Quick post for Thursday

 This is the new house cat/kitten at the house, and yes he is a one eyed cat. Apparently he was rescued from some young boys who poked his eye. 

 

Garry had a day much like previous ones. He did get to bend some pipes for the gate making and Andrey (Max's brother) did more welding for the headrail. The power was out later in the afternoon so they ran the generator over at the dairy barn so he could keep welding. They still need one more load of concrete to finish in the shed, but haven't been able to get any cement so far this week. 

Garry says the electricity seems to be on more at night than during the day. He took some photos of Max's generator for his house that I wrote about running on natural gas. 

Tomorrow I'll post some photos of them prepping milk to sell in the city.

Wednesday

 I'm forgetting what day of the week it is, so I'd better go to bed. It's about time for Garry to be getting up on Thursday morning. Wednesday morning he sent me this photo of him and one of the Yulias. He said their hair looks the same in the morning.

 Then he sent this one of the them outdoors with hats.

Apparently they had a high of 3 Celsius today, so it was cold and the power was out again for parts of the day. While the power was on Max was gone and they couldn't figure out how to use the pipe bending machine to work on the gates. So Garry went back to the house and made chocolate chip cookies. I had sent a bag of mini chocolate chips in his luggage. 

Hopefully work on the barn goes better Thursday. 

Excursion with the girls

Garry went on an excursion to Dnipro with the girls (Julia and the ones from our house) and their kids. From left - Yulia, Leila, Yulia, Alona holding Sofia, Danil, Angelika, Valentina, her little guy Nazar and Julia (Yulia, also really.) Garry tries to take the girls out somewhere when he's there because they never get to go anywhere (except the hospital, I guess). The guys can't go anywhere because of the war.

 Garry had found a zoopark at the Most City Mall to see. He said there were adorable monkeys, a snake you could hold and a porcupine (not a North American one). They could get close and touch the animals. Afterwards they went to the food court. Mc Donald's was really busy so he bought them food at KFC. He said they were gone about four hours on the trip this afternoon. 

More photos from Julia-

In the morning the guys finished the other gable end on the shed, so Garry is really ticking things off his list before he's home in ten days. 
 

Monday again

 Garry had a busy day, he bred his heifers in the morning. Now they can put them out with the bull tomorrow and put some smaller ones back in that pen. They had put them there because it's the only shed with headlocks to catch them in for needles and breeding. Garry has been telling me that there are about as many bred heifers as milk cows. He says they are milking 90 cows and there are about 80 bred heifers. He has told Max they need to put like four bigger open heifers a month in with the bull when he's back in Canada. Garry has decided that the feed ration is okay, so he's checking things off his list. 

Garry and Max went to preg check a lady's cow in a different village, Garry said he had bred cows there before. Max had checked her cow open (not pregnant) three months ago. She was pregnant now and the lady was so excited she gave Garry two frozen chickens. 

Around two in the afternoon Garry and Max were working on the new shed- they got one gable end done today- when they saw a large van drive up to the barn and a bunch of guys get out. Max went to see who it was and it was the army "recruitment" team, six army guys and two policemen from different services, and they were walking around the barn looking for guys to put in the army. They are not supposed to be able to go on private property to find guys, so Max was yelling at them and telling them he only needs to show them his deferment papers if they find him on the street. A neighbor (actually a farmer from south of Zaporosia who can't farm anymore and moved his equipment to the village) also yelled at them. Luckily no one they could take away was around when they came.  The farm is considering a gate and some "no trespassing" signs now. 

An interesting side note, one big army guy when he heard Garry was Canadian, asked if he knew what an Inuit was and told him that his ancestors were Inuit from Canada. Also Max has heard from Sasha Borchuk and he says he is far away from home. 

Garry said he made the girls toaster sandwiches, he always gets his sandwich maker out when he's there. He said the power wasn't on all day as promised, but was on more than last week. It was out from nine am to one pm and was supposed to be going out at nine pm, so the girls and kids were telling him good night while we were video chatting. 

Sunday

Garry had a quiet Sunday, he said it was cloudy. It looks like he went to church in the village with some of the kids. He said Sofia was told by Elena to hold onto the music stand so she'd stand still. 

 

Saturday

Garry said he had a quiet Saturday, he bred a cow in the barn in the morning. It was a cold wet day, it even snowed  a little he said. They decided to turn the heat on in the house, although still set pretty low, because the high today was three Celsius. It was actually warmer here today. 

Garry said he fried hotdogs today for dinner, and played Jenga with the girls and kids. Julia was there and took some photos and video (lucky for us, because Garry didn't take any today). He said he's going to church in the village tomorrow. 

 

 

Danil is at a disadvantage with only one arm to use now. Garry's planning to get lots done this next week, breeding heifers, working on the feed ration and finishing the barn. He's hoping that the guys finish the fall plowing before he leaves the following week.

Friday

 

Today Garry worked with his unbred heifer group in the morning, I think he said there are eight yet. Hopefully they will be ready to breed on Monday. Looks like there's a few cats hanging out at the barn. We just had a short conversation today as he was heading to bed because I was shopping at one o'clock here. 

He drove into Zaporosia with Danil, his mother Alona, and  Margarita are all in the photo he took. Danil needed to have his broken arm checked that was set last week. He said a few others came along Elena's son has had a cold and cough for a few weeks. Garry said he bought a big bag of frozen french fries on the way home and that's what he cooked for supper tonight until no one could eat any more.

 I didn't find out if he bought any Pepsi, which recently became available again (just before the team left). He said that a bottling or distribution warehouse had been blown up by the Russians. There isn't any Pepsi at the village store, not much pop at all, yesterday he tried the only kind left, and said blueberry mojito isn't very good.