They're here!

Garry and his crew arrived here shortly after noon with the herd. Jonah says it took an hour from the turn into the village, because the cows did not want to walk on the road. They cut across the fields with them, stopping a few times- once at a pond close to the farm they came from where the cows filled up on water. The crew was a little different than planned- Garry, Maxim, Victor (see the blue van in the photo) his son Daniel skipped school to help, Seth, Jonah, and an older guy and the two women who milked them- they ended up walking about 15 km with the cows. I stayed home and made dinner. Garry took the moving cows pictures, and called me to report where they were as the morning progressed. They got rained on just a little a few times, but it was a nice cool day to move the cows.

They herded the cows through the yard, through the barn, and into the barnyard behind the barn. Everyone came in to eat except Garry and Maxim, who got them some grain and corn silage on top of that hay they had there the night before. Then they got the cows into stalls- some had gotten neckchains on before the walk, the rest got them attached then. Garry has been unable to find any swivel snaps(important because- like a dog on a chain, it will twist tighter- for now not a huge problem because they will be going outside several times a day to drink out of a bathtub in the barnyard until the box Josh shipped from Manitoba gets here with waterbowls in) but his parents are in Holland before they come here next week, and his Dad is trying to find some to bring along.

Then after Victor bought some buckets at the village store, the ladies milked them -by hand- these cows are used to 3 times a day milking like our herd at home- at 4 am, noon, and 8 pm, and Leana and Yana (younger one) each milk certain cows- they have been paid according to how much milk their cows give each day. The video is a short look at Yana milking.

Victor was organizing storage, but we had 5 different people come to buy milk today! I don't think they gave much milk this time- he may have sold it all. No milktank or machines yet. The ladies need a place to stay, their job included a place to live, so they are going to live in the summer kitchen for now, Maxim is going to sleep into the yellow room in the house. Garry had to run to the city for some stuff, with Victor and the boys are back to schoolwork- biology test on Wednesday !