The rest of Thursday

Walking from the van to the barn

Lunch on Thursday was different, I was only in charge of brodebrot (open-faced sandwiches) because the housemother/girls living in the girls' home offered to make real borscht for the guys.

Maria and Bonnie came back from painting (they were finally finished) and helped me assemble sandwiches- we got fancy, tuna with cucumber slices, egg salad with cheese, and of course, sliced meat (kielbasa or what Ukrainians call sausage) and cheese. At 12:30 Garry came with the van to get us and drive down to the girls' house and get the borscht, and the three lovely young ladies to serve it. It was a 20 liter pot full, I rode in the back of the van and sat on the spare tire, and tried to keep the lid on. The girls were in the middle and Maria sat with Bonnie in the front passenger seat, causing much laughter. They only problem was a big hole near the pond, where a big splash of borscht escaped, spraying cabbage and other bits and liquid over the wheel well, luckily not on me!

We served lunch inside the new milkhouse/classroom for the first time- we use whatever is the biggest flat surface, most of the week that was a pile of boards, but they had been nearly used up at that point! Here are some lunch photos. Some of the guys had thirds on borscht. There was one sandwich left, and Maria said we must have not made enough, because Ukrainians will not take the last one to be polite. I told her that was not true of Canadians, and one of the guys agreed as he went back to work saying "you snooze, you lose" and we laughed because Caleb snagged the last one as he walked past to prove the point.

Jack stapling up the vapor barrier before lunch

Ready for lunch? Suisa, Liza, Maria and Bonnie set up 

Service with a smile

Everyone finds a place to sit

Our Andrei and Maxim, brothers, and only a year apart in age

Everyone is having some more

Victor Dantsev and Jack 

Refueling the generator- it was running most of time

Back to work

Like Ukrainian flags on top of the barn!

I went back to work on one last big dinner for the team, but I slipped outside for long distance photo of the progress, because they got all 11 vents (or chimneys as we called them) that had been painted blue and yellow in place before night fell.

Bonnie and Maria walked to the store and on to the girls home, so Bonnie could learn how to make the fruit-filled buns that the girls had brought over on Wednesday at lunchtime.

What did the guys have for dinner? Well, except poor Craig, who was  unwell all day, although he was looking a little better by evening.

Let's see if I can remember... day one...baked spaghetti? (It was so long ago) and ?, Friday night was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, cooked carrots and cabbage cucumber salad, which Bonnie kindly finished so I could go to Garry's English club with him in Dnepro (and she made cookies for dessert) pizza on Saturday, Bonnie made a lovely dessert of pumpkin pie squares. Sunday was my Ukrainian style dinner with plovf, Ukrainian salad (venigret, it has cubed cooked carrots, potatoes and beets, mixed with onion and mayo; and Ukrainian candy for dessert, Monday I cooked Chinese with stir-fry, and trifle and the birthday cake.  Tuesday I went to the store in the afternoon, so we had some pork chops, all the store-bought vereniki they could eat (they enjoyed the cherry-filled ones, too), frozen broccoli or beets, and homemade brownies for dessert. Wednesday, meat loaf again with boiled potatoes, fried cabbage, carrots and  mushroom, and more venegret salad  and Thursday (the last supper) I attempted making a different Ukrainian salad that has chopped cooked potatoes, carrots, and hard-boiled eggs, and ham with peas chopped pickles and mayo and sour cream, called Olayviah , flattened chicken breast dipped in egg and flour and pan-fried and baked macaroni and cheese, and trifle for dessert again.

Bonnie had a little salad and trifle after Garry drove down to pick her up (and return the giant borscht pot)around 9:30 pm, she brought a pile of apple-filled pier- rag-ski with her. We had them for breakfast along with our usual oatmeal on Friday morning.  Maria stayed at the girls home this week since we were full here, and Andrei and Max Boradim stayed at the boys home, they were happy to move back on Friday, although they were still showering and eating dinner here before heading out for the night. Join a work team, and come visit us, and you won't go away hungry!