Closing up shop

Hello everyone....or anyone.  I am officially closing this blog site down.  I like the layout here better than wordpress, but I am not able to have a private blog with more than 25 people on here.  If you would like to join my private blog on wordpress, just shoot me and email on fb or send me an email laceyjones@gmail.com  Thanks!  Maybe one day I'll come back here, I do love they layout.....

lj  xx

Good news

Hello friends and family!  I have good news...well good for us.  We are moving to a different apartment soon.  There is another room in the building that has two rooms and we are moving into it.  I think this is great!  We will have a bedroom and a kitchen/living room combo.  This has been a stressful subject for myself over the last month.  Levi and I do not have place to relax and with him having a stressful job, it is important that he can relax!  yay!  So good news :)  Finally something good..... Good news #2~We also got our car this past week...not exactly what we thought we were getting, but it's ok for now.  It's called a Chevrolet Niva.  At least it is not a car made in Russia.. So that was good.

Saturday was Levi's birthday.  We had planned to go to the heliopark and stay the night.  LIttle did we know that there was a group from Vietnam coming to look at the farm, so we decided we would go on Sunday, so we could enjoy more of our time there.

I made oatmeal cookies for Levi's birthday and they were delicious!   For those of you cooks, who don't have a silpat......GET ONE!  A BIG THANKS to Jane McGill for enlightening me on this product:) I was able to put the silpat on the oven rack and the cookies came out perfect, even the heart one especially for Levi <3  I also had a bunch of birthday cards to give Levi that friends and family had signed for him at our last gathering. He was so shocked to see one sitting at his desk every time he got up!  Tricky, tricky!  So Saturday was a good day, we had Michelle over for dinner that night as well.  Levi's favorite fried chicken, potatoes, and of course, beer and cookies.  We are lucky Michelle is here..she is a good worker for Levi and good company for me!

Side note ~ Everyone has been asking me about the beer....I'm going to leave this for a post on it's own, but I'll tell you that it's ok...there is definitely no Michelob Ultra :)

Sunday~ We went to the farm and Levi worked until about noon...we then went to the apartment and packed up for our one night away.  I was pretty excited I must say, it had been a month since we had left the farm for an overnight stay!! I was told the hotel had a spa and swimming pool.  We arrived at the hotel without getting lost and got checked into our room.  Turns out...no pool or spa :(  Oh well, it was about 2:00 and we hadn't eaten, so we went to the bar and ordered a small snack.  I had a caesar salad and sauvignon blanc glass of wine, Levi had a club sandwich (comes with egg) and a Budweiser (it was from Czeck Republic).  We then went for a walk, since we were in the city centre.  We took a few pictures and just hung out...  It was almost like we were in the good ole' USA, except the cars, the cold, the people....ok, ok, maybe it wasn't..but it was nice, because Levi was relaxed and we were having fun!  It has been pretty high stress these last few weeks and we needed a get a way.

After we got back, we heard my computer beeping and Levi's mom was calling us thru skype.  Levi talked to her for a while, as I as getting ready for dinner.  I'm sure you all know, that I'm not one to get dressed up all the time, but after a MONTH of not dressing up...I was ready :)  We headed to dinner and had a great time.  The hotel staff is really great at the Heliopark, most of them speak English.  They are quick to help and give great suggestions.  The hotel is suppose to be one of the nicest in the city and this was the second time we had eaten there.  It was once again great!  Levi had a filet in cranberry sauce, grilled veggies, and mashed potatoes and I had a ribeye (not as good as the filet) and grilled veggies.  Levi also had a glass of fress squeezed orange juice...he has a weakness for that :)  It was his birthday, so no complaints from me.  The next morning we headed out, but not before a short unexpected detour...I wasn't the best navigator and we missed  turn!  That's ok...we managed fairly well.

It was a great break to get away and we have vowed to at least leave the farm once a month. I am happy that we went....Levi was his old carefree self and I think he knows that he needs to get away some, for his own sanity!!

When we got back to the farm Monday....stress city began.  I'm not even sure what happened, maybe nothing happened, but it wasn't good.  Anyway, back to the farm life.  Monday was a short day, because we didn't get the the farm until later.  Tuesday it was freezing rain when Levi came to get me!  He also learned that the cows are coming!!  There are 1,624 bred heifers being delivered to the farm tomorrow.  I'm making Levi take me to the store tonight, because otherwise it might be awhile! They are finishing up the final preparations today.  I'm sure everything will go ok.  I can tell the anxiety is rising though!! I promise to take pictures...it's going to be crazy here for the next few months! Levi says they will be calving 50 cows per day...right now they are doing 3!

