Updates

It Saturday and late this afternoon we had yet another bull calf- one of the heifers was calving and Yana was worried and got Garry out to the barn to pull the calf (Maxim was just leaving for the church in Zaporosia- they meet Saturday evening- and are up to buying 60 liters of milk- Max says he likes it and there are many pretty young girls) Garry says the calf was nearly born by the time he got the calf pulling chains on its legs to help it out. By the time I got there with the camera it was out and they were checking if it was breathing well. Since it was so small Yana was calling it girl, but when they looked- another bull. Here he is getting licked off by his mother, and the cow next to her.

Garry was artificially breeding one of the heifers he bought that was "recently fresh" back in October- skinny, sick, the one that had the bad case of coliform mastitis. She not only made a full recovery, she looks like a different cow today. Like Zera our first heifer we bought, she should be pregnant already, but is in good health, and should become pregnant soon (hopefully now in her case.) We are using semen imported from Canada- for non-farmers bull semen is frozen in straws- little plastic tubes- and kept super frozen in liquid nitrogen until thawed to breed a cow "in heat" - cows show visible signs and typical mannerisms when they are at the right time in their cycle.
Normally cows are bred for the first time about 60 days after they have a calf, since ideally they should calf every year, and sometimes they do not become pregnant on the first try. Garry has AI'd (artificially inseminated) a few cows for people in the village, as the last bull in the village was turned into dinner in January. Unfotunately many of the village cows are just eating straw now as feed is running low, and that is not ideal for getting pregnant, which is why many of them have been calving in recent months- nine months after they got out to eat the lush spring grass. AI is safer, because bulls can be dangerous to keep around, plus you should have better offspring as you can use the best sires availiable.



Right now we are stuck at about 620 liters of milk a day, many cows that calved three months ago are not still going up in production like before, some are even going down a bit so even with some fresh ones, the amount of milk doesn't keep going up like in January and February. Since February the milker ladies are working long hours with milking 28 cows by hand, but they are happy, because they are making more money than anyone else in the village.

There's a photo of the pen of young calves- including the four heifer calves are no longer getting milk to drink. The red one is Shishlik the bull calf of Zera's that's supposed to be dinner. The sixth heifer calf that was born last week is tied up by herself, Maxim tells me that Mint the ladies' dog likes to lick the milk off her face when she's done drinking her bucket (the ladies feed the calves milk three times a day- after they get done milking.) I gave Garry a hand since he was tying up some of the heifers and dry cows that go outside for the day in the empty stalls, the rest stay in the end pen for the night (they can go in and eat during the day) Maxim says they may be stolen if they are out in the fence all night.

Here's the tractor in front of the barn- as you can see there are still muddy ruts. The temperature has been around freezing- just over during the day,I am missing the nice warm weather of Monday when it looked like spring was here! Just as we were leaving the barn a man came to talk to Garry, turned out he had a month old heifer calf he wanted to sell (yes Garry found this out in Russian, and agreed on a price- not sure when she's arriving here.)

Just another day

The rain has disappeared from the forecast (reminds me of last summer) and the sun is shining this afternoon, although the temperature is hovering around freezing. The babushka neighbour lady was bundled up but she had her chickens out today- she is looking over the fence at them over in our yard. It's like we have everything but the eggs- they dig around in the yard and leave other stuff behind. She gives Victor a dozen eggs once a year for letting them graze over here.

Garry is off to the dentist- he brought their milk delivery and was getting more done on his bridge (he is having root canals done on the teeth next to the empty spot in his smile, since dental work is cheaper here.


The boys are doing experiments for chemistry class (all with household ingredients, but I think they are easier to find in North America.) Jonah is stirring the ice water here, while Seth looked for the safety goggles Garry borrowed last summer. We had some trouble with our bunsen burner - I do not highly recommend the wickless one, even if it is supposed to be safer- it is incredibly hard to light and keep lit- wish I had bought the old-fashioned kind. They were calibrating their thermometer by melting ice, we used half a pack of matches- good thing they like to give them for change at the store (or candies.) They are going outside to find a large metal nut or a bolt for their displacement experiment. This one uses syrofoam cups, which I brought from Canada, because we couldn't find them for an experiment last year!

