here at once. Most people came by car today, although a few by other means. Garry was worried they might sell all of it from the pit before they fed our cows tonight, but the new load they ordered showed up around 3 pm, so there's plenty now.

In between customers he helped the other Andrei shell corn with this neat gizmo, they use it to feed the bull calves that Maxim is raising in the hutches.

The milkhouse is heated with this little electric heater, Garry said that they had been putting it near the vacuum pump so it would start up at milking time. However, they can't run it and the milking equipment at the same time, so the ladies switch it off while they are milking. Friday night they forgot to turn it back on, and the milkhouse was kind of froze up in the morning.

Garry went off to Salonie this morning to the vettenka vet drug supply store- to buy some kind of calcium for the sick cow, since she was still down. After he treated her and put her in the pen this morning (pictured) he was excited to find she was up and getting milked by the ladies when we got back from Zaporosia around 3 pm.

Unfortunately they were milking her, and the rest of the cows by hand because the vacuum pump had stopped working. Maxim is now switching over to the new one that Garry and I brought back in parts in our suitcase.

As I write Needles (the male) is playing momma cat wrestling and grooming a kitten. He likes to snuggle and sleep with them too. He doesn't go outside much now, it's so cold outside and with all the interesting kittens to play with, he runs around playing like he's a kitten again. This morning he decided to have a wrestle with Polo when he came inside, like when they were young- kinda of slow-motion WWE action.

Box, their real momma is a little stand-offish nowadays, but walks out to the middle of the carpet mu-rowling until the three little guys wake up on whatever chair or couch they are sleeping on for a quick nursing. They are enjoying eating some dry and wet kitten food we bought last week, and are getting pretty good at the small litter pan I put in the living room for them, since they were having trouble finding the one the big cats use.

Update (I never quite finished last night)
Sunday evening- today was relatively warm, although the forecast has it dipping back down toward the cold weather we've had lately already tomorrow. I spent the day in bed, but seem to be recovering tonight. Garry took milk to Dnepropetroesk, went to church and then played some pickup basketball after lunch.

Good news- the sick cow is still feeling good, getting up and down on her own, back in her stall. The new vacuum pump is running great, really quiet. There was a small problem yesterday after Maxim installed it. He accidently broke a pipe that is part of the milk cooling system, by stepping on it and they had to do some repairs on it, so the coolant didn't leak out.

Could use a little warmth over here!

2012-02-03T22:28:00.004+02:00

As you can see fur is really the fashion in Ukraine this week. Today's world news is telling us that 100 people have died from the cold snap in Ukraine. I would guess that number might be low. I hear that the government has put up a heated tent in downtown Dnepro for street people now. Of course it has been cold for two weeks now, and not supposed to improve a whole lot next week.

Garry was so tired of the cold he looked into trips to the popular Red Sea resorts in Sharm El Sheik, but all the flights from Dnepropetroesk are full until the 23rd (like three weeks)- if you go to Kiev you can fly on the 12th. I guess there are a lot of Ukrainians tired of the cold weather wanting a vacation.

Even the animals have to cope with the cold- the village dogs are happily romping in the street, and the crows are hanging out in town on the highway

Wednesday night a big cow had a big bull calf. Thursday night Yana came to the house, the cow had fallen down while they were milking- she had milk fever, a problem that cows can get after calving due to a calcium imbalance (generally older cows that give a lot of milk are more likely to get it) Garry and Maxim got her fixed up (Max said the vet wouldn't come at night) and in a hour she was able to stand up, and was looking fine Friday morning. Apparently she went down again Friday afternoon while we were in Dnepro, and so they got the "good vet" out. He gave her some secret IV fluids and injections- he won't show Garry what he is using- he has a pop bottle IV kit, and suggested rubbing her down with vodka and putting a blanket on her. We did give her the blanket. Garry checked on her an hour later before going to bed and said she looked OK.

At home in Canada Garry or one of the boys would administer a Cal-Dex bottle in the jugular vein, maybe some under the skin and she'd be on the road to recovery quickly. I have even done it once, when Garry was gone back in Manitoba, and a cow was down after having twins, although I find it easier to get the needle in the big milk vein under the cow. It is easy to diagnose, and to treat, although giving it too fast can kill the cow as the vet here loves to tell Garry, so we worry a bit about what he actually is giving the cow.

Wednesday it was really cold, never got over -16 C all day, and Thursday night it was -32 by nine pm. Wednesday we went into Dnepro to the Bellamy house for team meeting a lunch and unfortunately forgot the phone with their number on. We ended up standing outside holding a crockpot of soup, for about five minutes, because we were early and they forgot to turn the doorbell on that morning. Luckily Olya showed up with a phone that worked, it really was cold!

Maxim had a cold experience on Wednesday, he spent a good part of the day delivering water in the village. The water truck apparently broke down last week (must have been right after we got our delivery) and some people were out of water some for more than a week. So he used our tractor and the watertank that he and Serosia made to deliver water to 4 houses. He said it took 45 minutes to fill the tank but more than an hour to unload it, the hole the water flows out was freezing up, and kept getting smaller in diameter.

We never did sell any milk on Wednesday, but the milk buyers got their vehicles running on Thursday, so all the milk was sold before the afternoon milking, then Garry drove the afternoon milk in for Victor to sell when he drove in for basketball, since Victor was not going to get his blue diesel van running in this cold weather. He got back to the house shortly before Yana came to tell us about the sick cow, which was good timing.

This afternoon we had to drive to Dnepro, Victor has been standing in lines with our passports for while now to get us registered for the next year, but we had to come into the office in person before the lady would sign off on the temp resident ID papers (the ones we made photos for at the booth at the mall a couple weeks ago.) We met him over by the Bellamys, and since we were early, Garry decided to get the tire fixed that was have been filling with air with the little cigarette lighter powered pump about every time we stop the car since Wednesday morning. Apparently the patch had come off from when it was fixed recently.

We got to the office with Victor (here in the photo I took as we left- it is a remodelled ground floor apartment) before it re-opened at 4 pm (until 6 pm) and sat in the car until the crowd waiting outside went in when they unlocked the door, we stood outside door number 2- for foreigner registration (door 1 was the big boss' office, door 3 was for some other kind of registrations I guess) for about 15 minutes with Victor, until the lady was ready to see us, then after she finished signing, Garry and I waited in the main room where regular citizens were getting passports and resident papers applied for, all wearing coats, hats, snowpants. The girl working at the desk was wearing a down type vest, since the room was pretty cold with the door to the outer room - where there was a wicket people lined up at- opening outside to the cold. A few teen girls who must be getting their first passport at 16, old people, and bored kids bundled to their eyebrows in scarves besides all the other snow clothes, with their moms, waiting for some official paper.

The girl working at the desk in the room was wearing a down-type vest, since the room was pretty cold with the door to the outer room - where there was a wicket people lined up at- opening outside to the cold. I am not sure how long Victor was waiting for the completed resident forms, but I think we were there for an hour- even tried out the padded benches. Good thing I had my e-reader with me. I don't want to think how long it took Victor to take care of the entire registration process.

we discovered while driving home tonight that the Christmas/New Year lights are still on in the park

Sub-artic temperatures

2012-02-01T08:24:00.002+02:00

That's what I heard yesterday on the CNN news weather- Russia, Poland and neighboring countries are locked into a sub-artic air mass. I assume Ukraine is one of the neighboring countries- check your maps- it's in between the two, and it was -25 C at 7am Wednesday morning.

Some of the schools have closed until next week Monday because of the cold weather. This is the coldest morning so far, yesterday wasn't much better, the water was froze up to the cows' waterbowls two hours after the guys turned them on for them to drink. In spite of the water restrictions, production continues to rise, we are up to 550 liters a day, with several good-milking cows getting ready to calve soon, so more milk is coming.

Unfortunately, the milkbuyer lady's van would not start this morning, so we haven't sold today's milk yet. Hopefully she gets it going as it warms up a bit during the day. Minus 25 would be no big deal back in Manitoba, but here no one is prepared for it. Of course, for some unknown reason, it is unusually warm- just below freezing lately back at home.

Sunday morning it was freezing in church. Last year it would have been no surprize, we would have been dressed for it. This year however, the church bought a giant electric heater (like 50 x normal size) to heat the room for Sunday services. They had a special electric line with a giant plug installed in the room. Apparently that plug had somehow broken, and they couldn't run it Sunday morning, when it was -16 outside, and had been colder the days before. The rads are pretty much turned off in the room, so everyone was wearing coats, gloves, hats- I was wishing I was wearing corduroy pants and wool socks like I would have put on the year before. Pastor Andrey even preached in his coat, which he said he had never done before. The kids were all in their snowpants, running around after the 2 1/4 hour service, made for soft crashlandings.

Winter driving

2012-01-30T11:21:00.009+02:00

Thursday night Garry went to play basketball and his drive back to the village was an adventure. Last week Sunday when we drove to church I noticed some sections of road that were drifting with snow, which makes two lanes into one. This is a real problem with the normal traffic, where the extremely fast cars (130-140 plus Km/hour) like to fly past in the passing lane, while the normal 100-110 km/h traffic has to use it to pass the trucks and the old Ladas that cannot drive faster than let's say 80 km. In the last two winters we have seen a number of accidents where cars have run out of road and hit someone else or the very large snowbank that the road turned into.

This is compounded with the poor visibility that comes at night and/or blowing snow, both of which were factors as Garry was driving home. Our Lada's high beams are terrible, they would barely look like very dirty low-beam headlights, and even in the the cities there is very little lighting. You really have to watch carefully for pedestrians at night, since most Ukrainians seem to dress in all black, and even if they are using the crosswalks, they aren't lit. I don't mean that they don't have big flashing lights to tell you someone is crossing, I mean you can't see anything walking across the road, since there is rarely even a lightbulb on the curbside.

Anyway, back to our story. Garry got out on the highway, leaving the city to come home after basketball, and discovered blowing snow. Since he knew that the road had unplowed drifts in places after driving in, he decided to follow a car going a moderate rate in the slow lane. It took much longer to drive home than normal, and of course he found traffic backed up behind one of the snowdrift/lane reduction-caused accidents. He said he could see there were police lights flashing where some vehicle was being loaded up and taken away, but traffic was crossing over on the other side of the highway and around the scene in the dark, with no help from the police, so he followed along. Remember what I say about driving in Ukraine- always watch for what the other cars are doing and be ready to react! Oncoming traffic on your side of the road, just stay in your lane! I am sure the other drivers didn't think anything of it.

Garry said he did see some plows out working on clearing the road as he was driving home, and apparently they really got to work, since the road was decent when we drove to Dnepro on Saturday and Sunday, with at least one a half lanes open in the drifted sections. In this photo you can tell how much snow was on the road before they cleared it from the residue on the road, it looks like there wasn't even one lane to drive in here! At least its cleared now, two years ago the banks stayed once they formed all winter, it was scary even in the daytime, with cars trying to squeeze into the open lane inches from your bumper at high speed, just in front of a snow bank.

Saturday Maxim was busy for two hours helping out the mayor with our tractor, trying to open one of the other roads in the village. We live on Centralna or main street, which is the only street (of three) that normally gets plowed. Maxim said he didn't use the loader, but would drive a ways to break though the drifts and a smaller tractor would plow behind him, and then he would drive forward again. The snow was so hard in the cold weather and wind we have had, nothing could drive through the road.

I took some photos on Saturday, when we drove in to Dnepro to visit an English class, go bowling (Garry had a 169 game, I only broke 100 once in 4 games), buy an electric oil filled heater for our bedroom, and get some groceries.

The road out to the highway is fairly cleared, but getting a little icy as you can see in the photo. Garry says it was easier to avoid the holes in the road right after it snowed, before it was cleared because the cars detoured around them, all you had to do was follow the tracks. It was a little exciting when you met a car, though. There is a bunch of snow at the end of the road where you get on the highway, so you have to get in the right set of tracks going out and coming back in. Everyone goes right on the highway and then crosses to make the U-turn from the left. When the snow falls, they don't clear the loop to go in on the other side- its a big drift so you just turn on the highway- half the cars do it when its clear anyway. It will melt in the spring.

Here is section of highway over that new bypass road they were working on all year- remember it was almost finished at the beginning of December when we went back to Manitoba? It looks a little snowier than our highway, less traffic uses it. Garry says there was a truck stuck in the snow trying to go through the entrance ramp when he drove to the city last week. He also says that he has never seen any of the lights turned on on the standards that were erected here or below on the bypass road. Maybe in the spring?

This -15 to -20 C weather is tough on truck traffic, they stall on the roads because the diesel freezes up while they are running, they don't have the cold weather additives that are in the diesel fuel at home in Canada. You also see some people changing tires on the side of the road in the cold. We had a tire that had a "slow leak" Garry was pumping it up several times a week before they decided to fix it. There were three small nails in it, and one in another. Garry says that lots of people are burning old scrap wood to heat their houses, and dumping the ashes on the road. He says they were very twisted burnt looking little nails that came out of the tires.

How do you like the new method of keeping the hubcaps on the Lada? Garry says the one on the other side looks better, when they fixed the tire Max hid the end of the zipties better on the inside.

Frozen pipes and heifer calves

2012-01-30T07:44:00.007+02:00

Friday morning was cold again, but the guys had drained the water line the night before, so it was easy to get the cows water in the morning, all they had to do was turn it back on. The wind was not blowing as much, so the water was still working in the afternoon, cutting the workload, since they didn't have to thaw the waterbowls out again. In this photo, the main water line around the barn is the large metal pipe- the same pipe the black cow's chain is attached to, and the same garden hose type hose brings the water down to the bowl between cows (two cows share a waterbowl.) Both these things can get frozen water in them, or the valve on the waterbowl that the cows push to get the bowl to fill so they can drink will sometimes freeze, or worse stick open so water spills on the floor.

Saturday morning, someone rapped on our door just before six am and said there was a cow calving, so Garry hurried out to see. It was a backwards calf (calves normally appear front feet first) generally you want to get these out quickly, because they can breathe in liquid as they are born, causing problems. However Garry was excited, the feet were small, and he got this lovely live heifer calf out. I took this photo around 11 am when we were leaving for Dnepro, along with the one of her mother, who had just cleaned (the afterbirth came out.)

Yes, it was another black and white cow that gave birth to a red and white calf. Later in the afternoon a red and white cow had a nearly identical red heifer calf, increasing Garry's recent ratio to 10 bulls to 5 heifer calves- sounds much better than 10:3! It is supposed to get somewhere close to almost 50% girls. Garry is now sure the second Canadian bull that he bought semen from must be red and white, not just a recessive carrier of the red gene.

Garry turned the water on Saturday morning while the guys were still feeding the cows, and it was so cold in the barn that some of the water bowls were frozen before the cows got around to taking a drink. It seems like the cold weather will be with us for at least another week, so they will continue to turn the water off at night, like they did last year in February when they had the same problem. And thaw them back out in the afternoon if they freeze up. Garry was fixing a leaky one while I was taking photos.

Saturday morning there was no water running to the house, so Garry trying thawing various points in the delivery system, but finally discovered the problem shortly before we left for the city. The summer kitchen's bathroom walls were covered in frost inside, and the water was froze there. He put a little plug-in electric heater in the room, and the water was back on in our house before we got back. This year there is no excess heat producing gas furnace sitting in the nearby entranceway, since we put the new energy saving one in last fall.

Sunday evening we finally realized feeling cold in our house wasn't all the fault of the cold weather- somehow that furnace had been turned down, so that the temperature of the water in the rads was almost half! We had bought an electric heater for our bedroom, but it is much warmer in here now (Monday morning- its 17 C outside). Garry has run out of 1000 piece puzzles to do, he'll have to find a new indoor hobby, the last one was a real challenge, since I didn't bring the box with the picture, only the bag of pieces in my suitcase.

Saturday morning young Andrei (the neighbor boy) was busy (and rather cold) selling brewers grain to people in the village. Garry said people were lined up to buy when they started the regular Saturday morning hours. It was easier with the stuff already in the pit, most people shovel bags full to take home.

I am not sure what he and Maxim's brother Andrei where doing with the straw bales when we left for Dnepro. Young Andrei is the one in Seth's old camouflage coat- it was too small for Seth so it didn't make it into the suitcase to go home.

If you are wondering what happened to last summers' kittens, they are huge and happy living in the barn, as you can see, one of the toms is playing with the new puppy.

Duck for dinner, and its cold outside

2012-01-26T16:14:00.007+02:00

Yesterday we had duck for dinner. On the weekend Yana had brought in two dead-er dressed ducks for the fridge, and Victor took one home with him on Monday, but one was still sitting in the fridge. Garry had cooked one before I got back, and told me the guys liked it. He stuffed his like a chicken, but I marinated mine Tuesday night (while I was up at midnight, made the mistake of going to bed early) and baked it and glazed it. After I cut the meat off I gave the cats a thrill with a carcass to gnaw on- the baby kittens enjoyed it, as you can see in the photos.

After I got the duck in the oven, I washed up the dishes from the day before- they were on hold because we ran out of water in the cistern that supplies the house and the water truck had not come as planned on Tuesday, even though it was doing deliveries in the village, so no one got to shower Tuesday night either. It was here before nine am Wednesday morning, making everything easier, although the water was a little brown at times. It gets stirred up when it runs dry and you put more in.

I did make stuffing an hour before it was done, planning to put it in foil in the pan with the duck, but we had no aluminium foil in the drawer, so I cooked it in a pan, and made mashed potatoes with garlic and coleslaw. Max and Andrey said it was like a holiday feast.

What really sucks is I didn't bring back a box of foil from Canada, I had one but left it behind to save weight in the suitcase; because when the foil was empty the box must have been tossed. It was a Canadian box I had been refilling because the boxes here don't have metal tear strips and its really hard to cut your foil off on a piece of cardboard!

We are making about 500 liters of milk a day now, Garry hopes to be up to 600 soon.
Yesterday two cows calved, and both had red calves. Bull calves unfortunately. Yana was amazed because the mothers are black. I am sure the bull we were using is a red factor bull, two parents with the red recessive makes red calves. One of the the mothers was the sick cow who was in the pen the other day, she seemed to be better the last couple days, but after calving around noon (Max was late for duck dinner) she did so poorly that afternoon that they decided to sell her to the butcher around 8 pm last night. By 9:30 the cash was in the drawer- not a lot because she couldn't stand up again, but at least she didn't need to get buried.

Polo has been trying to stay in the house as much as he can today, it has been cold and windy all day. The kittens don't trust him, even though he just wants to be friends, as you can see. The reason he wants to stay in is the temperature- at 7 pm tonight as I write the thermometer reads minus 24 and the wind is howling. It's a little cool in the house, especially in our bedroom, which tends to be cold when the wind blows.

Unfortunately, the other place that gets cold when the wind blows is the barn. They guys spent hours this morning doing chores, thawing out the water lines took a while. While they were doing it somehow the little electric heater in the milkhouse got soaked with water and Garry brought it in the house to hopefully dry out. He went down to the village hardware store and bought the heater they had which was larger and more expensive than the previous model, because he was worried that the milkhouse would freeze up without one in this weather. Unfortunately before 4 pm, he was taking that heater back and trying out the old one, because the new one was so powerful it kept blowing the breaker.

This morning the guys wished they had gotten around to moving some brewers'g rain as planned- the tubes of brewers' grain were nearly frozen solid. Luckily when Victor phoned, we could get a load of fresh stuff delivered today, it arrived just after one while I was trying to finish up making soup for lunch. Here's a picture of the truck dumping it in the pit. You can see the mission car in the foreground, since Victor had come out to translate for the guests from a government farming office that had come out around 11 am for a barn tour. They came in for conversation, tea and some hot muffins I made before leaving, delaying the start of cooking lunch. Serving lunch was delayed because Garry had to go breed a cow for someone in the village, which turned out to be two cows, so it took longer than the ten minutes he thought.

I went out and took a few photos around 4:30 while Maxim and his brother Andrei were working on thawing out the waterlines again, because they had froze up again, and the cows needed to get another drink. It's tough for them to make a lot of milk when they don't get enough water to drink. Max was using the tiger torch to thaw the ice in the metal pipes. As you can see, the new puppy seems to be making herself at home in the barn, we'll have to get her a name I guess.

Garry is off in Dnepro playing basketball tonight, hopefully his knee holds up, it was sore after we went bowling last week. We'll see how many things are frozen in the barn tomorrow morning.

Inside the barn

2012-01-23T23:10:00.005+02:00

Well here are those barn photos, taken right after milking. As you can see we had had a number of fresh cows (ones that recently had a calf) However I believe the count to be 8 bulls, 3 heifer calves and one freemartin. You can see why Garry wants to trade bull calves for girls! A freemartin is a female born twin to a bull calf. Almost all are infertile, because their female organs do not grow properly, there are supposed to be fertile females in 10% of female/male twin pairings, but I only know of one that ever had a calf... don't worry this doesn't happen in people, just cows.

The set of twins that was the marvel of the village shortly after Garry came home this month, are really like two bull calves. At home we grow the freemartins up and then when they are old enough to breed, they get turned into steaks after the vet checks them out and says that they are infertile. However, no one here had seen twin calves before, they are much rarer here in Ukraine. I think they are all hoping for two calves for the price of one now.

Check out our cute little red calf in the pen. She was racing around while I was taking photos, her mother is one of the red cows in the barn. The cow lying in the pen had trouble getting up on Saturday, Sunday they were going to put her in the pen but she got up when the tractor got close to her and walked there. She seems to be feeling a little better today, hopefully she's back to normal soon.

