Ready for spring?

Garry is busy getting ready for spring planting time. Last year when they harvested the sunflowers, they put them in storage at the mill in Zaporozhye. Garry planned to sell them in the spring and have enough money to buy the seed and fertilizer for this spring. Maxim Rudei is now glad they did this, one of the local farmers stored his at home and now the mill won't accept his sunflowers because of quality issues. It took a little longer than they thought to sell them, get the money in the bank and available to buy the fertilizer last week. They hoped to do it all in one day, to hit the high price for the sunflowers, and buy the fertilizer before the price went up.
They had to go back to Zap the second afternoon, and after standing in line for an hour at the bank to transfer money to the fertilizer plant, they were told they needed another identity document. Luckily they had visited a different office where Max had submitted this document so they went back there to get a copy made (I can't remember if this had to do with registering land or the electricity project, but they have been registering more rented land after winning a court case, they will have all the plots in the big field near the barn. ) They returned to the bank to discover that the bank was closed for lunch, so they had to wait some more. Eventually they were able to pay, get the documents and Max made arrangements to get a truck to pick up the fertilizer in Dnepropejisk (where they make fertilizer) the next day. He ended up having to drive there with our vehicle the next day to get the truck loaded, I think they needed to see the actual document.
 However, now most of the fertilizer is bought and in storage here on the farm. Garry will still need to buy some fertilizer, since the price is so high this year. Garry plans to buy Ukrainian corn seed, he says it is about the same price as last year. Anything imported has continued to zoom up in price, a month ago the grivna was 20 to an American dollar, this weekend you can sell dollars for 32 grivna. No one knows where it will stop, with the problems in eastern Ukraine still ongoing. Gas and diesel has gone up again at the stations, Garry used to pay 400 grivna to fill the tank of the Ford, now it's a thousand. That difference will hurt when its time to fill the tractor everyday for planting. Good thing much of the land was planted in winter wheat last fall.

The farm show (more pics on birds eye blog)

Delivery truck with the spreader

Garry's new fertilizer spreader he bought in Kiev at the farm show arrived last week. The previous one never worked well, it threw more on one side than the other as it went across the field, and last fall some part broke that they had trouble replacing, so he decided on getting a better one.

Today Garry is in Zaporosia getting the alternator fixed on the car, second time since he bought it, actually. We were stuck sitting at the mall on Saturday after my follow up dentist appointment until Victor came to the rescue with an extra battery. Garry had no problems yesterday going to church and visiting and English class, but he drove without his lights on except when passing the police checkpoints. Hopefully he remembers to buy cat food, Box is not a fan of eating dog food. I am cutting back on Advil to the recommended daily dosage, my tooth? gum? is feeling not so bad now, throat still sore, likely the mono.