Saturday- tours and cows and cleanups

We were considering having a school picnic today, we have been going to do it a few times this week but it has not worked out, but a combination of events has postponed it. The forecast is for rain (possibly heavy) and although it has been misty/drizzly out at times today it has not started raining. However, most of us are so busy this afternoon outing has been postponed. Now I have a pile of hot-dogs waiting in my fridge, that I bought last night.

Good thing we did- the rain has started just after two pm.

Garry and Max are helping the ladies milk again this afternoon. He set an alarm and was up and over to the "new barn" at 5 am this morning. The cows have been over to there for more than 24 hours and are being milked for the fourth time (not quite all of them- one was backwards in the parlor the first time through!)
 So far the equipment has all worked, although they are still fine-tuning a few things. Like installing that washing machine we bought last weekend, so they can wash the towels they are using to clean off udders. I have washed them twice in my washer.
Max is raising the gates higher at the end of the parlor, since some of the cows are trying to jump them and everyone is afraid the cows might get hurt. One cow got stuck while trying to jump over the gate this morning and Garry was afraid she had broken her leg, but apparently it was just the gate making the cracking noise they heard, because she was fine when she got down off the gate.

They are still working on fixing things after milking, Max just came to get the big drill. Garry is keeping a lot of the tools in the house these days, too many "walked away" this summer.

I got up early this morning too, keeping an eye on the baseball game on TV (they are on all night with the time change) while doing some cleaning. We had a tour coming this morning (we expected them around nine am, but Victor called to say he'd had a call that they were touring around the village first, maybe they'd arrive in an hour) a group from Manitoba that are part of the Mennonite celebration in Molachansk next week. We are invited to it on Wednesday, so watch for photos. We have a special group coming for lunch on Tuesday, so lots of shining up to do.

We are really working on cleaning up with the visitors coming today, three of the boys were helping clean up when the bus stopped here.  

This group was here at the house for more than an hour after touring the village to see Mennonite sites and before heading to another village. They are the Men's Faith and Life Choir, with some wives, as you can see in the photos. They came in the bus from the hotel (same bus as last week) and I offered coffee, cookies and bathrooms when they arrived, since Garry had to go to the field to help change wagons. He had the tractor here so a couple of the boys could help load some of the debris from the attic up for the dump, and they needed it when they changed fields.

 I started talking to them before Garry got back from his drive out to the field and when he returned he talked about crops, and the program with the orphans and living in Ukraine before having a short tour of the barns. I think they left on time to get to the next event on their schedule.

  It's always good to have visitors to talk to from Canada, and thanks to all of them who left money for the coffee, but I told you it was my pleasure! (we'll spend it on our students.)

Then we walked home and had lunch, made some to go out to the field for the guys helping out there, and then Garry was off to the barn for milking. The guys are trying to get as much wheat planted  as they can before the rain comes. Some of them are working on chopping and discing up another sunflower field to plant, while the others are planting wheat seed in the fields that are already prepared.

Must be wet in the fields now, first one of the boys brought back the thermos that the hot tea was in with the lunch, and now the tractor and the disc just drove in the lane way. 

The internet wasn't working when I finished this this afternoon, so I couldn't post it until after Saturday night student church at 6 pm. I left the camera home because it was raining pretty hard. It was a real deluge an hour later, I got my foot wet crossing the road to the car, it was like a river running along it,  there was even some lightning in the sky, I bet Polo is hiding somewhere.