Garry sold a three week old bull calf for about-correction 140 dollars on Friday (he added on the milk fed to the price) It was supposed to get traded for something that has not happened yet, and Garry decided that the guy could get the next one born instead, so there would be more milk to sell. Last week he drove 4 bull calves down to Yana's parents place in the back of the Lada- the day before he picked me up at the airport- he says he plastized the rear really well first and tied the calves up. It didn't seem to smell when we put the suitcases in anyway.

Garry tells me that they are feeding the cows at two in the afternoon nowadays, and getting the corn silage inside the barn for the next morning's feeding- you can see in on the other side of the gate where the calves are; along with a scoop of brewers grain in the bucket of the tractor to feed in the morning when it is still dark. parking the tractor inside means it will be warm enough to start and the brewers grain isn't frozen. Since its supposed to be cold later this week they are going to move some brewers grain from the tubes into one of the pits. Right now only 4 inches around the outside of the stuff in the plastic tubes is frozen, but when it gets to -20 at night a lot more freezes. It stays warmer in the pit in the ground, less surface area.

Maxim and his brother found this little black puppy yesterday afternoon shivering in the snow and she seems to be enjoying life in the barn today, although Polo and Mint seem to be ignoring it for the most part. Maybe it can be Max's guard dog at his new house when it grows up.

Winter wonderland

2012-01-23T22:04:00.007+02:00

Here are some kids walking home from school today, it was tough going with several inches of wet snow making the footing slippery. That was a report from Garry when he walked to the store for bread at noon, before it started snowing harder. The thermometer was right around freezing so the snow was melting off the roof with water dripping off the eaves, but don't worry it's supposed to get colder this week.

This afternoon I finally went outside to take some pictures in the barn, and decided to show you the driveway the guys shovelled out this morning when Victor came. The driveway that goes through the grapevines has to be done by hand- you can't get the loader tractor into it from either direction. Out by the road the gas line is too low to drive the tractor under, and the yard is set up so you can't go through the back yard either. Sunday evening it snowed some more and the wind blew the snow into three-foot high drifts.

This afternoon around 2 pm the snow was falling in blobs, we have at least four inches now! The camera got snow all over it when I took these around 3 pm- I had to dry it off before popping up the flash in the barn, just from walking out one door of the house and snapping pictures around and walking up the barn driveway (plowed with the loader tractor- we paid the gas company to raise the line over that one) and into the barn.

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You can see some of Maxim's projects while we were gone. He screwed some red steel siding to the big gate on the barn side and made a second small gate there- the idea is one for cars, one for walking and both to get really big equipment into the yard.
He also found an old cattle trailer and welded up some new sides for it- and someone painted it blue, looks pretty bright against the snow.

Garry and Maxim went to breed a cow in the village while I was out there- Max was moving the car while Garry walked to the barn for the semen in the photo. Garry tells me one person in the village requested Maxim breed his cow after Garry got back because he thought Max had gotten one pregnant while we were in Canada. When Garry was breeding the cow the owners asked if he would be willing to trade the two-week-old heifer calf they had from another cow for a bull calf. Of course he said yes.

When I got to the barn,the ladies were just leaving the barn, having finished the second milking of the day and were heading back to their house, the summer kitchen. As you can see the laundry they hung out earlier didn't look to be drying very fast.

Mint is happy to be running all over again, there are no chickens to chase now, with the snow the neighbors have them all shut up in the coops.

The snow did slow up so we drove to Zaporosia to meet Marina and Masha, two of Garry's VBS teachers for dinner as planned. The road out to the highway was two tracks, the highway was mostly slushy with a few bumps of snow to drive through, but Garry had no problems driving. The girls translated the menu at the Chinese restaurant for us, and we had a lovely variety of dishes, although Garry had to request the rice before he would start eating the main courses, our sizzling dish was not sizzling by the time it finally arrived. We had a wonderful time, and a safe drive home after dropping them near their apartments.

Quick note

2012-01-22T01:38:00.003+02:00

It's 1:30 am so I'll make it fast. As you can guess I have not adjusted to the new time zone yet! Last night I went to bed at midnight and slept through to around 7 am, so tonight I thought I'd try it again. However, I started looking at Garry's 1000 piece puzzle and the hours got away from me! This is the before photo, taken when Garry went to bed, there are about 70 pieces to go now.

Today was brewers grain selling day, and business was brisk. They put 5 scoops into the pit with the bucket loader to sell this morning. Right now they are still using the stuff that was bought and bagged (with an ag-bagger) back in the summer. This time of year the supply is low and unavailable due to the holidays at the brewery. The last couple weeks it was too muddy for people to drive to where it is in the tubes in the yard beside the barn and today it was too bumpy, because the mud has frozen with big tractor tire tracks in. Garry tells me that more people are buying now, they sell twice as much as in the summertime.

Tonight I made sushi for the first time. The boys at home- Micah and Noah- make it often, so I thought we'd try it. They came out a little fat, but tasty with cooked shrimp and fake crab and shredded carrot for filling the rolls with the wasabi and so on for taste.

Last night I did homemade pizza after our trip to Dnepro, so Garry is getting spoiled now. Except for cooking his own breakfast, since I have been sleeping in, he's so nice.

Friday we went bowling, got our photos done for our new visa documents, dropped them off for Victor to get the paperwork started, picked up the empty milk jugs there, and checked out the new kitchen he's putting into his house. Then we got groceries, since we were a little low on stuff. Last night it snowed a bit again, today it felt colder because the wind was blowing, but not really cold (says the people who live in Manitoba.)

The kittens are starting to climb, so its a good thing the puzzle will be done soon, I have to put my yarn away befre I go to bed. Trying to find the best substitute for my missing crochet hook, I pulled the scarf I was working on apart after working on it a while. Now there is a big pile of extra yarn until I get bck to where I was. For some reason the part I redid with the steel 6mm hook looks closer than the plastic 5.5 mm did to the part I did in Canada with the steel 5.5-- the one security took away in Vienna. I am sure Xaris or Havi will never know the difference when they get this scarf.

I am here..

2012-01-19T20:22:00.006+02:00

Still recovering from my trip home, since I had trouble sleeping on the overnight flight from Toronto to Vienna, even though I had an empty window seat next to me. It was bumpy with the seatbelt light on most of the way, and I have trouble sleeping in a car. For me, it is too much like trying to sleep in the car when there is turbulence on a plane. Garry thinks I have control issues and think that being awake means I can fix any problems that occur, however I think sleeping in the car makes me dizzy most of the time.

Anyway I ended up taking a nap when we got back to the house after Garry picked me up at the airport, it was nice being almost here when I landed, though, instead of having to get home from Kiev. There was no snow, but the tree branches were all white with hoarfrost, contrasting with the dark trunks. Sorry, no photos since the new camera was buried in the back seat in my carry-on.

That was Tuesday, Wednesday Polo came into the house for the afternoon and jumped all over me before settling down for a nap. I had already been welcomed home by Needles (who's back in the house when he wants, like this evening) and Box, and got to meet her three kittens. The black one is the climber- he can get up on the chairs, I have started calling him Black Box, but we'll see. The other two are striped, but one has a little brown spot in the middle of it's forehead. Black Box has just climbed up my pantleg to my lap and is trying to get on the laptop now. Now he sees that Box is nursing the other two kittens so he is climbing back down.

Garry has been doing jigsaw puzzles since he got back, with the occasional help from Maxim and his brother Andrei, who is back helping Max work on his house. He has glued a big water Greek seaside scene to a piece of cardboard and is working on the really hard one I gave him for Christmas last year- a 1000 piece Canadian flag made up hundreds of tiny photos.

I have only been able to put a couple pieces in, tonight I went back to crocheting, after finding a new hook. Security in Vienna insisted on taking my metal crochet hook out of my carry-on, so I am missing the 5.5 mm of the set Garry gave me for Christmas! Lucky I had a plastic one the same size with the others in my checked luggage. They told me they could mail it for 17 euros, so I hoped I had another one.

Box jumped on my lap when I got the crocheting out and insisted on having her head rubbed like in the old days before she had kittens. This morning- Thursday- there was a nice white coating of snow, although it is much warmer here than Manitoba! I hear that the big freeze hit when I left. Tonight I sort of have the house to myself, since Garry has run off to Dnepro to play basketball. I will try to get some photos out in the barn tomorrow. So in a week or so it should feel like bedtime at the right time for me. The eight hour time difference takes me a while to adjust to.

On my way

2012-01-16T22:11:00.003+02:00

I am sitting in the airport in Toronto, waiting about 2 1/2 hours for my connection to Vienna, where I will connect right to Dnepro. I have been so busy this week finishing projects and saying goodbye that I have not done a single blogpost! Since Garry left two weeks ago I got to celebrate Noah's birthday, and babysit or play with my granddaughters more than a few times- one day we made puppets, as you can see in the photo. Yesterday I drove out to Morden to say goodbye to our daughter Jessica and Jonah, who is living with her while attending high school.

This morning I got to say goodbye to Josh and Noah about 5:30 am before milking time, and a hug and promise to email from Seth, who was getting ready for the school bus when Micah drove me to the airport. We got to Winnipeg in plenty of time, although there was a lot more traffic than when I drove in with Garry on January second, since it was a holiday Monday.I paid for my extra checked bag and the nice agent didn't care that it was just a little bit heavy- I must have stuffed in too much stuff after it weighed in on Thursday at the vet clinic eight pounds light! I always seem to leave that Russian history book I want to read behind, maybe next time!

Garry has had a busy week, when I talked to him one day he had taken the new highway - the one they were building an overpass for all year on our highway between Dnepro and Zaporosia. The road crews started in March and they were still finishing it when we left on December 2nd, the last couple weeks they worked almost round the clock to try to make a deadline. Garry says the new shortcut cut his trip to refill the liquid nitrogen in the semen tank to about the time it takes to drive to downtown Dnepro, instead of a half day to go there and back. This way we avoid driving through Dnepropetroesk and it gets to the other highway really close to the old bull stud where Garry buys the Liquid nitrogen- I had a post in September about when we drove there, that shows the lady pouring it into the tank with a steel pail.

On Sunday he told me he had to sweep the entryway of the house, because people kept coming to the door to wish him a prosperous new year by throwing in wheat, and there was grain all over. On the evening before he had little girls coming to the door dressed up and then reciting a rhyme, and he would give them money, because he had no treats to give out. In case you are wondering - it was old new years from the Julian calendar, celebrated in the Orthodox church. The holidays never seem end in Ukraine, it is about two weeks of celebration, things will be getting back to normal when I get there.

Off-line for days

2012-01-07T16:27:00.005+02:00

Garry has been unable to get on the internet since he got back to Ukraine. His laptop, which we had left in Ukraine, has a on/off button that has been causing me problems for the last two years. Sometimes you had to push it five, ten, fifty times to get it to turn on. Last spring when the boys were using it for their schoolwork, one day it must have been about a hundred- with a twist down and to the right which Jonah discovered worked better the summer before. That day we printed out the grade reports just in case, since the boys were almost done with homeschooling for the year! I have just been leaving it on, with the exception of power shortages, although it seemed to work better lately, when I had to turn it back on.

Maxim was always turning the computer off with the button when he used it to check his Russian facebook, and I guess he was still doing it, because when Garry got back, he couldn't get it to turn on. He took it into Dnepro and got it fixed for 50 dollars he told me on the phone. However, since Maxim went home to his parents that same day- Wednesday, Garry was unable to go pick it up when it was fixed on Thursday, so he was still unable to check his email.

I called Garry Saturday morning (today) afternoon there, and discovered he was in Dnepropetroesk, waiting at Dafi (one of the malls) for Victor to pick him up to go back to the village. He had his computer, but the battery had gone dead about the time he had gotten into hotmail. It only lasts about an hour normally.

This morning Garry said he woke up at 3 am- he says he thought he heard someone knock on the door and he couldn't get back to sleep, so he drank coffee, watched TV, and then feed the cows at 5:30. At 7:30 he walked out to the highway and caught a marchutka van into the city around 8 am. He went to Victor's church for a Ukrainian Christmas service, which he said was like regular church with more singing, and lasted two and a half hours. Garry said he enjoyed hearing Daniel (Victor's 17 year-old son who visited Manitoba this summer) sing, and Dasha, his 11 year-old daughter, also sang and recited a poem. Victor had to drive some older ladies home after church, which is why he was at the mall, waiting for Victor to pick him up.

Garry knew he had a ride back, since Victor was planning to come out to the farm this afternoon, because the empty milk jugs were at his house from when he sold milk on Thursday, and needed to go back to be refilled for Sunday's church milk. Garry tells me that we are selling milk for 4.5 grivna per liter and I think 6 or 7 on the church and Thursday milk. The people in the village with milk to sell are getting 5 grivna now, so it must be selling for at least 10 in the markets.

Yana is back at work this week, her face infection she had just before we left had put her in hospital, so her parents had been milking the cows. Garry says the cows are doing well and Maxim found and fixed (welded) up and old cattle trailer during the time we were gone. He also told me that it snowed about two inches on Tuesday, but it melted away and it rained/drizzled all day Thursday, so it was muddy outdoors.

In other exciting news, Box had three kittens while we were gone. Maxim is trying to convince Garry that Needles is catching mice and is happy outdoors, so four cats are plenty in the house (like three little kitten count as cats!) Look at the photo at the beginning of this post, where Needles is trying out the Box we made for Box to have the kittens in, and tell me, does that look like a cat who is planning on staying outside? He does like to go outside and that's fine, but I don't believe he wants to stay there. I am putting my foot down on this one, since Garry mentioned that the cat tried to come in on Wednesday but Max chased Needles away from the door. I'll tell Maxim when I get back if I see him doing that it won't be the cat outside the house!

Manitoba farm tour

2012-01-03T18:02:00.006+02:00

Garry went out with the new camera we got for Christmas to try videoing in the barn, here are a few photos he took while he was out there. He wanted to show it to maxim I think, so here is a preview for everyone. I may have to go out with the video camera to tape instead as the indoor video looks pretty dark, the stuff outside looks great, so I assume its a lighting issue. It was December 31th 2011 and the boys- Seth and Jonah- the ones who were in Ukraine were milking in the parlour that day.

The dog is Rolo, one of the puppies that was born last winter when we were home for Christmas, I took these photos Sunday morning (January 1st) when it was snowing, trying out the new zoom.

Garry made it there

2012-01-03T16:55:00.005+02:00

After a long goodbye- in the photo Havilah is talking with Grandpa- Garry is off- our visas arrived in the last mail possible, before the New Year's holiday on Friday December 30th, so he booked his ticket that morning for the morning of January 2nd (the ticket for the first went up in price while he was on expedia.ca) Garry has made it back to Dnepropetroesk.

For the first time he flew right into Dnepro instead of Kiev, and he said he was feeling fine when I talked to him a couple hours after landing. He made it back for the missionary Christmas party today, he'll get to the farm later, so I can phone again for a complete report about what happened while we were gone on Wednesday.

His first plane from Winnipeg to Toronto was an hour late, but he had a longer layover- 5 hours there anyway, he says they left Toronto late but made up an hour so he was into Vienna early and had three hours before the flight to Dnepro. The only hitch was his luggage - he had some trouble with his vacuum pump parts (for the machine milking system) that was his checked luggage and customs. Victor came through to interpret for him and after 15 minutes and a few grivna (luckily he had some in his wallet) he was on his way.

We had a good time ringing in the new year here before he left, we had the family all together for the second annual pizza extravaganza on New Years eve. Garry even stayed up until midnight, playing Rummy-O with some of the kids- Luke, Seth (pictured) and Jonah were milking the cows, since all the regular employees were off that night.

This year I made dessert pizza to finish off the pizza eating- we did had some leftovers, with Jess, Luke (assisted by his younger brothers after the afternoon milking was done) making one, and Micah and Noah, and myself making two regular pizzas. Jessy also made an exciting mini-pizza for the girls, where Havi chose the toppings.

Keziah wants a drink! she's pretty good at climbing and finding as a younger sister

Sunday morning the wind (and snow) was blowing like crazy so we went to Matt's church. We enjoyed hearing Xaris sing The B-I-B-L-E during the offering, then 3 year old Havilah, who stood next to her sister while she sang, also sang it with the microphone without practising beforehand with their mom Kari who played the piano for them, Havilah missed started one line, but Kari circled back on the melody and Havi restarted where she left off and finished it. Too bad I forgot the camera, they were adorable.

The old year ends

2011-12-31T17:34:00.003+02:00

Well, here is is December 31, 2011 already...looks like it will be a white new year here in Manitoba as the snowflakes are falling fat and fast outside. Dinner plans are set for the second annual pizza cook-off- since last year we had trouble eating them all. So far opinions are divided- one pizza per cook or Noah's suggested ten- the boys can freeze them for dinner(s) later in the year,

Garry booked his flight back into Dnepropetroesk yesterday when the passports- visas arrived in the morning mail, just in time, he'll fly out Monday morning, ready to get back to Ukraine and busy working on the new project. I will follow in about two weeks with the rest of the stuff. I still seems strange to be leaving Seth and Jonah here, but they are out of school for the Christmas holidays until the 9th so they can hang out together at the farm. Both seem to be happy with the decision to stay here and go to "real school" Seth is excited about the writers club he joined, and Jonah is enjoying living in Morden, walking to school and hockey and wrestling, along with his classes. He does think that his sister makes him clean (vacuum) too often. Seth has been pressed into milking duty living on the farm, so Jonah may may have it easier than he thinks!

Seth and Jonah un-stuffing their stockings...

We had a wonderful Christmas- the boys bought us a new camera, I am looking forward to getting some close up pics of birds for the blog for next year! Meanwhile here's some of Christmas morning in Manitoba.

Granddaughters in a box! The girls are enjoying playing with all the clothes I crocheted for their dolls.

Twas the night before...

2011-12-25T05:24:00.002+02:00

Christmas and all through the house, lots of creatures are stirring...
but not a mouse!

There are four cats in here, with Jessica's Thundercat arriving on Thursday evening for Garry's birthday, kicking off the household's holiday season....

The stockings are hung by the door, already stuffed, and waiting.

The children are not nestled, snug in their beds, they are going outside to milk instead.

Well, Seth and Luke ...Jonah milked this morning and afternoon, so he hopes to go to bed.

When they come in at 2 am- I hope there's no clatter, or too loud chatter. It got rather loud earlier today when Jonah showed Luke his new wrestling moves...in the living room. He joined the team at school.

The tree is still standing, the presents piled 'round it, although the cats have pulled some ornaments from it.

Garry sang with the choir tonight, he misses it when we are in Ukraine. It was the Christmas Eve program, and what a delight, it was beautiful to hear O Holy Night.

The grandgirls are hopefully sleeping so they will be ready to come back in the morning, they ate way too many candy canes this evening.

I have a thing or two to finish before tomorrow, so I'd better get back to work ...

Wishing everyone a blessed Christmas wherever you are!

Warmer weather

2011-12-20T21:02:00.002+02:00

It was 11 Centigrade today in Dnepropetroesk, according to a friend's facebook update! It's not that warm in Manitoba, but the forecast for this week has highs of plus 2 and lows of -12, which is pretty nice for Manitoba in December. Last week we drove to Steinbach and it was drizzling Wednesday evening. Garry was going to choir practice, he's enjoying singing again.

Garry talked to Victor on Friday- he has been unable to get Maxim's number to work- then he had no more fresh cows to report- Ossa had calved a few days after we left. However five cows have calved, since Garry called, with three bull calves over the weekend , and on the 19th, two heifer calves! Zera (or Zeritchka) the first Heifer we bought last year (see end of August 2010- or early October when she calved the first time), had her second calf a female -YEAH and surprized the ladies because the first time that they milked her she gave so much milk that she overflowed the bucket! Our buckets are pretty small, they hold about 12 liters, but this was the first time a cow had done so since we started using them. We'll have more milk to sell now, with so many fresh cows.

Sunday

2011-12-13T13:59:00.003+02:00

Last week we attended the Manitoba Milk Producers meetings in Winnipeg and Garry spent much of our time there talking to fellow farmers about what we are doing in Ukraine. After church on Sunday he heard from someone who happened to be at one of the exhibitor booths, that people really can't understand what would make someone with a large dairy farm in Canada leave their children in charge of it and go off somewhere to spend money on a farm with no expectations of making a profit on the project.

This Sunday we were at our home church in Steinbach and got to participate in the services, answering some questions during the sermon about our time in Ukraine as part of the advent sermon series. If you have half an hour to listen, you can hear the audio of the sermon - Re-gifting Love on the church website at http://eefc.ca - Garry answers three questions and I answer one.

We got to church around 8:30 am, set up my computer with a 4 minute video about what we've done this year, participated in the prayer meeting before the first service, reset the computer so the video ran on a loop, and attended the first service, the traditional one with the choir. Garry was so excited he promised to come to choir practice on Wednesday as he misses singing in the choir, it was one of the reasons we joined this church when we moved from Ontario in 1997. We answered the four questions near the end of the sermon, got many hugs and handshakes, and talked to many people we know, and some that we had not met about our project between the first and second service time, during fellowship time in the gym.

Then we went into the second service, which had already started, sang praise songs in English (instead of Russian- both are worshiping God for us now- but it feels like home) and listened to the sermon again- it's actually the one on the website- I can tell because Garry and I did not say exactly the same thing during both services.

