The 8th of March

Yesterday was the second biggest holiday of the year in Ukraine, the 8th of March or International Women's Day, if you are from North America you are probably barely aware of this holiday, but think of it being Mother's Day,  Valentines Day and more rolled into one. Friday many women and girls received gifts at work, since the holiday fell on a Saturday this year. Monday is a holiday from work for many businesses because there was not a day off during the weekend. Most gifts are chocolates or flowers, the flower vendors have their busiest day of the year, tulips seemed very popular this year. The grocery stores have special displays of candies, tea selections (that is what we gave the milker ladies this year) near the front for buyers- mostly men.

The reno continues!

Garry planned a lovely day for me, (really I mean that) we were putting a couple coats of paint up on the walls in the guest house remodeling project, with a trip to Zaporosia for a workout at the gym and lunch at the Chinese restaurant. After our workout, he made a successful trip into a bank to get some grivnia. He is trying to get enough to buy seed and fertilizer for planting, and the current situation has made it hard to withdraw money from our Canadian account thorough ATMs which is how we get money here.

We walked into the restaurant and the server lady told us they did not have food, so we ended up at the packed Mc Donalds for chicken nuggets instead (I had been craving them for days for some reason.) We remembered that we were going to pick up some more paint- the first coat took more than I had expected- so we went to Epi-Centre (one of the Home Depot kind of building chains here) and decided on another 10 liter pail, since the hall will need to be painted when the furnace work is finished. We had talked about buying tile on Sunday so I said we may as well look at it and we ended up with quite a pile of gray floor tiles in the back of the car, to use in the "big room" as soon as I get the beams painted.

Garry forgot to turn on the lights on the car until we were almost the the check point and the policeman pulled him over (lights are supposed to be on for highway driving in the winter half of the year all day in a new law passed last year) However, he never asked for money just showed him the law in the book. Garry always tell them that in Canada the car's daytime lights come on automatically, so he doesn't have to remember to turn them on.

By the time we got home, it was about 4:30 pm.  Garry rolled another layer on the walls, while I made pizza dough and sauce. (Saturday night is Max and Andrei's favorite night of the week, pizza night) Then he grated cheese and chopped meat while I painted and the dough rose ( I am the brush and touch up painter) Then I came in and made pizzas, we had a few slices, and after all six were cooked,  I went out to finish up painting. Garry had to go breed a cow, so I put the leftovers in the fridge (Jonah's cat Needles has no qualms about jumping up to eat people food, unlike Box.) After he got back he came in to check how it looked but I had a ways to go,  cutting around all the beams and corners and heat pipes was time consuming. I noticed it smelled like smoke outside when I went back in the house to ask how he had opened pail # 2 which he'd used with the roller because I had finished off the first pail which I had up on the stepladder. I got it open- I had to pull harder- and got to work in the last corner of the room.

I zoomed for a photo through the trees

 I was enjoying the peace and quiet and the feeling of getting something constructive done, when I heard a new noise outside. The vacuum pump had been running for while, the ladies were doing the third milking of the day (it had been decided that they would go back to three times a day milking with so many fresh cows, they started on Monday) but this was loud popping noises... gunfire, no, fireworks, that made sense, it was a holiday... but it continued on, so I went outside to look. An orange, smoky glow was  rising up behind the barn, so I walked through the machine shed for a better view. It appeared to be a large building engulfed in flames somewhere on the next street. I went in the house to tell Garry about it, and he and Maxim B went to check it out. You could hear people come out of their houses to see what the noise was and start loudly exclaiming to see the flames. It was an abandoned house that had no gas or electric services, the fire was believed to be started by teenagers that hung out there, and it was burning to the ground while a crowd was watching.

It's Sunday afternoon and I don't have to cook dinner, just warm up left over pizza. Garry wants to drive past Kiev this week to check out a corn planter for sale, and those beams and tiles are waiting for me. Good thing I am getting over the terrible cold I had this past week. I was glad we did not need to fly out of Ukraine, as I was feeling miserable on Monday and Tuesday!