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. 

Thursday

 Thursday was another day of rolling blackouts for the village, Garry said they did get some more welding done when the power was on. They need to get the rest of the steel up on the gables yet, they got the last five sheets up on the roof on Tuesday. The plan is to have it finished before Garry leaves in a little less than two weeks.

 Garry's doing the usual, trying to get the feed ration set for the cows and heifers. This year there's no problem with having enough feed to last until spring/summer. He tells me there's twice as much hay as last year, thanks to the rain. They planted more corn this year, so there's about 50% more corn silage. 

Garry said he (and Max) got very muddy this morning chasing heifers in the lot so they could preg check them. These were the large (fat) older heifers in the dry cow lot with the bull. Garry said there are a lot of them (and dry cows), so he was going to preg check them to see if any are not pregnant and candidates to be sold. Luckily, only two were open (not pregnant). He said some of them were short bred (only a couple months pregnant) so he had to check those with the ultrasound machine. I think he plans to check the dry cows yet. 

Once again the power was out at suppertime so he couldn't cook. He bought ice cream at the village store, bananas, chocolate sauce, and imitation m&ms, with some walnuts, they made banana splits or sundaes I guess instead. They also had sandwiches with lots of mayo, Garry had bought a can of tuna. 

Unfortunately, our Sasha Borchuk was picked up by the army today while walking from the shop where he grinds grain everyday back to the boys' house on the road. It's only a couple hundred feet. We can hope that they let him go, as they did earlier in the war, because he is handicapped by fetal alcohol syndrome. However Andrey has been in the army for two years now, and is not normal either. He recently called Max when he was off the front lines and told a story where they were under fire and had to pull back and he was the one who called for help. You may have seen the photo of Sasha in his shirt I sent for his birthday next week. Good thing Garry accidently gave it to him early. 

 

Wednesday-

Today, Wednesday, Garry went with Margarita to deliver milk in and around Zaporosia, today it was 20 liter jugs for people who resell it by the bottle. Oleg has been sick (he had pneumonia, and now a sinus infection) and unable to go. Garry said he caught her going 140 Km/Hour on the way home and told her she can't do that in Canada. She is applying to go to Providence University College, where Max Boradin went. 

They have a drone warning device. Garry says it must tell you just before the drone hits you. He also said the GPS doesn't work during air raid warnings, so they went a different way to the last delivery and the guard at the block post yelled at her for not stopping at the stop sign but driving the ten feet to where he was waiting. I heard the conversation between her and the guard because I'd phoned him about Daryl wanting to talk to him. 

Here's a Ukrainian farm economics story for you, it takes 23 tons of wheat to buy a ton of diesel. It's a little more expensive than in Canada, but the price of wheat is falling now, too. Max said another farmer asked how they could afford to start fall plowing and he told him that their old boss is back. 

 Garry said they have drone deflection nets up some places on the highway.  They used the solar a lot today, seems like there is four hours of power on the grid followed by six hours off. Garry couldn't cook dinner for the girls and kids tonight because the electric stove takes too much power to run when they are running on the solar powered battery. 

 They did some welding on the headrails during a four hour "on" time today. Garry said Max has figured out a way to run the generator at his house on the natural gas line instead of diesel. Much less expensive, a little difficult to get going but runs okay once he gets it started.