Then we talked to many more people as they were getting ready to leave church and went out to a restaurant with two couples, one we didn't know who had invited us for lunch and one we do know from before- Garry played on the church softball team with him. More conversation- both woman had been to Ukraine on summer mission trips before. What an uplifting (and slightly exhausting day- I had woke up at 3:30 again- my body is resisting the change from Ukrainian time!)

So it was three o'clock before we were back at home- we had left in Noah's car around 7 am! It is the family joke that the only car we now own is the LADA in Ukraine, so we are the ones borrowing cars from our children. Someone hit a deer with our Madza Protege last year, so it was written off by the insurance last winter, and has not been replaced.

Home

2011-12-11T11:37:00.008+02:00

That's right, we've been home for a week now. Garry thinks of the village as home, but for me it's the house on the farm in Canada where most of the children are. Don't worry. it took me years of marriage and four or five kids to not cry when I heard I'll be home for Christmas on the radio because I thought of home as my parents' house.

Anyway we left the Porters apartment in Kiev at 4 am last Friday morning as you know, here's a photo I took from the guest room about 3:300 I was so excited I woke up early. It was frosty as the plane took off in the dark at 6:45 am.

Then we flew into Amsterdam (drizzly) on Ukraine International Airlines- it's strange we flew KLM but were never on one of their planes- then Delta to Minneapolis (clear) and then Winnipeg, where we could see snow in the fields as we approached the city.

We have had some trouble with jet lag, it is mostly just the time change between here and there has us waking up at 2 or 3 or 4 am because it is way past time to get up in Ukraine! It's an eight hour time change.

However we have had a great time with the family. Here are Luke- who picked us up at the airport, and has grown more at age 20 to be the only one of the boys to be as tall as Garry- 6'5"- Jonah, and Seth checking out Micah's new Futurama monopoly game. They played a couple nights, mostly after Garry and I headed to bed early like 7 or 8 o'clock! Jonah was over here the first weekend, I took him for a doctor's appointment the first Monday to get him iron levels checked again, and them drove him back over to Morden to our daughter's house to get back to school. Christmas holidays start on the 22nd, so they should be here for Garry's birthday dinner.

Sunday we when to church in Piney to hear our son Matthew preach, and went to dinner with all the boys and Matt's family and Josh's finacee in the states after, the church and his house are right at the US/Canada border. The next day we sent our passports away to get our new Ukrainian visas processed.

Garry and I saw lots of fellow farmers at the milk board meeting in Winnipeg, where Garry talked a lot about what we are doing in Ukraine to many people, we may get some more visitors next year. He even got to play basketball with the boys in their mens league in Winnipeg, they won the game, and he scored twice in overtime.

We have been getting to know our grandaughters again. Luckily Keziah, seventeen months old is not shy. She loves to play with the boys kitten, and doesn't talk much/ I did hear her say stop! while chasing it when she was here with Havilah, who's three (picture) Xaris was at kindergarten that day.

Friday night I babysat at their house while Matt and Kari went out to her Christmas party. Kari works part-time as a dietian for the health board. Xaris was showing me how well she can count, now that she goes to school; but it seems little Havi has been learning too- when Xaris said 38-39- what's next? Forty! her sister answered. Then 48,49- 51! Very close Havilah...

I thought I was over jetlag when we got up at seven the next morning, but I started this blog post Sunday morning at 3:30 am! Garry talked to Victor on Wednesday, I think, and the overdue cow Ossa had a bull calf back in Ukraine. He tried to call Maxim a couple times but sometimes it is hard to get through on the phone from here.

We made it to Kiev...

2011-12-02T05:01:00.009+02:00

It's 5 am and we are checked through and sitting in the departure area at Borispol airport (Kiev) and there is free Internet! The plane will board in an hour or so, so I have time for a blog post since I charged the battery back up last night at the Porters apartment. Asparrow is hopping around under the next row of seats, I guess they have gotten into the new terminal F now, we used to watch them fly around in terminal b.

Garry was busy before we left with meetings about his new project with the dairy for the trade school. looks like they have hit another bump in the road as far as getting the old dairy barns at the old collective. He opened the first tube of brewers grain and it looks good to feed- in fact they are feeding it now and will be selling it as soon as the last pit is empty. Garry put up the tubes for the holidays since they quit making beer around December 20th and so there is no brewers grain to buy until sometime in the New Year. Garry says we have 4 months in the tubes at the current rate of use (including what we are selling to people in the village.) We had to raise the price when the cost went up recently, but we are selling more than before. This may be explained by a recent new customer telling Maxim that the guy they bought from before has raised his price to 4X ours.

We went bowling on Tuesday with Victor, who said he had bowled once before, the first game he almost beat my score, I was finally over 100 on the third game where we only got in 7 frames. Took me a while to warm up- Garry was bowling well the the whole time, and Victor got a few strikes.

Afterwards they decided to go buy two new pulsators for the milking machines. You may remember Garry upgraded the the pulsators when he bought two more machines in July. So now the four 100 dollar pulsators have been replaced by the two old ones, they had put back on earlier and two new 6 dollar pulsators. The fancy ones did not shut the vacuum off all the way when they were supposed to be resting, which was a problem- it works on/off so the milk goes into the bucket but the cows udder gets a chance to rest so the blood can move in and out of the teats while milking. Turned out the simple ones made in Ukraine do a better job.

Wednesday evening we attended the ballet in Dnepropetroesk and took Maxim and his girlfriend Yulia with us to see a Ukrainian ballet, The Night before Christmas, the story has young lovers, a witch, a priest, a devil, some Cossacks, the Empress - Catherine I think- and a lot of pretend skating on the pond. The company is off to tour it in China for a couple weeks. Everyone enjoyed it and there was nearly a full house, since it only had one showing before going on tour.

We got home about ten pm, and Garry had to go to the barn and breed two cows before packing his carry-on bag. I had packed the big suitcases the week before since most of the stuff in them belongs to Seth and Jonah, they were sitting by the bedroom door waiting to go out when we got up at 4 am to go to the train station.

We waved goodbye to Max in front of the train station- he was driving the car back to the village, and sat in the grand waiting room for a while before we could get on our train. It pulled out of the station at 6:30 and we read, chatted and tried to nap on the six hour ride. Looking out the window made you queasy since we happened to have seats facing the middle of the car, which is sort of like sitting in the backwards facing rear seat of the old station wagon! Mostly you just see trees, and the occasional village, railroad crossing guard house or maybe city anyway.

WE arrived in Kiev about 12:30 and carrying all the luggage up about three flights of stairs was exhausting! We had originally planned to store the luggage there and do a little sightseeing before heading over to Daryl and Molly's apartment for the night. Since I had forgotten to write down the directions to their place from the METRO stop, we stopped at the cafe there since it promised wifi so I could copy it off the email. Garry had some chicken and veggies and I had a bowl of soup before we tucked the computer case away in one of the big suitcases. Garry had found the luggage storage after we arrived while I rested up at the top of the stairs...er watched the luggage.

After carting the stuff down one flight of stairs, we decided this is crazy, let's just get on the METRO and take the subway over toward the apartment, which is what we did, sucessfully switching lines and getting all our stuff onto the trains- we even got to sit down on the second subway car. Nere's the view of the stairs we carried the luggage up out of the METRO, before pulling it over to the McDonalds. Check out the handicapped ramp on the stairs with the baby carriage going up it.

We hung out at Mc Donalds with our 2 suitcases, and three carry-ons- first outside by the playstructure and inside as it got dark (and colder) until they met us after their Russian lesson to take a bus to the apartment.

Molly made some tasty taco salad for dinner, and we played a game before heading to bed. We had ordered a taxi for 4 am, which got us to the airport in plenty of time to get through the check-in, and into the upstairs waiting room. Garry tried to take a nap, while I started this blog post (accidently pushed publish when Garry wanted to check out the Eagles game online before we got on the plane to Amsterdam- which is why its now longer, proofread and has photos!)

I'll put up some photos later but we did make it to the Winnipeg airport about 20 hours later.

Rumour has it...

2011-11-29T16:37:00.005+02:00

As we get ready to leave for Canada on Friday we have found out that rumours are flying on both sides of the Atlantic. Every year we return home for Christmas and to renew our visas for Ukraine, which needs to be done every year, and you have to leave the country to do it. Maxim says he has heard two different rumours in the village- one that we are going home to Canada to stay, and the other that when we go another Canadian will come to take our place. Our son Josh told me a couple weeks ago that he heard that there was a rumour going around Manitoba that we are coming back home to run the farm there because the boys are in trouble (farming apparently). As far as I know this is not true, as much as I would like to be home with my family for longer than a month.

Garry has been busy finishing up things to get ready to run easily while we are gone. Maxim will run things with Victor's help, and Yana and or her parents will milk the cows and feed the dogs and cats outside. Max will have to deal with the two cats indoors, and Box appears to be going to have kittens while we are gone. I told them not to let her outside.

There are calves to be born in December, Ossa (pictured) and another cow are getting really close to calving now. Garry has no worries after Max delivered that big backwards bull calf alive while we were in Donestk - the little red heifer that had it is doing better now, the first couple days she gave only enough milk to feed the calf.

The barn is much warmer after the straw wall and plastic went up on the cow side as seen the photos, just like last year. It has been warmer the last few days outside anyway, highs just above freezing, lows of -6 C, although the wind was blowing last night, Garry said the top of the brewers grain pit was black this morning, instead of frozen on top like last week, today it was covered in dirt that had blown off the village gardens.

Friday we had another cow abort her calf, I believe she was about two months from her calving date, which sometimes means a live preemie, but it was dead. That makes four, and Garry has become concerned that we may have a disease causing the problem. In Canada (and the US)we would vaccinate the cows yearly for a number of dieases that can cause abortions. The trouble is we don't know which are a problem here in Ukraine, although we'd put money on it over the possible causes Garry heard here on Friday. So far, the causes of abortion include: eating too much brewers grain, eating frozen brewers grain, and the barn being too cold. The last one would cause real problems for Canadian cows who live outside in the winter, I'd think.

Since the village herd quit going out to the fields, our heifers that went out everyday have been going outside in the barnyard during the day. It saves on straw and they get out of their pen and run around and nibble on the spoiled silage the guys dump over the fence for them. They get their real food inside, since they come in every night.

On Saturday morning Maxim made a sign with the hours we will be selling brewers grain and corn silage on the weekends, since it is dark shortly after Andrei starts selling on the normal hours. People had started showing up at all hours again, Max says this way Garry can tell them that we are not selling now, it is written on the sign.

Today the new windows Max ordered for his house were installed, he has ired some guys to work on the inside this winter, so it will be ready for his wedding next year.

Yesterday Garry saw Needles the cat (he is inside only when he wants to nap) catching a mouse outside. Max says that today Mint the dog had a mouse, playing with it forever, digging it up when it escaped underground, chasing it around the precept (wagon) tires for half an hour. If Mint would only learn to stop chasing the babushka's chickens.....

Sunday

2011-11-28T23:13:00.003+02:00

Sunday morning there was a dusting of snow on the ground as we left for Dnepro, with the Lada loaded with three 50-60 liter jugs, one smaller jug, and 19 liters of smetana (sourcream) in glass jars and kilos of cottage cheese in plastic bags, filling three boxes sitting across the back seat. Victor sells these after his church, a lady across the street processes the cream and cheese for him, from our milk. She gets the milk warm right after milking in the morning a day or two before Victor needs them, and separates the milk, makes the products- the cheese is made with the skimmed milk, and the leftover whey is fed to their pigs.

Garry got pulled over by the police at the highway checkpoint on the way to church. The policeman said he was speeding, but Garry said he was goinfg the posted speed. He told us that the snow had made driving dangerous, and there were two cars off the highway ahead. he raod was wet, but there must have been some black ice earlier, because we saw first one banged up car with four guys standing next to it on a straightaway, and a second really banged up one loaded on a towtruck just past a curve.

We dropped off the milk, cream, and cheese at Victor's church except for one 60 liter jug we carried into the building where Morningstar meets and set it down in the hall.
We had a surprise when we walked into the room where church is held- it was warm- almost hot. Normally everyone is wearing both sweaters and coats for the service, since the building is as cold in the winter as it is hot in the summer. They had gotten a huge electric heater to use for the services this winter.

Since it was the first Sunday in Advent the first candle was lit during the first hour - the praise and worship time. We will miss singing in Russian next week when we are home in Canada. It got so hot in the room that they turned the heater off at the front of the room at the beginning of the sermon, but it cooled off enough that it was turned back on before it was over. Misha showed slides of his trip to Israel after the sermon. I was really wishing I had not worn my wool sweater, it was so warm. I guess there will be less sweaters at church this winter, although it felt really cold when you stepped into the hall. We said goodbye to many of our friends, since we will be gone until January.

Ballet and bridges

2011-11-26T22:15:00.009+02:00

Here are some pictures from the ballet- Don Quihote started at seven pm but had two intermissions, it was a good thing we bought a program for 4 grivna (50 cents) we even figured it out in Russian when the curtain went down for the second time without any curtain calls. It was 10:30 by the time we got back to the village.

Garry's favorite part was the dream just before the second intermission because he likes the traditional ballerina outfits.

The lead dancers were really good, and it was a well-done show. We bought four tickets for The Night Before Christmas on Wednesday evening before we go to Kiev, we are bringing Maxim and his girlfriend Yulia to the ballet.

I had forgotten to use the bathroom before leaving home- it's the first rule of going somewhere in Ukraine, because you never know what kind of toilet you will find, even when you are paying to use them. The ballet did not charge extra for the facilities, but the toilets did not have toilet seats (just don't quite sit down) Garry said the mens room was full of (cigarette) smoke when he went in, the ladies room just had lots of hair fixing going on before the show.

It was better than the Meteor on Wednesday, since we had been in the city all day we hunted up the bathrooms on the lower floor and they were "squatties" the old Soviet norm- they flush but you crouch or squat over the porcelain hole - they are raised with places to put your feet - I can never decide if you are supposed to face the door or the handle on the wall.

When we toured Odessa I paid to use a squattie, which just seems wrong. McDonalds are one of the best places to use the bathroom for free, some of the malls have really shiny North American style ones (with toilet paper in the stalls) that you pay a grivna or two to use- one has a turnstyle- you buy a ticket from an automatic machine you put in to go in, most pay toilets have an attendant- they give you some toilet papers squares to use. You should always carry some tissues with you, because some places don't have any!

There were no frozen water bowls this morning, a combination of warmer weather (-5 but windy so it felt colder) and the straw wall being finished in the barn. They have a little more to do before we leave next week.

We went to Dnepro and visited two English classes, we talked about Thanksgiving (in honor of the American holiday) in the first class- here they are putting words in alphabetical order.

Then we got a little lost finding the second class, we had been there once about year and a half ago, but finally got there about a half hour late with a little help by phone to get Garry to where he knew how to find it. The roads can be really tricky because so many sections of the city are blocked by huge factories, it can be hard to get where you are going. The second class was all planned for us we had a great time with the students, playing games and eating cake.

Then we headed for the village and had a real surprise- we had driven around the bypass on the highway for the last time this morning,( see photo) because they were sending the traffic on those single lanes over the one finished overpass bridge! We got home at 6 pm and I made pizza for dinner, and we watched more of season three -Lois and Clark (it's not quite the same without the boys.)

Driving to Dnepro and its cold outside!

2011-11-25T10:34:00.011+02:00

Wednesday evening we went to Dnepro in the evening to watch Zaporosia's Ferro pro basketball team play against the the Dnepr team. Interesting that we first drove to Zaporosia; not because we didn't know where the game was, but to take Yana to the bus station to get a ride, her mother apparently passed us on the road, when we got there, she was almost back to the village on a marshuhka. Garry thought we were picking her up and dropping her off in the village on the way back toward Dnepropetroesk.

The game was played at the Meteor arena, there is way more seating for fans than in Zaporosia, as you can see in the picture; however I couldn't see the names on the back of the players. We know most of the Ferro players after watching three games in Zap, but I like to try sounding out the American players' names on the back of the jerseys, since they are written in Russian. The cheerleaders here had less outfit changes, but they had pompoms at the beginning of the game, and real cheerleader outfits. Too bad we weren't cheering for the home team, Ferro got down by 16 points, almost caught up in the second half but ended up losing by ten, I think. Garry says 20- maybe it was 15...

The Dnepro cheering fanatics were interesting, it was like we were at a Futball (soccer) match with the chanting, flag waving, drum beating, sirens, horns (the last two mostly when Ferro had the ball) and sparklers and flares they lit up at one point of the first half- one was thrown out onto the cement behind the playing floor. When Ferro was introduced before tip-off rolls of toilet paper flew out of the Dnepr fanatic section of the stands, landing on the court, so that game was delayed a few moments for clean-up.

When we drove home we were surprised to see a new flashing light up arrow at the constuction diversion on the highway. They are working on the new bridge even in the dark now, putting down pavement, so we were wondering if they had another accident at the site. We saw a truck that had overturned its second trailer going around one of the turns of the bypass, but we think that there have been worse accidents where cars missed the turn and went straight in the dark into the construction. Garry is thinking they are going to have one side operating soon, so traffic will go into one lane (hopefully) over the new overpass but continue straight on the highway.

Thursday morning the thermometer outside read -14, and there were a few frozen waterbowls in the barn, but nothing major was froze. Maxim did some more winterizing of the barn, welding new hinges for the haymow doors so they could be shut for the winter, and starting to build the straw bale wall on the cow side of the barn. Garry built more wooden pieces this fall to close off air flow into the heifer side of the barn- you can't build a bale wall on the inside of the barn there- the heifers would eat it. Last winter there was hay piled at one end, so there were bales on part of that wall. Friday morning the temperature was only -12 but more waterbowls froze up! Today they plan to finish the wall and put up film used silage plastic to seal it off. It worked well last winter.

Garry and I went to Dnepro late Thursday morning to do some shopping to prepare for our trip home - we fly out of Kiev next week Friday!!! first stopping to get some paint since Garry wants to finish painting his entryway (he doesn't believe it could be too cold) some stuff at Metro- we are stocking up on dog and cat food and kitty litter for when we are gone. Then Garry stopped by the dairy commission office to find out about soil testing, before we went bowling and walked through some of the markets to do some Christmas shopping, and bought sharma for lunch at a stand near the art market.

We walked through the new mall downtown, it opened about 6 weeks ago PASSAGE (pronounced pa-sa-oge) It's right across the square from Mc Donalds- in the summer they put up a two-level carousel between them. We rode the escalators up and down and
window shopped at the GAP and some other imported stores- there is Lacoste, Marks and Spencer even Claires and a Hello Kitty store. -

We had a snack in a cafe downstairs- Garry had coffee, but I had to try the DR Pepper, which I had never seen here before. It had a sticker with Russian on, so I think it may be a small shipment. Of course it was served with a straw and a lovely Coke glass, but was a little fizzy since it was warm and had no ice. Not unusual, since cold drinks are considered a source of sore throats here.

We needed to be at Tanya's class for 4:30, our last stop was the Central market, where we bought a couple Christmas presents before turning the heat up in the car for the drive over there to warm up - it was warmer than the morning, but around freezing, and we were walking around outside... we had a traffic backup at one corner- the road was a little icy there from a nearby watermain break and look wht happened..

Our last stop was at a school on the other side of the river where Garry played basketball for a short time, because he has a problem in his knee, and seems like something loose in there now causing a problem- not the knee that had ACL surgery- the other one. So he limped down the stairs, and we drove through Mc Donalds for cheeseburgers on the way back to the village. Strangely, the flashing light arrow had mowed to the other side of the construction zone, I guess that decided it was the more dangerous side, and they didn't get two!

Garry is walking with his leg straight most of the time now so it doesn't hurt, he doesn't like walking on stairs. We were back to Dnepro again Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, I'll share some pictures later; but when we drove back to the village there was a working flashing light at both ends of the construction zone- maybe they should have got those in April when they started!

outside our door ...and happy birthday Jonah

2011-11-23T13:06:00.008+02:00

Yesterday Garry and Max went over to the village mill, and took a few photos. Most of the activity this time of year is crushing sunflower seed for oil. Here is the flour mill (some of Garry's photos were too dark) He says most of the people were bringing in bags of sunflower seed to be crushed or picking up their sunflower oil. I think the mill gets a percentage of the oil for crushing. Most of the oil is put in 5 or 6 liter empty plastic water jugs and taken home for use in the village kitchens.

Here is the seed going through a second crushing machine, the one in this photo. The stuff falling out the bottom is called mukaka and is used as cattle feed, as a top dressing. Garry says that they get 40% oil from the first crushing and 5% when they crush the seeds again.

If you keep a close look out the window or look out the door of Garry's new entryway, you'll see all kinds of things coming in the driveway to the barn.

Today's weather forecast for Kiev on the internet gave us a laugh this morning- it said 0 C and smoke! I think that would work most days and most places in Ukraine- the last two days in the village I have had smoke creeping inside the house from burning leaves.

This morning Maxim took Yana, the young milker lady to the hospital to get checked out, she has an infection on her face. Her father has been here helping milk, while her mother has been at their home, so now Yana will go there, and her mother will come back to milk. They have been rotating so one is there to take care of their animals she bought, and two are here to milk the cows, since Luba left.

