Today as we left the building after teaching and lunch, it was still hot and muggy but some clouds were overhead... the kind that look like there could be thunderstorms. Today's weather had a chance of them, but the general light rain and cooler weather system is supposed to arrive Tuesday.
Garry has been hoping for a significant amount of rain. The first corn planted, the fields that started tasseling a couple weeks ago, has three or four dead leaves at the bottom of the plants because of the hot dry weather. Since it has not gotten up to the cobs, he is hoping it will make a comeback. The later corn that has just started tasseling will be in good shape if it rains.
We had to make a stop to buy a water pump, the one at the new farm stopped working today, Max had phoned Garry around one. We were already planning to stop at
Nova Lenya (
like Home Depot) to buy a couple of
scoffs (wardrobes) for the new grad student apartments (
right now we are getting two apartments ready, and hoping for the electric hookup soon so they can move in), since we are still driving the big Mercedes van and they are so tall- 2.5 meters.
That's right, still no sign of getting our vehicle back with a fixed air conditioner, it didn't get finished Friday, they don't work at the shop on the weekend...
It took some time, first we talked to a couple people (store employees) about how to buy the
scoffs near the door, without much success; apparently we needed to find the
scoff department, so we looked for the furniture to assemble section, but first Garry hunted down the water pump. He decided on one, and told the guy we'd be back when he had it boxed up, and continued our quest for the
scoffs...
We found them, and ordered a couple, after looking at all of them. Garry even walked one of the ladies over to the ones at the front... nope, they had none of those, but we finally selected one model. One of the sales ladies noticed our interest in
stools and stoles (chairs and tables) and we picked out two matching tables with four nice actual stools instead of chairs for each apartment since they are very normal here, and looked sturdy. Garry went to pick up the pump. When we got back, there was the alarming sight of them taking the display model apart. Only one in a box, apparently. We switched our order to one like that and one like this - doors with out mirrors on one, so we could get them in boxes, without having one taken apart. I selected some garbage cans, then he found a faucet we need for one of the showers -it seems a few small things have walked away from the work site.
Eventually a couple guys brought the boxes of
scoff pieces. At one point in time one of the ladies walked past- they had seated us in a couple of office rolling computer chairs while we were waiting- and said it would be ready by X time and Garry asked if it would be
savonya illy zaftdra (today or tomorrow), she smiled and assured him today. The guys helped push the carts- we had three at this point- to the checkout...
...where the checkout girl counted and scanned and searched everything, checked out our
chek from the furniture department which listed everything we had selected there and the prices (
the last time we shopped I had to buy one piece of tile on one transaction because it had one of those cheks from the tile departemnt, so it had to be separate from the other stuff we bought) which became one charge on the credit card, then she scanned everything else onto a second receipt and charge.
Of course, as soon as we walked through the end of the checkout, there was a security guard, with one hand out for the receipts. She then proceeded to remind Garry to get the guarantee on it so he took the second receipt over to the desk, and they stapled it to the guarantee and stamped it. Meanwhile she checked every box and number on the furniture order Then she wanted the second receipt, which Garry had placed in the pump box. One of the guys helping push was even rolling his eyes as she checked every single trash can, every tiny bag against the receipt. Never know when the people spending big bucks might try to sneak an extra trash can or trowel out of the store.
Finally we were free to go, and the guys helped load the stuff in the van, in the rain. We didn't get that wet and Garry drove home checking out the amount and depth of puddles. He had decided that there was less the further we got from the city and by the time we got to the village, it hadn't rained much and had been over for a while. We drove past the new shed, the crew is back working on it today, the steel arrived but seems like it was slow progress on the back wall today.
With the rain in the forecast, Max had found someone to start combining this morning as the guy we've been waiting on was still working on his own wheat. They got fifteen acres done before it rained, looks like it is doing 60 bushels to the acre.
When Garry tried to drive out to check on the the fields, he was surprised that it had rained more than he thought because he nearly got stuck with the Mercedes . Some of the corn was knocked down, but luckily the wheat was not. Now for the front to come through and give us some gentle rain, With any luck the car will be done by tomorrow afternoon.... maybe.
When Garry and I went out to the bee hives on Saturday, I finally got a photo of a bird I have been trying to get a pic of for years, we often see them when going out to the fields in the woods, but never seem to get close enough to focus the camera before they fly away. As you can see they have a very unusual head, and a distinctive wing pattern. My quest will continue to get closer before they fly off, a very shy kind of bird.
It's looking like the rain last week saved the corn for now, but with the temps going up this week as we finish our last week of English teaching, Garry will be checking the forecast and praying for more rain to save the corn crop again before he leaves for a couple weeks at home on the seventh of August.
The wheat is all combined, they had to wait a couple days after the rain for it to dry enough, but Garry and Max are pleased with the results, the better fields yielded 60 bushels to the acre, the poorer ones did 45. Not bad considering that it was planted so late because of the dry fall last year and the fungus this spring.
Garry went out to check on the bee hives around noon.Victor has not been out since his injury, so Garry was checking if they had filled the frames he and Max put in last week.
He did not get stung, although I was wondering what would happen if a bee flew up his shorts. The yellow hive needs to have some honey removed, its so full they are building honeycomb on the ceiling.
Today we went to the annual picnic- to eat way too much under the hot sun. There was a big turnout of students past and present. I made timbits (donut holes)to bring and Garry even cooled off and swam in the river.
The crew arrived Monday to put up the building. That didn't take long at all after the concrete was poured, did it? They brought their own cots to sleep on, but Max spent time on Monday getting the water and septic working so they could use the front apartment the graduated guys will be moving into. Max's mother-in-law is cooking dinner for them. On the way home from our first day of teaching English we had to stop and pick up some supplies for Max to connect a few pipes. We got some caulk, but he had already caulked the shower when we got back. The other bathrooms will need doing anyway.
