Tying up loose ends





Here are some photos of some of the recent improvements made around here. While we were in Kramatoresk last week the tent guys came (we finally paid for their transportaion costs as the nearby job had not materialized yet.) Victor was here and Maxim worked with the guys all day fixing all those unsealed seams around the second floor that would flap in the wind everytime it blew. It sounded like a ship under sail, and with winter coming the wind coming through the barn was making it cold. They also finished the connection between the barn and the milkhouse. When the Steinbach team was here, the tent guys finished but there was a hole in the corner where the milkhouse was built the next week by the team. Since there was space between the metal milkhouse and the canvas barn, Garry had done some building to try to seal it it up. The tent guys did a great job of fastening the canvas to the milkhouse as you can see in the photos here. Garry and Maxim put some screws in this week to finish it up.




I took a few photos in the barn this morning- unfortunately Garry could not get the nice straw bales from the farm the cows came from, and the ones he got from the other farmer to make the insulating wall are not staying stacked as well as he had hoped- some fell over one night this week and one of the ducks was squashed. Maxim is spending his spare time making a net of used baler twine to keep them upright. You can see Garry doing his daily cow grooming in the photo on the right.



Garry and his currycomb





 

the Holstein first calver



The little Holstein heifer with the pretty udder in the photo was one of the three fresh cows he bought from the big farmer- you may have seen a photo of them in October when we bought them. She had a bad case of mastitis (coliform) last month but whatever the vet gave her worked- she is one of the top producers now with 14 liters a day. She is looking much better, they are all putting on weight - Garry hopes to breed them if they come in heat before we leave- if not they can wait until January when we return. You can see Garry's breeding calender and the semen tank he got in the photo of the milkhouse.(Which I seem to have lost- this is why I don't use the new editor!) He has breed all the open heifers but one now- she is pretty small so it will not be a problem if she waits until January too.





There are many full milk cans in that milkhouse photo-(that I can't find or reload in this editor) one of the buyers did not come on time- she picked up milk that was two and half days old. It is cold now so it may may go sour as fast, but another thing that a refrigerated milk tank does is stir the milk occasionally so it does not separate out into cream and skim milk. Garry says it went glop, glop as they poured it into her cans. She was making cottage cheese and sour cream from it. Apparently the milk from the cows feed brewers' grain works better for sour cream than the ones feed the beet pulp. We were able to get another load of brewers' grains yesterday and the pit outside is very full as you can see in one of the pictures.

the brewer's grain is overflowing

Luba had 18 steel cans to wash out before milking this afternoon- Yana is off this week doing her mother's job at the lady farmer's place (where the herd came from)so her mother could visit relatives. They raise mushrooms and have some pigs and heifers there still. We have about 10 more cows to go dry soon there are 6 already dry (not milking - ideally they get 6 weeks off before having a new calf) but Garry says one cow is starting to look like she may calve before we leave- she's due to have a calf on December 15th- the week after we go to Canada. Still one of the ladies can easily milk alone so the other can take time off. They will be much busier in January and February, but we may be getting some milking machines then.

Maxim started plowing that piece from the village today- we have gotten the go-ahead from the mayor -we are doing weed control, and hopefully that paperwork will be done by spring so we can plant it. Garry took some pictures when he took him back from lunchtime- we had a little American Thanksgiving dinner with chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cornbread and baked apples.( I seem to have moved some photos to the bottom and can't get them to go where I want- we may be back to all on top next time!)