finally the combine came....

Last weekend, Garry told me the combine would be here to do the corn on Monday. Maxim had talked to several guys and this one would do it for corn instead of cash up front... however on Monday he called Max and said he needed to fix something on the combine. Then it was another part that needed to be imported, then... anyway, it got to be Thursday, and it still wasn't ready to go.  Finally on Friday morning, Garry told Max to call some of the other guys, soon he had three combines that could be here Saturday. Then one reduced his price and came out late Friday afternoon... the winner!

Unfortunately, the storm that was so good for the wheat fields- there are green fields everywhere now, and even more fields have been seeded in the last week or two since the rain came. Garry and the guys just planted the last acres over by the barn that were in sudan grass this summer,(they worked it up after the rain and the field dried some) so that whole large field is planted to winter wheat now, and mostly looking bright green.









Garry had to stop and check out how the combining was going before we drove to Dnepropetroesk around 4 pm Friday afternoon and decided  the header had to be set as low as possible to try to get more of the corn into the combine. That means only losing like 20% instead of more. It will be a good year for gleaners! We really have people who take bags out into fields that have been harvested and pick up ears of corn and sunflower heads that the combines have missed.

Who are all these people?
 (one is the manager for new big farmer trying to take over in the village)

Garry and Dennis checking how much corn is on the ground

Did I mention we have company? Dennis and Sandy Ford are here for a few days after spending some time in Kirvoy Rog with Curtis, who was kind enough to drive them over here. They are flying home on Wednesday. They are retired farmers who are mission associates and visit Ukraine working with orphans and had been in Kramatorsk in February on their last trip here, but cannot go visit the apartment they are renting there in eastern Ukraine.

The combine

Garry walking back to say we need to get the header down 

everyone walking back to look for ears of corn, and agree with him

The problem weak, storm battered corn plants

Fixing the combine this morning

welding on the combine

Lots of advise for the welder

So this from this morning until after one o'clock they were welding on the points of the combine because they were pretty missed up  so they can go low and slow while harvesting, hopefully it works! Garry just returned from driving into Dnepropetroesk, he said he was going out to check on the combine because it wasn't moving in the field. Should be dry until about when we leave on vacation next Friday, it better be finished by then!

They did get some corn combined and into the bin in the barn,

See, there's Garry, Andrey and Max Boradin hard at work on the bucket brigade.