Garry just phoned- he was finished at the dentist and was looking for a vet clinic in Dnepro because he needed medicine for two cows that have mastitis (udder infections) -of course he had forgotten that he is supposed to be picking up some veggies for me since we are having company for dinner tomorrow afternoon. Good thing he called so I could remind him.

I am hoping to make Greek salad, with some of the feta-style cheese I have soaking in the fridge. Garry made a batch of cheese for me on Saturday when they have excess milk from the morning milking, Last week his curds were almost like cottage cheese but I conducted a trial run with some bigger chunks and it was tasty. This week he made more, some squeaky cheese curds, and some he pressed for the feta and a soft pressed one for cream cheese. Last week's was too chunky in the cheesecake I tried but the chocolate one I baked on Tuesday was creamy. We even tried it on bagels- tasted good but needs to be whipped for a better consistancy for spreading.

Our neighbour lady on the other side, who made the batch of Ukrainian sour cream and cottage cheese Victor sold last week went to the hospital, so we have been unable to process the other days excess milk. She had her gall bladder out last year, and has continued to have health problems since. Hopefully they will be able to cure her this time, since her processing the milk products would not only help with our surplus milk, but give her work as she has been trying to get a job for the last year. Her husband is the one who is buying brewers' grains to feed his pigs, he comes over every afternoon for a couple buckets in the trailer behing his Lada. The kitten is watching him leave through the window one afternoon(for some reason he backs all the way out instead of turning around), the kittens also enjoy checking out the birds in the trees in the front yard from the other window.

The boys are taking a long time finding a bolt- maybe they walked to the store for it (or an snack.) I hear the puppies barking outside, maybe they are back.

News from home

Yesterday morning my day was brighter when I checked facebook (which I check first and last everyday to see if any of the family has posted anything)and there were pictures from Matthew of my beautiful granddaughters- they are now the new background on this computer. Thanks to facebook, I know more about friends from school, cousins I haven't seen in years, and nieces and nephews than you can imagine- its great when you are far away from everyone.

One of the things I like least about being here in Ukraine is not being home, close to my big kids and grandkids. Even Garry, who is whole-heartedly invested in this project, is excited when one of the boys- usually Josh, phones with news about the farm in Manitoba, and the lastest on his girls basketball team. Josh who was an all-star on The Ste. Anne boys team that went undefeated and won the AA Championship in 2001, has been coaching there since he graduated, jv boys, jv girls, and even coached the varsity girls to their own championship a few years ago. Its a real commitment since the high school is about 75 km from our house (the boys rode the bus 2 hours each way- Josh burns alot of gas.) Since Garry coached the varsity girls for a number of years (he quit after they lost in the champoinship game the year before Josh took over and won) he loves to hear all the details of practices, victory and defeat (this year Josh had more defeats.)

One day last week Josh called and we both talked to him around one in the afternoon our time and then we were surprized by another phone call from Matthew and I got to talk to Xaris and Havilah. I asked if they had made any snowmen, and was told no, but as you can see they have this week. If we want to talk to the other boys at home we call them about one in the afternoon their time- they are usually in for lunch, and Luke goes out to milk the cows at 1:30.

Garry likes to check the internet in the morning- weather reports for Ukraine and Manitoba, e-mail, news headlines, and how much milk the farm shipped in Manitoba. Last week I noticed a headline about the high school basketball player that died in Michigan, and asked Garry if he knew where Fennville was, turns out his high school played against them, so Garry searched online for information about his school Hamilton High (he went there until his family moved after grade 11.) He enjoyed checking an arial photo showing how much it had grown in about 35 years.

There is the occasional letter (or package) delivered to our door from family, friends or prayer supporters we met before coming to Ukraine- highlights of any month. Jonah enjoying reading books sent by my sister last year (only one didn't make it to our door) this year he got an ereader for Christmas so he downloades instead. We found out how unreliable mail can be when many of the Christmas cards we sent family and friends did not make it to the US and Canada.