I had better get off here!  I got three emails today, so I need to get responded to them!  Getting emails, gives me something to do! Yay!  I'm also walking around with Levi today, because the weather is fairly nice. Missouri weather, freezing rain and 30 yesterday, today it's 54! At least that reminds me of home :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! They don't celebrate that here, but the Americans d0:o)  Michelle and I found some pumpkins! She is carving one and I am making a pumpkin pie with the other if I can figure out how!!!  lol  I'll try and write Monday!

Signed, Glad to have a few things going our way!

NOTE~ I have attached pictures to the private blog..if you are not on the list for the private one, email me and I'll get you added :)

Keeping Busy

Well dang it! I did take some pictures, but forgot the cord from the camera to the computer….tomorrow I hope to remember it. It’s been a few days since I have written…Saturday I think. We have had a few interesting things happen since Saturday….so here goes….

Well the other American couple living next to us said they heard a mouse Saturday night.  So of course Sunday night, I hear a mouse…and Levi hears a mouse too (after I wake him up!).  So to get a mouse trap you have to talk to the engineers.  Just a short side note…they aren’t engineers.  The vets aren’t vets either.  The engineers are handymen and the vets are just people who know how to give iv’s to cows and treat them.  Actually in Russia, I could be an engineer and vet :) So we get the engineers to give us something to kill a mouse.  They give us glue. This glue is super duper sticky glue!  We only did one trap, because it was so sticky!  Per their directions we took the glue and made a circle on a piece of cardbard, then put “something a mouse would like” in the center.  We opted for cheese and piece of bread… You know they don’t have peanut butter here!!  Today…still no mouse…so maybe it left the building!

Don’t worry we still have a leaky shower and are taking turns mopping!  But last night after washing dishes there was so much water on the floor…I thought I might have just been a little messy washing dishes, so I mopped it up and went to finish putting stuff away.  Walked back by the sink and my socks got wet! There was another puddle in front of the sink.  I then opened the cabinet doors under the sink and noticed that the pipe going from the sink was gone! It had fallen off and all the water from the dishes I just washed was under the sink! FAIL!!   So between our place falling apart and the internet….what to do??

The days are definitely going faster now. I’m not sure if it is because I am getting used to keeping myself busy or if I am actually doing something.  I have been going with Levi a lot during the day, because it is nice outside and I know a time will come when it will be toooo cold for this girl!  I have been reading,  blogging (of course), researching a computer program they are getting (Dairycomp), and emailing people back.  It’s nice to hear from home about just the normal things that people are doing :)

OH my Goodness!!  Levi told me to look out of the office window today.  What did I see---in the conference room, people were lined up to get their blood drawn and some sort of machine put on them.  I have a terribly week stomach, so I only looked for a bit, but couldn’t stop!! They were not using vacuums to get the blood either…a good ole syringe.  The vet came up and was trying to show the ladies how a vacuum would work.  They said, “We don’t need that.” I asked our translator what they were doing and she said they were getting a physical.  This machine that they were using was apparently to check the heart.  The men would take their shirt off and have these things suctioned to them.  Not sure how it worked, but later in the afternoon they asked us if we would like to have our blood tested and heart checked.  I politely responded with No Thank You.

Last thing for the day…

BEEF~~ So apparently in Russian they think that a bull is supposed to be raised for meat.  They keep them as bulls their entire lives until they are butchered.  This could maybe attribute to why their meat is so tough. Along with the fact that Levi saw them chasing around a bull once to kill for meat, doesn’t help.  I’m sure he wasn’t stressed out .J  Anyway, so when the meat locker comes to buy the cull calves, they pay around $2.56/pound for bulls and only $2.25 for the heifers.  They want bulls for their meat.  Yuck!

I might not be able to write again until Saturday.  Tomorrow, Shan (Levi’s boss), Elena (a lady from home office), and the new translator are coming.  Then Friday we have meeting in Penza along with a few errands!  I have a list of where I want to go :)  Don’t worry friends…Lenta is on the list!!  If anyone has an easy recipe to pass along let me know! Keep in mind, I only have an oven, stove, and a couple of pans.  But, I can get most fresh ingredients!

Signed,  So nice today I didn’t wear a coat!!  Happy!!

