As you can see fur is really the fashion in Ukraine this week. Today's world news is telling us that 100 people have died from the cold snap in Ukraine. I would guess that number might be low. I hear that the government has put up a heated tent in downtown Dnepro for street people now. Of course it has been cold for two weeks now, and not supposed to improve a whole lot next week.
Garry was so tired of the cold he looked into trips to the popular Red Sea resorts in Sharm El Sheik, but all the flights from Dnepropetroesk are full until the 23rd (like three weeks)- if you go to Kiev you can fly on the 12th. I guess there are a lot of Ukrainians tired of the cold weather wanting a vacation.
Even the animals have to cope with the cold- the village dogs are happily romping in the street, and the crows are hanging out in town on the highway
Wednesday night a big cow had a big bull calf. Thursday night Yana came to the house, the cow had fallen down while they were milking- she had milk fever, a problem that cows can get after calving due to a calcium imbalance (generally older cows that give a lot of milk are more likely to get it) Garry and Maxim got her fixed up (Max said the vet wouldn't come at night) and in a hour she was able to stand up, and was looking fine Friday morning. Apparently she went down again Friday afternoon while we were in Dnepro, and so they got the "good vet" out. He gave her some secret IV fluids and injections- he won't show Garry what he is using- he has a pop bottle IV kit, and suggested rubbing her down with vodka and putting a blanket on her. We did give her the blanket. Garry checked on her an hour later before going to bed and said she looked OK.
At home in Canada Garry or one of the boys would administer a Cal-Dex bottle in the jugular vein, maybe some under the skin and she'd be on the road to recovery quickly. I have even done it once, when Garry was gone back in Manitoba, and a cow was down after having twins, although I find it easier to get the needle in the big milk vein under the cow. It is easy to diagnose, and to treat, although giving it too fast can kill the cow as the vet here loves to tell Garry, so we worry a bit about what he actually is giving the cow.
Wednesday it was really cold, never got over -16 C all day, and Thursday night it was -32 by nine pm. Wednesday we went into Dnepro to the Bellamy house for team meeting a lunch and unfortunately forgot the phone with their number on. We ended up standing outside holding a crockpot of soup, for about five minutes, because we were early and they forgot to turn the doorbell on that morning. Luckily Olya showed up with a phone that worked, it really was cold!
Maxim had a cold experience on Wednesday, he spent a good part of the day delivering water in the village. The water truck apparently broke down last week (must have been right after we got our delivery) and some people were out of water some for more than a week. So he used our tractor and the watertank that he and Serosia made to deliver water to 4 houses. He said it took 45 minutes to fill the tank but more than an hour to unload it, the hole the water flows out was freezing up, and kept getting smaller in diameter.
We never did sell any milk on Wednesday, but the milk buyers got their vehicles running on Thursday, so all the milk was sold before the afternoon milking, then Garry drove the afternoon milk in for Victor to sell when he drove in for basketball, since Victor was not going to get his blue diesel van running in this cold weather. He got back to the house shortly before Yana came to tell us about the sick cow, which was good timing.
This afternoon we had to drive to Dnepro, Victor has been standing in lines with our passports for while now to get us registered for the next year, but we had to come into the office in person before the lady would sign off on the temp resident ID papers (the ones we made photos for at the booth at the mall a couple weeks ago.) We met him over by the Bellamys, and since we were early, Garry decided to get the tire fixed that was have been filling with air with the little cigarette lighter powered pump about every time we stop the car since Wednesday morning. Apparently the patch had come off from when it was fixed recently.
We got to the office with Victor (here in the photo I took as we left- it is a remodelled ground floor apartment) before it re-opened at 4 pm (until 6 pm) and sat in the car until the crowd waiting outside went in when they unlocked the door, we stood outside door number 2- for foreigner registration (door 1 was the big boss' office, door 3 was for some other kind of registrations I guess) for about 15 minutes with Victor, until the lady was ready to see us, then after she finished signing, Garry and I waited in the main room where regular citizens were getting passports and resident papers applied for, all wearing coats, hats, snowpants. The girl working at the desk was wearing a down type vest, since the room was pretty cold with the door to the outer room - where there was a wicket people lined up at- opening outside to the cold. A few teen girls who must be getting their first passport at 16, old people, and bored kids bundled to their eyebrows in scarves besides all the other snow clothes, with their moms, waiting for some official paper.
The girl working at the desk in the room was wearing a down-type vest, since the room was pretty cold with the door to the outer room - where there was a wicket people lined up at- opening outside to the cold. I am not sure how long Victor was waiting for the completed resident forms, but I think we were there for an hour- even tried out the padded benches. Good thing I had my e-reader with me. I don't want to think how long it took Victor to take care of the entire registration process.
we discovered while driving home tonight that the Christmas/New Year lights are still on in the park
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