What I do all day

Garry tells people I crochet all day, but some days I don't get much done on play food and teddy bears for the grandchildren. Some days it seems all I do is answer the door and say that Garry is not here.

I always write about what Garry is doing, now that spring (and nearly summer) has arrived he is out in the fields or finding other things to keep busy. He keeps saying he has to quit teaching his English conversation classes in Dnepro (only three days left- today, tomorrow and next Friday afternoon) because he is missing hours of daylight that he could be farming or building or... doing something with the students.

Cucumbers had a little frost damage

Since Garry is so busy I have taken over the garden this year, spending an hour or two every morning hoeing and weeding. After having to hunt down the hoe and rake several times in the last couple weeks (the students carry them off to the barn) Garry suggested I save the 20 minutes looking for them, so now they are in the house instead of the shop/shed attached to the house. While I am still waiting for some stuff to come up, it's now looking less weedy out there anyway.

This morning while I was hoeing, I heard the sound of a calf breathing hard, which normally means pneumonia, so I walked over to the shed next to the garden to check it out. I then realized that the problem was the baler twine around the heifer's neck (no one took them off when they moved them from the barn last week) which had gotten so tight it was impeding her  ability to breathe. So I walked back to the house to get something to cut it off. I slipped through the bars of the gate of the pen and walked in circles following her until she put her head thorough the gate. I slid the knife under the plastic baler twine and cut it off. I may get Garry to give her some antibiotics just in case she does have pneumonia.

I got another calf to stand there long enough to cut hers, too, but then I tried to get a couple more and one jumped the fence... well half jumped it, her back legs were still in the pen, so I climbed back out and walked to the garden side of the fence, picked up her front legs and pushed her back in the pen. She isn't very big, so it was not difficult. She had jumped and gotten stuck where the top broken board was that I had been eyeing up while hoeing this week, so I was off to find a hammer, nails and a board.

Eventually I found a non-claw hammer in the shop/shed, a couple of nails Dima had left behind on the ground next to Bear's doghouse where his building project (see next  hopefully Monday's post for the finished project) has been ongoing this week. I hunted all over for a long board and eventually found a nice one by four-ish board under the shed where the baler and other machinery stay, and carried everything around to the heifer shed, and nailed it over top of the last board, so its a little higher and all the way across, so the next time someone is chasing them for something, no calf thinks she can make it over the fence there. Hopefully no heifer will be running in the garden eating corn this summer, too!

 I just have to get Garry to help me get the last three calves out of the potential killer baler twine necklaces later today.

  Leila and I did it Saturday afternoon, I got a little dirty, but she was determined to get them off when she came to the door at 4 o'clock, so I got the knife, after she showed me them. No one jumped over the fence, anyway!

 He went off to pick up the latest shipment of stuff for the irrigation system at Nova Posta in Zaporosia (think shipping company-called- New Post Office- they are immensely popular to send stuff around the country, there are dozens of outlets in the cities.) He had to get more stuff there Saturday morning before racing off to teach Saturday afternoon.

When I got back in the house I realized we were out of purified water for field drinking (Garry has been making sandwiches and hauling cold bottles of water for the students helping with the irrigation project the last couple days) so I spent some time balancing empty pop and water bottles under the tap (on top of a small can) to fill them, and put them in the fridge for later. Then I did a little crocheting and planned out what's for lunch (answer- something with fresh spinach).

 Later today Garry is teaching English and I will go along to do some serious shopping, somehow Garry thought that not many students from his school would pay for an excursion out the the village on a bus, with a Canadian style picnic, when it was suggested a month or  two ago, since they would charge 200 grivna- 80 for the transportation the school was coordinating and 120 person for the lunch. We'd BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs, I'd make potato salad, and there would be ice cream sundaes. He thought there might be a dozen people coming out this Sunday afternoon. but he was wrong there are four dozen coming, 48 people signed up.
 Turns out I forgot that we are supposed to be teaching a "master class" in making potato salad, so I have prepped stuff on Saturday, and we'll be chopping up ingredients and assembling the potato salad, coleslaw and mixing up brownies with the 46 people out in the cheese room (good thing the equipment isn't in there yet.) Hamburger patties are made and in the very full fridge for Sunday.

So tomorrow I'll be working on peeling potatoes We got everything but the potatoes yesterday, he bought those today, lovely new potatoes that I boiled with the skins on.and making brownies (not done yet) to go with the ice cream. I think coleslaw and macaroni tuna salad (I did make that)will be added to the menu to stretch out the potato salad, along with chips and pickles.



Well, better make lunch for Garry, and maybe some sandwiches for a half dozen students in the field. Easy. I may even get more crocheting done. I admit the grandkids are getting a pile of things when I do go home this summer.