Why we love Russia~~~

Oh for everyone reading my blog….I am bringing home Russian toilet paper for you! Well for the sake of time and room in my luggage, please just go to your nearest store and purchase some tissue paper.  You won’t believe this stuff!  LOL  Can’t believe I’m writing about toilet paper (emphasis on the paper part)! The farm basically buys roughed up tissue paper in a roll for toilet paper.  I have finally remembered to bring our own!!  Are they serious???  LOL  Welcome to Russia!!

Here is a perfect description of the TP....lol! Copy and paste the links to see..I'm not sure how to link it!

http://goeasteurope.about.com/od/russia/p/russiantoilets.htm

http://flux.net/toilet-paper-in-uzbekistan-excerpts-from-a-summer-expedition-and-a-wealth-of-other-scrutinies

It's worth a visit guys!!!  Book your tickets ....lol :)

Cows

Sorry I didn't get a chance to write yesterday. We left for Penza early in the morning and didn't get back until 10:00 last night.  It was a successful trip though.  The reason of the trip was to get some office furniture and to have a meeting with the head of the company defining Levi's role as well as other employees roles on the farm.

We went to a store pronounced Lenta.  It was pretty amazing :)  I am definitely a bit more at ease, knowing I can grocery shop. I would describe this store as a wal-mart, but with more food and less of the "other" stuff. They do have about everything, just one option.  We found wonderful fruits, vegetables, and even taco shells!  Levi told me we are pretty lucky to have a nice store like this fairly close to us...and I agree. There were also good cuts of meat, lots of cheeses, and fresh bread.  I can't explain to you how much this has helped my overall mental state of health...lol  No really, it is great to know that we can go shopping and get most of our needs and wants! We stopped at the store on the way into Penza, so we weren't able to get any groceries that needed refrigerated.  We will go back in the near future I hope:)  Now of course, keep in mind, there still are huge amounts of groceries we can't find here.. i.e. Ranch, pepperjack cheese, liquid vanilla (they have powder. Has anyone ever used powder?), sliced bread, and regular spaghetti sauce.  We are making do though, and this place will be nothing but good for us.  Finding a wonderful grocery store....This makes me happy :~)

When the Cows come home~~ Today I wanted to talk about cows, but no the cows on the farm.  The cows in the village.  Each family in our village has a cow.

"When the cows come home"

This quote takes on a whole new meaning in 2012 in Russia :) The cows go out to graze every morning around 7 and come back every evening around 6.  The first morning I kept hearing a cracking sound and for a second was worried that my computer had blown up because I left it charging all night.  I got up and looked out the window to see a man with a whip rounding up cows coming from all directions. Don't worry I took pictures, and will hopefully get a video soon!

Last weekend, Michelle asked us if we wanted to walk to one of the lakes with her.  There are two within walking distance.  Levi wasn't too excited, but she said it was only a 15-20 minute walk.  After about 45 minutes, we finally arrived at the lake!  We did get to see the beautiful countryside and the place where the local cows graze.  There was a small hut where the guy has a bit of shelter from the elements.  I'm sure he was making the most of his day, by the appearance of beer bottles scattered around :)  The lake was a very peaceful place, hidden within the country.  The walk back took us through the sounds side of town and along a muddy muddy muddy road!  Like I said before, the dirt is so black here! I know, I know, you need pictures to believe...I'm slacking:) We were all thirsty when we got back, and Levi vowed to never go on one of Michelle's "20 minute walks" again!

I have to run and do a few errands, so I'll talk about the housing here in Russia tomorrow.  This will give me time to maybe take some pictures this afternoon....keyword maybe :)

lj xx

The cows coming home.

Until the cows come home

The farm.

Ice Cream in tubes...sure.

Levi's handyman skills have paid off!  A shower without holding the nozzle...heaven!  If we could just have hot water regularly:)

The Parlor 

Why We Love Russia-- In Penza we got stopped by a police officer while getting into our car.  Levi at this point, obviously loses all of his Russian speaking ability :)  We give him some papers we have and he takes a picture of our license plate.  Soo....we might be getting a ticket in the mail!  I think it saved us that Levi had an American license and I doubt he knew how to read it.

farm and weather

Today's topic is the farm and weather.