When Maxim got back, he just had time for a cup of coffee when he went outside to help Oxana's guys load up milk in the yellow van. Garry tells me that they have some pictures inside the van of our barn, the milk tank, and the cows in the stalls to show the customers where the milk comes from, to prove it is high quality. Maxim says every one knows that milk bought from babushkas (grandmas) a few liters here and few liters there is not so good, and now they have proof of their better milk.

After Max left, Garry walked down the street to bring home a heifer he bought while I made brown sugar biscuits for breakfast. It took him a little longer than he thought but the biscuits were still warm when he got into the house. He tells me that he is trying to buy heifers ready to breed.

If you are wondering about the chubby little heifer heading into the barn- like if she's old enough to get pregnant- she's 18 months old (most cows calve for the first time at 2 years and it takes nine months for a calf)- he says this black heifer is a Belarussian cow and is almost as big as her mother. Garry says we have two other ones in the barn already. Most of our cows are small compared to the ones at home in Canada, but these are even smaller.

Here are the two remaining baby ducks that were born this fall. Remember how they kept escaping and then went to live inside the summer kitchen with Yana? They are now in the barn. Yana shut the remaining big ones in the chicken coop. I think they might be happier (and warmer) all together.

While I was waiting for dinner to get done- it took longer to heat up frozen squash parmasan than I thought- Garry and Maxim played mini-table tennis on the coffee table- a horse and wagon came in the lane, followed by a second wagon pulled by two horses, a dappled gray and a white, they were here to by corn silage I think. Max says that the farmer has six horses and does all his work with them.

A few weeks ago I talked here about how Garry bought some old bricks from the neighbor who has been remodeling his house (for our entryway). Misha took down the walls facing us this spring, and they were rebuilt with thick light weight cinder block size brick that is supposed to be good insulation, and then covered that with new bricks. Here is the before and after- (I was looking through some photos from March and found one of their place- I think I was getting one of the tulips in front of our house)I bet Jonah and Seth wouldn't even guess its the same house, and they looked out the bedroom window (on the other side of our house) at it everyday for two years!

It's November 23rd, and Jonah was born on a Thursday afternoon sixteen years ago. I know he enjoying all his science classes back in Manitoba but I am really looking forward to seeing him and the rest of the family in one week plus one day!

Circus and other fun

2011-11-21T23:05:00.006+02:00

Sunday morning and Maxim was back just in time for us to go to church. He had his older brother and girlfriend here for the day, he dropped them off at the train station in Zaporosia before he went to church Sunday evening. Apparently the long-haired yellow kitten they found in Nikopol (there is a large city with almost the same name as our village) while getting the car fixed Friday morning also made it onto the train to Kiev. The motor mount broke while Max was driving home with his girlfriend and his brother Ruslan and his girlfriend (she`s in the photo by the calf hutches holding her new kitten) so they had to have repairs made- I heard something about hitting a big hole in the road. Maxim says now the whole car is like new.

We went to the early show of the circus- so we could take some photos and video for Seth and Jonah- when we go home on December 2nd we can show it to them- almost like they were here for their birthdays (not really, but I am pretending) Jonah will be sixteen on Wednesday, and I really miss him and Seth, I am really excited about flying home to see all the kids and our granddaughters, too.

This month`s circus featured one act we`d seen before, but a few new things- and elephant act and a real flying trapeze act (not the one in the photo- this is the opening circ`d soliel-like one) The circus had pretty full audience too. Garry walked around during intermission while they put up the net for the trapeze act, while I watched the seven or eight year old boy sitting at the end of the row eat his cotton candy by burrowing his face in it. I was almost laughing. Before the circus started kids were getting their picture taken on top of the elephant, or buying balloons or toys that light up in the dark, then the band played and the lights flashed around and the show began...

....first the flying act, and then the elephant made it`s first appearance - as a barber giving a shave to this guy- in this photo he`s getting a rinse to finish (he was chosen from the audience, but looked a lot like the guy putting the kids on top of the elephant for the photos.)

Monday we had the Kiroy Rog orphanage team in for soup for lunch, cake, and tea and they even got to check out the barn. The girls thought it smelled, Garry said (that was when he come in from feeding the cows this afternoon and I told him he smelled like cows- which is not a bad thing because I like the way cows smell!) They had visiting Canadians who are heading back home after a two week visit here I think. They are planning to come back on a part or full-time basis to work with the ministry there. Sorry- I forgot to take photos today.

Alone now....well, almost

2011-11-18T13:51:00.009+02:00

Thursday night we drove past the circus and crossed the bridge over to the Left bank of Dnepropetroesk in the dark (again- we'd gone the same way coming home 24 hours before!) to visit Marina's discussion club, it's a follow-up to the Summer English Institute I taught at in the summer. Garry said afterwards how much he enjoyed talking in English with people for a change. We stopped by Victor's to pick up the empty milk jugs. Maxim had brought Victor's Thursday milk in earlier in the day.

Maxim got back at 5 pm, about the time we needed to take off for Marina and Jenya's apartment. He had gotten several things fixed on the car, two new tire rims, and the blower for the heat; on the way to Kramatorsk we'd have to crack the windows to defrost the windshield. It has been like that all summer, I think, but it is getting a little cold to have the windows open.

Maxim left at 6 am Friday morning with the car, he is taking his girlfriend Yulia to meet his family this weekend. He is supposed to be back Sunday morning so we can go to church. While we were gone this week, the red heifer finally calved, Maxim delivered a large, backwards bull calf alive. He's keeping this one, as he has decided he will need three for the big wedding dinner next September.

Max told Garry a story yesterday- a family in the village had a fire in their attic on Wednesday. Apparently they had hung clothes in the attic and they were too close to the electric wire that brings power into the house, and the clothing caught on fire. They carried buckets of water upstairs to throw on the fire, and everytime they threw one on the flames, they recieved a shock! Luckily they got the fire out, just have a blackened roof. I am sure it is an asbestos sheet roof, since most of the roofs in the village are made of this material.

So Garry is doing all the chores until Max gets back. This morning a man came to the door, and Garry thought he wanted his cow bred, but he didn't need the straw of semen he took, because it turned out he wanted Garry to preg check his cow that Garry had bred in July. The cow was pregnant, and Garry says the man has remaodeled his little barn, he is expanding from milking one cow to three now. He is one of the people buying corn silage from us.

Last week when we were shopping, I bought the wrong box of tissues, I should have spent the extra grivna for Kleenex brand, it turns out the lemons on the box means that they smell like lemon furniture polish. It is so strong that I have to remember not to inhale when blowing my nose, and there are 150 in the box.

Garry told the guy who banged on the locked door several (like seven) times at noon today that he couldn't buy brewers grain until 2 or 3 o'clock. It seems like the Monday- Wednesday- Friday afternoon sales have become whenever people show up lately, like in the spring. Can't get a nap!

Donestk- stadium tour

2011-11-17T15:34:00.007+02:00

We had breakfast at the hotel Wednesday morning (good but not as wonderful as dinner the night before- they had an English menu at the restaurant at the Central Hotel- looks like this hotel, like most hotels downtown, are working on additional rooms for Euro 2012. There are big highrises going up behind several hotels, I hope they get them done by next May!) Then we took the car and drove around the city a bit, and found the stadium where five games will be played for Euro2012.

Anyway we drove into the parking lot and checked out the Donetsk Shakhtar Museum and signed up for a stadium tour at noon. There is beautifully maintained parkland with ducks in the water, and bushes and trees around the stadium, even in the winter!

The photo is of the CCCP cup, the team won three times starting in 1961. The Eurocoupe that they won more recently was also on display.

The tour was a great deal as there was just the two of us and the guide did it in English for us. The team has been around for 75 years, and won that first cup 50 years ago, and the name is a word for miners- originally the team was named after a famous miner in the region. The team used to play with a pile of tailings behind the pitch, and in the Soviet era the players were on the mine payroll.

Anyway, we got to sit at the interview desk that is used for the media times and also sit in the locker room for photos, we even got to go out the player tunnel onto the side of the field (can't step on the grass) with canned crowd noise, quite the tour. We even learned all about caring for the natural grass pitch- the things on the grass are lights to keep it growing well, and they have heat pipes like the shop at home in Canada.

It took longer to drive home than we expected, sadly the road to Donestk is not ready for Euro 2012 yet- they are working on making it four lanes, not sure if they will get it done for May either. You get to see lots of piles of tailings from coal mines, I think Garry counted 17 just about where I took this photo.

Where the GPS took us

2011-11-16T07:03:00.006+02:00

We had a few problems using the GPS when we drove to Kramatorsk to visit Stacy. You remember Stacy, if you read the blog regularly; she stayed with us back in June for a few weeks. She returned to Ukraine a few weeks ago to teach English for the year in the city of Kramatorsk. We were here almost exactly a year ago, visiting Doreen, who was doing the same thing. Since we had driven here before you’d think it was easy, but we leave the bigger road after awhile and head through the countryside to get to the city, and sometimes it is hard to tell which way the main road is going driving through villages, when the power cord kept losing the connection and the GPS would try (or succeed in shutting down.) I really think the battery in the thing just can’t hold a charge.

We didn’t turn it on until we were through Dnepropetroesk- we went under the fancy sign entering the city at 7:07 am and drove out of Dnepro on the left bank of the river onto the highway an hour later. Garry had got Maxim to change the GPS back to English before we left – it was set for Russian. We have trouble getting the names in sometimes in Russian, since road signs are in Ukrainian, and they can be quite different. We have the same problem with the map book in the car. When we left the village Garry commented on the fact that it looked like a fine day for driving, however I wasn’t so sure when we got on the far side of Dnepro, and there was some snow on the ground.

Anyway, we decided that we could just follow the road and had turned it off (well Garry had tossed it in the back seat) when we followed what seemed like the main street in this town and ended up at a dead end. So I held the GPS, trying to get a good connection so it would have power, and Garry tried to follow the directions, for some reason I can’t explain he has it set to talk as a rather stern-voiced British lady. First she tried to send us over a closed railroad crossing, then she wanted us to turn and drive trough what appeared to be a field with a path cutting through it, two tire tracks to follow. Garry said he would have ignored her, but two cars turned in just ahead of us.

We wandered through a few twists and turns and came up to the railroad tracks again. There was a way under; as you can see in the photo we took. Yes, we did go through the tunnel, or drainage ditch, it’s a good thing we drive a Lada, because an SUV would have never fit, even the Lada seemed tight, but we had seen a classic Lada disappear through as we approached (Garry started in, and then backed out to take the picture!) Any way, we followed the tracks out to a large road – the town seemed bigger on the other side of the tracks and then we were back on the road to Kramatorsk.

Kramatorsk is in the hilly mining district of Ukraine, I got a nice picture of a mountain of tailings as we drove through a village, with a little snow on top.

We got to the city just before noon, and Garry once again proved he can find places we’ve been before, first finding the church and then the apartment (it’s the same one we stayed in with Doreen.) We brought Stacy some frozen veggies from our garden, and a dead duck (it could be the same cute duckling she was holding back in mid-June) since it was decided that we aren’t keeping all the ducks this winter, the ladies have been turning them into dinners (don’t worry, three different colored mamas will be laying eggs next spring if all goes as planned.) Stacy had lunch ready for us, and we hung out talking for a while before going on a walk to see some of the sights she has found so far while exploring the city, the WWII memorial, which has an eternal flame, the Lenin statue (he’s holding his hat in this one) and over to the park with a lovely Orthodox church, before heading back, with slightly cold cheeks. It was just above freezing, but there was a scattering of snow on the ground in some spots, Stacy said the ground was white when she woke up a few days ago.

Stacy had invited Pastor Yura and family for dinner, but he came alone, they had their first baby just six weeks ago. We had a good time, Stacy made a lovely meal, and the discussion was good too. Garry drove him back to his home, and afterwards we played Scrabble (I won for a change) I checked the email before bed, and discovered a little job in the messages, so I took care of that on Stacy’s computer, while she and Garry discussed politics (Garry had been reading a book she had on Boris Yeltsin.)

We had a nice breakfast with Stacy- delish lemon poppy seed cake- and then headed out to Donetsk, which is nearby. Not as nearby as the first try woth the GPS as sometimes typing names is English gets you to the wrong place too! Seems we chose Doneskey and headed in the wrong direction out of Kramatorsk- when we retraced our steps there were many signs going out the other direction for the city we wanted. It is one of the cities where the Euro 2012 soccer matches will be played.

We found a nice new mall after getting into the city, and went bowling and shopping before finding the Lenin - he's got his hat on here- and a hotel. The hotel's elevator only goes to the 7th floor and we are on 8 but otherwise its a great Ukrainian hotel!

Winter's coming

2011-11-13T13:47:00.005+02:00

Friday afternoon there was a bang and smoke when Yana turned on the milk cooler for the afternoon milking. Friday is one of the days that the tank gets emptied and washed when we sell milk to Oxana's yellow van. The same part that broke a few months went again, because it got some water in it when the tank was washed before milking. Garry says that the seal on it was too big- made for large North American size wiring instead of tiny Ukrainian electric lines, it seems.

At first Garry thought maybe they would turn the afternoon milk into cheese, but they had taken milk over in the morning for the neighbor lady to process for sour cream and cottage cheese for Sunday's church sale. He also thought that they would be able to get someone from the DeLaval dealer out to fix it like before, but Victor called back to say they weren't coming. Garry thought they could cool the evening milk the old-fashioned way (like last year) and put it in cans. Eventually it all ended up in the tank, where it seemed to be cooled off- there were three milkings in it when Victor (using his electrician training) got to the farm Saturday around noon with the needed part- and got it installed in half an hour. In two weeks Garry has had to fix both the milk tank and the vaccuum pump. He says the milking system is quieter now, that pump must have been on the verge of going (bad) for a while.

This (Sunday) morning, Garry went out to get the milk jugs filled for the church deliveries, and decided it was a little off-flavor, probally because that first milk did not get cooled fast enough, and the newer milk had been mixed with it, so we only took the smetana (sour cream) and cheese to Dnepropetroesk today. Yana tasted it and told Garry it was normallna but remember sometimes the milk in the stores is sour here! IT will be fine to sell to Oxana on Monday, she is turning it into smetana and seerl (cheese) anyway.

The plowing is all finished, they got the headlands (outer rounds of the field) done on Saturday. Friday Maxim finished off the gardens we needed to plow, because our tractor just wasn't up to plowing the alfalfa field. Garry tells me plowing was expensive, we spent 10,000 grivna on diesel fuel for the tractors. At least we didn't break anything, especially the borrowed tractor! Garry says Maxim is happy to be finished, he was worried that it would snow before we were done.

Many people in the village are burning wood this year to heat with, since the price of natural gas has gone up significantly from last winter. When we bought our new new gas furnace it was cheaper because it wasn't a dual purpose one. Garry says he saw two people in the village cutting up wood with a large bow saw when he brought Max lunch on Friday.

You can see that winter is coming to Ukraine, even without the occasional snow flurry. Garry has been raking and burning leaves this week in the yard. We really noticed the difference driving into the city this Sunday from last. Last week many of the trees were still wearing yellow leaves; today, with the exception of the willows, just a few trees were still hanging on to a couple brown leaves. There was even a little drizzle on the windshield when we drove in. Last week there were gleaners out picking up cabbage leaves to feed their animals at the vegetable farm, this week the fields there are all plowed under. We did see a man out gleaning in a disked up cornfield, must have been poor pickings- half buried in the dirt, and the corn cobs cut up by the disk.

It was even cold inside the hall that the church rents for services today, everyone was wearing their coats, although the praise singing would warm up anyone, and the sermon was about joy.

No snow in the forecast for the next couple days, which is a good thing, since we are leaving in the morning to drive to Kramatroesk to see our June house guest Stacy, who has recently arrived back in Ukraine and will be teaching English there until summer.

11-11-11

2011-11-11T15:49:00.003+02:00

It has been a slow day here in the village, there is plowing being done, the alfalfa field - the bad third of the field, Max couldn't plow it with our tractor, Garry says that even the big tractor is going slow through it.

There were a few snowflakes again this morning...I have been thinking about Seth, since today is his eighteen birthday. Seth pointed out a while ago that this year his birthday would fall on 11-11-11, how cool is that?

It's hard to believe that our little boy is officially grown up! I know Jonah is the official baby of the family, but since they were small people would assume they were twins. Of course, looking at the kindergarten photos of all the boys, you'd know that Seth's "real" twin is Josh, who is ten years older. They look identical, blonde hair, adorable grin - except one is wearing a Duck Tales sweatshirt, which puts Josh in an earlier decade. We have always told Seth that we knew what he'd look like when he grew up- lucky him.

When Seth was born on Remembrance Day, Garry said he'd be able to remember this one's birthday- it's true he has trouble with most of the dates, after our first two. Seth always has has birthday off from school, since it is a school holiday in Manitoba, so hopefully he is enjoying his day this year. If he was here, we could go to the circus, which was the boys favorite thing to do here in Ukraine, I saw the new circus in Dnepro features the flying cranes, which we saw once before, and elephants, which we have never seen, even though there have been every other kind of animal act you could think of- even porcupines!

Two years ago we checked out the 4-D movie and Mc Donalds at the MostCity Centre in Dnepropetroesk. Last year I missed Seth's birthday because I was in New Jersey after my grandfather died, so he and Jonah baked the cake and this year I am missing it because he is home in Canada. I think that Jessica and Jonah are going to the farm to help celebrate Seth's birthday, so I am sure there will be cake. We are going to phone before we go to bed- afternoon there. We are going to have pizza and Lois and Clark tonight- almost like when the boys were here for Friday nights.

Hurry up- Snowflakes are falling

2011-11-10T08:50:00.007+02:00

That's right snowflakes are falling this Thursday morning, fat ones that are melting as they hit the ground right now. Polo slipped past me when I was trying to talk to someone at the door, and is now curled up on the rug, trying to be invisible, in case someone wants to put him out. If Maxim comes in the house, the dog hides behind me, otherwise Polo figures it's safe to take a nap on the couch. The guys think it's hilarious.

Wednesday's forecast called for rain, cold, chance of snow, and somewhere in the village, the decision was made that Tuesday was the last day for the village herd to go out. I think we sent ten heifers out the first day, and six on that last Tuesday, very few were the same ones that went out that first spring day when the trees were blooming, one heifer died, some calved- two had their babies out in the field, and younger heifers took their place. Two dry cows went out with the herd, Micah for most of the summer, until just before she calved in August, and Ossa, who went dry about that time, and happily went out with the heifers until last week, when she broke off the end of one of her toes, and Garry kept her it because she was limping.

Tuesday morning he kept in a red heifer who is looking close to calving, just in case, since we had the one calve a couple weeks ago in the field, and no one even noticed (Max went out to the field and found the calf before dark). It seems the heifers don't bag up (fill their udders) as much as we are used to before calving, so you have to watch how wiggly their rear ends are getting, as their bodies start to relax and get ready to push the calf out. Yesterday Garry and Max put the heifers that normally spent the day out with the herd in the barn yard for the day.

Wednesday was also the day that the rest of our fields started getting plowed. Maxim had spent half a day last week welding back together another farmer's five bottom plow- it is really tough on the machinery trying to plow the extremely dry ground this fall. It was the farmer that grew the pumpkin seeds I wrote about last month. Since he finished all his plowing, he decided we could borrow his tractor and plow. It is a Ukrainian tractor made in Kharcov, and he bought it from the lady farmer we bought the herd of cows from last fall.

Tuesday evening, Maxim and Serosoia - the neighbor that often helps us, got both the borrowed tractor and our tractor ready to ploog as darkness fell. Maxim said it figured we were finally ready to get plowing and it was supposed to snow. Luckily, it was just 6 C (40 F) and damp, not even rainy on Wednesday, and Serosoia was able to plow the corn field we combined easily with the big tractor (it had most of the cornstalks burnt off before.) Garry says it has so much power it is hardly working pulling the plow. Maxim, using our plow, had more problems plowing his piece, the new piece we have for next year (last week it was assigned to us from the original big farmer, since the piece we had aquired the rental to this summer was under his land before, since the actual piece is hard to get to, surrounded by other plots, we get some easy to reach piece to farm instead.) It seems our new piece is long and narrow and has a lot of sunflower stalks on it (this may sound familiar, just like last year, but at least we are getting it plowed in the fall!)

Garry took lunch out to the field for them, he brought Maxim over to the corn field so they could eat together. I had made ploof- which is a Ukrainian dish- like chicken rice pilaf and Max's favorite salad- tomato and onion (that will be the last time until next summer- the last of the fresh tomatoes.) Afterwards, Garry pumped out the milk for Oxana's guys, right now we are making so little milk, the yellow van is buying almost all of it, just over 600 liters yesterday.

Garry made it in for lunch at 2 o'clock. Then he went out to feed the cows, since he wanted to go into the city and pay for the internet, since it had stopped working that morning. I took a nap, since my headcold was back in full force yesterday. We drove into Dnepro around four, it was gloomy, cloudy, and night was falling fast. We drove to Victor's house to pick up the milk jugs for Thursday's milk- Victor has a funeral to go to in his church today, so he won't be out for his milk as usual- and then drove through the traffic downtown for our weekly bowling game. I had complained we were playing on a day Garry would be sure to win every game, since my head hurt all day. However, I acually bowled better than I had in weeks, and would have won the third game with my 133 if Garry had not bowled 4 strikes to end the game! However, we had driven out of the city before we remembered our original mission, and had to turn around so Garry could use the machine at Dafi to put money on the internet!

