Tuesday to Thursday- crops and other stuff

Not really sure what's going on today, other than Garry, Victor, Maria and the group home parents had their regular weekly meeting in the living room at 11 am. I was in bed and I could hear them talking about Karina (a favorite topic). Yesterday I must have eaten something bad, or I finally caught what Garry had on Saturday, I was sick to my stomach last night, and again this morning, and spent the morning in bed.

Tuesday field work continued to prepare land to plant winter wheat, they got the new cultivator working well after some more adjustments on Monday, some of the prongs were going in too deep at first.

Artem going by with the flail chopper

 Remember they had to clean the sunflower seed after harvest because of all the weeds? The discing of the sunflower fields was almost finished on Tuesday, they went over them twice with the disc after using the flail chopper to cut up the stalks and weeds left after combining the sunflowers. Garry is really hoping some new protocols for next year will help reduce weeds next year. He was hoping that they would be able to start planting wheat Wednesday.

almost done

Since Sunday Max has been busy in the village working with the man with the grain cleaner to clean some of our wheat that we grew that was saved to use for planting. They are also applying fungicide to it after cleaning before it goes into the wagon, then it is being stored in the new shed until it is planted. The pink stuff will mean we should have less trouble with fungus in the growing wheat like we had this spring.

Max had found someone selling some "high quality" name brand seed wheat somewhere, but when it arrived Wednesday afternoon, Garry sent it back. He said the guy on the phone tried to say he'd already bought it so he had to pay for it, but he paid for the trucking to send it here and back instead. It was full of fusarium, with lots of shriveled up, misshapen kernels from the disease.  He was willing to pay to send it back, and not plant it. First quality, my foot.

money changer and pawn shop too

Tuesday morning we went to pay for the combining of the corn. Originally Vitaly had told them he had a deal where they could sell some of the corn and they planned to pay from the proceeds, but it had fallen through, so we had to go to Zap to change some money, before driving in the other direction to pay at his place of business.

Garry heading into pay for the combining

Altogether it took about 2 1/2 hours from when we left the village at 8 am, after Garry had made a batch of feed for the cows with the TMR. He says then he knows what the cows are eating. The other day he made the students take away a bunch of hay that they were not supposed to have fed the cows.





Poor Garry, some days he gets frustrated, like Tuesday when the hydraulic hose on the skid steer blew apart. He discovered it as he was driving back into the village after spending several hours driving the second year students in for their classes in Dnepro that afternoon. It was the same hose that broke last week and was fixed by taking it somewhere and getting a new end put on. Now after watching 40 liters of hydraulic oil pour out on the street for the second time in two weeks (2000 grivna times two for the oil, 1000 for the original fix) he's wondering why they didn't buy a new hose (maybe there was none to buy)...

and then the guys were trying to pull it away with the loader tractor and they weren't trying it in the right way when were were leaving to go to our Bible study gathering in Zaporosia, so he stopped to help out, got dirty and had to go home and clean up before leaving again.

Tuesday night when we got home from Zap we checked to make sure the milk had been moved over to the milk tank to cool and saw the grain drill hooked up and ready to go by the barn. It's been a constant dance to move milk this week, with our van spending a couple days getting the alternator fixed; often there isn't a van here to move the milk when they are done milking.

Wednesday morning the guys did get started planting wheat, Kolya and Sasha (grad students) were out there to help load seed into the planter, so I made them some sandwiches and hot tea because it was cool and misty out. Mid-afternoon they had to stop because there was a sudden downpour. The rain came off and on all afternoon.

Garry and I were off to our (every other) Wednesday follow up group, after I made soup for Masha, Victor and Pasha (the guy from our church in Dnepro Garry hired to finish Luda's reno). I guess I should have eaten the soup instead of going out for dinner before the class! We hit some more rain on the way there.

Thursday morning the grad guys were back at work in the attic on the insulation, since it was too wet to plant. I am looking forward to having a warmer house. They are building a floor over part of it so it can still be used for storage.

It was a little unnerving to hear loud bangs overhead while I was lying in bed. Some nails have come through in some of the rooms and some cracks have appeared between walls and ceilings, but we will fix it when they are done.

Up in the attic. Yes the old Mennonite fireplace is still up there

Exciting news, Garry and the crew will be moving the cows again in the morning. The milk company installation guys were back today and ran the pump for three hours without any problems. They even threw in soap to clean the pipeline for the first month, and charged less that Garry thought they might for installation!

That's Nina, the new student on the end

 He is off to Zap to drop off Maria, who was here to meet the new student and the Christian group from Kherson who brought her out today. They toured our facilities and even brought lunch with them. Good thing since I was not up to looking at food this morning,

 Garry needed to pick up a few parts at the home supply store to get everything running over at the "new barn" tomorrow. I decided to stay home, although I am feeling better, I even ate some tea and toast, my mother's favorite remedy for sick people.