Quick the internet is working better

for a couple minutes any way...I'll try to load pictures. Garry just come in and said the irrigation water is back on, so the garden can get a good soaking before we go away for a couple days. He was excited to find a new charger cord for the GPS (the old one broke last year) in fact he bought two, since when he finally found one it was in a discount bin. He is assembling the small charcoal kettle BBQ we bought for camping at the beach for 50 grivna (about $6) He has already tried fitting the plug in the cig lighter powered cooler we bought last week for the trip- hurrah, the cord does reach  the plug from the back seat- I was worried about where my legs would be - since the Lada doesn't have A/C, at least the drinks will be cold.

Garry buying onions and plum tomatoes for salsa on the side of the highway

Salsa and pickles getting processed and cooling

 Here is the third cut hay- all of it! They are feeding it loose this week instead of taking the baler out there to bale it. They just raked it with the tractor and then picked it up with pitchforks and threw it in the little wagon. It was thundering that afternoon so Andrei backed it under the shed, but it wouldn't have gotten wet!

We finally got around to buying a new mailbox for the fence, Garry put it up this afternoon, so the mail lady doesn\t have to bring it to the door (mostly we just get the satellite bill once a month... but the milker ladies have a magazine subscription to TV guide - or the Russian version anyway.

This afternoon we went for a short drive to check out where the water from the irrigation pipe went when it broke. Garry stopped at the store for a glass of cold kavas (no English equal, it is a traditional drink made from fermented black bread) When we first came he did not like it but it has grown on him, he has a glass almost everyday. Everyone here says it has no alcohol in, or very little, even babies can drink it! I sometimes take a swig, but don't really like it.

Garry drinking and driving kavas

We found where the water ended up- in the ponds as you can see in the photos below. We also drove past the field Garry had corn in, it is all disked up now.  Then we went back to the house to watch more rhythmic gymnastics from the Olympics...and race walking, I am sure that they are all jogging, no wonder so many are getting DQed today. My favorite performance by a European athelete was the Dutch guy on the high bar, if you missed it, it must be somewhere on the internet, no wonder they call him the Flying Dutchmen.

the pond is really full now

Garry's corn field now

not sure what this field is supposed to be growing- what it is -ragweed

Ragweed is called ambrosia in Ukraine and Garry says that he saw some growing in the garden of the house that they are remodelling for the trade school that was six feet tall, in spite of the drought! It is allergy time in Ukraine as you may guess! We are heading to the sea in the early morning - it's light at 4 am now- about 6 or 7 hours of driving to camp on the beach, but it will be cooler early in the day, afternoon the air coming in the windows of the Lada can be like an oven!

Now I'll keeeping clicking the publish button until you can see this...