We also enjoy emails from people who read our blog, some of who we haven't met(yet.) Its always encouraging to hear from you (some of you have helpful suggestions for us), and just to know there is someone out there who cares.

mud and rye

Tuesday and the high was supposed to be 13 C (sweater weather) the mud in the yard sticks all over your shoes, globs stuck to the bottom of your boots, in fact when I went out to took photos this afternoon, my boots were getting stuck and I had to pull them out- luckily I didn't lose any (lots of practice over the years in Manitoba sticky muck.) It was still plus 8 when I looked at 6 pm. The snow in the yard is gone- just a few pieces of hard ice remaining around the edges of buildings.

The fence is fixed- the heifers have not got out- they had gotten out near the haypile on the weekend, where the fence had gotten squashed down a little. Even the white heifer has stayed inside for two days, the one that jumped fences at her former home, so it must be good. They get locked in the barn at night, to prevent abductions (apparently spring is a good time for cattle rustling in Ukraine, when money is tight.) Garry and Maxim were working on the precept (wagon) as you can see it has four wheels now, now they just need to turn it over. Garry's not sure how yet.




Yesterday Garry and Maxim went to look at a cow and heifer for sale down the street, Garry says the cow is nice looking, but she calved a month ago and is rather thin as they only have straw to feed them now. The guy wants a good price for her, Garry thinks its a little high. He told him he'd buy them this afternoon, and at the end of the month he is supposed to buy 5 heifers from the herd we bought last fall (the lady wanted to keep some animals for the winter.) So he may be done buying for now.


While they were looking at the cows yesterday, Garry made an appointment for haircuts for him and the boys. The man's daughter Lena, recently completed her haircutting course in Zaporosia, and has been cutting Garry's hair since last year. Garry told the boys he could explain (in Russian) how they wanted their haircut. They weren't sure they would get what they wanted, so we looked on the internet for celebrity teen photos and picked haircuts they liked, and printed them out. Maxim said he heard that Lena really liked cutting their hair and here is the results.







On Saturday morning while the ground was still frozen at eight am "the big dairy farmer" showed up at the end of the driveway with a tractor, fertilizer spreader and a truck with ammonia nitrate in (leftover from last year) Garry had hired him to spread fetilizer on the rye field Garry planted last fall- they put on a little less than a ton (opps Garry makes a correction after checking the blog- over the 12 acre piece- shouldn't blog before bed) acre, because the other farmer needed to save enough to spread on his alfalfa field (yes all you farmers out there- on the one crop that makes its own nitrogen- thanks to bacteria that lives on its roots.) We didn't actually pay him, since he owed us for the partial load of brewers' grain we paid for a couple weeks ago, that he fed his cows. Unfortunately he has not gotten any more brewers' grain for his herd (we think he is low on funds) and has not implemented any of Garry's other suggestions for improving his herd.

Anyway, it is supposed to rain this week, stay above freezing, and the rye field will green up, and start growing so Garry can chop it for feed this spring. I don't think I told the story of how they planted this field. In September I think, they spent a very hot dirty day- Garry, Maxim, Victor and Serosija (who we are renting the field from) used Serosija's old seed drill to plant rye seed, that Garry and Maxim had bought from a farmer a few villages over. Garry had seen the field growing during one of his drives. The two of them had shoveled the rye seed into bags from the guys shed, some of it had spoiled from a water leak in the roof, so they tried to avoid the bad stuff. When they went to plant it, it wouldn't run through the seed drill, because of all the dirt and plant trash plugging up the holes. At the time, Garry did not know that there was a place to clean seed in the village. So Victor went back to the house and found some screens, and he and Garry shook the seed through to clean it while Serosija dorve the tractor, and Maxim rode on the drill to watch for (and fix) plugging problems. They were all hot and dirty by the time it was palnted that day. It grew nicely in the fall, and is all ready to get growing, Garry says there is a lot of volunteer barley (that's what you call what was planted previously in a field when it comes up- when you don't just call it weeds) but no problem- it will make good green feed too.

