A day on the farm...Manitoba style

Dawn breaks behind the barns

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Garry has been asking for a blog post about the farm here, with photos, so yesterday I carried a camera around. I think he is excited about seeing the farm in June for the first time in three years without snow on the ground.

As normal this week I woke up at 4 am, and tried to do quiet things until other people were awake! Just before seven am Seth is out waiting for the school bus with his friends the puppies, who are now almost 1 1/2 and  who want to play. After he gets on the bus I walk over to the barns.

Everyone wants attention, even Noah's cat who has escaped from the house

Someone is making feed for the milk cows already

It's a big corn silage pile

Waiting for new feed, these cows are already milked

Here it comes!

Meanwhile someone has moved the cows on the other side of the barn to the milking parlor and cleaned up with the scraper on the bobcat (really it's a NewHolland ) and it ready for the cows to return after milking.

The cows pass through an automatic sort gate on the way back to their barn, which puts any cows who the computer knows need attention into a separation pen.

 

These cows are on the way back to that new feed

While these girls are waiting to get bred or have their feet trimmed before returning to their group

Lined up in the breeding area

Now I am going to walk to the milking parlor area.....through this hallway which goes around it
so you can see the guys in action. The cows go into the parlor from a holding area, each get into an individual stall, where their udders are cleaned, and milking machines are attached by the crew. When the sensor indicates that the cow is finished, the machine comes off automatically, and someone dips her teats in an iodine based product to prevent bacteria from attacking her udder. When the entire side is finished, someone pushes a button, and  the gate in front of the cows lifts up and they are on their way back through the sorting gate, which reads her radio frequency eartag to decide if she goes back to the barns or is on the list to get caught in the pen. The cows are milked three times each day, which means they give more milk and are less likely to get mastitis (an udder infection) than cows who are milked twice a day. All sick cows who require antibiotic treatment for any reason are in a separate barn, where they are milked and taken care off by a different crew.

the left side is getting dipped

and there they go!

The front of the milking stall drop back down for the next group of cows to come in

Meanwhile the group on the right side...

 

are getting milked- pipes carry the milk 

right into the refrigerated tanks where the milk truck will pick it up

There are two big milk tanks (coolers) much bigger than ours in Ukraine!

The rest of the tanks are in the equipment room, which has a basketball hoop for when the boys want to practice

 

This smaller group of cows have yellow eartags, because they tested positive for staph, a type of contagious mastitis, which can spread between cows during the milking process, so they get milked last

Noah and Josh looking up info on the computer in the barn office

Well. I guess that is enough for now, although it is only 8 am on  Thursday morning, in the next post, I'll show you the calf barns and my trip out the fields

Driving around in a Lada

We bought a Lada when we moved to Ukraine, they were cheaper, and Garry thought it would make us blend in better. However none of the locals can figure out why we would drive a Lada. The first year living here, when we were following Canadian friends, driving their old Lada Niva, we were stopped in a police check. At the time Garry was not as proficient in Russian as he is now, and our friend told us that the police wanted to know why foreigners were driving Ladas, when everyone knows imported cars are better. Victor said he explains it like this-

 "You want to drive a foreign car? So do they!"

see that shiny blue car? That is the new model Lada universal the 2171 I think 

An older model Lada Niva -now these are shine Chevy branded SUVs

Yes it was a 2171, they have changed the back lights on the new model

I wonder why? we have replaced that piece twice on ours!

Classic Lada following a hatchback model- they look a little like a Pinto

Two Ladas, a classic blue and the gray car is the Lada sedan 110- same model batch as our 111

The Samara, one of the hatchback versions made by Lada, is driven by many people in our village popular for the more powerful engine than the classics, Garry says when he went to China they were all over as taxis

 The old Lada Universal our one hundred eleven descended from is below, Lada's version of a station wagon, we where told the name means that you can fit the whole universe in the back, there are many on the road, popular for bringing stuff to the market, you can pack many banana boxes inside. Recycled banana boxes are used for everything that doesn't go in a bag.

Yellowish Universal on the highway  to Zaporosia

and a blue one parked near Mc Donald's in Zap

a what's that? moment- note the handicapped sticker in the back window

 

New paint jobs tend to be in bright colors

Every parking lot has at least one classic in

Classic Lada check out the upholstery

 

And not a Lada - this is a Volga, what the Soviet higher-ups drove

New model Lada with Russian plates- it was hot, maybe the new ones don't have A/C either?