Garry thinks it will take about three days to get the plowing done, this morning he is out on our plow, while Maxim takes Serososia's baby son Bogdan and wife to the hospital this morning. You may remember I wrote some weeks ago about how the baby recieved a bad batch of vaccine which has caused an infection, he still needs to go to the hospital to have it checked and drain out pus, and Max is taking him so his father can keep running the big tractor and plow.

Wow, it is chilly out there- I just had to go outside because the load of brewers' grain arrived, when Garry left this morning, he told me that there was 4700 grivna rubberbanded together to pay for the load of brewers' grain if it came while everyone was gone. I heard the truck back in the driveway, and grabbed the money, my jacket and shoes and went out. The driver was just screwing off the clamps on the back of the truck so he could dump the load into the pit. When the load started to fall in the pit, you couldn't see for the giant cloud of steam from the hot slurry hitting the cold air, then you could watch the pile ooze across to the other end of the pit. When the truck was empty the driver came over and took the money, he counted it three times before deciding it was the correct amount. I checked the temperature when I got back inside- a degree or two over zero, but the air feels cold and damp, even if the snow has stopped falling.

So hopefully the fall plowing will get done, even if the rain never came to make it easy, there were tractors out in the fields along the highway as we drove home last night. Garry said he didn't see anything but dry soil when he planted the grape vines the other day, and he dug down two feet, added manure, sand and water and dirt, according to the directions from the grape guy. He ended up planting the new vines behind the house near the fence, since there were so many, so the old ones live on- now they will have to build two trellises. With either five planted - or five more of the 17 to plant, he cracked the shovel handle. He came inside and wrapped it in a good part of the roll of duct tape we keep in the drawer (its a good Canadian roll) and all the grapes got planted. Somehow he found that nicer shovel I couldn't find when I was planting my rosebushes!

Phonecalls and other thoughts about my children

2011-11-07T23:21:00.003+02:00

Wow, I just got off the phone with my son Matthew and granddaughter Havilah. Matt called after Garry had gone to bed- he's planning to get up early and find the Philadelphia Eagles game on the internet. Havilah, who's three, had lots to say, including the fact that her big sister is at school today. It is so nice to talk to them.

I talked to Jonah and Jessica on Saturday evening (they called too- bonus week) Jonah had gotten his mid-term report card, and seems like he's adjusting well to real school - his grades go from 82 in Physics to 91 in Chemistry, I think they said. Jessy is busy as she has report cards to prepare soon for her grade 8 students.

Joshua - sorry Josh (only me, his mother ever calls him that) had called earlier in the week, and I even got to talk since Garry had left his phone inside on the charger. I checked out how Seth is doing, apparently they have him working everyday after school (less time for video games, Josh says) and he has a 93 in shop class, and is doing OK in everything else. then Garry came inside and they talked farming and basketball.

The kids have trouble figuring out what to get us for Christmas- it has to fit in our suitcase and be usable in Ukraine (where the power is not 110) so here are a few pointers:

Right now we are sleeping on Yoda- Star Wars sheets. I know this is strangely appropriate for a couple who did see the first Star Wars movie on their first date, but flannel might be nice, deep sides, full size. Yes, we have gone from the king size one that we have slept on since arriving to sleeping on the full size set we bought as a guest bed this summer from American missionaries who were going home. It was like brand new, a Sealy mattress, imported from the USA, and both our backs are feeling better in the last couple months since the switch. They had brought it for their son, who was still in a toddler bed, and the Jedi sheets came with it.

Apparently Garry needs new boots- after putting a hole in his today, and his sock, for that matter (see earlier post) Luckily not his foot. He can always use more of those king size socks, and black basketball shoes- there are no size 14 or even 13 for sale here. When we go bowling, he always gets one of the two pair his size.

A complete set of crochet hooks- I am limited by the three I have when selecting projects for the girls- right now I have switched to things for other people because I have made them so many things for Christmas.

Sorry guys I'm out of ideas for now. Good night- if I can sleep with my stuffy nose, smoke slipping in the cracks of the house from all of today's leaf burning piles, and the dogs barking...

can't wait for December 2nd when we get on that plane to Winnipeg- although there's a lot to do yet- pack up the boys' clothes, and all the crocheting projects...

of Cats, Cows and Cold

2011-11-07T14:02:00.006+02:00

Sunday afternoon we got home pretty early from church, we left Dnepro after a quick stop for a few groceries by 2 o'clock, it seems we never leave until after three most weeks. Garry even had time for a short nap before going out to feed the cows and get the heifers in when the village herd came home- which happens by 4:30 these days, since time changed it is getting dark out by five.

I was starting to wonder what had happened to Garry (Maxim had left for church in Zaporosia already) when he came in, and started counting money. He had gone to breed a heifer for someone in the village and ended up buying her and leading her home. He said the heifer would butt him in the backend unless he let her run just ahead of him down the street in the dark.

The owner collected the money and walked home, and Garry put her in the barn in one of the pens- with the second largest heifers. Garry tells me that the really big red heifer he bought a couple weeks ago is afraid of the other heifers, he put her in with the smaller ones in that pen and they beat her up too. He thinks she has never been in a group before, if we have an empty cow stall this winter, she may be happier tied up.

Monday morning Garry finally got his can of paint open and slapped some up on the walls of the entryway. Friday morning he drove all the way to Saloanie to buy brushes since there weren't any for sale at the village stores, and the one he thought he had here had "disappeared" (the neighbor boy Andrei painted his bike- this may be related.) He came in around eleven am and told me:

1) he needed more paint
2) his paintbrushes were terrible (they cost about 75 cents) and
3) he needed something to clean his hands

I helped by pouring vegetable oil and dish soap on so he could wash most of it off (and took a picture!) There seem to be a number of blue spots on the floor, and he does need another can of paint to finish. It's pretty smelly, (oil-based paint) so Garry left the door open to the outside, even though its cold today. Lucky for me I am still pretty stuffed up with this cold, not smelling much of it!

It was so cold this morning that there were three waterbowls frozen in the barn, of course they had left one of the big doors open, I guess they will need to focus on getting the barn winterized soon. Today Maxim is busy at his house, he has hired some helpers and is pouring cement. Seems like Maxim has a deadline now, looks like the wedding is set for next September.

Jonah's cat Needles must have been sorry that he slipped out the door when I put the dog out last night, he was curled up on one of the radiators this morning after Garry went out to the barn- and curled up on top of Garry while I was making stirfry for lunch.

I was up at 4:30 this morning, wondering why Box was yelling- a persistant Meow! Meow! woke me up. Turned out it wasn't Box, one of the other striped cats must have slipped in when Maxim came home last night. I scooped it up, and carried it around for ten minutes, trying to get a door open to put it out.

The key is always left in one door, so all you have to do is turn it twice around in the lock to get it open. I checked on the floor, since it sometimes falls out of the keyhole- granted, more often during the day when people are going in and out then after it has been locked for the night, but... it wasn't there, Max must have taken it to bed with him. (I thought what if the house had been on fire?- it's why I decided the key stays in the door) No problem, all I needed to do was go over to the kitchen door, and turn the thumb latch, I had flipped last night, and go out into the entryway, open the door...what... it was locked also and no key to be seen (there are apparently four keys on a ring somewhere....) So I carried the cat into the bedroom with me, and found the key I had with me when we went to church Sunday to open the door in the afternoon, and opened the first door I had tried. Finally the cat jumped happily out into the cold dark morning, and I checked the internet before going back to bed.

Garry and Maxim went to look at some heifers someone wanted to sell this afternoon, they bought two small ones, Max led one home, and the lady brought the second one.

Garry just came in to get a shower, he just got back from breeding a cow in the village, apparently he tripped over a boot cleaner leaving their shed in the dark, ripped a hole in the top of his boot, and fell on the ground besides (I almost said to boot) At least he didn't drag (or get dragged by) a cow on a rope all the way home today.

Might be a few frozen waterbowls tomorrow morning, I went outside to phone and wish my mother a happy birthday and it was cold- minus eight C- and smokey everyone in the village seems to be burning leaves (and maybe a corn field just outside the village that needs plowing was set on fire today.)

Broken and fixed

2011-11-05T14:51:00.003+02:00

Today I am feeling under the weather with this cold, I was still in bed when Garry came inside from morning chores. He told me when he went outside this morning, he thought it was quiet in the barn, the vaccuum pump wasn't running, so he thought that the ladies must have finished milking early. Then he noticed the pails sitting around the barn when he went to feed the cows. They were milking the cows by hand.

Garry tried turning the switch on, but he said somrthing was obviously jammed inside, so he turned it off and finished feeding the cows. Afterwards, he took the pump apart where it broke earlier in the summer, all looked fine there, so he took it apart the only other place it opened, and discovered a cracked and broken bearing. So he was off the Dnepropetroesk with the bearing before nine.

I was making chicken soup for lunch around 11 am when he returned with a new bearing. He said that he had gone with Victor to a store that sells bearings, but it was closed since it's Saturday, then they tried the LADA parts place, because you never know, but no they didn't have it. They went to the metal market, and got the exact bearing they needed at a small stand. Garry said the guy looked at the broken one, said it was a high quality European one and rooted around in the back and came out with the exact new bearing. Garry couldn't believe that he got it today!

Garry was able to get the vaccuum pump put back together and working before the afternoon milking, he was even back in the house by 12:30 for his soup. Yesterday he went and bought a paint brush to paint the inside walls of his new entryway, but he's been too busy to paint yet.

This afternoon he's planting new grape vines. They were talking about pulling out the vines along the driveway and planting new varieties there. This would give them the oppurtunity to tear out the old rusty pipes supporting them and make a new trellis, since more of the pipes broke off this summer. Garry may be out there a while, he went to the place he got grapes this fall, to buy 10 plants (Victor and Maxim had wanted some for their yards.) Now he is planting seventeen vines, because the guy kept saying, wait you need one like this, I'll give it to you, and no one wanted to plant any after all.

Lots of things are getting caught...

2011-11-04T20:15:00.010+02:00

Remember Garry's cold? Turns out it takes two weeks to catch it, because now I am all achey and sore and starting to cough! Garry is still coughing on occasion, but he's feeling fine since last week, so he's been busy getting things done.

So Wednesday we were off to team meeting in Dnepro, and had a great time, since we had not been all together for two months. I had made some sandwiches and a pot of soup, so Maxim could take lunch out to the field, because it was our last day for herding the cows. Apparently for the second day in a row one of the guys we hired to herd did not show up for work, so there was just one guy chasing the cows. When Max went out to the field he discovered the cows had somehow split into two groups and he had to help the man round them up into one group again.

So Thursday Maxim told Garry a story before paying the guys, the one guy got all his pay because he was there herding the cows everyday. The other guy who called in sick, Max wasn't paying for two days, and he was docking him two days wages, for why he did't show. It turns out he had been arrested by the police- I think near the bar- for stealing a bicycle and selling marijuana.

This morning I found out the culprit in the destruction of my rosebushes- two weeks ago I walked outside and came in complaining to Garry that some idiot had pulled all the leaves off the bottom of my big rosebush. I have photos of the offenders, they were back at it this morning when Garry was moving the hose to fill the water cistern. Our duck flock has decided to range further from the barn, and were hard at work trying to get more of the leaves off the bush! They weren't even eating them, just yanking them off and dropping them under the bush like last time, they prefer weeds for eating. The ducks squawked loudly and scurried away when I took their photo.

Laugh at your problems

2011-11-04T09:25:00.002+02:00

I had a laught when I saw this on facebook, and I decided to pull Garry's computer out to see if it would upload pictures better than mine- has it may be a browser thing I was thinking.

It made me think of almost thirty years ago when Garry and I started farming on our own. We rented a farm in New Jersey that had not had cows milking on it in about 20 years. The gutter cleaner had not been used in that long, my first job, while we were getting ready to bring our cows over from my father's farm across town, was to paint the old rusted together gutter cleaner chain. I rememeber sitting in the spring sunshine, with baby Matthew on a blanket next to me in what would become the barn yard, covering the rusty links with used oil to loosen it up.

A couple weeks later, Garry had pieced together an bunch of used milking equipment, some of which had been sitting on the farm all those years, and had a milk tank installed (the farm had used milk cans in water cooling when it ceased operations- similiar to how we first cooled milk here in Ukraine.) The first night we ended up milking 17 cows by hand because the vaccuum pump quit working, luckily it was fixed the next day, because we milked three times a day, just the two of us. We put a playpen in the barn for Matthew who turned one a few weeks after we started. Luckily he wasn't in it the night a heifer got loose and jumped in it! Jessica was three, and thought she was older, she had Grandma's phone number memorized and would call her across town to talk.

The day after we sarted milking, it was time to run the gutter cleaner with manure in it for the first time (it had went around empty before the cows came)and Garry wanted my help. It didn't go so well- the manure wouldn't fall off the end of the cleaner into the spreader, and Garry had to watch over the problems with it inside the barn, so I was assigned the job of standing on the manure spreader and using a pitch fork to try to scrape off the manure and straw off the paddles as they raced past me. Garry had started out here, wiith his long legs he had no problem standing with his feet on the top of the sides of the spreader. He helped me up there, but my short legs didn't stay there as I turned and twisted (Garry is 6'5"- I am 5'4") to keep up with the flying manure. By the time the chain had gotten all the way around the barn and Garry shut the motor off (it had been in a shed for the 30 years- and still worked) I was standing with both legs in the manure spreader, up to the top of my boots in the manure. Garry had to use the pitch fork to break the suction holding my boots trapped in the manure.

So I had a different job the next day- standing on the corner wheel (the gutter went around behind the barn in a rectangle with one end extended out a hole in the barn where it went around an end- the manure would drop off into the spreader there) One of the three corner wheels in the barn would jump out of the gutter when it ran, beacause the part to hold it in was broken, so every day for months I stood on top of it everytime the gutter cleaner ran, so it would stay where it belonged.

A new floating corner wheel would cost 180 dollars, if I remember right, and Garry finally decided to buy it when I was so pregnant with Josh that I couldn't see past my belly to my feet to balance on the chain properly. I also got to sleep in for the night milking sometimes, and Garry bought a dumping station for the milk so I didn't have to carry the milker pails all the way to the milkhouse and dump them in the tank (less walking, carrying, and I didn't have to lift so high- wasn't he nice? There's a reason I bowl with 14 pound bowling balls people.)

Sometime farming here reminds me of the good old days!

weekend...time changes

2011-11-01T21:58:00.001+02:00

We thought we'd sleep all day after 2 straight overnight train rides and an all day walk in between, but Garry was as energetic as the day we left- he picked up more screws on the way home after the train came in at 9:20 am, so he could go back to work on the inside of the new entryway.

I got to work on lunch so Garry could take it out to the field since its our turn to herd the cows. We don't acually herd the cows for our days (this is the second time through the list- we are responsible for eight days, since we sent out 8 animals most of the summer) instead we pay guys to do it. Two different guys showed up the week before our turn started asking for the job, and part of the wages is dinner. Since we started "herding" on Wednesday I made a pot of soup and some broderbrat (open-face sandwiches with meat and cheese) for Thursday so Max could feed them while we were in Odessa. Maxim was working on his house when we got back to the village around 11 am. Garry went to buy bread to go with the pototoes I was cooking, and came back with the news that Max had already brought the guys lunch. Luckily I hadn't started the hotdogs, and the slaw could stay in the fridge for the next day- they even got the potatoes warmed up on Saturday too!

Garry went off for a meeting Friday evening, and came home bearing gifts- everything to make banana splits with m and m's. I was on the couch crocheting, with rather stiff sore legs from all the walking the day before. I was feeling fine by Saturday.

Maxim went off by nine am for a swodva (wedding) in the village where he was serving as best man, and his girlfriend Yulia was the maid of honor. He bought a suit for the occasion, if I get the photo to load you can see him with a roll of money in this hand- his first job of the day is the "buy" the bride from her father. Sunday morning he said he had to keep paying kids to get the bride's shoes back, apparently it's traditional for them to steal them at the reception.

Sunday morning everyone got up late- except the ladies, they were up at the regular time. They were wondering why the cow herding guys had not come yet. Time had changed for the fall. It means that the cows are home around 4 pm now. Garry had most of the chores done and was getting ready to load up the milk for church when Max came out- apparently the wedding was all day and most of the night.

Sunday as we were driving to Dnepro we noticed thst there were combines sitting in the big field of soybeans on the way there, when we came back they were just finishing the field. There were a couple trucks waiting in the field to take the beans away. There are one or two corn fields along the highway waiting to get harvested yet, and a field of sunflowers on the way to Zaporosia, but the rains will be here soon, so I expect they will all be finished soon.

Monday was much the same as everyday, except Maxim started plowing, Garry has given up on waiting for rain to make the ground easier to plow. Garry thought Max was going to plow up the bad part of the alfalfa field first, one end of the field has a very poor stand of alfalfa so they will plant something else there in the spring, but we are keeping most of the hay field for next year. Apparently it was just too hard- Max said the plow was bringing up basketball-sized chunks of soil, so he moved to the field that grew the rye and corn silage, it plowed up pretty nice, he was back there today. The other field will have to wait for rain. Garry would like to have it all finished before we leave for Canada next month, of course.

Garry took Max's scooter to bring lunch out to the guys in the herd, and he ran out of gas on the way back. He said the gauge was at half full. He phoned and I had to drive out and find him, lucky I figured out which pond he was stranded by- there are a number of ponds around the village. I did find his Pioneer hat on the corner, I guess it blew off. We grabbed our lunch, then Garry had to help the guys in the yellow van pump milk from the tank into their cans. Finally we were on the way to the gas station to get gas (filled the can and the car) and dropped off lunch for Maxim before finally getting back to the scooter, which was still there, thankfully.

Garry and I went to the pro basketball game in Zaporosia in the evening. We stopped at McDonalds for burgers and fries, since we learned our lesson last Tuesday night when we went to the Chinese restaurant before the first game we attended- the Chinese cook is only there on the weekend, all they were serving that night was dumplings!

I even got a little Ferro flag to wave after we bought our tickets. It looked like it was going to be bad, since the home team got down by 15 early, but they made a huge comeback to be one basket down at the half, and eventually won by about seven points, the gym was full of people and incredibly loud. There are four Americans playing on the team this year, it is fun trying to figure out what their names are from the spelling in Russian. A little guy named Kulpepper was the high scorer, he even did a breakaway dunk that thrilled the crowd. The other team had a guy whose name looked like Volker in Russian, but I noticed at halftime they had warmups in English and his name was Walker!

Tuesday was more of the same, except Garry and Maxim went to look at a fresh cow but didn't buy her. Garry asked to see the lady milk her (last spring they bought one that kicked- the milker ladies really hated it) and the cow jumped around so much they decided that Yana would not like it even though the cow's name was also Yana!

The village

2011-11-01T10:46:00.001+02:00

I'd like to introduce you to the village we live in here in Ukraine. It's called Nikolipolia in Russian, Mikolipolia in Ukrainian- if you want to find it on google earth- look for it with an M. We live on Centralna - which is like main street. I have been working on this post for weeks, saving it because we are close to post # 400, and here is is because I can't load photos again.

There are two other streets that run horizontally to Centralna, one on each side, one closer to the highway and one on the other side of the ponds. You can take this old cobbled cross street (which dates to Mennonite times) past the pond to that street. Maxim's girlfriend, Yulia, lives with her family on the corner.

This village has a number of buildings still standing and in use from the early 1900's when the Mennonites had two villages here, side-by-side- Nikofeld and Franzfeld. The house we live in was built in 1904 and, like many of the Mennonite houses, was partitioned into two- family homes during Soviet times. Victor was able to buy both halves of this house and replace the roof about a hundred years after it was built, for his bed and breakfast for his Mennonite heritage tours.

There are three stores in the village, here's Garry going in for a loaf of bread at the one closest to our house. All the stores and public buildings are located on Centralna, as is the school, which was also built by the the Mennonites.

The village is very safe and the people are friendly- some even speak a little English and German, if you don't know Russian or Ukrainian. You wouldn't guess that from the giant lock on the vettenka but it's only open one day a week- if people need something in an emergency they just find the lady that runs it.

Everyone has a fence in the front of their yard, it keeps people and the cows going past in the morning and evening out. There are a number of different styles, and I heard that the brick one in front of the school dates back to Mennonite times.
The little yellow pipe that runs across the front yards is the gas line.
The house Garry is looking at has been building a new fence for two summers now. These cement fences are really popular here, the brick columns they put in between have recently had caps but on. The red metal fence is new this year for the other house.

Look closely- you can see the bee boxes in the front yard of this house, they also keep a cow or two (Garry bred one there) like most people in the village and grow a large garden behind the house. Most yards have a number of fruit (apricots, apples, cherry, plum, pear) and walnut trees. They sell the excess honey, milk and produce.

Here is the small house Maxim is buying (in the bottom photo) number 80 Centralna- the yard was really overgrown- you couldn't see the house before it was cleared out. Right now he is working on putting a metal band around the house because the brick is cracked apart in the back. Then he plans to have the house covered in styrofoam and covered with stucco to make it look nicer. There's a house done this way recently in the village- its adds a bit of insulation also. There are a couple that have put plastic siding over the brick also..

Here's the old Mennonite church that the Mennonite Brethern sponsored -an evangelical church in the village meets here, there are about 10-15 people who attend. The pastor is a retired art teacher, he is a fairly recent believer, I understand. There is no Orthodox church in the village, people who want to worship go by bus to a village halfway to Zaporosia.
They got control of the building through the courts, I'm told. It is where Garry organized a camp or VBS program in July.

