Cows and Other Happenings

Well, we had a very busy weekend. On Friday, as previously mentioned, we had cow duty in the village. Mama, Papa, Roma and I left for the village early, early Friday morning. We got there just as the farm was waking up. The village is quite beautiful and serene, though the amenities leave something to be desired. Water comes from a well, the toilet is an outhouse-- you get the picture. Spending the night in the village feels a bit like camping, only you sleep inside and the pillows are hand-stuffed with goose feathers.

We had excellent weather on Friday, which believe me, we were grateful for. The cows get walked rain or shine, thunder & lightening or epic heat wave. We were lucky enough to have beautiful blue skies and a bit of a breeze. Roma and I split our shift with Papa and Roma's Uncle. We helped them get the cows out to pasture in the morning. This consisted of walking along the dirt road as the cows, on their own, joined the herd. In all, there were 37 ladies under our supervision. They all stuck together and followed their fearless leader, a beautiful peach colored cow who I called Blanch.

As you can see from the picture, we took the cows out into the middle of nowhere. Roma told me that earlier, during Soviet times, all those fields were farms. He said that when he was a kid, he and his cousins would have cow duty and that it was incredibly diffcult because there was very little room for the cows to graze. They would have to constantly make sure that the cows didn't wander off and eat someone's crops. It's hard for me to imagine all those rolling-hills as farmland. It's hard to imagine what life was like during Soviet times.

Roma and I had a lovely time walking with the cows. We were out in the fields for about 6 hours. It was so quiet out there, and beautiful, and in a way, it felt like we'd traveled back in time. During our shift, the ladies grazed and then laid down for their afternoon nap. So for about an hour, we sat on a blanket and relaxed too. Then Blanch decided that nap time was over. She got up, the other ladies followed her lead and they were off to graze some more. Here is how Roma and I passed the rest of our afternoon:

1. Running into the woods to pee. (Clearly that was me & clearly that happened more than once)

2. Pretending to sword fight with our sticks.

3. Weed whacking with our sticks.

4. Munching on wild strawberries.

5. Back to pretending to sword fight.

6. Back to weed whacking.

7. Gathering flowers.

8. More weed whacking.

And so on and so forth. You get the picture. While I thoroughly enjoyed my day with the cows, I have to admit, I don't think I'd want to have to walk them regularly. After the novelty wares off, there's really only so much weed whacking you can do to occupy yourself.

Perhaps the highlight of my day with the cows was bringing them in, and not because it meant the day was over; but because they were all so darling trotting home. All we did was make sure they stayed on the dirt road and they knew exactly where to go and which house was theirs. I swear they even said good-bye to one another with a moo.

As we were bringing them in, I got to thinking about how, as a kid, I used to end a lot of letters to my friend Annie with,

"Yours until the cows come home."

Clearly I didn't realize at the time that the cows come home promptly at 8 PM.

*****

On Saturday, we returned to Bar and went over to Sasha and Alona's house for dinner. It's always fun to see them.

Sasha is Roma's best friend. He's a funny guy, always making jokes and always making us laugh. He likes to ham it up for the camera and I always indulge him:




While we were at Sasha and Alona's house, I came across some formal pictures they'd had taken of Dima. I've seen versions of these kinds of pictures in a lot of peoples homes and I think they are hysterical. Cute, but come on, kind of hysterical. I can't decide which one I like the best:

****

On Sunday, we went to visit Papa's side of the family. Roma's grandfather died this past year so we first went to the cemetary to pay our respects. We bought a bouquet with 6 flowers in it, some candy and a bottle of soda (grandpa's favorite) and left it all at his grave. Then we went to his grandmother's house and had lunch. Here are some pictures from our afternoon.

This picture is a little dark, but far right is Roma's grandmother, center is Papa's brother and left is Papa.

Far left in his picture is Roma's sister, Oksana. Center is Papa's twin sister, Luda and on the right, Roma's aunt whose name escapes me. Below is a picture of me with Mama & a picture of our little rascal, Veronuchka.




I'm in the process of trying to get some short videos posted. We'll see how that goes. I have a video of dancing at Roma's reunion, a video from walking the cows and a short video of Dima being a little ham just like his dad. Hopefully I'll be able to share those soon.

Until then, our love to all.