Minus 22 C this morning- so still waterbowls freezing and thawing - becoming part of the daily routine- it's supposed to stay this cold for four more days- I hear it was above zero in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada- and I told everyone it was warmer here in Ukraine(on average I guess !)
We had company for lunch- Victor brought out Doreen who's visiting - having a rest in Dnepro this week from her English teaching in Kramatroesk- she wanted to see the barn again. So I had to make a good dinner- we bought a crepe pan at Metro this week so Corn Chowder, followed by chicken and mushroom filled crepes, with some salsa and applesauce on the side (thawed from the freezer- I made them last summer) and for dessert- crepes filled with vanilla ice cream with warm cherry sauce on top. Everyone was stuffed- Maxim was too full for tea after!
After Doreen and Victor left to go back to the city (with bottles of milk), Garry went out to the barn, and the boys went back to doing schoolwork (Seth had helped Doreen with some computer program questions) and then the power went out for about 15 minutes (better than yesterday afternoon- it was out for an hour.) After it came back on to stay (one false start) I noticed Maxim go past the house with the tractor- he had been moving manure again- so I found my coat and somebody's boots that fit and headed out with the camera.
He had just parked the tractor by the barn and was over by the corn silage pile forking a bucket full of silage to feed the cows.
You can see the brewers' grain pile is slowly shrinking (and very frozen!) in front of the milkhouse.
You can also see that there is lots of milk sitting in the milkhouse!
Garry was brushing the cows when I went inside- using his currycomb to get them cleaned up.
The barn is full- 45 animals counting baby heifers (plus there are three bulls with Yana's two and Swishlik- future dinner born in October) all the stalls are full and two big heifers are tied in one of the heifer pens behind the hay pile, the calves are tied along the wall on one side of the barn, and a couple are along the divider in front of the hay in the "heifer pens". One third of the barn was designed as heifer pens, but was filled this fall with the loose dry alfalfa hay Garry bought.
The spotted red and white cow is the new fresh heifer and the black and white calf the duck is checking out is her baby bull, it seems there was only one red and white one in the bull calves that Yana is raising. Of course as it often happens- the red one is out of a black cow.
Maxim came with the bucket full of silage and Garry opened the doors so he could back the tractor in- they don't leave the doors open long in the cold- it was -12 C when I went outside. The sun was starting to set at 5 pm as you can see in the photo I took of the snowman as I went inside.
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