Special Delivery

Well after three days the hay is finally all mowed! Thursday afternoon Maxim finally got it all down. Wednesday Garry took care of some odds jobs around the farm, but today he spent the day raking the the hay into windrows. He tells me he will be done in another half hour but it got too dark to finish (it is full dark at 5 o'clock on a cloudy day like today) He had some bolts break this morning and called me to come over to the field with the car (I have driven 3 times in Ukraine- now 4) so of course he discovered Maxim had the 6 bolts he needed in the cab of his tractor just as I got across the highway to head to the field, so I got to drive back to make lunch and check how schoolwork was going (Jonah needed his math test book) I spent most of the time trying to find reverse to turn around in the yard with the Lada (it is a combo of strange shifting and unnerving Ukrainian driving and passing that makes me prefer the passenger seat here) Garry says the first stuff he was raking he was putting six windrows into one, but the last ones he was doing were going two into one, because there was much more alfalfa. He plans to quick finish up and start chopping Friday morning to make a small silage pile, it will be slow going as there is only one wagon.
Last night around 6 pm we had a surprize! The load of boxes that Josh shipped from Canada at the beginning of September arrived, delivered right to the milkhouse. Garry was so excited to see his vaccuum pump and water bowels, he decided to drive to Zaporosia to the Novya Lenya (think Ukrainian Home Depot) to pick up so bolts and fittings in case there was time to work on installing them today. I regretted my desicion to go along for the ride as we hit heavy fog, on the the highway and in the city (which was not helped by smoke from burning leaves there) as he was trying to see where he was driving, we had a few scares on the way in (it would help to have lines painted on more streets in the city to follow) but as we drove up the hill to the store it was perfectly clear - and they had Christmas decorations (you mostly only see them on stores.) Garry eventually found all the parts he needed, and we started back. It seemed the fog was better, until we got in one of the traffic circles suddenly and hit the curb in the middle as visability was suddenly zero. Not much damage to the car luckily (lost a fog light) and we safely made it home, the highway was clearer than on the way in (and I was praying most of the trip.)
Another note of good news- Polo is recovering from a bout of something that had his stomach upset for several days this week, whatever it was he did not seem to be as sick as his sister, but has stayed in the dog house for the last two nights as the the boys were tired of the constant cleanup and the smell. Yesterday Polo was drinking more milk, but still seemed sick so it was really exciting this morning when he ate a fried egg with his milk, and even ate some puppy chow again. You can see him sleeping in his doghouse yesterday in one of the photos- Seth built it this spring out of leftover boards from some of the cement forms.