Garry and his crew started chopping silage around 10 am this morning. Garry drove out with the tractor with the chopper and a precept (wagon) behind. Serosia followed in his little tractor with the rake- he would put 3 swathes into one for chopping. Maxim brought up the rear with the loader-tractor and the other precept. If you look closely you can see a green pea and some barley grains inside the chopper with the pieces of chopped stalks.
Maxim was going past the kitchen window up and down the driveway at a steady rate, dumping the loads of barley/peas/alfalfa. I cooked a big meal at noon, and Stacy and I packed it into plastic snap top boxes - one for everyone, and put them into bags along with a box of juice and some cups and forks. Polo and his little fluffy black dog friend decided to follow along, as we walked down the street, and around the corner to the field. We met Max coming up the street with a load, so I handed him his box of lunch- a porkchop (which I cut up before packing, potato salad, fried squash (dipped in flour and egg- it was really tasty) chunks of tomato, and buttered bread for the guys.
When we got to the field, Garry was just finishing a load. Max drove in right after we walked in, and unhooked the empty wagon. Garry unhooked from his full wagon behind the chopper. Maxim and his friend hooked up to the full one and drove away. Garry stopped and picniked with Stacy and I on the side of the field. Stacy had thought to bring along a bottle of water so Garry could wash his hands. After he ate he took along the other meal for Serosia and hooked up to the empty wagon, and started chopping again. We walked back to the house.
Later in the afternoon, Garry came in with a lady who had come from Manitoba and was here in Ukraine doing mission work (she was born in Dnepropetroesk and speaks Russian.) Garry was fixing his chopper when she came in- his face all black with dirt. He brought her in the house where she met Stacy- they share a last name- Unger.
Garry had broken some of the knives inside the chopper when he had a build up of dirt inside the machine and it took in a large chunk and bang! no more chopping today- they were about three-quarters done with the field.
Serosia packed the pile with his big loader, while Garry (and then Garry and Maxim) worked on the chopper- they had to take a break to run down the driveway and get the heifers in as the village herd went past- but the broken part of the chopper is all apart and they are resetting the knives so there are half as many (to use the good ones)then the silage can be finished on Wednesday. Luckily nothing broke that they really needed to chop hay- but he will need a new set of knives before chopping the corn silage in August. It is hard to get parts for this machine- they would need to come from Canada I think, Garry brought back a few small parts for it when he went to his father's birthday.
Garry had a shower and some dinner, helped Max more with the chopper, had another visitor and was sitting in a chair enjoying his cherry cake I made this afternoon (Stacy get credit for picking and pitting the sour cherries) when Maxim came in to tell him that someone in the village wanted a cow bred. Garry was in bed shortly after getting back from his last job of the day. Now it's midnight and I am the only one awake- and just finishing this blog post (photos were loading slow.)
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