Trading up

Yesterday Garry came in and asked for the camera- unfortunately I had forgotten to plug it in to charge it after the battery died during our walk Tuesday, so he couldn't get a photo of the new heifer coming home in the trailer. Garry said she seemed fine with her new friends in the pen when he put her in with them. I am sure they have the pecking order settled by now. Garry had bred this heifer a few months ago, so he refunded the lady's 150 grivna breeding fee. She lives in a nearby village, Garry charges extra to drive to other villages, since many people hire someone with a car to come pick him up.

Maxim was excited on Wednesday evening because he was able to sell the open cow for the same amount as the new heifer would cost. Astra had aborted twice, she just didn't seem to be able to carry a calf, she was one of the three fresh heifers Garry bought in the fall of 2010 after buying the herd of cows. The butcher couldn't believe how much the cow weighed, because she wasn't very tall.

Yesterday afternoon Garry was off to Zaporosia with Victor to meet with someone, when someone banged on the door. Max was in the house since he had gone to his room after eating dinner- he had missed eating with us because he had taken Andrei on his scooter (the car was still getting fixed) to the highway to catch the marshutka. Max answered the door, and the man wanted a cow bred - I could hear inseminate corova Inseminate sounds almost the same in Russian and English, and corova (cow) was one of the first words we learned in Russian. Garry tells me that Maxim is much more confident about going to breed people's cows since some of the ones he bred in our barn are pregnant, so he will go breed them instead of getting Garry to go if he's busy.

The other day Andrei came up to Garry to say that there was a cow to breed in the barn before we went on our walk. He said Corova hachoo bic which is cow wants bull so Garry bred her before we went to the collective barn. Garry told me she calved about 75 days ago, right when you want to breed a cow for the first time.

It is around freezing again today, with a few snowflakes falling again, the yard is still covered with snow, but the roads have stayed clear, just wet. Garry was hunting for his wallet this morning, he finally found it in his gymbag. He lost his phone and is using his old one from the summer. The last place he had it was on the train on Sunday when his brother called, so it may be really gone.

Maxim was excited about a phone call from Andrei this morning, apparently the welder was broken and they will fix it under warranty. Max bought it in the city of Kherson, near his hometown, so he sent it home with Andrei yesterday to get fixed. I knew that Max was telling Garry something about welding because I heard the word spark-ka which is welding, and that something was getting fixed. He was excited that it would be covered under warranty, probabally because every thing you buy in Ukraine has a warranty but if it breaks they tell you it isn't covered, like the lawn mower Garry bought last spring, apparently actually cutting grass with it was abusing it.

Garry brought me roses when he came home from Zaporosia yesterday afternoon, five yellow roses, yellow because that's the color of my wedding roses, and five because
no Ukrainian flower seller sells an even number of flowers except for funerals.

Garry says that his stomach is finally back to normal after getting sick at the resort last week so he will be ready for pizza night tonight. Now I just have to make the pizza.