The town office building got a new roof in the beginning of October, the village had a list of projects they hope to do, to improve infrastructure in the village, including getting a kindergarten (preschool- school starts with grade one) operating in the village again. They sent out a letter to residents and businesses at the start of the year asking for donations for the projects.

Like every city and village we have monuments - the lady is dedicated to 1918 (possibly the revolution) and the bust is of Lenin.

This is the memorial to those residents in the village who died in the Great Patriotic War (WWII)- there are names and dates on the slab in front of the statue. It is cement and occasionally gets a fresh coat of silver paint. The schoolchildren work to clean up around the monuments in the spring and fall.

Photos of Odessa

2011-10-30T13:14:00.013+02:00

Smiling faces to start the day

Up the first set of steps (many more to come)

Stroll through the market- look at those fish!

19th-century architecture

Here we are downtown where both outside and inside this courtyard there are all kinds of plasterwork. The courtyard has been turned into shops. It was incredible inside, even if a few statues could use a wash, they have rivelets of black running down them. You see many more buildings that were built in the 1800's as you walk down the streets, most of the city is four stories high. A few streets downtown have been turned into walking boulevards, and many of the old beauties are being restored in that area.

We toured several Orthodox churches, and a Catholic one also, of course you can’t take photos inside them, but they are beautiful inside. One Orthodox Church had a service going on when we went inside, the singing is beautiful. Somehow I didn’t load any of the photos of the churches, one was rebuilt and opened in 2007, after it was destroyed during Communist times, and amusement park was built in its place, one man is famous because he changed the location of it from the area of the original church’s altar, and a fountain in the surrounding park is named for him. There is still an amusement park for children on the grounds of the park.

Garry and the flying cow

Odessa is known as the city of humour- they have a big celebration on April Fools Day. Here is Garry with a cow we found in front of a restaurant along the cobbled pedestrian street I mentioned. We also found some famous bronze statues in a park that had lines of people waiting to take photos with them, so of course we all had to try it too.

the opera house

The riverview boulevard

We walked on down to the history museum, Tanya consulted the students and they voted against going inside so we headed past the buildings, passing a group of police near the statue in front of it with their really big hats (Clay - from Summer Institute- would have enjoyed that part.) Here are two familiar faces for my fellow Summer Institute teachers- Vika (Victoria) and Sofia, in front of a lovely flower bed. There are two more girls if you look in the other photos. The flowers still looked good, but all the fountains have been turned off and mothballed for the winter already. We then headed for the famous Potemkin Stairs as seen in movies, (I am told a baby carriage goes down them in some movie) halfway down the boulevard. Most interesting- from the top looking down, you don't see the steps, only the landings, but going down and looking up all steps, no landings. Then we continued our walk as far as you can see in the photo- past the Odessa Hotel on the pier.

The Potemkin stairs

The wharf

We walked all the way to the end of the pier, checked out the ships, the exhibit of the anchors recovered from the Black Sea and the statue of the family waving goodbye to the sailor. There was a banana boat getting unloaded with a crane by the Chiquita warehouse, it was noon when we were there and the temperature was 7 degrees C, I had to open my jacket, since it was getting warmer (I had layered with a wool sweater).

Jumping up and down

Here is Garry and the whole group jumping up and down on the mother-in-law bridge, which has wedding locks on the rails like the bridge in Dnepro (although there is no water in Odessa to throw the key in) apparently wishes made under the bridge are supposed to come true. Why are they jumping- because the walking bridge is supposed to start moving if you do- and believe me- the photographer it starts waving on the first jump- they jumped up and down several times, and it really waved- check out the boy in the hat watching them.

A skinny house on a skinny street

This house was mostly destroyed during WWII and the story goes, only the front was standing, so they rebuilt but ran out of money, so this is how much they built- it's called the skinniest house (it's sort of triangle-shaped back there.) You can see people live in it, with an air conditioner up there. Check out how the cars are parked along this street- it made the sidewalks rather skinny, but cars could get through with cars parked this way on both sides of the street.

Catherine and friends

Here's Tanya and all the gang in front of the Catherine the Great Statue, just below her, are her famous nobles, and in front of them on the steps are Tanya, the group of girls, and two guys who came with us to Odessa. This monument is a recreation of the original, which stood on the same spot and was destroyed in 1920.

Partisan catacomb tour/museum

We ate lunch at a Puzata Hata on the sixth floor of a downtown mall- we took the elevator up and I was ready to both eat and sit down for a while- it was at least two o’clock. Then we started out walking, and took two different marshuska buses to get to the catacomb tour. It is a museum/tour of the old mine tunnels where the underground partisans hid from and harassed the Nazis during the occupation of Odessa during WWII. It opened in 1969, they raised the height of the tunnels in the second level to make it most is recreated, and few things are original to WWII. The tunnels were formed when rock was mined for the building of the city, there are three levels to the mining, the hardest rock came from the third level, which is now flooded. The saws on the wall were what the miners cut the rock with when it was mined.
At one time you could get all the way into Odessa in the tunnels, but it is sealed off because of cave-ins. It was very interesting, you could see how they lived underground, there were 69 people in this cell, which disbanded after the leader and two others were betrayed and executed. Tanya translated what the lady guide said for Garry and I. Fidel Castro once came to Odessa just to take the tour when visiting the Soviet Union. Dusk was falling as we got a marshuska back into the city.

The end of the day

Since the overnight train was leaving at 10:20, we had something to eat, and headed out and saw some of the same sites again in the dark, the red-lit building is the museum, and the trees down on the river walk are wound with lights, it was beautiful. Garry found a guy with a telescope at the top of the Potemkin steps and checked out the planet (thank goodness we didn’t go down them again- my legs were killing me!) I took a photo of the gang at the top of the stairs.
We headed back to the train station by way of the Catherine statue, some guy dressed as a clown was blowing giant bubbles across the street there we checked it out along the way. I slept really well until 2:30 in the morning, took another Advil for my aching legs (and sore throat- more smoke creeping in the car) and got back to sleep until 7:20. It was a great trip and we'd definitely do it again!

Overnight train to Odessa

2011-10-28T19:46:00.006+03:00

Wednesday evening we drove to Dnepropetroesk around 7 pm. It was already dark, and Garry had to slow down as we approached a what's that in the dark on the highway, a few blinkers flashing ahead turned out to be an accident that had the left and part of the right lane blocked, squeeze right, and hope we don't hit something you can't see. There was a guy waving traffic around the car, barely visable ten feet from it. Always be ready to react when driving here, especially at night.

Since the overnight train to Odessa didn't leave until after ten, we went 10 pin bowling to kill time. Garry killed me in all four games, and afterwards I complained that my legs were going to be sore before we even spent all Thursday on a walking tour of Odessa!

After parking the Lada on the street in front of the big Lenin statue at the train station- the lot was only for parking by the hour, according to the attendant- 6 grivna for an hour. Garry and I got a snack, sharma (Garry's favorite street food), and a bottle of Pepsi while we were waiting. We met our friend Tanya and some of her older English students in front of the Voxall (you can see it in blue letters on top of the building in the photo BOK3AL ) and boarded the train- we were all in the same coupe or car, but in different sections of the car.

There are two bunks on the aisle fitted across the window, and two sets of bunks to complete the square on the other side of the aisle with the window and a little table between the bunks on the two bunk side they can fold the bottom bunk to make two seats with a table between if they aren't sleeping). The bunks are more Teresa-sized than Garry-sized; if he doesn't curl up, his feet are halfway across the aisle. Around 11 pm we made up our bunks- Garry and I had bottom ones, you get a thin mattress to roll out on the padded seat, a pillow and inside a plastic package- a set of sheets and pillow case with a little towel that's made from a dish towel material. There are wool blankets to use, but Garry and I didn't bother the first night, the train was rather warm and stuffy.

When Garry pulled my mattress off the top shelf, a pack with three cigarettes fell down with it, someone must have left their cheap smokes behind on the last trip. They are Kozak brand, so i assume that they are Ukrainian, there is a warning- Garry asked one of the boys to translate it, and he said it says don't let your children smoke.

The bunk is a little thin on padding (for middle aged North Americans) so I woke up a few times with a sore hip, and changed positions. I actually slept through many of the stops and starts as the train clacked it's way down the track, unlike other times we have taken the overnight train. My biggest complaint was the amount of secondhand smoke sneaking in with the smokers after they went out the back of the car to indulge, even Garry noticed it. In the middle of the night my eyes were watering, and my throat was sore.

I was sitting up awake by 6:20 in the morning, Garry slept until 7:30; Tanya in the bunk over me, slept until we woke her up at 20 minutes before nine, since we were supposed to get to Odessa shortly after nine. I had packed some homemade bagels for us since Tanya had said we should eat breakfast before getting off the train. Tanya had a pastry in her bag and got a cup of tea (she and Garry bought tea the night before also- they sell it for 3 grivna) and then checked out the information she had printed off the internet to organize our day.

Since I am having problems loading photos, I'll finish the story of our tour of Odessa next time!

Driving around

2011-10-25T14:19:00.007+03:00

This morning Garry wanted to go fill the liquid nitrogen tank that the semen is kept in for breeding the cows. The level was getting really low- he had noticed it when he lifted it to put in the car last night to go breed a cow for someone. Since he is still not 100% I drove on the way there and he drove back home.

You won't believe this, but I met three horses pulling wagons while I was driving today- one here in Nikolipoli, one just out at the highway (with an old couple riding on the edge of the highway) and the third in a little village we passed though, that one had a draft horse pulling a load. I got to drive to Salonie first, because Garry needed to drop some money off at the mill, for the combining and the processing and delivery of the compicorn. Then we headed cross country toward the Kiev- Kirvoy Rog highway. The narrow paved road wove through one village after another, lots of curves and occasionally we had to choose which was the main road to take at the fork in the road!

I had to watch out for people walking and bicycling along the road, really wide trucks coming the other way (saw a few meet each other- interesting.) Since we were driving through the villages, we could see houses where they were selling milk- they put a jar on a stool outside their gate with a white piece of paper in it. We also saw a number of houses with squashes sitting by the gate for sale, and one with a bucket of shelled ear corn- if you want to buy you stop and yell at the gate until someone come out to sell you their product.

I wished I had the camera handy when we passed two babushkas pushing bicycles up the street toward us, they had two large plastic burlap-type bags tied on both the front and back of the bikes. No idea what they were carrying in the bags, or how heavy the load was, but using a bicycle to transport stuff this way is common. People will ride a bike to the school or the market and come back pushing what they bought. They were dressed really colorfully, also, one had an orange print scarf on her head, and the others was bright purple.

Eventually, we got to the highway and Garry guessed left to find the old bull stud where he buys the liquid nitrogen. After I had driven that way a while- by the the way that highway has more potholes and is rougher than the road through the villages- he checked for the GPS in the glove compartment, no luck, but then he checked the map book. We passed a town sign, and he had me make a u-turn over the grass meridian. Too bad he had never tried going that way before, so he didn't know where we came out on the highway.

We got to the place, driving past some half-finished abandoned houses, and the old sheds where the bulls were housed (you can see a few cows there now.) Victor tells us this was one of the most profitable collectives in Ukraine, but now it's nearly empty. First Garry went into one building to pay for the liquid nitrogen, then I drove a little further down the tree-lined laneway to a large building.

I helped Garry carry the big tank inside (it was pretty light on the way in) and he called out to find the lady who works there. She was on the phone, but then came into the hall, checked out Garry's paperwork and led us into a really big room, full of really large tanks of liquid nitrogen (remember this is really cold- it has one of the lowest freezing temps) where we watched while she put a funnel in the top of our tank, and opened up the closest big tank by unscrewing a cap more than a foot wide. She put on a big pair of gloves, took a regular galvanized pail and dipped it in the tank and poured it into our tank several times until the liguid nitrogen poured over the top and bounced around on the cement around it, frozen fog moving around her. Garry says everytime he has come there it is always just her working in that building, at one time it must have been where they processed the semen for freezing at the bull stud.

Then we carried the tank (much heavier than when it went inside, but much lighter than the cans of milk) out and put it in the back of the Lada. I asked if Garry wanted to drive, and we returned through Dnepropetroesk. We checked out how the construction is going on that highway - it's the other half of the construction on our highway this summer. Looks like it won't be done until next summer.

Last night it got below freezing, we have now had a good hard frost, and the leaves fell off the walnut trees in one day. Maxim got out his new insulated coveralls to wear this morning for chores, and the babushkas are adding extra layers under their skirts, pants and stockings with winter boots for walking to the store. Everyone is dressed warmly, lots of coats, hats and gloves out there today, although a few brave souls and Canadians are wearing sweatshirts!

lost and found

2011-10-24T20:02:00.006+03:00

This morning Garry was still feeling sick with his cold. Maxim was feeling better- he had gone to the aptenka (drug store) and and bought a bag of cold and cough curing medicines last night. Garry decided to try some of Max's medicines since Max was feeling so good. I got out a bottle of cough medicine from Canada, but he hasn't tried any of that yet.

Garry also took a nap this morning, and then again in the afternoon. He says he doesn't feel that bad, just gets tired easily. He sandwiched in some work outside before lunchtime, and went outside after the village herd came home when Maxim popped his head in with a question. It turned out that Garry confirmed Max's idea- one of the heifers had calved this afternoon in the field, and no one had noticed. Maxim went out to the field and amazingly - actually found the calf- it is a little black and white bull calf as you can see in the photo. The heifer has not bagged up much (very small udder) which is why no one thought she would calve for a few weeks. Strangely enough, this is the heifer I chased down the street and dragged home on that Saturday evening in July.

See post from July 17,2011 It sounded so easy... for all the details

Right after Maxim brought the calf home, someone came to get a cow bred. Maxim had bred one earlier in the day, but Garry went off in an older blue Lada to breed this cow, he, and the driver were loading the semen tank in the back of the car when I snapped this photo. Apparently Garry bred the man's neighbor's cow and she got pregnant, so he wanted his cow bred artificially also. Garry said this one was a pretty old cow. He gets lots of cows to breed because of neighbors' recommendations.

Victor was out to the farm today, after lunch (I fed everyone Chinese- it wasn't as good as what we had on Saturday) he worked on getting the light fixture up and working in the entryway, among other things. Here in this photo you can see Needles, who is not limping like he was last week, going out into the entryway. He has the new door all figured out and uses it to come in and out of the house (on the days he sneaks out- I am still trying to keep him in.) You can also see Polo in the doorway of the house. For some unknown reason the dog will follow us into the entry way, but you can't entice him up the step into the house- he has no problems coming in the house through the other door.

Two nights ago I had Polo in the house, because he and Mint were barking like crazy around 11 pm. When I let him back out, they were back at it, and again last night.

For more on barking dogs and other noisy things go back to Sept 17 2009 Top Ten Noisy Things in a Ukrainian Village

Inside, outside,

2011-10-23T16:26:00.008+03:00

Inside

As I said last week Garry insulated the inside of his entryway, he hopes to get the walls covered with genuine Canadian chipboard this week. Of course that depends on how he is feeling, since he is still coughing a lot, and didn't sleep well last night- at three in the morning he took some medicine and watched the World Series game since he couldn't sleep. I drove the milk into Dnepro with Garry in the passenger seat of the Lada, so we could bring the milk to Victor's church. Unfortunately, Maxim is feeling sick today also, and I think I am catching it.
I certainly hope we are all feeling better by Wednesday- Garry and I are supposed to take the overnight train to Odessa with one of Tanya's English classes, and after a full day of touring the city, we return on the overnight train, getting back to Dnepro around 9 am. Then taking nap after we drive home (at least that's my plan.)

Outside

The bricklayer finished the outside of the entryway last night, and as you can see, using the old Mennonite bricks made it look like it belongs on the house. He did a nice job around the window and door, you can see there are not many leftover bricks in the photos- Garry plans to clean up the mess around the porch on Monday.

more outside

This is the canola field across the highway (here they plant it in the fall, unlike in Canada where it is planted in the spring) next to the corn field we had this summer. That is the one field we have plowed up for next year, Garry is waiting for two more weeks in hopes of getting some rain. The tractor will use less fuel if the ground is not so dry. Some farmers have been plowing this week, though.

There are a number of fields that are in winter wheat along the highway to the city, the really nice ones look like emerald green lawns - some are a little thinner and not so green.

While our crops are all harvested, there are some cornfields between Dnepropetroesk and Zaporosia that are still waiting to be combined. I think all the sunflowers are combined now, there was one or two fields still standing two weeks ago. There is a soybean field that isn't harvested along the highway too, you don't see a lot of soys being grown here.

Compicorn

2011-10-22T21:07:00.002+03:00

Compicorn is ground grain to feed the cows. Right now with so many stale (opposite of fresh- so a cow who has not calved recently- and not giving much milk) and dry cows, we are not feeding very much, as cows who don't give much milk can get all their nutrition needs from the corn silage and brewers' grain.

Early this week there was a call from where our corn is being stored, they thought our corn was too wet and heating up. This is bad, it means that there can be mold and spoilage of the corn. They did not have a loader tractor working to move the corn around to mix it and help in dry. In Canada if your corn is wet, you would dry it by blowing air through it, but there do not seem to be those facilities here in Ukraine. They harvest grain as dry as possible, and then spread it around inside a building on a cement floor, and move it around to dry it as needed. Max drove there on Wednesday with the Boricks (it is the name of the loader on our Belarus tractor) and moved the corn around for them.

Anyway, they decided to grind some of this corn right away, and Friday morning Victor called to say that the mill would be delivering some to us. Garry said fine, we had room in the bin in the upper floor of the barn (he built it about a year ago if you want to look back in the blog.) It didn't arrive in the morning, or in the afternoon while Garry was sleeping (seems like all that sleep helped, he's feeling much better today)--- it arrived after dark, when the pizza I made was going in the oven of course. Maxim was outside since the bricklayer had worked until dark, and he came in to get Garry. They told me it's like a four man job to get the truck to blow the feed into the bin- the truck driver made three, I think. The pizza was staying hot in the oven when they got back in the house.

Garry was a little disappointed because it looked like the load of feed was straight ground corn- ground corn likes to stick together, it didn't come out of the truck easily and it will bridge up and not fall easily down the chute from the bin when they feed it to the cows. It turnes out that our stored wheat was behind a pile of sunflower seed that was waiting to be crushed (most sunflowers here get turned into oil) so they used some millet they had handy to add to it instead. They also add some salt and ground limestone to the mix, to meet some of the mineral needs of the cows. Garry gives the fresh cows injections of vitamins because they are not readily availiable as feed additives.

This morning they fed some, Garry says it is more yellow than the previous wheat compicorn but it does not seem to be heating up anyway. As I said, Garry was feeling better today, but he is still coughing.

This afternoon we went to Dnepro to visit with an English teacher's students. She gives lessons in a back room at a movie theater, and for group meetings we meet in the lobby of the theatre (it was a little noisy since Real Steel was playing in the background!) Garry noticed at the refreshment stand that a bottle of beer is cheaper than a small popcorn, 7 grivna for the beer, 10 for small popcorn- large is fifty- more than the movie ticket!

We picked up groceries on the way home, and got back to the village as the last cows got home at the far end of the herd's homes- right past the bar- they walk through the yard there. We stopped to talk to John Weins, his crew was just finishing cleanup for the day at the village property they want to turn into a trade school next year, if all goes well. He mentioned that he had heard that there was a chinese restaurant in Zaporosia now. Garry was excited, he really misses eating chinese- there are sushi restaurants everywhere in Ukraine, but we have never found a real Chinese restaurant.

When we got back to house, we started to unload the car, but discovered a problem- Maxim had locked the door on the driveway side of the house. Garry went around to go in the new entryway, since it is usually unlocked when Maxim' s closeby- he had taken the load of trees and junk that the boys and John had cleanup to the dump since it was in our precept (wagon.) Garry couldn't get in the door- the bricklayer was finishing over the door, and standing on boards there. Max arrived back with the tractor- not only was my key inside - so was Max's. We couldn't get in for at least a half hour. I had unpacked some of the groceries. Garry decided to put the cat food back in the car (leaving the kitty litter and bottled drinks outside) and go find the Chinese restaurant.

We know it was near Mc Donalds and after walking around a bit we found it. Our Russian was not up to this menu- it was in script instead of printing, so we ended up with Garry asking the waitress what was spicy/hot. She picked #25 and #29 and we ordered ordered- we hoped- plain rice. We drank green tea while we waited, and then she brought us each a little plate with an upside-down bowl of rice molded on it- at least two cups each- and one plate of really hot spicy, my-lips-are-burning delicious stuff. When we finished that dish number two arrived- also beef, maybe sesame beef, we almost finished that one, asked for the check, asked which dish was which (we are defintely getting the super spicy taste treat- #25 next time) paid the bill, talked about asking for a container for the rest, and then started picking at it and ate the rest between us.

We drove home, unloaded the rest of the groceries, I assume Max brought the drinks in, or Mint made a huge mess somewhere and we didn't see it when we drove in. Mint is still a chewer of things. Polo is better behaved, by far. And the entryway is all bricked outside - I'll get a photo on Sunday, I hope.

Power's back on!