Spring is sprung (I think)

Signs of spring--- try this on it's own, it was going to be part of the last post









Street vendors setting up in the village of Bratski


water running down the street in Dnepro next to Victor's church (see the green grass too)






Bare fields- just snow on the edges of the hedgerows







Big potholes in the streets

The hummer limo for rent is on the corner in Dnepro again- haven't seen it all winter





One of the big streets in Dnepro- I think its Heroes of Stalingrad, where the water is running from a corner down hill from melting snow (tram line runs down the middle)




There are bare knees seen all over the city today- most girls were still in pants or tights, but there were a number of girls like the.









The boys got a kick out of this very new-looking ambulance (for Ukraine) because when we passed it there were three guys sitting in the front smoking

trip to church

Sunday it was plus 8 C as we drove home from church around three in the afternoon- here are some photos showing spring is really coming in Ukraine. Along with the story of our drive to church with the milk.

We brought milk as usual on Sunday morning, somehow the normal plastic ones we bring it in got left on Victor's since Thursday when the dentist's office and Victor's neighbours bought milk, so Garry had to bring a lot of the smaller steel buckets instead. They tend to leak- Seth pointed out that there was milk dripping out the back door when we got in the car. We may need to buy a wet vac or steam claener before summer. One of the regular large plastic containers had to sit in the back seat with Seth and Jonah.



As you can see they were unfazed, Jonah was playing the new puzzle game he downloaded (new internet is great) and Seth had his earbuds in for his MP3 player- I took this photo along with the next ones while we had an unscheduled stop at the check stop- apparently you should not drive in the left lane there unless you are passing (the policeman showed Garry the fine is 500 grivina) and Garry thought he should move into that lane because the police had several cars and big trucks pulled off next to the right lane- like you would at home, for safety. Of course next time they will have a rule of the day that is different- Garry said they even had video of him driving in the wrong lane- of course we have seen many cars go through in the left lane before without the police waving their baton to stop them. I am not sure why the guys in the photo were pulled off there, they met two other guys in another car, who got out, shook hands, and they were still there when we left. Most of the cars the police stopped raced off after making a payment.Garry used his new no bribe policy- when the policeman opened negotiations with what are we going to do? He replied write me a ticket then, and they returned his documents, so we could leave. I gave Garry back his coffee cup and off we went, getting to Victor's church about ten.



Here are the guys getting out milk at Victor's church, then we headed off to Morningstar and our new prefered parking spot (we sell the guard milk and he lets us in the gate and tells us to park right by the front door of the building.
After church is over we wait until the milk is all sold in the room next door, because of the mixup with the containers we only had 90 liters this week, next week we'll have to bring more, some people didn't get any. I took a couple photos of the boys in front of a WWII mural in the building. We went to Dafi mall for lunch and then met Victor in the parking lot to get his empty cans.

One of our own- a heifer calf!

Last night (March 12th) there was excitment as Garry and Max pulled a heifer calf- a very Holstein-looking calf from a Holstein-looking cow (she was busy eating this morning when I went out for photos- ready to make some milk.) Garry says it was so big, Luba said it was male, but he looked and said "no- female!" (in Russian, of course.) The last four heifer calves will soon be weaned (done drinking milk) so its good to finally have another female calf- I don't even want to think how far off a 50/50 ratio we've been running over here (so far- I'm sure it will swing back someday!)




Today's forecast is for ten degrees C so you can see Garry was taking that seriously as he was outside forking brewers grain in his t shirt this morning- of course the ground is frozen yet- the mud and puddles are hard. I was comfortable in my sweatshirt while taking pictures- it feels like spring, and sure enough the crocus are up by the driveway- even the tips of the daffodils are peeking out of the ground when Polo and I went to look. You can see Luba in one photo- she was feeding the big calves milk with Yana- they are wearing more clothes for milking time than Garry. I did see people walking yesterday afternoon without hats, so spring must be here.




Yesterday Garry decided to put all the heifers and a few dry cows outside- last night while I was cooking pizza, Seth and Jonah had to help him capture some escaped heifers- poor Jonah fell in the muck twice during the chase, sliding on ice, and Seth got his hand squashed between a heifer and a wall. Seems that the hay pile has pushed the fence down in one spot. Rememeber the heifer Garry bought last year because she wouldn't stay in a fence? There she is getting her own corn silage this morning. Guess she may get tied up in the barn again (like she was on Friday when I took her photo.)