About Me

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Recent retiree--35 year's experience teaching reading, English, adult basic education and volunteer leadership skills. Started this blog to exchange ideas and commentary with friends and others having an interest in joining the discussions. Greatest life accomplishments include: 1.organized my 3rd grade class to check out library books for me to get around librarian's weekly limit--Amazon.com, the Mullins Elementary 3rd Grade Class of 1956 is still waiting for "thank you" notes; 2. volunteered in the Peace Corps, island of St. Kitts, West Indies; 3.taught adults to read, earn their GEDs., and speak English as a second language; 4. bought a border collie puppy for $6, got evicted rather than give him up, and began a life-long love affair with all things "Dog"; 5. joined a physical fitness boot camp in my mid-50s--don't mess with someone who's been doing regulation pushups in wet grass at 5:30 a.m.; 6. walked across Northern England with best friend Sally--over 80 miles from the Irish to North Seas; and 7. travelled to many foreign countries for pleasure and work.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Friday Fences - Snow Fences in Kiev, Ukraine


Today we have our first significant snow and icy roads in Louisville so I thought it might be an appropriate time to show you a different kind of fence. Look closely at the lower right hand corner of this photo and you'll see a snow fence on the rooftop which is used to control the movement of snow in places with heavy snowfall. Like here in Kiev, the capital city in Ukraine. I took this photo from my apartment window in December 2001 when I spent almost a month working with farm councils in the Carpathian Mountains of western Ukraine.

Before I retired I worked for a large farm organization, teaching leadership, board training, strategic planning, and cooperative council work. One of my most unusual work assignments was to go to Ukraine under the sponsorship of U.S. Citizen's Network for Foreign Affairs Agribusiness Volunteer Program. I worked with mostly women farmers in western Ukraine helping them to set up farm councils. They were just learning to operate privately owned farms since being under communist collective farms up until the mid-1990s.

I've written two posts about my work there and the experience of visiting Ukrainian farms, living in a remote mountain village with a local family. There's lots of on the scene photos and tales of adventures and mis-adventures if you're interested in a peek at another culture.

# 1 Ukraine Assignment

# 2 Zakarpattia Women

For other Friday Fence photos, be sure to stop by Janis' place at Life According to Jan and Jer

13 comments:

Carletta said...

I'm not sure how those fences are supposed to work. I wouldn't think you would want to keep it piled on the roof. :)
You have quite an impressive resume. :) It must have been very satisfying work.

Elizabeth Edwards said...

what a great view there. i had to do a double take to find it. very lovely. (:

Jan n Jer said...

How interesting to have a snow fence on the roof. I have read about your work Faye, looking back on these pictures...I bet it really makes you miss those days!

Living Life said...

How very interesting Faye. You must have really felt a sense of accomplishment in your work. Thanks for sharing those posts again with us and the photo of the snow fence. They must really get dumped on in Ukraine!

Jan n Jer said...

Faye...I had to laugh at your comment on my blog about the two fences. It made me remember way back in my very first home...we had a chain link fence that was green...three sides belonged to us n the fourth side belonged to both her and us...when it came time to paint the fence (green again) she asked us to leave the one side silver. We were nice n left it alone although it drove me crazy seeing 3 greens n one silver!!!!

Kim, USA said...

Snow fence on the roof that is interesting ^_^ Thanks for sharing and I'm a new follower too. Happy weekend!

Friday Fences

Trails of Grace said...

Thanks for visiting my blog, I appreciate you taking the time to leave your thoughts! This is very interesting. I too, be you miss the Ukraine. I have a dear friend who recently adopted two children from the Ukraine. She loves the country and the people. Have a super weekend!

EG CameraGirl said...

What an interesting assignment that must have been to teach women used to collective farming how to act more independently.

We have snow fences here...but on fields. The thing is, right now you have more snow than we do. How did that happen, after all I'm in Ontario, Canada?

Evelyn S. said...

I must admit I've never seen a rooftop snow fence before....we have them in various locations along the highways here in the mountains, although there is no snow this winter.

Dianne said...

I never knew about fences like that
cool idea
wonderful photo of the area

Carole M. said...

great post; what an interesting lead up to your retirement; fascinating!

SportyMummy said...

How very interesting! I've never seen a snow fence before...I've just started blogging but I love it because you learn something new every day!

MadSnapper said...

that is a great idea, to put the snow fence on the roof, we have sand fences here to control the movement of the beach sand, these look very similar.