Saturday

I had forgotten why we didn't go check out AG EXPO in Kirvograd today (every year we see billboards for it but we never get there) but it was just as well since Garry was feeling under the weather, so to speak.  He had some of the grad guys continuing to assemble the new cultivator, (it arrived yesterday, and if it works well they plan to tear the old old apart and make it wider like this one) so he popped outside to see how it was going from time to time, since Max was off to an all day Bible study course in Dnepro, and his brother Artem and Tractorist Sasha were out working in the fields.
Around noon Garry had taken off to Solone to check if he could buy hydraulic hoses for the new cultivator (it needed two but none came with it). Unfortunately the DneproTractor dealer was closed when he got there and on his way Maria called to say the visitors that had talked to her about coming to see the farm and talk about starting dairy farming had arrived in the village.

Yeah, that was why we couldn't go... Thursday and Friday didn't work either, we are just too busy.  As I said Garry spent most of the day between trying to do stuff, lying on the couch and spending time in the bathroom, so it was good we were at home.

Anyway I went out to greet the visitors, Garry told me that they had a translator, which turned out to be people who knew a few words of English so I got grad student Kolya to tour them around a bit while Garry drove back home.

Kids always want to climb the bale pyramid

Garry talked to them for a while in Russian about dairy farming. Right now he is telling people it's not a great idea if you want to make money since the price of milk here is half the world price which is in a low dip in the cycle right now.

 We do not make money milking cows in Ukraine, and have not for almost three years, or since the government fell, and Russia quit buying Ukrainian milk. The price of milk is only thing people buy that has not gone up here.

Notice Garry is sitting to talk to them, he really felt bad today

Then we helped them get some of the tables in the yard prepped for a picnic meal, and went inside so Garry could lay down again. They were kind enough to come knock on the door and invite us to join them, but Garry did not eat all day, so we excused ourselves.

They came to the door to thank us before they left, but Garry had slipped out without them seeing to scout for equipment with hydraulic hoses he could borrow for the new cultivator. Kolya was looking for him too, but since the van was still parked I said he had to be on the yard somewhere.  They did find him as they were getting to their cars, and gave him a bag of leftover cookies (since neither of us were up to eating them I later gifted Kolya with them for their apartment, when he came in to say they were finished with the cultivator). Garry told me they had to redo some things as grad Sasha (we also have a new student named Sasha, it's a very popular name) kept putting things on backwards.

Garry got Max and Sergey from the group home to drive the students into the Just For Youth meeting in Zaporosia this evening since he was feeling so bad.  I am a little worried that it is a flu (and I may catch it) since we can't think of something he ate yesterday that would cause food poisoning. He went to bed early, let's hope he's better by morning since he is teaching English after church tomorrow.

Sunday morning update_ yes, he is feeling better, and drinking coffee. So far, so good on it not being contagious.