2011-10-21T14:51:00.009+03:00

After the heifers came back with the village herd yesterday (it happens around 4:30 nowadays) Garry and Maxim went to look at a heifer to buy. Garry said it was past the valley we went to earlier in the week, in a village near the river. He told me that they got to a really nice, wide part of the road and asked the person who was guiding them to the place why it was so much better than the rest of the road. He told them it was because there was a rich man's daughter who got married nearby (there is some kind of resort with datshas (cottages/summer homes)you can see from the village) and they had the road widened so planes could land there with the wedding guests.

Anyway, it was a nice red and white Holstein-looking heifer, and about five months pregnant so Garry decided to buy her for 8000 grivna. There is a cow in the herd who can't get pregnant and she is giving very little milk now. So if we sell her for meat, the new heifer will not end up costing too much more than we get for the old cow. Garry had been using the old cow to teach Maxim to artificially breed cows for the last couple months. Max is getting pretty good at the simple ones, the plan is that he will be able to breed cows while we are home in Canada in December.

So this morning the power went out around 9:30 am, Maxim was already off to pick up the heifer with the marshuchka driver (the same one that transported Zera in his van last year) since this heifer was 30 km away, Max wasn't going to walk her home. It turns out that there was a smaller open (not pregnant) heifer that Garry told him to buy if she wasn't too expensive, and when they got back around 11:30 there were two in the van.

The driver came out holding his nose saying corova (cow) when he got backed up to the barn door. There was a good deal of manure in his vehicle, but they washed it out after unloading the heifers. Maxim had no trouble getting the small heifer out the back door, and into a pen with some of a similar size (she looks 8 or 9 months old.) The red and white one was more trouble, she ended up coming out the side door, but rolled to feet unharmed, I think she did not appreciate her marshuchka ride. She has the end pen to herself until 4:30.

Yana came out to welcome the new heifers when the van arrived, she must have been napping since she was in her robe. I ran out with the camera, its not often we have cows come by van!

Garry missed the unloading, he is feeling worse with his cold. He did go out to check on the generator so it could be turned on for milking, I even had some power to the house for 20 minutes first, so I could fry up some leftover potatoes and eggs for lunch. After eating, Garry decided to go to bed. I even got him to take some cold/cough pills, since he was coughing this morning (Garry thinks you should just let it run its course, so he must feel bad.)

Since it is warmer and dry today, I decided to plant my tulip and daffodil bulbs I bought last week (Barbie outfit #4 is almost finished anyway.) We really haven't got much rain yet, the ground was damp for about two inches, then the dirt was really dry in my holes I was digging.

I couldn't find the not-that-bad shovel I used to plant the rose bushes last week (I'd really like to know where the nice one I bought last year went), so I ended up digging with the bent-handled trowel. Occasionally I had to stop and straighten it out a little when I hit a really hard piece of ground, and it got a more than 45 degree angle to it.

Polo attempted to be helpful, climbing on my lap, crawling under my armpit while I was digging and licking my face. However, I did get them all planted. These bulbs are going further up the drive from the ones I planted the first fall we were here (about where Polo is sitting in the photo). Right now it looks pretty sad with a couple 4-inch high marigolds with one flower blooming that stayed alive in the dry season, and some yellow mums blooming in the background, yellow and brown leaves and apricot pits scattered all over the place, but it should look nice in the spring.

When I came back in Maxim was finishing up his rather cold potoatoes and eggs with hot sauce (Max is one of the few Ukrainians we know that likes spicy food- lucky for all of us) as he had found a few minutes to come inside. The bricklayer is back today and has needed a hand, plus Max had the butcher in to look at the cow we are selling for meat.

The electricity was restored to the village around 2:30. Max turned off the generator after he ate and we went back on the grid, and I worked on the this post - i was about to give up when the first photo loaded on the 6th try and then I did to more quick. Garry is still sleeping, hopefully he feels better in the morning, since we are supposed to talk to a group of English students in the city. The sun has even come from behind the clouds, everything is looking up.

the heat is on!

2011-10-20T10:40:00.003+03:00

As dusk was falling yesterday, we were doing a brisk business in brewers grain, there were two boys with a bicycle getting a feed bag full, and a motorcycle with trailer getting his little trailer full, he had a little trouble getting the engine going when he left, but eventually he got out the driveway. Garry said the horse and wagon were the first ones in Wednesday around 4 pm.

Wednesday evening around 6 pm we were headed into Dnepropetroesk on the highway, with the problem heat (water line) pump, my laptop, and a few things to do. Garry had been under the weather all day, (he has a cold) but decided we could go in and get the insulation for the porch/entryway he started building back in the middle of June.

Wednesday morning the man came to start bricking up the outside of the project. We are using old Mennonite bricks to cover it to keep up the character of the old Mennonite house we live in. He works as a bricklayer in Dnepro, I think. He got about half way up the walls, when he returns he will need some kind of scaffolding to finish. It is not costing anything, since he traded Maxim for some welding Max did for his heat system. It looks like Garry and Victor need to find 100 more bricks, though.

Now that the bricks are going on, Garry wanted to start finishing the inside of the room. He is going to insulate the walls and put chipboard on the inside. He said he could paint it whilte like he did in the milkhouse while we were buying the insulation at Nova Lenya . I said "white?" and he laughed and suggested brown - to hide more dirt.

When we got to the store, Garry got a handcart before coming in, I was waiting halfway across the entryway, looking at a Comfy (electonics store)ad a helpful girl had handed me while Garry was at the cash machine in the corner, getting some grivna out, with his cart pulled right up behind him. Suddenly I noticed a man pushing Garry's cart toward me, one-handed. I said Isvaneatcha (excuse me) and grabbed the other handle. Luckily Garry came toward us and told him it was his, since I had run out of Russian and so he went off to find his own outside.

After buying the insulation and a sharp new utility knife to cut it, we drove over to Dafi and had a bite to eat while I uploaded some blog photos amd Garry met Victor to pay for our internet in the village- it had quit working sometime before Wednesday morning so we were unable to connect, sadly we can't figure out how to track usage with our new service. Garry had been wanting Victor to show him how to
put money on with the machine at the mall and now he knows how to do it himself. We grabbed some Mc Donald's drive-thru for a snack on the way home.

This morning Garry tried taking the pump off the electric system (it's the backup in case Russia turns off the gas to Ukraine) since Victor had told him they were exactly the same. After cleaning out a filter we have water going around the entire system, the house is heating up nicely!

Today is more cloudy and cool (6 C this morning) than wet, and Garry is working on the inside of his entryway, putting up the insulation, so they will have a nice place to leave all their barn boots and coats. Polo will come into the entrance but won't step through the second door into the house for some reason. I think he'll figure it out before winter.

I admit I may have a crochet addiction, I have been making a lot of stuff for the girls for Christmas, here are the owls and the play sushi I have been making, I have switched to Barbie clothes now.

Jonah's cat seems to have a lingering injury from when he got hurt 10 days ago, he limps on three legs and his front shoulder is swollen, like something is broken. Needles seems happier about staying indoors with the cool wet weather anyway. He still moves really fast when he thinks there is something good to eat, and can jump up on the furniture.

yesterday

2011-10-19T18:59:00.006+03:00

Here's Garry trying to fix the heat yesterday, sometimes he stands on the stool on top of a chair to get higher up. Maybe Thursday we will have the problem fixed.

In yesterday's blog post I mentioned all the activity under the shed yesterday since it was raining (by the way cool and drizzly prevailed today over partly cloudy.) So here they are, I think someone's trailer got working lights installed. Not sure why Andrei was not in school. That's him under the chopper hood in the photo. Garry told him in America they arrest kids who don't go to school. Max said he only went half the time his last year and he still got his certificate.

So in the afternoon we drove out of the village around two, and passed these guys while dodging puddles- everyone is wearing winter coats already. Garry told me he wanted to drive me to a little valley where he went to bred a cow last Friday evening.

As you can see the trees were all decked out for fall, even in the rain. I had told Garry a couple weeks ago I missed seeing red and orange trees, since everything here seems to turn yellow. Garry says the burnt off grass between the road and trees was not there a couple days ago. But Ukrainians love to burn things, including the grass, to clean up.

We even saw the village herd out grazing in the valley, Garry could not believe it had so many cows in it, because there are only a few houses here, compared to Nikolipolia.

We had driven from the highway though the village of Federicka to get to the valley, and on the way back we stopped by the graveyard. There is a monument on the edge of the Ukrainian cemetery, commemorating the massacre of Mennonites that took place in this villge in 1819, I believe. The stone is in Russian and German.

The old Mennonite-built grain storage is still in use in the village. Garry said that was where he got his cornseed in June.

As we drove out through the village there were some really big puddles, just like this road out to the valley, shich could use a tree trim. We passed a bright orange classic Lada with the hood up just past one (did you know that on an old Lada the hood opens up next to the window and is up at the front of the car?)apparently too much water. They got it going pretty quickly because it was almost to the highway when we got there after stopping at the cemetery.

Rather cold and rainy

2011-10-19T01:07:00.004+03:00

This morning I got up late, to what felt like a cold wet day outside, and rather cold inside, as Garry is still trying to get the heat working correctly in the house. You would think that putting a new gas furnace in last week would mean we could turn the heat on and be warm, but not exactly.

Garry and Maxim started the furnace running on Saturday and Max's room and the green bedroom are warm. The other half of the house- the living room/kitchen area, bathroom, and our bedroom, has no hot water going through the radiators. Garry had taken apart the little heat pump that is supposed to push the water through the system, and opened rads to let out air. Today he let buckets of water out of the system, and had the door open for a while so he could use the hose to replace it, but finally gave up, once again the squeally little pump has been turned off. The first thing I noticed when they turned the pump on was it was way noisier than last year. Ticking clocks and dripping taps irk me when I'm trying to fall aleep, so squealing noises, no way (even when I I'm awake). I think Garry has decided that the pump can't push the water around anymore. Maybe it will get fixed tomorrow.

This morning I tried to log into facebook, and got really annoyed when it wouldn't work. No, the cap lock, wasn't on, and no I have not forgot my password! I can't have typed it wrong ten times....maybe I'll have to reset the password...wait the keyboard was set to type in Russian! Maxim had been on the computer last. Our keyboard is not set up with cyrillic characters, he must touch type!

Well, I see the internet doens't want to load photos again, so I'll save the pics from our drive this afternoon for another day.

This morning Garry and Max went out to the highway to wait for a marshuka that Victor had sent some parts for the clutch out on. Garry says they were waiting there by the highway for 10-15 minutes. While they were there, a man came out on a bicycle (veloceped)and waited in the rain for a few minutes. A lady (his wife, we will assume- they were both middle-aged) got off a marshuka, changed her shoes, put on rubber boots climbed on the back of the bike with her very large bag, and he pedalled back to the village.

The marshuka they were waiting for came, and they gave one of Max's friends a ride back to the village. Maxim worked on the tractor clutch under the machinery shed Garry built last fall, and a couple of neighbors also came over and worked on fixing their stuff out of the rain. Garry went out and took a picture with the camera before we had lunch, but I can't get it to load, of course.

Surprisingly, the cows were not home from the field early, with such a cold rainy day. It is supposed to be nice Wednesday, maybe I'll plant my bulbs.

This morning Garry got the cows re-arranged in the barn, they are not all under their names anymore, so all eight dry cows can be in a row and are getting a new diet with straw mixed with the corn silage (and no brewers grain) so they don't get too fat. If they stayed next to the milking cows they would just reach over and steal the better stuff. They are all in good shape already, and some will be dry more than the normal six weeks. Cows that are too fat are more likely to have problems durning and after calving.

Don't worry they are still the best fed cows around, the milking cows in the village eat mostly straw all winter, everyone was shocked that Garry was using it under the cows for them to lay on last year.

Sunday, Monday

2011-10-17T21:36:00.006+03:00

Saturday I was wishing I was in Manitoba for our granddaughter Xaris' fifth birthday, Garry and I did phone and talk to her in the evening- mid-morning there, she was anxiously waiting for the party guests (her Aunts and Uncles mostly) to arrive. Less than seven weeks until we fly home for Christmastime.

Sunday we headed to church after dropping off the milk at Victor's church. It was Morningstar Church's 17th birthday celebration, and there was a full day of activities planned. After the service, which had more singing and presentations than normal and ended with a photo montage of highlights of the year, including weddings and baby dedications, there was a luncheon to share. We left around 3 pm, before the end of the program, since Maxim's church in Zaporosia has switched from meeting on Saturday to two Sunday services, since the church was too full, one service at 10 am and the second at 5 pm, that Max was attending.

I made some stir fry and we watched a live feed of the Eagles game over the internet, it varied in quality, and got really slow at the end of the game, but the Eagles held on for the win, much to Garry's relief.

Early Monday morning the ladies tested the cows (Yana and her friend are milking fight now, her mother is on vacation). The Ukrainian-Canadian Dairy Commission is trying to organize a milk testing service here, and Garry noticed the boxes in the office when he was there once. So the ladies kept track of how much milk the cows each gave for the last two milkings on Sunday plus this morning. This morning they also filled a small sample bottle of milk for each cow, so it can be tested for fat and protein. They wrote each cow's name and milk amount on each bottle with a permanent marker.

Maxim drove Serosia's wife and baby Bogdan to the hospital in Zaporosia this morning, so Serosia could work on fixing his tractor. The little guy has had to go in every third day for about two weeks now. Maxim said they drained 5 cc of pus out of his side and washed it out again. It seems the baby (he is about six months old)was one of about a hundred babies that got a bad batch of vaccine, they tell us, but today the doctor said that now he can come in just once a week for treatment.

While Max was gone, Garry tried to match his cow list with the names on the bottles so he could make a list to go in the box. Months ago, someone made Garry a list of cow names in Russian of the milk cows in the herd. Soon Garry had a number of bottles set next to him on the couch with names on them that were not on his list. When Maxim got back around eleven, those cows turned out to be the heifers that calved this summer. Then they went out to the barn to get all the dates that the cows calved on written down on the list, along with breeding dates so that the cows next calving could be estimated. There were five cows with no breeding dates written down, but Garry preg-checked them to see what was going on. Garry and Max came in for lunch all smiles, as all five are pregnant.

Zera and several other cows were declared dry since they are giving only a few liters of milk. We now have 8 dry cows. The most milk- 24 liters- belongs to a cow that calved in January then two had 20 liters- a cow fresh in May and the white heifer that calved in June (the one that liked to jump fences) Lada- fresh August, and Romasha- fresh July had 19 liters, and a few more cows had 14-18 liters, and few more were around 5 liters, but they are getting close to the end of their lactations. There are a few sample bottles full of orange milk sitting on the coffee table, since the ladies filled bottles for all the cows, squeezing some out of the dry cows too, but we don't need samples for dry cows. They are orange because, just like in Canada' each bottle has a small pill inside that preserves the milk until testing. After lunch Garry and I went into Dnepropetroesk and dropped the box of bottles off at the office of the Ukrainian-Canadian Dairy Commission office. The guy said he was taking them to the lab in Kharcov Tuesday.

Then we went bowling to kill time until we were supposed to visit an English class. I bowled well, but Garry bowled better. The girls next to us had never bowled before, they bounced a lot of balls into the gutter. Sadly I hooked a couple there too. Luckily, more spares and a couple strikes though. Garry had a game with mostly spares and strikes, impressive, almost another game over 200. My best was 142.

We answered questions from the first class one on one, most had not spoken to a native speaker before. How many children do you have? always makes them look amazed at the answer of eight. Lots of questions about hobbies and pets, also. Then we listened to presentations about Dnepropetroesk- lots of information about the bridges, churches, and famous people, we even found out that there is a monument we have not seen yet. Then we answered questions from one more class, this class was mostly girls, I asked the one boy how he liked being the only guy, but it seemed he was promoted from a class with two males in, so he was used to it. On October 27th we are going to go on a trip to Odessa by train with another English class, it should be interesting.

We drove back to the village in the dark with a cake from the English teacher, after a stop at Metro since they need more paper towels in the barn for milking, the ladies wipe the cows' udders dry after washing them before milking. It was quite cool coming home, 5 degrees and windy this evening, I can wear the sweater I finished crocheting this spring finally.

Downtown

2011-10-15T11:40:00.001+03:00

A drive into downtown Dnepropetroesk is always interesting, when the boys were here we drove to the dentist office at least once a month to get their braces adjusted. Seth and Jonah both got retainers in June before returning to Canada. We aren't sure how we are getting the bottom permanently attached ones off now that they didn't come back to Ukraine! Their teeth and jaws really look good though.

This is the street the dentist office was off of...you can see the parking patterns are always interesting--- a combination of angled (which sometimes extends into the sidewalk) parallel-style (not that anyone actually parallel parks, it's more pull up along the sidewalk style, or park straight behind the angle parked style) If there isn't a sign forbidding parking, then parking is obviously allowed, so you see lots of cars parked entirely on sidewalks, and in the walking space by the trolley tracks downtown. I think that's one of the reasons for the popularity of SUVs. Of course if you have a really expensive car you can park anywhere you want, just like you can fly past everyone at the red light in the lane for opposing traffic, if everyone doesn't get out of your way when you flash your lights behind them!

of course the most popular way to move around downtown is by foot, although you can catch a marshushka (the small vans that run specific routes) anywhere and the tram lines get you to most place on the right bank for 1.25 grivna per tram ride (the elderly ride free.)

A marshushka on the left passes an auftobus on the right on one of the cobbled streets downtown. The old cobbled streets are rather noisy when we drive up them in the Lada. There are a couple of them downtown, mostly the streets that run up and downhill.

The auftobus ride is the same price as the tram, and of course they only run the routes with the overhead lines. Sometimes you see the driver out with a stick trying to reattach the bus to the power. For some reason, men tend to drive the buses and marshushkas, but the trams are almost always driven by women. All forms of public transport tend to be crowded, standing room only during busy times of the day. It's a real challenge for me to stand up without landing in someones lap when they are turning, starting and stopping. Luckily many riders give up their seats to older people, mostly you watch for people getting up for their stop and move fast as you can.

this Mercedes is parked in the cross street- told you, more expensive car the less rules! This is in the prime shopping district on Karl Marx (most main streets in Ukraine are anmed after Lenin or Marx I think.)

I bet this is not officially licensed by the Jackson estate, there are a lot of Disney-themed things here too. This club opened downtown, and we happened to take a different street last week after bowling, and there it was! I have seen billboards for it for a few months, I had thought it must have been a tribute show, Micheal Jackson is much-beloved here. Western music is very popular, even stuff from the 70's when it was the only pop music they could listen too (no professional rock musicians were allowed in the old Soviet Union.)

Sometimes you drive past an older building and think what a cool facade, I have no idea what this building was in its earlier life, it seems almost theatre-themed, since there are classical-styled statues in the niches and a large cherub over the center balcony.

And sometimes you see a car and go...how did that get here? Garry noticed this one right away when we drove downtown for bowling last week. You see the occasional new Porshe sportcar, but American muscle cars? This is the only Ukrainian licence plate I have seen like this- it must have been special made since it's in English - the name of an internet cafe in Dnepro, I think, and it's made to fit a North-American car, instead of euro-style.

Bowling and basketball

2011-10-14T21:28:00.003+03:00

Garry was feeling better today so we headed to Dnepro this morning for a new tire for the wheelbarrow, and more foam for the porch window. Garry flipped the window around before we left because Maxim told him it was upside down...he told him I had said the same thing a couple days ago. Garry was sure the other windows in the house opened at the bottom when he installed it, but its the top- the ones in the house both swing open from the side or tip open at the top if you want less air.

Anyway, we stopped at Nova Lenja on the way into the city, Garry found his stuff while I picked out some tulips, daffodils and rose bushes to plant in the yard this week, before the fall rains arrive.

Then we headed downtown for bowling. The traffic was backed up in several place, it looked like some kind of ceremony taking place at one of the parks we drove past, lots of cars, parked, police and people, and a woman carrying a large bouquet of blue and yellow (Ukrainian colors) flowers toward a statue.

Bowling went well, once we warmed up on the first game, I was pretty competitive, even beat Garry on his bad game. No injuries to report, and we had some Mc Donalds at the mall- no line, which was strange, five minutes later it was jammed as normal in the food court. It is the most popular fast food, the Puzata Hata (it translates as big belly I've been told) cafeteria-style restaurant is always busy too.

Tonight I crocheted more doll dresses sitting on the couch with Box the cat curled up on top of me, while Garry went to play pickup basketball back in Dnepro. He left early as he was breeding a cow in a village on the way there first, and picking up the milk jugs at Victor's house so they will be ready for Sunday. He arrived home before ten, and no injuries to report, it was the first time he'd played in two weeks, since he hurt his knee playing. He went to play on Monday, but the group he plays with had changed their night at the gymnasium.

I was going to put in a bowling photo, but that upload is not going to go tonight!

good days

2011-10-14T05:34:00.000+03:00

why can't I paste? accidently in compose instead of edit Html, I see.

Woke up at 2:30 am and had to check if photos load at this hour. I had tried to upload a couple times late Thursday afternoon without success. The last few posts I had gotten one photo to load up per day, but not more, it's the internet connection's fault, I'm sure-- it stops flashing for a few seconds when the connection stops working, it restarts and the upload has failed...on the third try we got one! luck of the draw - it froze again right after loading it. Amazing second photo loaded like lightning..or high speed anyway, we'll try a third. Most photos this week, like the first one today, I uploaded on Saturday, which is why the Thanksgiving post was before Sat/Sun until I changed the date stamp on Wednesday, all the drafts have the day I uploaded the photos on...rats another upload bites the dust. Try the photo again.. in a minute... I just do them one at a time now.

