Up the Creek

Today I decided to take the dogs on along walk and do some exploring east of our place. About 1 km from here is a valley with a creek running along the bottom which is part of the village grazing commons. I decided to follow it and see where it came from. Maybe another km and there is a sort of earth dam across the valley and I can hear a water fall but can't find it. So I climbed the dam and found a ditch, lined with cement along which the water was running towards where I heard the waterfall.

Grazing area for village cows

Pretty little creek runs along the valley bottom

We walked a long way. Volk got bored and went home

Looking back from the top of the first dam

We followed the ditch. We being Bobik and I. Volk went home to play with the little dogs down the street. None of this exploring stuff for him. The ditch took us to another dam another km away. On the other side of this dam was a reservoir. It was the source of water running to the creek and also the destination of water pumped in the big pipes past our place from the mines on the north side of Zhovti Vody. We crossed the dam to the road and walked home on hard surface. Volk was waiting for us as the owner had locked up the little dogs for the night.

Bobik racing along the bottom of the concrete lined ditch

Looking across the length of the second dam

The reservoir (Panoramic view)

The Weakly News

Sunday Lena and Tanya cleaned house. It was the White Tornado meets Mrs Clean. Top to bottom and four bags of garbage. Lena came back on Tuesday and they cleaned the carpets. The old fashioned way - took them outside on the concrete and took the garden hose with hot water and a scrub brush to them, then hung them on the fence for three days to dry.

Whenever I ask Tanya how I can help, she says "By not helping". Sigh. So I worked on my Ivankiv prefeasibility study, looking at what it would take to establish a real beef industry or at least several enterprises. Possibly a miracle?

The dogs are walking me on a new route, as they got bored with the old paths. We pass a house where there is a little black dog the size of a cat with an attitude the size of a bear. She will have none of this intruder stuff and puts the run on my two. The couple who live in the house are often sitting on a bench out front in the cool of the evening and they laugh and we all cheer the little dog.

Next Tuesday (11th) is Masha's 6th birthday and of course I am going to Kyiv that morning so will miss her party. But I will be back Thursday night and I better have a gift for Tanya as her birthday is on Saturday (15th). Last year for her birthday I took her to Turkey. This year maybe I will bring her back?

Livestock Production in Ukraine

I promised Rob-Bear some data on when the last cow in Ukraine would turn out the light or why we eat chicken all the time.

Under the old Soviet production system cattle (dual purpose dairy/beef) production had to be heavily subsidized as it was horribly inefficient. Just one example was the number of people "employed" - 10 times or more per unit of inventory that one would expect. This production methodology carried over on the restructured state and collective farms creating huge losses so the cattle are dumped in favour of grain and oilseed production which is profitable. Only the new larger commercial dairy farms which import their management from Europe and America are profitable.

Pig production was much the same picture in Soviet times. The restructured farms stopped raising pigs because they lost too much money. A few years ago investors began building large commercial pig farms using western technology and management. Backyard pigs and big barns now account for the bulk of production. You can see the hog cycle beginning to appear about 10 years ago. The cure for low prices is low prices. The cure for high prices is high prices.

Poultry production has taken off and is extremely profitable and chicken meat is extremely cheap, about 1/3 to 1/4 the price of pork and beef. Virtually all broiler meat now comes from modern commercial companies, using western technology.

Groceries

We went shopping for groceries yesterday so I thought I'd run another list of costs of various items in Canadian dollars (compare here and here). The exchange rate yesterday was 7 UAH to 1 CAD. One year ago it was 4.3:1. That means my dollar buys about 60% more local currency than it did a year ago. There has been inflation of course, especially in imported items, but never the less we have more money to spend than we did a year ago, while folks here have much less. Even so the shops and markets are busy in Zhovty Vodi and Krivii Rih.

It Rained

It rained last night but you would never know it from this picture. We had a three hour downpour with lots of lightning that knocked out the electricity. I think Zhovty Vodi got it worse than we did. Andrei said that the water was running down the main street (the streets are the storm drains) about half a meter deep. He was worried the river would rise and flood us. Fat chance. The rain must have soaked in as fast as it fell in our neighbourhood.

We were in town for groceries this afternoon and saw the damage to the streets. When they repair the streets, they lay a wafer thin layer of blacktop onto whatever is there. It fills the holes and looks good for a while at least. But the water got under the layers in several places and literally ripped square meters of blacktop up and washed it down the street. It would be funny if the streets and roads weren't so horrible already.

Canadian Jazz and Mongolian Traditional Music

I met Deb Rasmussen in China about 15 years ago. She is an Ag Economist who works for AgriTeam Canada on projects all over the world but many in China and Mongolia. When Tanya and I were in Mongolia in 2007 we ran into her there. She is currently managing a five year Animal Health project in China as well as her involvement with projects in Mongolia.

She is also an accomplished Jazz Singer, with a Calgary group called Northern Lights Quartet with Keith Smith (guitar), Simon Fisk (bass), Robin Tufts (percussion). Last October the group traveled to Mongolia and performed at the grand opening of the Canadian Embassy and the celebration of 35 years of diplomatic relations between Canada and Mongolia. They performed with a Mongolian group called Altai Khangai.

This August Altai Khangai will be coming to Canada and Northern Lights will be performing with them in a number of locations, Saskatoon, several in Alberta including Red Deer, Calgary and Banff, Vancouver, Victoria, and finally in Ottawa. For more detailed information please check the Northern Lights Quartet website.

Fence Building

Bron and her sisters pulled the weeds in her yard yesterday. The Guy is starting to build a fence around their yard today. If he had this nail gun, it would go much faster.