Sunday we were looking forward to an easy day. We decided not to go to church in the village, in the hopes that if we didn't give them the cold last week, we definitely wouldn't get them sick this Sunday.
We had told Lena two weeks ago we could visit her class this Sunday, as the students are on school break next week, even though we'd be teaching all week. I had assured her on Monday our colds would be fine by Sunday. We were a lot better (I'm writing this Wednesday and we are finally feeling about normal).
We decided on a St Patrick's day theme- when I asked them what holiday was in March their answers were March 8th (women's day, if you don't know) and Pancake week (Lent is just starting here as Easter will be May 2nd this year). I had a special gift for them, I had to hunt in my closet for it, since I had bought it last year at a dollar store in NJ before flying back, lucky clover coins. Our class last March had been cancelled by the virus. This year we are just wearing masks.
After the class ended at three, we had to stop and buy a pair of boots for Julia (hers had a hole) and then go breed a cow on the way home. Garry had gotten a phone call before noon about breeding a cow in Shahrokey, which would be on the way home, sort of. Of course, he got another call while we were in class, he phoned them back and now had a second cow to breed in Chorenee Yar (Black Valley), a village on the way to Zaporosia.
Garry normally takes the field road from Nikoliapolia to Sharokey, but it's too muddy now to drive on (more about that later) so we'd turn off the highway at Salonee and go to breed the cow. We were following the road out of Salonee and turned onto the road Garry thought was the right one, but after we passed a small village he checked the GPS on his phone, and was unsure he was on the right road. We had to go up a hill for better phone reception, and as we topped the hill, he saw Sharokey in the distance. Hurray, we didn't need to turn around. When we got to the village, he phoned to get the address, checking we're by the school, store, playground, it's Centralna Street, why can't we find number 49 with this lady on the phone standing by the street? Turn around drive the main street again, as we are out of town... find a guy walking down the street, put him on the phone, he recruits a second guy in a car... eventually they decide we are in the wrong Sharokey. That's right, this one where Garry has bred a number of cows is in Dnepropetrosk region, and there is one in Zaporosia region.
Garry turned down a different street to take the field road back to Nikolipolia, since he could see the dirt was drying on the top of the plowed fields, and it woud be faster than going back through Salone to the highway and then to Chornee Yar before finding this place in the other Sharokey (which is off the highway just before the city of Zaporosia.)
As we approached the field road the turnoff looked very muddy, but Garry pointed out the next section looked drier. The van churned up the dirt road but a couple hundred feet in, it was looking wetter ahead, and Garry decided to try to reverse out and back to the street. It was a little tense as he backed down, speeding through the last mud hole and making it through, slipping and sliding, tires churning up mud.
Better safe than sorry, we went back through the town of Salonee and back to the highway. As we passed Nikolipolia on the highway Garry decided to go to the other Sharokey first, since it would be dusk soon, and it would be easier to find a new place when it was still light enough to see the house numbers.
So he checked he GPS to make sure we knew where we were going and we were off. Garry was hurrying, and going about 130 k/h so I was amazed when a couple cars blew by us and disappeared into the distance, they had to be going like 180. We turned off the highway just before the police check, just before the circle into Zaporosia (for those of you who have been here, for everyone else, a long ways) and followed a bumpy road to the village- it's about five kilometers off the highway. As we were driving, Garry told me one day someone had come to house requesting we buy the Mennonite House Museum in this village, as the owners had died and it was in disrepair. We did not see it, we think. We'll have to go back someday, maybe, as they have another cow to breed they said.
We found house number 49 with no problems in the correct village, Garry was still muttering about having to go so far, and he wouldn't have said yes, if he knew which Sharokey it was.
The lady waved him right into the yard with the van. He said they often do so they don't have to tie up the dogs for him to walk past. Lots of houses have dogs on chains to discourage unwanted visitors coming into their yard, they are right by the driveway. This place had six dogs, most tied to doghouses, one free.
A second older lady came out and went to the barn, and I saw a man as Garry opened the door. He said I should have come in, there were three old ladies taking care of four spotlessly clean cows. They used to have eight they told him. It took a little longer than I expected for him to return to the car because the big Holstein kept dancing around at the end of her rope, since she has twice as much space as she used to. Garry says often cows that the vet has given a shot of prostigladis to bring them in heat do not stand as well (as still) as cows that come in heat naturally, and this was one. They said that they had another cow who should be in heat next week and didn't mind paying extra for the extra gas for him to come. He charged 400 grivna instead of 250 as normal, like they pay at the place with the very long drive we went to in the fall. He was glad we had come as he liked the old ladies and their well cared for cows. This time of year he sees a lot of very skinny cows.
You'll notice I said the cow had a needle to bring her in heat, at a certain point in their cycle, cows given the hormone will usually be ready to breed in about three days. If people have a cow who has been open (not pregnant) for a while, they will get the vet to check if they are cycling, sometimes there is a problem, and sometimes they just didn't notice when the cow was in heat. Apparently there is a vet giving out Garry's phone number because he gets a lot of calls from new people that want to know if he can breed their cow in three days. This lady had called in the middle of the week (when he was sick) and Garry had said sure he could come, not noticing that she'd said she was in Zaporosia region (apparently both times she called- sometimes language is a problem especially when people talk fast).
So we returned to the highway, made a u-turn before having to go around the circle, and headed toward home, watching for the sign for Chorney Yar. Garry has breed cows there often over the years. He said he had bred a cow where he thought this one was last week, but he had only seen the one cow so he was puzzled. Sometimes he gets people who call for a neighbor. Dusk was falling fast as we got to where he thought was needed to go. He got out of the car to try and phone her to ask, since no one came out of the house. Which call was it? he'd gotten several from this lady and some from the one we'd just been to. Must not be the most recent number, I thought. Wrong, that was the other lady when he called. Try again, back out of the car, maybe there would be better phone reception.
He got more directions, a different place. We drove further down the same road, looking for someone standing by their gate. Success. It's completely dark as we park in the street in front of the house. Garry tries to get the straw of semen out of the tank, thawed and into the tiny end of the metal rod, and then put a plastic sheath on it. I can hear him saying he can't see well, so I get out with my cell phone light. He's standing at the back of the van, wearing just his t shirt, cutting the end off the straw before covering it with the sheath, then putting it down the back of his shirt to stay safe and pulling on a long plastic glove on his arm. The waiting lady raises her eyebrows and smiles at me when he sticks it down the back of his shirt, then leads the way to her barn and cow. I played on my phone in the van, as it was too dark to crochet (the highway is smooth enough the last couple years, so I often have some with me).
He came out smiling, they asked him to preg check their other cow, apparently Garry had bred her five months ago, they said that she'd been bred by the bull and then Max when we were in Canada but only Garry could get her pregnant! They gave him a two dollar bonus for saying he could feel a calf there.
So we finally got home at 6:30 after a couple hours of driving around, in time for Garry's family zoom call at seven pm this week, since time changed in the US and Canada but doesn't spring forward here until March 28th. We had to wait until Monday morning to watch the video of our son Matt's sermon.
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