Get to know us and Anneke / Q&A [ Part 1 ]

Let me out. We decided to make a series of short Q&A videos in order to answer all your questions. Thank you very much for all the questions that you posted under our posts and also in the comments. There were a lot of questions and we decided to divide them into several topics and just highlight... Yeah, in each video highlight a certain topic to make the videos shorter. And we will post these videos in between our renovation ones. So I will... I hope you will get your question answered. Ilya will be in the meanwhile. Ilya, sorry for the noise, but Ilya will be fixing our window in the meanwhile. When we bought the farm the window was already broken. We just left it like it is, but it's getting colder and strong wind. Yeah, it's better to to stop with at least the wind. And I hope it will get a bit warmer in the house when we will fix it. So, yeah. Let me start. So let's start from questions about us and about our cat. Not ours. About Aniki. So, yeah. Just a moment. I have all the questions somewhere here. Okay, just someone asks where do you come from and why did you move to Belgium? And we already mentioned that we are coming from... both of us are coming from Ukraine. And why did we come to Belgium? Ilya got a job offer and we always actually wanted to move to another country and we are considering different countries like Czech Republic, USA, Germany as well, but then just it was a nice opportunity, a nice job. So we just moved, just moved. Slowberry asks how long have you been living in Belgium? We live here already for six and a half years. Yeah, six and a half. It will be seven years in April for Ilya, I guess. Yeah, something like that. Also, just someone asks, can you talk fluently Dutch or is this about as good as your English? Yeah, the language is not my cup of tea. So, I speak a little Dutch, but not so good. I understand Dutch, but not so good. It's not so good. We always speak English at work, Russian at home. So, I only speak Dutch with the parents of the children at school or in the community house. Hello, this is Marina. Yes, I did call and I also sent a message. Is it possible to make a new drill for a bus? So, not so much practice, but yes, I still have to learn a lot, I think. Yeah, for me it's a little bit different because almost in every IT company here there are a lot of people from different countries or from different parts of Belgium. Yeah, usually the main communication language is English, so same at my work. Also, everyone speaks English because of different origins of people coming in. So, English is a working language, our working language. So, and for me it's less practice because Marina takes care about school and Marina takes steps in here. Ouch, lost. Sorry, just a moment. Maybe just someone also suggests maybe speak some Dutch once in a while, but we did or make a Dutch narrated channel for us. Also, we got the questions, maybe we should make a Russian narrated channel because we speak Russian as well or Ukrainian. But it would be for Dutch it would be much more difficult because our proficiency is less and it would be difficult. And also we want to to have our channel and to keep talking in English because right now it's such a multicultural port and people in the comments you see from all different countries and it's such a pleasure to read the different experiences and let them people, like I think English is really a universal language and a unique possibility to actually bring all people together. So, that's why we just want to keep to keep our channel in English, yeah? Yeah, and it will be also hard to maintain few channels in different languages. Yeah, I just like having another channel next to this one in Russian or in Dutch. I would not be able to do it. No time. Marina tries to have all these subtitles. Yeah, yeah, Russian because it's easier for me just but also takes time. Also English because the auto-translate in English is pretty like when you go through it, yeah. So, I'll try also to upload English subtitles. And the next one. How many languages do each of one speak, Behi asks? Answer for myself. I speak Russian and Ukrainian, my native languages and we speak English. I speak Dutch. Also, I used to speak German because I lived in Germany for one year, but it was like 15 years ago and I think it's very passive. Right now the knowledge is very passive. The Dutch and German are very similar. And when I want to say something in German, all the Dutch words are coming in. So, yeah, I would not say that I speak German. I know German. Ilya speaks Russian, Ukrainian, understands Ukrainian. Yeah, I don't speak Ukrainian very well because I live in Crimea. Yeah, I understand Ukrainian very well, but speaking would be harder. Speaking, yeah, would be harder. It would be a lot of Russian words in between. And English. Yeah, English. A little bit of Dutch, a little bit of Czech. No. Yeah, basics. Yeah, a little bit of all the Slavic languages. It's like I understand what is written in Polish and Serbian, but it's really a little bit. Bruce asks, are you... And for me, it's really a nightmare to learn new languages. But you are doing good. Your English improves. I don't know. The next question. Bruce asks, sorry if I pronounce the names or nicknames not correctly. Are you happy you moved to Belgium? How are your children adjusting? Let me answer. Yes, we are happy that we moved to Belgium. We got to know a lot of new people and we got to know a new culture and the people here are very