I don't know if I mentioned that I brought back from New Jersey a suitcase filled with mostly stuff for Garry, and not just the Easter candy- I bought him a chocalate cow- and the jar of peanut butter he wanted. I also had a number of things for the barn, milk filters, a few items to treat sick cows with like a IV kit (the vet here uses a cut-off pop bottle and a rubber tube with a needle stuck on) and a large grain shovel, which I disassembled to fit in the suitcase. Garry said his first aluminum one was in bad shape, although they are still using it upstairs in the barn in the grain bin. I bought a poly one, and it came through the airplane trip fine, so we'll see how it wears. Why did I bring a shovel? Because here is a photo of the biggest bladed shovel you can buy in Ukraine and Garry's new rake he bought in the village!
Yesterday Garry drove the corn planter back to the farm he borrowed (rented?) it from in Molozaharina and had an interesting encounter. A couple guys waved him down, and since he could not figure out what they wanted, he asked Victor, who he happened to be talking to on the phone, to speak to them. When he got the phone back, he discovered that they were customs agents trying to sell seized goods.
Yesterday afternoon, Maxim came back dissappointed from his meeting with the window people. Last fall he bought all new windows for his house, and had the company guys install them. Eight of the twelve windows had the glass crack from top to bottom (some were one piece windows, some opened, it didn't make any difference which kind) by spring. Some guys came out to look a couple weeks ago, and yesterday they told Max that it must have been too cold, or something, it wasn't their fault. Proving once again, a warranty in Ukraine is worthless. Maxim and Garry thought it might help that they had been installed by their guys, because they knew it would have been the installation at fault if they had done it themselves!
While Maxim was gone, Andrei came in the house to get Garry, somehow the fire inspector was outside. He said he was driving by and saw the big canvas barn and must inspect it. Garry suspected someone filed a complaint, but Victor says it is spring, so maybe he was driving around looking for income, since the inspector said we had dangerous fire hazard - wood- in the barn and it must be coated with something to retard fire. We knew there must be a reason why everything here is built with brick, steel and concrete, now we know, fire inspections! Everyone here is shocked with the idea of framing a house with wood in North America, asking why we are not worried about fires.
A couple days ago, Garry was at the closest gas station, filling up the tractor with diesel (must have been Friday or Saturday, when they were planting corn) when he saw a couple of guys come in on bicycles with big packs. As he was waiting inside the store, the guys put some stuff on the counter and the clerk asked them Va-meis-tiah? They looked blank, so Garry said She wants to know if you are paying for it together. The guys grinned and said "You're not Ukrainian!"
Turned out they were two brothers from Holland biking from there to Mongolia. They had been on the road for 50 days already, and had stopped for some snacks, and like most younger Dutch people are pretty good English speakers (good thing, because Garry only knows a couple words in Dutch.) They plan to take the Trans-Siberian railroad to Moscow and then fly home at the end of their bike trip. They told him they weren't worried about traveling here, although the highways are rough and the drivers a little aggressive, when Garry asked if Ukrainian traffic scared them.
The kittens are doing well outside, Garry gave away the black one and the striped male, but the striped one only went to the people next door and returned the next day! They hang out with the big kittens from last year, sometimes sneak in the door for some catfood and wrestling with their mom Box, and I think that Needles, who is enjoying outdoors more than indoors since spring has sprung is trying to show them the joying of bird chasing...or tree climbing.
Monday morning, sad news, one of the cows had a dead bull calf overnight, Yana stayed up until one am, because she thought it might calve. Too bad I didn't know, I could have sent Garry out to check on the cows when the Flyers game was over.
There is another cow due soon, a good Holstein-looking milker, so Garry is hoping for a heifer calf from her. If it is a bull calf it goes to the most recent guy who promised Max a tractor-driving licence, a relative of Yulia, Max's fiance. He came to buy brewers grain on the weekend, with the licence in hand, it has been almost two years of trying to get Max this licence - yes, in Ukraine it is an important thing if you want to drive a tractor off the yard, Garry shows his Canadian drivers licence and tells them it is good for cars and tractors- which is true!
Maxim has been locking the tractor and walking home if he sees the police in the village checking documents. They keep telling him they would arrest him for this, and the day before the licence came, he got pulled over in the neighbor's big old payloader (the multi-colored one in the photo) on the street. Maxim managed to talk his way out of it, asking why they pulled him over, when they had no cause, he was obeying all traffic rules. They said the tractor could be Mafia-owned , and he said what would the mafia want with a rusty old tractor? then it could be stolen, and Max said that they see it here in the village every week, so they gave up and let him go. NEXT TIME HE CAN SHOW THEM his official LICENCE!
Finally- here is the giant bee trapped in the back of the Lada on Saturday, Garry was bringing more corn seed out to the field with the car, when we spotted this three-inch-long bee that that flew inside while he had the back open... we let it fly out the door after taking the photo!
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