It's the only thing we'd change about ours every summer, if they only could put one in...

 

You have to love a motorcycle with a sidecar- even if it's not a Lada!

I think this is a Moskvich  (Lada's old competition)-in very nice shape

see the taxi parked in the middle of the marshutka vans? Pretty sure that's a Lada!

Here and there

Hello from Canada! While Garry is busy with today's holiday in Ukraine, I am here celebrating our biggest baby's 21st birthday- Luke tipped the scales at 11 pounds, 14 ounces, beating out Jonah by 13 ounces. It explains why he is the only boy as tall as Garry (so far Jonah still has a chance to get there!)

We actually celebrated all together on Sunday  after church at Matthew's house with a party for both boys since Matt was ten years older than Luke on May 3rd, but I am planning on having cake today.

Jonah and Seth watch Luke unwrap his presents- I wonder who got him Ukrainian chocolates?

On Monday I had fun playing with the little girls while their parents were working. Yesterday I gave Josh a hand with herd check (the veterinarian visit) in the morning, and picked up Seth after school to shop for a suit for graduation on June 26th, the day after Garry and I are scheduled to fly back here. 

we made masks

 I have gone back to waking up at 3 am the last couple days (like 11 am back in Ukraine) I think I will remain stuck between time zones until I return next week, at this rate.

She found the klompen herself and put them on and walked around for a while

While I have been busy having fun, Garry has been working on the new barn remodeling project this week. He has been getting ready to pour cement inside it, hopefully on Thursday after today's holiday. . If you don't know what this project is about follow these links for more information- The trade school/barn project:

 http://CanadianResourcesForMissions.com
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O75-0mjNAew

If you are interested in donating to this project you can do so through our mission organization also, EFCCM special project number 2-2929. For more information about the Evangelical Free Church of Canada Missions, check out: http://www.efccm.ca/wordpress/?page_id=1277


 Meanwhile Garry keeps asking for a blog post about the farm here, so I'll give it a try today.

I made it!

It took an extra day, but I made it back to Manitoba in time to finish getting ready for the bridal shower for our son Josh and (mostly) his bride-to-be Krissy. I have almost adjusted to the time change, after two days of waking up a 2 am, like sleeping until noon in Ukraine; the last two mornings I have been up closer to 5 am!



After a very bumpy overnight bus ride from Dnepropetroesk to Borispol ,where the Kiev airport really is located; Tuesday morning I was on my way to Manitoba.  The bus was way too hot, with the heat on full-blast for the first couple hours, I was sweating in my sleeveless shirt, and drinking my water, like crazy; at one point I woke up and thought that the bus must be lost in some small unpaved village when the two older ladies wearing coats got off after a couple hours, but no it was the road to Kiev! Most of the bumps seemed to be patches rather than holes, but the bus seemed to crawl there, until they switched drivers, the second one drove faster over the bumps.

Garry always said he'd take me for tulip time in Holland!

 The plane to Amsterdam loaded on time, so I thought everything was great until I fastened my seatbelt and heard the captain announce we would take off in about an hour due to thunderstorms in the Netherlands! I had an hour and half between flights, so I knew it didn't look good for making my flight so I called Garry to let Jessy know, since she was supposed to pick me up at the airport Tuesday evening. The plane landed about 25 minutes before my next scheduled takeoff, but taxied up to unload for another ten, by the time I got out of the plane, the KLM lady said go to the transfer desk. I got there and found an incredibly long load to stand in, by the time I got to the front, four and a half hours later; there were no flights still leaving for to North America, so I got a hotel voucher, and a flight to Toronto on May 2nd.

the shuttle ride to and from the hotel in Amsterdam

The plane ready to leave for Toronto

The next morning I got to the airport early, did a little stroopwaffle/gift shopping, and everything proceeded as planned, and I arrived in Winnipeg at 3 pm.

My fellow travelers ready for security screening  and boarding

Jessica was teaching, so I sat on a bench, with my luggage (which made the trip with me) until 5:30, we went to dinner at Red Lobster, Jonah and James and I enjoyed the shrimp tacos, among other treats before going to Morden. I stayed with them, getting ready for the bridal shower until Friday evening, when Jess drove us to the farm. Of course Jacklyn also came to the farm, the back seat was a little crowed with the three of us!

Jonah and Seth play computer games online to spend time together now.