friendly and we're always ready to help and I have only positive experiences living here in Belgium. Also, when I talk English in the beginning, when I didn't speak Dutch, people were trying to help me out and yeah, only positive. What is your experience? I think the same, but I don't talk a lot. Yeah, so yes, we are happy that we moved. We got to know a lot of new people actually and a lot of new friends here in Belgium and it's really cool. How are the kids adjusting? I don't think that they are adjusting anymore. It's like six years ago that we moved. They were small and Belgium is really like their country. They are happy to go back to Ukraine and to spend holidays because it's holidays with their grandparents and they like the freedom over there, but they are not adjusting anymore. They just live. They have a lot of friends, go to school, just normal kids life here. All fine. Yes, yeah, I think it's for Max, for Maxim, it was quite even easier because he was smaller. Yeah, he was smaller and he just started speaking Russian. Not even started, just a couple of words when we came. Not a lot. Not a lot. So for Kate it was a little bit harder because she needed a few months. She needed a few months, but when it was also very interesting to see when in the beginning it was difficult for her, but after a few months when she got to learn a new friend, she actually started to be friends with a girl and it helped a lot for her to adjust and to learn. So actually getting a new friend was the key point, turning point in successful assimilation here for her. The only only bad thing is that we are alone here. I mean our family is in Ukraine and with this corona, it becomes more and more difficult to to visit each other. So we have to wait. I mean, you don't have the possibility just to go for a weekend to the grandmother and grandfather. Beth asks, has Ilya quit his job to do this full time? No, he didn't, okay. He works as usual full time, me as well, and we do not plan to quit our jobs. Barbara asks, how many hours a week are you able to give to the house? Usually it's weekend, two days and yeah in the evening. Depends on situation, if something urgent, yeah, three times. So two days. Usually two days. I try to keep it two days or yeah, depends on two evenings during the weekdays and weekends. Just someone also asks. And holidays and vacation. Do you ever ask for help from friends or family? As I already mentioned, family is not living here in Belgium, our family. So we have no possibility to ask for help. And our friends, we do ask sometimes, but usually we are not used to asking for help. We just used to do everything ourselves. If it's pretty difficult, then we ask. But yeah, normally we just count on our own time, forces and then yeah. Also Alfie, do you use someone's help or just make everything by yourself? But I will refer from a different angle. Yes, we use the help of the contractors when we cannot do this job ourselves or it will take us too much time to do the job and we just hire the contractors to do the job like the roof. The learning curve to build a new roof would be too big and it would take too much time for us. It's not too hard. It's not hard, it's time. It's just time, really time consuming, yeah. So Sean, I guess I'm sorry, asks where do you guys learn all those skills? Google. YouTube. Google and YouTube. Also some white paper, some documents when we were reading about the lime and the lime mortar and the way to inject our walls against the rising dam. But mainly, yes, as everyone doing the research and to use all the possible sources. Also, there are not help, but the knowledge of yeah, educated people, engineers, kind of architects, stability engineers. So all possible information is welcome. First, Jan asks, will you make a video of something traditionally you cook at home when the kitchen will be finished? Yes. But it will be like in a very long perspective. So yeah. Don't film it. This part where the kitchen is, it will be the second phase of the project. So maybe on our temporary kitchen. Yes, I would. Who takes care of your kids when you are away for long to work on the house? Either us. When we were away for the whole day, we brought our kids to our friends. Right now, our mother came and she's taking care of the kids as well. But if it's only two, three hours, then we just leave them at home because they are pretty big already and they can stay home alone and there is no problem. They're even happy to have some time for themselves without parents. I'm happy that they're quite small because it will be some parties. Yeah, yeah. They cannot organize parties yet. First, Ken Han also asks, what are your children's thoughts on the farm? They are very happy with our purchase because we also asked when we were buying this farm, we asked them, do they want to leave? Are they okay with having this renovation for long term and to live in a built renovation mode? They agreed and they have chosen their favorite places that they like, like this bakehouse. They consider it to be their shelter, future shelter. So they are pretty happy and when they come here, they spend a lot of time with their neighbors, with their animals, dogs, horses, so all kinds of animals. They love animals very much. They are happy. But of course, they don't like work. When it comes to work, not every time they are happy. It depends on kind of work, like painting they find very interesting, but some work they don't like, but as always. We do the same with us. Then about Annika, a lot of