More about our trip back

Here are a few photos and stories from our trip back from Canada. I left my poor United / Austrian Air abused suitcase in Manitoba, (No I have not heard back from them online, since I sent them photos- they said I needed to flie a claim at the Newark airport in the only reply I got, after I went to Manitoba!)

 and brought Garry's black one back with his baseball bat and silage fork handle and hay hooks... in it along with my stuff (mostly prizes for Summer English Institute which starts on Monday and yarn and my clothes) Why didn't Garry have his own suitcase?

Garry got this box from a nice semen dealer in Manitoba

Because he had a box with an extra (empty- he poured the liquid nitrogen out) semen tank that the boys had on the farm in it and few other things he had stuffed inside with it. He was a little worried about it being rejected at the airport, so we brought a empty suitcase and Jessy and James, who drove us to the airport on Sunday morning,  hung around until we were checked in at the airport. As you can see in the photo, the Delta people in Winnipeg were kind enough to stick fragile stickers on it and place it with the oversize luggage place so it would get special treatment.

When we arrived in Kiev, we went through passport control and headed to the luggage conveyor, nothing was coming out yet, so Garry took a walk around while I waited, he didn't see a place to pickup oversize items anywhere (there is a lost and found)  As the belt started moving, he was having a discussion about money changing with the nice Canadian ladies from our Paris flight who were waiting for their luggage, and the first thing that fell down the slope was his box! Luckily, when we opened it after the drive back here from Kiev it was still in good shape, in fact the bottom was still frozen, two days after he dumped out the liquid nitrogen! He is excited about using this new tank for breeding cows, as soon as he gets it filled.

The new tank is smaller and uses less liquid nitrogen

Here is the photo of the new car I promised in the last post....

the 'NEW' used Ford transit

It has air conditioning as promised, and better shocks- heavy duty as it is on a truck chassis, and room for five milk jugs in the back (and it is a diesel). However I did find one problem with it, after Garry drove up where I was waiting by the terminal. He had walked over to get the car from the parking lot, using what was left of his grivna (he had traded for some for US dollars for the ladies who needed to get a taxi to their hotel) to pay the fees for two weeks of parking.

My seatbelt wouldn't fasten into the holder! It is not the same size!

one of these things is not like the other!

After we ate at McDonalds, halfway home, I discovered that my belt could clip into Garry's which made me feel safer- so we came to and agreement - I would use his until he gets mine fixed. It seems our van was imported into Ukraine from Germany, and retrofitted as a passenger van, and seatbelts were not a priority in the remont!

Anyway, it has been a busy week, we got home Monday and fell into bed, Tuesday morning Garry unpacked his box, and went out to see his corn field (he is very pleased with it, it is taller than he is and in tassel) on the tractor since it was too wet to take the car. That night he was off to breed someone's cow.
He has pulled a giant heifer calf from Yana's mother's favorite cow Lada. She calved two weeks late, I guess she was waiting for Garry to return. It is her third heifer calf in three years, but she has had a little trouble recovering, and is tied to one of the apple trees now, she is getting up and down, but still a little sore. Today there was a much smaller heifer calf born.

Today the agitator on the milk tank broke, so Garry dropped the broken part at the machine shop that has made stuff for him before in Dnepro, they will have it ready after lunch tomorrow.

On Monday they plan to start combining the big wheat field and then there will be straw to bale... however Garry will be busy teaching English for the next three weeks, so he won't be stacking bales himself, good thing the boys in the village are happy to get paid 100 grivna for a day's work.

And, no, the seatbelt is not fixed yet!