FARM~~  Levi is in charge of managing a 4,000 cow dairy.  This includes employees, cows, and equipment.  Currently, there are 1,400 cows that are being milked.  At the end of the month, 1,600 more pregnant heifers will be arriving.  I know the numbers don't add up, but after the calves are born and they start their milking, it'll be up there to the 4,000 :) In order for all the cows to be milked three times a day, major improvements in efficiency need to occur. They will be milking 23 hours a day! The parlor (where they milk) is a rotary parlor.  This means, the cows get on a merry go round type of equipment that doesn't stop.  They get on and off at the same place.  You should google it..it's quite interesting.  This particular one has 72 slots for cows. It milks about 450 cows an hour. I do have pictures of this!!

There are 101 employees on the dairy side.  This farm might not need all of the employees  at high efficiency.  But......they are building 4 more 4,000 cows farms over the next 3 years, so they will use them somewhere.  They have already started building the second farm (Arschinovka) and a heifer facility (Pachelma) at two different locations. They are then going to build another farm called Narvochat Two.  The farm we are on now is Narvochat One.  They already have 3 other farms too.  Megafarm has 1200 milking cows, Troitska is an old farm with 450 milking cows, and Pawnee is where the calves are kept around 870.  Thankfully, none of them are tie stalls! Which is pretty common in Russia.

They are farming 240,000 acres for these farms. Last week 8 brand new John Deere tractors arrived.

Whew! I don't know how anyone keeps it straight.  Levi is enjoying it though. Every day is a challenge for him :) Slow and steady wins the race.....

After Levi gets this farm up and running, he will then move to the next one and then next....  or until we decide to come home!  Don't get your hopes up...We aren't coming home unless we at least get a few visitors!  Who's willing to take one for the team :) If we are still here in 2014, I'm making sure we get to go to the Olympics in Sochi!  Oh ya....

WEATHER~~The weather here has basically been rainy since we have gotten here.  It has been pretty cold, but today was a change.  It was so nice today I have just a hoodie on.  I am hoping that it stays like that for a couple of days.  The sun hasn't been out in four days, so I am enjoying wearing sunglasses today! The average temperatures, excluding today, since we have been here has been 50 during the day and 40 at night.  Today I talked to a lady from the home office in Penza and she said it snows so much in the winter, that you never see the ground all winter!  She said probably around six feet!!! Wow!! I'll definitely take pictures of that.

BLACK SOIL.....This country has the blackest soil that I have ever seen.  I would say if they could get efficient and organized with supply chains, American agriculture would be given a run for their money. Pictures to come for sure! Every house has their own garden and grow some amazing food!

"Welcome to Russia."

I have heard this more times than I care....In fact I asked that our translator not translate that anymore!!!  One thing that I cannot believe (besides all of the modern inconveniences) is that they have accepted inefficiency.  It's just seems that's the way it is, they don't question it.  I don't want to assume all Russians are the same...this is just what I have witnessed.  If there is a problem...they don't want to divulge into the real problem and how to solve the problem permanently so it doesn't keep happening.  For example: We still don't have a car after almost 3 weeks.  Instead of ordering the car three weeks before we arrive they wait until we get here to order.  This hasn't happened once, but to several people.  Why would they just order the car early for the next one after it happened the first time.

Getting the Tax Id was an adventure in itself.  We went to two different buildings for a total of about 3 hours and still don't have a tax id :)  Welcome to Russia! 

A lot of the offices are in old soviet buildings. These offices still do not have copy machines, so we had to go back to the office to make a copy of something. That was strange to me.  WE  are lucky to live in  such a country that is so techy. The grocery stores still write by hand everything in a ledger. A lot of stores here also still use carbon copy paper! When we had excess luggage in Moscow, the lady wrote our receipt used carbon copy paper.  I don't even remember the last time I saw carbon paper!! We use computers so much now.... Can you imagine how much time it would take to do the accounting if we wrote everything down by hand still?

I can't think of any more examples right now, but I will write them down from now on! You never can think of examples when you need them :)

Tonight I'll try and take some pictures of the shop next to our apartment.  I'm hoping to type about Russian housing and the cows tomorrow.

Signed, Happy the Sun is Shining!!! xx

Why we love Russia--The natural gas pipes are ran above ground here....but don't worry they put up picket fences along the road in case a semi would veer off the road :)  Safety first my friends!

food

Here comes one of the most important topics---FOOD!! The second most important topic is transportation, which we still still don't have and is SUPER annoying. So....food....Where to start??? When we arrived we didn't have anything in the "apartment." So we were greeted with some sheets that had a lovely flower and ladybug print on them:) We then went to a store to get some more items that we might need. We got a fridge, some pots, a spatula, two plates, two bowls, silverware, kitchen towels, shower towels, and a bowl. That's pretty much all we have still. Pretty soon I think we will be going again and getting a few more items. We don't have a dishwasher here, I guess that's ok. We wouldn't have enough dishes to fill it anyway:)

It's amazing what you can do without, inconvenient at times though.

