Rain makes a difference

Here are some recent photos to show you what the recent wetter weather has done here in the village and area. The grass has made a real comeback, from brown everywhere to green. Here are some cows staked out on the cloverleaf on the highway near Nova Swit  enjoying actual grass to eat...a month ago they were there everyday with some dry brown weeds to munch on.

Coming up all over- little baby marigolds!

Strange, but true facts: Garry had planted seeds in his new flower bed this spring, some came up, and he planted some bedding plants. He watered them constantly (except when we were in Hungary and Canada- they looked pretty sad when we returned!) and they were just hanging on to life when the rain arrived, now after a couple weeks of regular rain, the petunias and marigolds are making a comeback. The really strange thing is dozens of little marigold plants have come up from the seeds he planted back in May! I don't think they will get a chance to bloom before the frost arrives this fall, but there they are!


The milker ladies planted morning glories after the guys finished the new fence- they dug them up from the flower bed by the summer kitchen where they have self-seeded  for years and they have really taken off with the rain.

Garry tells me his crop of millet is about 4 inches tall already, it has been cool, but it is supposed to be warmer next week, which should get it growing even better.

 Which is why I am suffering from smoke...having an allergy to smoke is not what you want in the village. Right now, everyone is cleaning up the weeds in the garden and yards, and they set them on fire in a nice pile in the evenings, which smokes and smoulders all night, filling the outdoors with nasty smelling smoke....which creeps into our bedroom around the plywood in the window the air conditioner vents through...
it better be hot enough that we want the A/C on, because there would be less smoke sneaking in with the windows shut...sadly still a little smoke, because the window in our bedroom is a little warped.

Back to crops  

There are 60 acres of winter wheat planted, and they may plant more as they are trying to locate some rye seed (rye will be a good spring crop to chop for silage) and have not found any to buy yet. 

Garry tells me the seeder they borrowed this year is much nicer than the one they have used for the last two years to plant with, most of the parts worked without trouble. The wheat should be up fast, it rained again a few hours after Maxim finished planting. Saturday Max finished working up the 

small field where the rye- or more wheat- will be planted next week

The millet is growing, and the hay is growing back, in fact they cut some on Saturday, the part of the field that was mowed earlier for the last cutting has grown back nicely. They will be feeding it as they go, the lack of brewers grain means that they will change the ration and feed more hay now. They got a small- six ton - load this morning, which will need to stretch for at least 10 days. This was from a new source and cost, with delivery, about 250 a ton instead of 150. They are still working on getting a new source,  and what they will be filling the ration with with less brewers grain for the winter... and what the cows will be eating if (and when) they can't get any...

Even the new seeding is green and the alfalfa is growing (not the weeds) 

early sunflowers, brown and dry

later sunflowers look bigger and better (and greener)

It seems one crop has done OK in Ukraine this summer, some of the sunflowers were combined in August, and have come close yielding a ton per acre hecacre, Garry tells me now or 400 lbs. an acre but just the good fields, most are running 100-200 pounds per acre- a normal year's yield would be 1000- and the price is good, so not bad. The later planted sunflowers may have been helped by the rain. They are not dry enough to combine, but the ones that were planted early are. The big hybrid sunflowers look better than the ones with small heads, for sure.




















 The pumpkin seed farmers are not looking at a good year, there aren't very many pumpkins in the fields and they are small ones. To make it worse, the plants have started flowering again after the rain, and I don't think they will make viable pumpkins to harvest for seed...the story of every farmer, what might have been, if it had only rained...