Almost

This afternoon Garry was going to do milk testing on the cows to see how much milk each cow gives. He picked up the meters from the Ukrainian Canadian Dairy people on Friday when he and Victor went to their office to buy more (frozen) North American semen to inseminate cows with. Unfortunately the hoses were too short to connect the meters to the milking machines, so they will try again, after Victor picks up longer hoses from the office in Dnepro. It will be interesting to see how much milk the cows give after a couple generations of Holstein breeding.

Shannon's crocuses are blooming

 Garry is still going out to breed cows a couple times a week. He says he is practicing social distancing while in people's yards and barns breeding their cows. He also bought a little calf and a yearling heifer from some people in the village.

Someone painted that door white finally

Garry is still busy with a couple students on the finishing work (except the flooring, that will have to wait) on the house for Oksana, Kolya and baby to move into. On Sunday they were even working without Garry, they say they have nothing better to do, I took a couple photos.

Vika likes babysitting

Today is Nikolai's birthday. Garry had been buying shoes for the students for their birthdays, however, by the time we go shopping, who knows how many pairs that will be. This will be the third pair we need to buy when the shops open up again. Julia and Kolya had birthdays since March 17th, also. I am baking a cake for Nikolai to pick up, and have a small gift for now.

Cake is out. Looks flatter than usual, but I'm sure the students will enjoy it.

Here's the no entry sign the students made for the work site.  As of yesterday, everyone on the street must wear a mask and not be in groups of more than two people, except for parents with children,( or workers, I believe) until the 24th (although an extension is expected). There is a 1700 grivna fine, the students tell me. Children under 14 are not allowed on the street without a parent, and you need to carry ID. Also all people entering the country will spend two weeks in supervised quarentine, in a hotel or hospital, I think. Too many coming back were not staying in self isolation apparently.

Yesterday Garry fixed the leak in our bedroom wall again. I had less mildew to kill tan in the fall, but realized we were getting water on the closet floor again. Good thing its cement

Garry did run into the city this morning to pick up more glue for the trusses that Andrey Rudei has been building. The trusses are to make the straw storage bigger. Garry says they lost half the straw that was not under the shed. Andrey has a ship job lined up but he needs to pay a down payment to get it, it seems, he has been working on ships for the last two years, since he took an underwater welding course. His English is improving, apparently you can get to work on better ships with English.

Max, a guy from the village and various helpers are working in the garage (shop) rebuilding the transmission on the tractor. They had split it this winter and rebuilt the engine and some other stuff, but when they put it back together, they found a new problem. Its about ten years old, the first tractor Garry bought here.

Well we are having staff meeting at four, since Victor will be out, so I'd better finish up. I'll put on a facemask and walk over two houses to take some photos first. Here's Victor assembling one of the beds, and Garry looking over the kitchen as installed. He's going to add a countertop on the opposite wall next to the fridge with uppers over it.

I never really liked that t-shirt, it's a mask now

Bunkbeds for when Matthew gets bigger, the crib will fit too

Entryway- still working on finishing