questions about Annika. Is the cat a pup in France, a stray? No. She is a beloved cat from our neighbors and they love her, but I think it's Annika who decides where she's gonna live. And she just come to us and live at our house, because I don't know. She wants... Yeah, maybe because also our neighbors have two big dogs. Yeah, they have dogs. Maybe. Yeah, I don't know, but she really likes sleeping in our attic. Yeah, the barn is like that. Yeah, every time when we are coming, she is getting down from the attic, like meeting us and greeting us. Or she just wants to make sure that we do everything correctly. And did you know that Annika was going to be the star of your channel? No. We didn't, of course, no. Beyond it was William. Yeah, but she she has such a nice character and like a strong personality, really a nice cat. She's really curious. Really curious, but cautious. Curious and cautious. So she checks, but keeps the distance all the time. And in the beginning we thought that she had no owners, because she was all the time here and she was like really just here. Yeah, like cat of the house. We thought that she belongs to the house and we actually inherited her as well, but later we learned that no, she has the owners. It's getting colder, really cold a bit, and I guess my nose is getting red. Yes, it's a shame. Standing here like, I don't know. Heather also asks, is your neighbor aware of how much time she spends with you? Yes, he knows. He knows about our channel. They know about our channel and they have seen Annika as well. Yonel asks, does cat inspector live on the farm? We think she does. At least she sleeps in our attic. Yeah, and maybe she lives all the time here. Not sure. Have you entered? Should I hold? In general, this is mine. Now you can hold. This is my first cat in my life. This is so reassuring. Let me put it aside. I'm easily scared. Yeah, not 100% perfect, but not bad. Yeah, it's my fault. Let me show you what he is. So small. But he just made two here. So yeah, next question, next question. Let's keep it short. I hope it will be short. The next question, have you introduced Annika to your cat? Do they get alone? No, we don't because our cat is at home and we do not bring him here. And she is here, but I really hope they will get alone when we finally move in. I don't know how they will behave and yeah. Let's see. I hope, I really hope that they will get alone. Very good. Once you move in and it's Gopal who asks, once you move in and if Annika does so too, will your neighbor mind? You know, it's not, I guess it's not our neighbor or we who decides what Annika will do. I think it's Annika who decides and yeah, I don't know what's gonna be on. In her mind. I would not mind. I would be very happy if she will keep living with us, but let's see. And the last three questions. TP asks, how is Ilya bag doing lifting so much heavy all the time? Training, training. But how is your bag doing? Yeah, it's fine. What Ilya is listening? There are, there were many questions in the comments under many videos from Brian Woods. What Ilya is listening when doing some tedious work? Yeah, sometimes. Yeah, sometimes it's music, but usually I'm listening some podcast. Last time it was a series of lectures by Sipolsky. Yeah, it's I'll post it here. Human behavioral. I don't remember. Was it interesting? Yeah, yeah. How people behave. And what kind of music do you listen? Everything, but yeah, I'm I'm growing up on prodigy trance, I don't know, all this hardcore music. Also rock, it's it's really like mix of everything. Yeah, he has Spotify, so I just put everything in one playlist and whatever comes. And the last question. I just want to know, Kerry asks, I just want to know the key to your endless energy. That's a very nice question to end this Q&A. Where do you take all this energy? We need to move as soon as possible. Actually, it's also the attitude, because if you're if you if you see it as your hobby, if you enjoy the process itself, it's just like it's Yeah, it's quite a hobby. It's like some people running, some people biking, some people went to gym and Go to gym. Yeah, go to gym. So for me, it's more or less the same. And yeah, I'm enjoying it. I'm trying some new stuff. And it's really opposite what I'm doing for Yeah, all my life because So it's total different activities. Yeah, same. Also, it's a lot of new things that you learn. Having also a YouTube channel is something completely different that we used to do. And it's a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. But I guess the key is like keep it fun if it brings your Yeah, energy. Itself. So you don't look for an energy. The work that you do is actually giving you the energy to continue. But sometimes Yeah, sometimes it's just like no, I just want to lay on a sofa and do nothing. Right now we cannot afford a lot to just lay on the sofa because we want to move in as soon as possible and That would be a nice bridge to another video In the next video, I would like to answer all the questions about the farm also to show you And also to go and show you the boundaries I got a lot of questions about the boundaries about our land and what we are currently doing and Yeah, all the questions about the farm we will highlight in the next video so if you have some if you Wait a second. Sorry Just a few moments, so if you have any questions about the farm Please ask Their future our future plans will be highlighted in the next video Okay I'm done. Thank you very much for your questions See you next time. Bye Bye