Planting

Well the alfalfa is planted and is being cultipacked as I write at 6:30 pm. It took Maxim a little longer than Garry thought to get the seed in the ground today. Yesterday afternoon the sunshine had dried the land enough that they finished preparing the ground, and they borrowed a roller -it's a big cylinder that flattens the ground to make it smoother after discing which broke up the plowed furrows on the land we were going to plant alfalfa on.



Garry went over to borrow a cultipacker just before lunch - he had a meeting in Zaporosia this morning about the new project at the collective farm- when he got there he discovered that it had a soft tire. Unfortunately he did not have an air compressor and no one there at the farm had one to use. The tractors here all have a compressor attached to them right at the factory, but the one on the loader tractor was disconnected when the loader was attached, and never fixed. So he phoned me while I was cooking dinner to come with the car so he could use the little air compressor that attaches to the cigarette lighter. So I turned everything down or off on the stove and drove to Molozaharina.




Garry has been there thousands of times, but I have been there maybe twice, so he had to give me directions- out to the other highway, turn right, second village to the right. Garry drove through the fields with the tractor, but the highway directions were easier to follow. After the tire was inflated, he drove back that way and I took the highway, getting back before him and soon enough to finish cooking the vegetables for dinner.

Victor joined us for dinner, he was in the village working with the irrigation project- it is taking a little longer than I thought to get the pipes together, since it is a group project, there seems to be as much talking as working on it.





Maxim was still out in the field to Garry's surprize, it turned out the seeder was not putting on as much seed as they thought it was set for, and he had to go over the fields twice and he still had some seed in the planter. Garry found this out when he brought Max lunch, as you can see in the photo. Which is why the packing didn't happen until later in the day, since they needed to use the same tractor. The loader does not detach from the loader tractor, it is more permanent than at home, and it does not like the bouncing across the field. The cultipacker will firm the ground so the seed has good contact and dry out slower while it is sprouting. Max also seeded a couple little gardens for people first. Garry got some seeds planted in the garden today peas and spinach, as the skies are threatening the rain in the forecast for the next week.

We need more land in alfalfa so we will have enough hay to feed the cows next winter. Right now the ration has straw in it since the hay is all gone, we still have grrain, corn silage, and are buying (and selling) brewers' grain.