Cold and not so cold

 Today (Saturday) is like a lovely spring day at the end of March in Manitoba. The snow that fell the night we arrived is melting, making a mix of ice patches and mud outdoors. Garry and I had to chase an escaped hen back into the chicken pen this afternoon. We aren't sure how she got out, but she was enjoying digging in the dead leaves near the garden. 

Earlier in the week it wasn't so nice. Monday it was cold, minus 14 C was the high for the day. Victor had trouble starting his car to drive out to the village that morning. The cold started freezing water pipes, the girls had emptied their cistern Tuesday morning and the guys couldn't refill it because something was froze between the barn and the house. Luckily it thawed out on Friday so they could go back to showering, giving Angelina baths and flushing the toilet. For a couple days they were showering at other houses, Andrey was being sent over here for warm bath water in 2 liter bottles and Victor had given them a big milk jug full of water to flush with. So everyone was happy when the water started working again yesterday afternoon.

Overnight Tuesday was the coldest, Max says it went to minus 28, and when Garry tried to start the van and (or?) the car Wednesday morning, neither would start. He was supposed to be meeting Victor in Dnepro for a meeting and bringing one of the Sashas (birthday Sasha from Monday night) to the dentist. They finally got the van started by jumping it with Max's car and Garry was off for the rest of the day. They also went to see some heifers for sale, but they were not as advertised, so Garry made a low offer. We really don't need any more open or bred heifers anyway, since we have 120 calves and heifers on the farm now. Buying milk cows might be good, but no one is selling them since the price of milk is high this winter. 

The price of bread is higher, the students told us on Friday at cooking class it had jumped it another two grivna. When we first moved to Ukraine in 2009 a loaf was three grivna, now its sixteen in the village. We made oatmeal raisen cookies, without using the mixer, we melted the butter to start, because I only do recipes in a way that they can make them at their own houses with them.

Thursday morning it was only minus nine, but that was the day that Max was gone with the truck to pick up soybean meal. Earlier in the week he was having trouble getting a brewers grain delivery, he said he could either get a load to buy but no truck. or he couldn't get a load but the truck was available to deliver it. It seems the guy with the truck is working part time as a guard. Max convinced him to take the truck to work and start it every hour, I think, and the cows got their protein. They had been out for a while (beer production shuts down over the holidays) and milk production goes down when they don't get brewers grain in their feed. 

Garry is trying to get the heifers growing better this year. That plan was undercut while we were in Canada when they were not fed correctly. Later Thursday they realized the water had frozen to the insulated water bowls fqor the heifers and dry cows outside. Friday they used the truck and container and watered them. Fortunately whatever had frozen thawed out by this morning, and they are back to drinking whenever they want. 

Friday morning at 5:15 the rumbling overhead began as snow started sliding off the metal roof, so we knew it was warming up. Or I did, Garry slept through it.

Here's some photos to show how fast the snow has melted taken from our kitchen window. I took the first one Friday around noon, the second this morning around ten and the last about 1:30 this afternoon. If you look closely in the last photo you might see the chicken near the gate.