Let me sum up the highlights of the last couple days...
Thursday morning, 5:55 am. It's been light out since about 4 am, often Garry is up already, listening to a sermon online and drinking coffee, but today we are sound asleep when someone knocks on the bedroom window. I once found this startling, irritating even, but after ten years less so, especially if there's a good reason, and there is. There's a problem at the barn, a cow is calving and having problems.
Garry dressed quickly and went to help out. I got up and went out to pick the peas. Every two days for the last couple weeks I am out in the garden before it gets hot to pick, first over at the Crawford's where they put up netting for them to grow on, then our garden, where I lean over and pick them off the ground. I freeze the extras, and make stir-fry for lunch every other day, I think Valentina may be getting tired of eating them. Then I watered some of the flowers in the Crawford front yard that Garry planted recently.
When I was done, Garry was home for breakfast, and reported that it was a set of twins, after pushing one calf leg leg back into the cow, he'd pulled out a red and white heifer calf, unfortunately followed by a black and white bull calf. Heifers twin to bull calves are very rarely fertile when they grow up. Yana said the cow is twelve years old and this is her fourth set of twins. We don't often have twins here in Ukraine for some reason, but apparently this cow does.
I seems like there were a few more things happening that day, but I don't remember them all. Oh, I started cleaning the spare room for the girls moving back in with the arrival of the new guys soon (they will live where the two girls moved to). I had to clean, but the more difficult task, find places to put everything stored under the bed, in the closet and the wardrobe. Just all spare towels, sheets, camping supplies, extra stuff, craft stuff, yarn, VBS supplies, SEI stuff - I brought back novels for youth English institute we won't be using this year.
The hay was not ready to bale as Garry had hoped, it was hot, but not windy and rather humid. They did some work on the shed they are building behind Kolya's new house. The guys did rake over (turn over to finish drying and get ready for baling) the headlands (first couple times they go all the way around before they start going up and down rows, so its easy to turn around. They did bale the headlands while we were on a run to Dnepro. Alona had come in, just after Garry had come in the house for the evening. Nikolai, her husband, had gone to the city to find a job two weeks ago. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of hiring right now with the virus, and he was still jobless and broke, he couldn't afford the bus back to the village. Off we went to find him, with Alona and little Danil buckled into the seat behind us (in the van, the car was in the shop).
Friday morning Garry was up early and went out to rake hay. He came back at noon for lunch and told me he had six guys (including Nikolai) in the field that could use lunch. After we ate, I thawed ground beef in the microwave, cooked some noodles, fried up the meat, adding tomato paste and spices while Valentina walked to the store to buy bread (baby was sleeping) while Garry had a twenty minute nap.
Angelina woke up while I was still cooking, so I put her into her bouncy chair while I finished and packed it into seven plastic boxes and sliced up the loaf of bread and added a couple bottles of homemade ice tea in the bag for the guys. Garry took it out to the field. He brought back the empty containers and went to check on wagon unloading.
I didn't see him until after six pm. I did see Victor, who had driven out from the city to check on the bees. We started the year with two hives, but now have five, Victor is worried about the queens in two. After Victor left, I looked for Garry, Valentina didn't have enough formula for the baby to last until we take the students shopping Saturday at five pm, and the second time Oksana had come in (apparently in the morning she'd borrowed diapers from Valentina), I got her to tell me what she needed (she's still shy, and just looks for Garry) so we needed to go buy diapers and formula. We missed the student shopping trip last weekend when the van was in the shop getting repaired.
I found Garry at home, after I drove to the farm and the field without finding him, with a couple visitors who are trying to buy milk for cheese making. One spoke English. Garry was exhausted, he'd thrown off three loads of hay to go in the shed so they could refill the wagons (they did seven loads, they're running two balers now) and asked me to drive to Zaporosia myself.
Right then, some of the students showed up with a baby owl a babushka had given them that fell out of the nest. She thought a cat would eat him. We found him a laundry basket in the house to stay in. Max came in to say the car was done, so now Garry was going with me, I drove there after the van was filled up with diesel by Garry while I cleaned the windshield at the gas station (traffic was crazy busy on the highway with people heading to the seaside). We noticed a house pulling a wagon heading in the other direction with a old couple in, moving slowly along the edge of the road as cars whizzed past.
We found a bank machine so Garry could pay for the repairs, then found the right street and house. Garry drove the van home while I found a gas station (the low light was on for the car, of course) and a grocery store. It was nearly dark when I went by that horse and wagon, he really needed a reflector on the back, hopefully they were almost home and made it safely. I dropped off the pampers and came in the house with my stuff and the formula. Angelina had just had her bath, her father was out from the city for the second Friday night in a row, and he brought gifts: pampers, baby wipes, diaper cream and a jar of food she can eat in a few months.
I quickly took my melting ice cream, spread it in containers and sliced bananas and added toppings for a dessert for the student dinner Monday evening.
Today was like yesterday, Garry went and raked hay first thing, I picked peas. We tried to feed the baby owl. Then he went to unload the wagons and discovered the guys had started at 6:30 am and were done already. I did some weeding, and made lunch with the peas. I made ice tea, Garry took lunch out. The guys really liked stir fry and rice. We ate lunch (Valentina had gotten the baby back to sleep, she woke up just as she finished eating). I cleaned up, fed Bear (the dog) and enjoyed a messenger call with Abby (she's almost four), who was excited about the owl, whom I tried to feed again. Just before five Garry was home to shower for the shopping trip to Zaporosia. Unfortunately our little owl (actual name of the type of owl I discovered on the internet) had passed away.
Then Garry drove to Zaporosia, with the usual carful of students, baby and I went this week. Last time I stayed home with her, I was shopping for the exciting student meal on Monday evening, I will be busy Monday making salads.
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