Anyway, Maxim was busy spreading manure for people with Serosia for the second day in a row, since Serosia's big loader is up and running again, it broke on Sunday evening...rats; we've stopped flashing, back to upload photo again...the hydraulic pump went, I think he spent all he made the first two days fixing it!
Late Thursday afternoon, Victor was here getting milk to sell to his neighbors, his regular Thursday trip to the farm, when Maxim drove in with a full manure spreader...I may give up on loading more photos, try once more...if it's really fast it might make it... Victor was in the house so I said the manure spreader must be broken. Victor asked if that was because the spreader had broken earlier today, but I told him years of experience tells me that a full manure spreader coming into the yard means that it couldn't be emptied! They tried to find a used part around, but as darkness fell they were welding the part back on, seems it was not original to the spreader Garry told me.

I have a cute story about Serosia son, Seroshka (he's named for his Dad, it's a a nickname) On Tuesday he came over around six pm, and came in the house, he said something about kasha, decided to have more of my sugared walnuts in a baggie ( he had some the day before) and went outside. Garry decided to walk to the store to buy bread for tomato sandwiches, and when we walked outside, there was Seroshka in the brewers' grain pit (his big brother Andrei sells it for us so he's over helping sometimes.) All by himself, his head barely over the top, he was trying to shovel some out for his little push cart. Garry helped him fill it, but he insisted on pushing it home himself, one wheel wobbling as he when along the road (they live across the street, three houses down.) Seroshka pushed it down the driveway and onto the road, but I noticed that Garry snuck his hand on one handle until we got to their lane on the way to the store, since it it pretty heavy for a five-year old! The little guy then pushed it up the driveway, past the big dog on the chain to go feed the cows. Since his mom had the new baby this spring, the little guy gets the three cows in all by himself some evenings when they come home from the pasture, he's determined to be as big as his brother, who's 15!

Remember we had no electricity for a few hours yesterday (seems like once a month the power is out from 11-3 while they fix stuff) when it went out I tried phoning Garry in case it was a blown breaker, since they were putting in the new furnace, it seemed possible. The call didn't want to go through, so I walked outside to find him. I noticed our loader tractor next door, and walked over to the fence. A little old-fashioned yelling over the fence had Garry answering, he and Victor were getting some old Mennonite bricks from Misha's remont(renovation) to clad the porch. As you can see, the neighbor bought new bricks to redo his house wall, I'll have to find before and after photos sometime, it looks like a different house. Anyway, the power was out over there too, so no luck with finishing dinner.

Yesterday, shortly after the power come back on, the water for the houses stopped working. Garry said he found out the reason why it has been kicking on slow sometimes, when he found the cause ...look fifth time is the charm, another pic is up... the switch was bad. Victor was still here, so he was going to look for parts to fix it at the market before coming to get milk today. That one was quick...We're on a roll, I'll try one more...

Anyway we...light quit flashing, excuse me...where was I?... right, we had no water in the house last night. Garry brought a bucket of hot water from the barn to wash the dishes (not expecting further problems, I had not done them as soon as the electricity came back on...have I mentioned my crocheting Christmas projects, I was working on a Cabbage patch outfit while we were power-less, so I kept going.) The barn has its own well, water pump and hot water heater.

Thursday morning and Garry was feeling under the weather all day, he has aches, pains and sore spot on his neck, he thinks it's an infected tooth, or maybe a cold. I sent him back to bed after chores, when he fell asleep on the couch, although he was ready to take me bowling in Dnepro, as planned. I pointed out we looked like bums as we both needed to shower before going out, so he laughed and went to sleep for a couple hours until after noon, when some guy came to the door wanting his cow bred. When Garry got back we had leftover stew for lunch and he told me that the guy tried to sell him his cow, because the kids have moved to the city, and cows are too much work. However, what would we do with a cow who calved in the spring who isn't even pregnant yet? We have a full barn now.

One more kick at the can...let's try this last photo upload again So after lunch Garry went out to work on the water pump switch, Victor arrived, and they ended up fixing it with stuff that was here on the farm...I wonder if the duct tape ever came back in the house...

Later in the afternoon, Yana, the milker lady arrived back from her vacation, Victor went to pick her up with the car from the highway I think, she must have come by marshuka and she brought a friend Garry told me. I only noticed Yana and family getting out of the car when I asked Victor where Garry was, since I needed to ask how he had turned off the hot water heater in the morning, because I was trying to wash the dishes. Turns out he was forking corn silage into the bucket of the loader tractor (too much dirt in the feed if they scoop it up with the loader.)

As I walked out to where Garry was, I heard some peeping and thought - look the quail cage is outside today... boy, they sound like the baby ducks, a couple of the male ducks are hanging around like they are on guard duty...wait there are three ducklings in the wooden box - turns out the ladies put the last three in the summer kitchen!

one last try at that last photo...its had at least six tries and I'm done proofreading... blogger thinks I write in Ukrainian or Russian so every word comes up as needing spellcheck when I blog in Ukraine...works fine in Canada. Its still trying to get the photo of the loader bucket full of bricks next door to go with the one where Victor is pushing the wheelbarrow full out to the front of the neighbor's yard. Five minutes and I'm going back to bed... good grief its almost 5:30... still dark outside ...I give up...and it quit the upload anyway...

fresh paint and furnaces

2011-10-12T21:01:00.000+03:00

We have been getting ready for the winter season, last month Garry had young Andrei paint the calf hutches he built. Since they are made of chipboard (real Canadian stuff the guy at the lumber yard was proud to point out) he thought two coats of enamel paint will hopefully help protect it from the weather. We have not found any truly washable latex paint here, the stuff we used in the house is either not washable- more pigment than dirt comes off when you wipe it, or you can wash it but the dirt doesn't all come off. We repainted the doors on the bedroom with stinky enamel paint this year, at least you can wash the dirt off.

Apparently the gas company people complained that our line is not painted yellow, like all good gaslines (most villages, like ours, have the lines above ground). Any way Yana stood on a ladder leaning on the line (just over the clothesline) a couple evenings and painted it yellow, from the road to the summer kitchen. Garry took a picture last week of her mother Genia up on the ladder painting the outside of the summer kitchen. I believe that they have done some painting inside also, we bought the paint. The summer kitchen looks really white now that they are done.

This morning Victor was here early (before nine) along with the man to install the new furnace. That's the new furnace standing in the doorway of the summer kitchen while they were taking the old one out. The new one features self-lighting, and a thermostat to set the temperature of the water. The old furnace had issues like a gas smell when it was on, and you had to light it like this: turn on the gas, light a match, stick it under the furnace, and wait for the whuff! as it lit. Then you would turn the gas up to what you hoped would keep the house warm enough. If you guessed wrong, or the weather outside changed, you had to go back to the summer kitchen and readjust. With the milker ladies living there for the last year, you couldn't just pop in at any time and adjust it. In the summertime, when the heat was off, the ladies would have to light the furnace every time they wanted hot water. The first summer we were here, we only had the bathroom and kitchen in the summer kichen to use while we were remodeling the house. Garry would light it every night, so once a day you had hot water from the tap for washing the dishes and all four of us would shower after a hot sweaty summer day. The trick was to remember to turn it off when the water got hot, because if you left it on it would send hot water all over the hall of the main house where the overflow tank is. So the new furnace will be safer, more efficient and way more convenient!

This morning I helped Garry and Victor clean out the heifer pens- mostly I stood guard outside in the barnyard to make sure the heifers stayed outside in the barn yard and didn't go back in the barn, since all the gates were open in the heifer pen row while Garry pushed the manure out with the bucket loader of the tractor. Then he got a couple round bales of straw out of the mow to bed them up, and the sort them back into the pens according to size. Finally they put the two water bowls back- they made them removable for when they clean out with the tractor, the water line is flexible hose instead of pvc and the bowls hook over the cement curb with a bracket made of rebar.

I did notice that Shisklik, the bull calf is now one year old (remember I wrote about our first cow Zera in September last year) and looks like someone should eat him, even if he isn't really fat...that's him in the photo - the first red one trying to sneak down the slope to barn level.

The power went out while I was trying to cook lunch, I ended up finishing the stew for dinner, since the electricity was off until after three. Garry had to get the generator going to pump out milk at noon for Oxana who came to buy milk, and then Victor had to get more gas to run it so milking could be done.

With the door standing open so much today - the lines for the welding equipment kept it from closing for a while, since some new connections were welded in Maxim's bedroom so the new radiators can be installed in there and the green bedroom later. We are putting some in the summer kitchen too, apparently they heated it with the oven when it was colder last year! Then Victor was working on the pump and overflow for the heating system this afternoon in the hall and had the door open for light with no power.... the outside cats had a great time eating catfood and napping on the Mennonite couch. Polo thought it was great fun, and I have killed at least twenty flies tonight!

Thanksgiving

2011-10-10T20:32:00.000+03:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in Canada and Happy Columbus Day to all the Americans- I fondly remember coloring pictures of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria...In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue...

as it turns out Happy Birthday Maxim...we found out after dinner while I was cutting the pumpkin and apple/pear pie for the guys that it's Maxim's birthday today too. That's Max's brother Ruslan in Max's orange coveralls in the photo.

We had chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, jello salad, coleslaw, candied sweet potatoes (I couldn't believe it on Sunday- it first time I found yams at Metro) creamed onions (we grew lots of small white onions in the garden this summer) green beans with walnuts, and I made homemade crescent rolls this morning along with the pies.

I am really thankful that the farm is Manitoba is fine, the crops are harvested and the wildfires stayed away, apparently they were told to evacuate at midnight on Friday, but there is no way to move more than a thousand cows and to where? They had to get the milk truck in on Saturday with a police escort, but never had anything but smake so didn't have to fight the fire. The boys did all the milking themselves since the employees were evacuated. They are able to all get to Morden today for Thanksgiving dinner at their sister's house. I am sure Seth and Jonah are enjoying being together with all their brothers, siter and nieces, and eating lots of pie.

The stands are still selling produce along the highway, we have only had a light frost so far this year, they are busy on the weekends with people buying to stock up for winter. Prices of produce are cheaper than last year, making the buyers and political leaders happy. There is a variety of veggies for sale and there are some stands still selling watermelon.

The farmers in the village have most of their cattle food stored for the winter. they have hay and straw piles, and some grain stored. Many have pumpkin piles by their sheds like this one. They will chop up the pumpkins to feed cows and pigs, some of them have shredders for it.

Saturday (and Sunday)

2011-10-09T17:58:00.006+03:00

Saturday morning (Friday night in Manitoba) I noticed that Woodridge was being evacuated for fire danger, so I was trying to get some information from the boys, since our farm is very close. Eventually, I found out they were OK, but were busy since many of the employees had been evacuated, they had to take care of milking the cows. I decided to phone them at 6pm, so Garry and I were going to go to the village store for a phone csrd. He decided to ride Max's moped/scooter and we were quite the sight with me hanging on the back and Polo racing along side. We were really surprised that such a small dog (he's beagle-sized) could run that fast that far! Mint (the brown one) was still tied up, they let him loose at night when the neighborhood poultry is put away for the night.

Saturday was interesting, Garry went into Dnepro to pick up the milk jugs at Victor's (he takes milk on Thursday to sell to his neighbors mostly and we need them back to fill for Sunday.) I went along and went to the free wi-fi to upload more blog photos while Garry went to Victor's and the metal market. We had a quick lunch at the mall there around one when he got back, and decided to head downtown to MOCT city center mall to go bowling again, even though my leg was still a little sore from Thursday's bowling expedition.

We got our 4 games plus 3 frames in during our hour, and I beat Garry one game with a 148 to his worst game, in fact either I bowled so much better (I had 4 spares in a row that game) or he so much worse that on the pin total I was only 30 behind for the four games- normally I have 350 and he's got 500. Then we hurried home since Garry was supposed to feed the cows with Maxim spreading manure.

We were relieved when Needles the cat tried to limp out the door when we got home, Garry found him curled in a ball in the shed Saturday morning. It looked like he had been hurt bad, with his side swollen up, he cried when you touched him. The cat was lying on the couch in a ball from the time he carried him in. I refused to let him out, this morning he was still limping, holding one front leg up, so I tried to keep him in. He must have gotten past Maxim while we were at church, but I found him outside this afternoon and made him come back in. I knew he was recovering when he jumped in the window ledge to eat the cat food last night.

This morning Maxim's older brother Ruslan came for a few days. He works in Kiev and is going to help him with his house fixing. Max has bought sand and gravel to make cement. Monday afternoon they are going to get some Canadian Thanksgiving dinner.

It looks like we don't have enough milk to sell, the cows keep giving less as most of them are nearing the end of their lactations. On the 15th the price will go up to four grivna a liter, Max was joking it would need to be five soon. This morning we took extra for Victor's church since they were having their Thanksgiving celebration today. The neighbor lady is using more of our milk (200 liters a week) to make the cheese and sour cream that Victor sells, since her cows are giving less now.

Victor had invited us to his church for the Thanksgiving service and dinner, but we had missed church at Morningstar last week because we attended Maxim's baptism, so we went to our own church. Next week will be our church's birthday celebration.

Harvesting corn and spreading manure

2011-10-08T11:17:00.007+03:00

Here are Garry's photos from Friday. Maxim and the neighbor Serosia are doing business loading up people's manure piles on their yards, and spreading it on their garden. The fall garden plowing is starting to take place, so the manure will be plowed under and ready to nourish next year's garden. They are charging 70 grivna each per hour (Max has to get enough to cover fuel for the tractor) and were busy most of the day in the village.

Some manure piles have sat next to sheds in the village for years. Last year the guy with the white horse would move it to the field for people with his wagon but the manure was shoveled on and off! One guy told Garry it was much better than last year when he did it with his pitchfork! Garry said he watched a couple work all day to move their manure pile into small piles in their garden with a wheelbarrow, and they will still have to spend another day spreading it around on the garden.

Today Maxim packed up some leftover pizza to take with him; they were off to another village to spread manure. Garry checked the lug bolts on the tires this morning, since the spreader had new tires put on before we bought it last week. Sure enough they were loose, he said a couple nuts were close to falling off, it was a good thing they hadn't spread any more loads yesterday. It will be interesting to see how many customers they have next week, after word gets around, we have one of the few spreaders around here. We will need to spread our own piles on the fields.

Garry was ready for the combine to come since Friday morning, but he was still waiting by the time we had borsht for lunch, he had taken the photos of Maxim, and was waiting to watch the combine and go with the truck to the mill.

At 2 pm Maxim phoned Garry to say they had called him the combine was on its way. It was the same one that the big dairy farmer had used for his grain corn (he also owns the mill.) Garry says the combine was brand new, they told him it cost 180,000 dollars, or 1.4 million grivna. Garry said it was pretty nice and cheaper than one in North America. Garry was wondering if it would be difficult to find some one to combine our corn, but it seems that there are a few around to do corn this year, there is a lot more corn being grown in the area than two or three years ago.

Garry was hoping to get 30- 40 ton of grain corn, which will be enough, with the wheat we got earlier this year to feed the cows for the year. It seems we have almost 36, not bad considering the way the cornfield looked this spring. Garry is not sure how many hectares were combined to get that amount, they are charging him for 16.5 but he chopped about a third of the field in August for silage and the whole piece is supposed to be just over 18. The corn will be stored at the mill, until we need it ground to feed the cows. So we have plenty of corn silage this year, enough grain, but no hay, there will be brewers' grain to buy (plus some in the tubes for when we can't buy it), but the price is going up. The brewers' grain will take the place of the hay in the ration, since it is high in protein.

Victor called to say that the brewery phoned him to say the price is going up double for people that did not buy in the summer to 200 (grivna per ton), we will only have to pay 150. However, we will have to raise the price we charge to 3 grivna per bucket from 2. Garry says we have sold less since the price went from 1.5 to 2.

They told Garry they had to finish his field last night, the sun was setting but they were still at it, Maxim wanted to check out the combine, so Garry came back to the house while I made pizza around 7:20 and Max went with the last truck load to the mill (only two trucks full- it was a big truck.) It had been dark for a while when he got back around nine. The village herd have come home by 5:30 the last couple days.

notes to self..this post is all about me...

2011-10-07T14:15:00.002+03:00

Think of it as a pet peeves list... I am annoyed today with..

our internet service...did you notice that both of the posts I published on Wednesday were dated Tuesday? That's because I started them Tuesday and gave up when I couldn't get a single photo to upload. Not one. I had photos that went with them, so I took the computer along when I drove to Dnepro to pick up the semen tank (Garry was all out of frozen bull semen straws and a cow was in heat, Victor had gotten it refilled the day day before)I sat in the Dafi mall and had the photos uploaded in no time at all with the free wi-fi. No photos for this post because we can surf and check facebook and email but uploading is impossible because it cuts out while working.

Hotmail annoys me for some reason it wants to start at a message from a month ago- with three attachments to load before it will do anything when you click to go to the inbox (don't tell me I should delete that message, I've tried several times, and it refuses to work then).

my hip hurts from bowling yesterday...not much just enough to remind me that when I finally bowled a 151, Garry did 202. It was nice to get back bowling, since Garry hurt his knee ten days again, the night before our bowling date...er, competition. We got in our usual four games plus four frames in the hour, no injuries and Garry was only ahead 44 to 42 on the four frames when time ran out.

name the cat? one of the spring male kittens has been making a favorable impression on Garry when he sneaks in the house, and I can't remember the name the boys had for him. He is either curled up sleeping or playful, but made less of an impression on me when he grabbed my toes with his claws. Garry decided to call him Tom today, I just call him Fat Cat.

Box wants to sleep with us We have never had a cat or dog in bed with us (only crying children) but Box drove me crazy on Wednesday night during the Phillies game (it started a 1 am here) she meowed and stratched under the door, around 12:30. I thought she was hunting mice so I let her in, and she happily got up on the bed to curl up and sleep. Eventually I put her out, but she repeated the performance. In the fourth inning I was annoyed and opened the door, planning to throw her into the porch, but she darted under the bed. I caught her as she settled on top of Garry, who was sleeping. I guess Box prefered the night before when I watched the game on the couch with her at midnight.
Last night, no game and no Box (she had made an escape outdoors in the afternoon.) We'll see what happens tonight- the Phils are on here at 3:30 in the morning, I won't care as long as they win. If you don't know this I grew up in New Jersey, and if you are from the southern half of the state you don't root for the Yankees, you are a Philly fan forever

No blog pics Garry is snapping photos like crazy today, here's to uploading them on Sunday afternoon if the internet continues to suck like it has all week. Back to Dafi after church, that's where I used to do all my posts when I did one a week, every Sunday.
Blame our son Josh for my use of the word suck, it was his favorite word in high school, an eventually I got used to it. I usually take the photos but he is excited because the combine is coming to do the grain corn field today- ever since like 9 am, I think it started at 2 this afternoon. He also took photos of Maxim and Serosia spreading people's manure piles on their gardens.

Road repairs

2011-10-05T20:00:00.003+03:00

We found out from someone at church that road repairs are now being funded by a new gas tax this year. Two of the main roads in Dnepro have undergone big renovation this
summer Heroes of Stalingrad has been torn up since spring, and they seem to be putting the final coat of asphalt on this week. The main road on the left bank also got completely redone. It can be a bother to drive on them while they are fixing them, but what a change from the rough shape they were in last year to when they are finished!

Remember this spring when I mentioned the overpass they are building that is off our highway to connect the highway to the other highway toward Kiev, without driving to and through Dnepropetroesk. They made the detour around the construction site on our highway and paved it, and put up some signs.

You have to realize that signage here is maybe half a km before the right turn you need to take. If they are painting lines or something, it is more like 10-20 feet! It's one of the reasons you have to be constantly aware of your surroundings while driving here.

As the summer progressed so did the project, and the amount of signage warning drivers to turn. Remember how people with expensive cars speed based on how good the car is? We think that a number of cars have run off the road with resulting injuries or worse. If the missed the turn, they would hit a big pile of dirt. In the dark, you didn't see the pile, and not everyone drives the highway several days a week like us. They painted a short (like 400 feet) get into one-lane merge lines, they even put a little line of dim rope lights they turn on at night under the big arrow sign. Some car drove off the curve of the U detour they made on night, so curve signs were added at those two curves.

Any way they dug this impressive hole to put the new road under the highway (really would be bad for the cars missing the turn and going straight) recently they started putting up the posts for the overpass. We really hope that it will be finished by winter.

I uploaded these pics on Wednesday when I drove to the city, successfully navigating past the slow truck full of bricks, the fast Mercedes limo on the highway, the stopped in the road parked to buy produce from a roadside stand, the auftobus changing lanes the buses attached overhead to the powerlines, the two lanes making a left-hand turn, and the car that thought I would magically let him in the lane I was in as he eased over into it (I solved that by stepping on the gas so he had room) and returned to the village, where I just had to weve through the herd of cows coming home.

On Sunday I saw my first body on the road here. Garry has seen three bodies of pedestrians since we moved here. This time we were in Zaporosia, and there was shiny green motercycle on it's side going in the the other direction, no sign of a driver, police car behind it, traffic backed up, and on the median strip, a body under a white piece of plastic, withred and black basketball shoes sticking out from under the tarp. Motorcyclists here have a habit of weaving in and out of traffic, and don't all wear helmets.