Topic of Food~~ Most things here are not processed. You can buy fresh produce and meats almost anywhere. I wouldn't recommend the beef though. The Russians are still learning how to properly feed a cow and then how to butcher it correctly. In the town we live in Potodeevo, there are two houses that have been converted into stores (pictures coming). They have most items we want, but about 5km down the road is a town called Narovchat. This town is a bit bigger and has a grocery store with chicken and more selection. We probably go there once a week.

The biggest town to us is Penza. Penza is about the population of Kansas City and an hour and half away. It has TWO McDonald's and severals malls. I have been to the McDonald's twice, but don't see myself going back. Instead of giving me a taste of home, it just makes me feel sick...too much grease! Anyway, I do have some pictures of the grocery store in Penza...it is much nicer and has a great selection of fruits and veggies. There is also an open air market that we saw when I was here in July. I haven't gotten to go and check that out yet. Lately our dinners have consisted of about three meals. They are stir fry, spaghetti, and fried chicken and potatoes. We have been making a lot at each meal to have lunch the next day and sometimes dinner. After supper, we have dishes and shower mopping to do :) There are not many sauces or spices here except ketchup and mayonnaise, which both of us don't like, so our meals are pretty basic. Please let us know if you have any suggestions!

That's enough about our food....I'm already craving Buffalo Wild Wings :) Tomorrow I'll tell you about the farm and the local weather.

Lacey xx

New Learnings

I should have started this blog sooner.  I look at crazy things now and it doesn’t faze me! So hopefully I won’t forget everything I have seen.  After day one of the Penza hotel, they took us to the farm “hotel.” We didn’t know that everyone would have to re-arrange and we felt bad because of it.  Here Levi was the new boss and already making people move to different apartments due to his arrival.  The room that they put us in is about a second level room out of 4 levels.  Initially, they showed us a room that had a separate bedroom from kitchen. This room was one room, not one bedroom:) I will take pictures this week of some of the places I mention and will post.  

The room has a small closet type item, bed with two drawers underneath, sink, 6′ counter space, tiny oven, fridge, small table and two wooden chairs.  There is also a bathroom, we will get to that beauty in a bit though:)  All of this stuff is in one room.  So you are either sitting in a wooden chair, standing, or lying on the bed! A positive that I can add is that this building has been remodeled recently, so it feels clean to me.  We share a washing machine downstairs. It has been broken twice since we have been here and no water another time, therefore I think I need to get better timing with it!  Most people in Russia do not have dryers.  This was interesting to me. Anyway enough about the room.  Oh wait real quick the bathroom…

The bathroom has a toilet, sink, and shower.  Normal huh?  Except for the fact that the shower leaks every time you take a shower.  When we moved into the room, Michelle (american girl) was kind enough to leave a mop in the bathroom…I thought this was interesting until I took my first shower.  This is not a fun task for Levi or I. We have decided to take turns and that way one person doesn’t have to mop every night   The engineer came to look at it a couple days ago and said it didn’t leak….what?!?!  We are calling again today.

The hot water is a another aspect of living in Russia. In the summer, the hot water is turned off I am told. Thankfully it’s not summer! A few nights ago, we had Michelle over for dinner.  While Levi was washing off a utensil, he noticed that we had hot water.  Dinner immediately ceased and we all went to take showers:) We reconvened in about 20 minutes and continued our supper.  This is normal here:)

Tomorrow I’m going to address our eating, shopping, and dinner situation.  I’ll also tell you about where we live and the community.

I”m also leaving you with a mental picture of what I saw last night, I’ll have Levi take a picture the next time we see it on our dirt road.  A young man is very ingenious in Potodeevo, Russia.  He has made a contraption we call the Roto tiller mobile.  It is a tiller without the tiller.  There is an engine and wheels. He has an attachable wagon that he can put on and take a ride in   Getting Classy in  Russa:)

Maybe that’s what I’ll try and do every day to get my humor in….What we love about Russia!

Talk to you guys tomorrow! Thanks for adding me:)