You know the old saying "
if it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all?" That's the way Garry's day seemed to be going on Friday, at least when it came to getting an afternoon nap, or his Russian lesson.
Garry started taking Russian lessons again, with Masha, who translates for him at the trade school. That way he pays part of the her salary for teaching him Russian. I went with him once, but we agreed that he would get more done with out me there. Garry speaks way more Russian than I do, anyway, but now he is learning all the verb tenses and practicing writing.
He had not squeezed them in earlier in the week, with making silage, and company, so he had planned on Friday morning, when Masha is not busy (she does an English lesson on Fridays with the students in addition to the lessons I do with them.)
However, he had to run into Dnepropetroesk after feeding the cows in the morning, because the
ploog (plow) broke while Maxim was plowing gardens in the village on Thursday. People had been calling Max for weeks now about getting their garden plowed, and he has been telling them "tomorrow", but the guys kept finding other things to do, until Thursday. One of the group home gardens was to blame for the damage, there was something buried there that broke a chunk off the middle one- it's a three bottom plow that they bought this summer-- and Garry when to pick up some things so Maxim could fix it, including a drill press, which Max was very excited about. I think he got it fixed today, there is several days of fall field plowing to do yet, and some more gardens, I think.
At ten am I was happily watching
sports centre on the satellite TV, and crocheting, when everything went off...bad sign, Fridays tend to be what we assume are scheduled maintenace times that we don't know about, the power will be off until three or maybe five in the afternoon, while a crew does something at the power staion in the village.
I had pulled up all the window blinds for more light, it was not a very sunny day, and rather cold outside. Garry's flowers got frosted good this week, although the petunias are still hanging on out there, in spite of all the locals wearing their winter coats. You hear all kinds of things with no television on, creaking house noises, crowing roosters, people driving through the village honking their horns while talking about what they are selling or buying over loudspeakers, and of course, dogs barking!
So when Garry got home with his treasures, he had to look into getting
the generator going so the ladies would be able to milk after lunch.
Which normally means getting the gas can filled at the station on the
highway, because it always seems to get magically empty if he fills it
in preparation for power outtages. Garry decided to lie down for few minutes around 1:30 before he had to go to his Russian lesson, and he was wishing for a nap.
Everything was going alright, although the generator had a few stops, and suddenly went out before the ladies were done milking...unfortunately, Maxim decided to use the grinder on the plow, and it must have overloaded it. Then they ran around tryig to fix it. At first I still had power to the house, it was just the one light fixture turned on, so I could see better, since I was still trying to crochet, and it was a rather fine stitch to pick up...I was looking forward to finishing this particular Christmas present, as it has been time consuming!
I was enlisted to hunt for a working nine-volt battery for Garry's voltage tester, because the battery was dead when he found it to try to figure out where the problem was, because there was no power at the barn for the milking machines. He unscrewed the back off it three times while we tried different batteries in it... we need a new battery in the smoke detector, by the way...
Around this point in time was when Masha phoned, because at lunch time Garry had rescheduled his lesson for quarter after two, and he was late...I answered because he had left his cell in the house, so we cancelled his lesson for the day, hopefully he gets some in next week before we leave next Friday!
Garry didn't think they sold the batteries in the village, they are an unusual item here, so he was trying to improvise a tester, while Maxim drove down to the village hardware store to see if they had one, they did, and as an added bonus, he found an electrician and they finally located the problem, one of the three phases had burnt out right in the plug on the generator, and the motors out there in the barn are three phase. We would have figured it out if we had tried all the burners and the oven on our kitchen stove, as it runs different things on each of the phases.
So the ladies could now finish milking with generator power, but none to the house, so I crocheted by battery light power ( the light was fading outside as 4 pm approached) and Garry laid down on the couch, and got a 15 minute nap, before there were people at both doors for him, one of the students checking how much brewers grain the heifers should be fed, and Yana about driving into Zaporosia. Garry was snorong, and had a little trouble talking to Sasha, ther was some confusion over a wheelbarrow full or a shovel full a heifer, but Sasha persisted until everyting was clear, because he said a wheelbarrow was a lot to feed them. Garry was more awake when talking to Yana, who said they would be ready leave as soon as the cows came home from the village herd and they tied them up.
Garry decided that Friday night pizza could be delayed until Saturday night, and I went with him to Zaporosia, along with Yana and her sister Natasha, who has been here milking for about ten days--I had not even noticed she was here because Yana, her sister and her mother Genia , who normally milks for us look so much alike.
First we drove most of the way down the main street, Lenina to take Natasha to the autovaxhall (bus station) we got there a few minutes after five (yes it is really dark by then!) and Yana went in with her, and came back out to report the marshutka (little bus or van) was leaving soon toward Tokmak, we had timed it well.
Then we drove all the way back down Lenina, and discovered a traffic jam approaching the bridge over the dam, we made our way slowly onto the dam road, Garry was sucessful in choosing the best lanes as we merged from 4 lanes into 2 over the bridge, and it turned out the right hand lane we were in was the best one, three cars were the problem in the left hand lane, having had a minor fender bender, they were sitting there waiting for the police with their flashers on. We left Yana at the hospital to visit Peter, her husband, who had his shoulder operated on on Thursday, and went back over the bridge to eat at our favorite restaurant, the only Chinese one we have found. Dinner was tasty, and spicy. Garry decided not to try the same direction over the dam, so we took the bridge over Hortitsa Island instead, and picked up Yan an hour and half after dropping her off, and drove home. It seems the doctor plans to keep him in hospital for two or three weeks, although he walks out to the car with Yana.
We unlocked the door, discovered the power was back on, and sat down to relax in front of the televison. Soon there was a knock at the door. It was Yana, something was wrong with the vacuum pump that powers the milking machines. Garry went out to see... the motor was running backwards. How could something that was running correctly in the afternoon run the wrong way in the evening? He called Victor, who was trained as an electrician. So it seems when they were servicing the power plant today, they must have switched a set of wires around, which would not affect anyone with normal one phase power, but made Garry's three phase motor run backwards! I got to hold a flashlight while Garry, after cutting the power to the barn, switched a couple of wires around in the box. Then he turned the dwesti-dwaset (electricity or literally 220) back on and Yana could finally start milking.
I finally finished the last stitches of the crocheting project before we went to bed, after putting out all the spare cats and Polo who had come in the door with all the people coming and going.
