Saturday, December 26, 2015

Christmas in Ukraine



While New Years is the big holiday in Ukraine, the students celebrated Christmas Day together with the group home families at the new house.
I got a few photos from facebook, Maria tells me every two students worked together to make a dish for dinner, much like the Thanksgiving dinner in October.







 The students have not had classes for the last week, only regular work, the new students are starting to do morning milkings for the first time this past week during the almost month long holiday break.








 The first girls house has a large Christmas tree that they got from friends who were leaving Ukraine, and I found a photo of them decorating it. and some of them having fun trying on costumes for New Years.




Merry Christmas to all our friends  wherever you are in the world, and wishing everyone a happy new year...

  and maybe you'd like to come to Ukraine and help with a new house remodeling project this year?

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Happy birthday Masha!



Well as you can see there was a party at our house after Garry left for Canada! It was Maria (Masha)'s birthday and everyone came to help her celebrate, looks like it was quite the party.
I talked with her and Julia after the party, and she said the students (the girls) were all sad that Garry left but they had seen how much he missed me, so they were happy for him. Maria will be staying at our house some of the time while we are gone, so the students will get paid and the cats will get fed!

Friday, December 11, 2015

Heat

The newest group home had a heating problem in October, it was getting colder and the gas was not hooked up to it yet. The house is so well insulated it wasn't a problem at first.  First we bought some little electric fan heaters, we got one for the classroom too. Had to replace one of those already, they aren't the best made heaters.

In the beginning of November it was decided to buy a little wood stove to heat it. They only start a fire in it in the evening, (often every other day) and the house is extremely warm. The group home parents didn't want to put it in the big room, because it was colder on their side of the house, so that's where it went, but the whole house is staying hot.  Garry tells me that they are getting closer to having gas this week, so they will finally be able to run the in floor heat that was put in and use the gas stove in the big kitchen, They have been cooking on their side of the house where we put a electric stove since moving in.
The fan is to move the hot air

The plan is to put a wood stove in the milkhouse connected to the classroom to heat it, but I don't know if they did it yet, .The other houses are heating with gas, the boys' house has good insulation in the main new part of the house, Garry is looking at insulating the attic of the first girls' house, since it seems to have none, and gas is much more expensive this year once you go over a minimal amount each month.