I was starting to wonder what had happened to Garry (Maxim had left for church in Zaporosia already) when he came in, and started counting money. He had gone to breed a heifer for someone in the village and ended up buying her and leading her home. He said the heifer would butt him in the backend unless he let her run just ahead of him down the street in the dark.
The owner collected the money and walked home, and Garry put her in the barn in one of the pens- with the second largest heifers. Garry tells me that the really big red heifer he bought a couple weeks ago is afraid of the other heifers, he put her in with the smaller ones in that pen and they beat her up too. He thinks she has never been in a group before, if we have an empty cow stall this winter, she may be happier tied up.
Monday morning Garry finally got his can of paint open and slapped some up on the walls of the entryway. Friday morning he drove all the way to Saloanie to buy brushes since there weren't any for sale at the village stores, and the one he thought he had here had "disappeared" (the neighbor boy Andrei painted his bike- this may be related.) He came in around eleven am and told me:
1) he needed more paint
2) his paintbrushes were terrible (they cost about 75 cents) and
3) he needed something to clean his hands
I helped by pouring vegetable oil and dish soap on so he could wash most of it off (and took a picture!) There seem to be a number of blue spots on the floor, and he does need another can of paint to finish. It's pretty smelly, (oil-based paint) so Garry left the door open to the outside, even though its cold today. Lucky for me I am still pretty stuffed up with this cold, not smelling much of it!
It was so cold this morning that there were three waterbowls frozen in the barn, of course they had left one of the big doors open, I guess they will need to focus on getting the barn winterized soon. Today Maxim is busy at his house, he has hired some helpers and is pouring cement. Seems like Maxim has a deadline now, looks like the wedding is set for next September.
Jonah's cat Needles must have been sorry that he slipped out the door when I put the dog out last night, he was curled up on one of the radiators this morning after Garry went out to the barn- and curled up on top of Garry while I was making stirfry for lunch.
I was up at 4:30 this morning, wondering why Box was yelling- a persistant Meow! Meow! woke me up. Turned out it wasn't Box, one of the other striped cats must have slipped in when Maxim came home last night. I scooped it up, and carried it around for ten minutes, trying to get a door open to put it out.
The key is always left in one door, so all you have to do is turn it twice around in the lock to get it open. I checked on the floor, since it sometimes falls out of the keyhole- granted, more often during the day when people are going in and out then after it has been locked for the night, but... it wasn't there, Max must have taken it to bed with him. (I thought what if the house had been on fire?- it's why I decided the key stays in the door) No problem, all I needed to do was go over to the kitchen door, and turn the thumb latch, I had flipped last night, and go out into the entryway, open the door...what... it was locked also and no key to be seen (there are apparently four keys on a ring somewhere....) So I carried the cat into the bedroom with me, and found the key I had with me when we went to church Sunday to open the door in the afternoon, and opened the first door I had tried. Finally the cat jumped happily out into the cold dark morning, and I checked the internet before going back to bed.
Garry and Maxim went to look at some heifers someone wanted to sell this afternoon, they bought two small ones, Max led one home, and the lady brought the second one.
Garry just came in to get a shower, he just got back from breeding a cow in the village, apparently he tripped over a boot cleaner leaving their shed in the dark, ripped a hole in the top of his boot, and fell on the ground besides (I almost said to boot) At least he didn't drag (or get dragged by) a cow on a rope all the way home today.
Might be a few frozen waterbowls tomorrow morning, I went outside to phone and wish my mother a happy birthday and it was cold- minus eight C- and smokey everyone in the village seems to be burning leaves (and maybe a corn field just outside the village that needs plowing was set on fire today.)
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