FINALLY SOMETHING TO CONTAIN!!!!

(Just a head note this was written a few weeks ago and im now just getting it finished)                                                   Its been a long few weeks since my last post and Im sorry to you all that are following. But we're still alive! And we finally have something to work for! Freaking cattle!... hate um!... haha anyways id like to do a little recap on whats been happening over the last few weeks. the third week that we we're here two canadian fellows came from a company that sold livestock handling equipment called 2W. What a riot those two are John Blake and Rick Sears. Rick owned the company and John was his right hand man. And for the remainder of that week and the following we installed corral systems at the two ranches. What a step up we thought though, from stretching wire to welding up gates! But it was terrible work all the panels weighed 250 to 300 and there was two full con-exs to put up... we eventually got it done and they turned out really nice. A few days before we got done with the corrals we had heard that The Ocean Drover the ship that was delivering the cattle was at the port and  we finally hung the last gate the afternoon the cattle arrived. And then the real work began! It took us 3 days and 4 nights with little to no sleep to finally get the last heifer off of the trucks. The trucks that they have are absolutley nothing like what we have in the states. Imagine a mercedes semi grain hauler with a pup trailer and you got exactly what they were using, talk about a nightmare. They held 24 head on average and were divided into two stalls of six on each container. We constructed loading ramps specifically for these cattle they ended up being eight foot wide and nearly 4 feet tall and sloped gentley to the ground. made of metal and wood at one of the ranches and just wood at the other. did i mention it was a nightmare? Well let me explain. youve got six americans who speak little to no russian and about 100 russains all trying to communicate while operating heavy equipment none of them have ever seen a cow nor a loading ramp designed for live animals. The majority couldnt back a double trailer and the rest that knew wouldnt stop when you told them to. basically if you break it down it was (pardon the french) a shitshow. Russians are a strange breed. They all argue amongst themselves constantly and raise there voices no matter the situation.  On the last night of unloading i had a situation with one of the trucks that required the driver and i to "co-operate" i called the driver back and using a translator tried to explain that the side panels on the ramp weren't going to allow his side swinging tailgate to open so we needed to open the tailgate with me inside and back the truck at the same time to get the trailer to be flush with the ramp. He spent nearly 20minutes trying to back up this double to the ramp with me on the inside holding the tailgate and keeping the heifers pushed up. he eventually got close jumps out of the tuck and looks at it and trys to use a few pallets to bridge the gap i explained again. and that was it there was an erruption of russian language flying. guys just watching started arguing and the driver was im sure cussing me to my translator, so i get it settled finally or so i thought and then some guy gets on the truck and unlatches the latch that i kept closed while im in the back just so if the heifers back up on me they and i wont fall out so he unlatches it and so i say "okay back the truck up!" to the driver who is standing there. No respose so i raise my voice no response then i raised it up a little more and used a choice word still nothing and more arguing and just as im about to jump out and back the truck up myself a heifer backs into me and kicks and i get launched into the ulocked tailgate and fall to the ground im instantly on my feet screaming louder than i have ever screamed at any one and cussing each and everyone of them. And they all get quiet???? haha i think i might make a good russian afterall.

day one till week two continued

Small village close to one of the ranches we call Kamagana. This is one of the most senic parts of this ranch there is a good sized river down and just to the left i have yet to explore that pasture closest to the river.

o yes thats a horse drawn cart

Broken down brick building. aparrently served as a tractor station in the soviet times. this is near the second ranch Kotnacova.

Standing on the pad where the silage will be looking down the feed lane at the kotnacova ranch

an old dairy near trubchevsk

Saleyonka soup

Trubchevsk park

picture from day one till week two

747 outside the Denver Airport awaiting departure to frankfurt

riding the bus to our plane for moscow. frankfurt airport is massive!

Inside the frankfurt airport. Fairly modern looking eh?

Brandon and I awaiting the bus. (and brent to pull his head outta the toilet haha)

big boss doing work

infront of the moscow airport

Oh how i miss you already

church off the free way downtown Moscow

welcome to Moscow Mockba means Moscow

Vegas in Moscow?

Nuclear plant possibly?

Brent finally feeling better. Big Boss stopped around 12 or so for a break we ate weiner wraps they were pretty good.

Haha welcome to a third world restroom boys!

home sweet home

outside our complex

Trubchevsk! this is some kinda memorial near the college that we live by

miratorg owns a bit of grain land

fencing trucks crane and all. thats how you put in a million miles of fence the right way.

my crew hard at work this was the first stretch ever with a fence stretcher they had been stretching by hand now they love the thing because they get paid by the meter. they were using cotton gloves at first now they have leathers.

Moving some dirt for the corrals

Brand new challengers for cutting hay

one of the resturants we eat at regularly

Week #2

This week has flown by, we havent had much time for anything keeping our fencing crews busy is simple but under the situation is a difficult task. The language barrier proves to be a chore for everyone everyday. but any way lets recap on whats acctually happened since we left two weeks ago. The 2nd of may we left boise for a two hour flight to denver. Brent acctually got sick on that flight and was puking in the lavatory the whole flight. landed in denver and it was straight to the bathroom for him! haha... (we decided that for a parting meal we would eat Mcdonalds at the boise airport. It proved to be devistating for him). After a 3 hour lay-over at denver we loaded up on a 747 for a trip over iceland scottland london and into frankfurt germany making a 11 and a half hour plane ride. with brent puking every so often it made for an interesting plane ride. they had 2 inflight meals wich actually werent that bad. and the stuardests were all beautiful and friendly haha germans. We landed around 11am and made our way through the frankfurt airport. It was a little more difficult than denvers airport but it wasnt bad. We went through another screening that i guess was there customs, then sat for another two hours. we then checked in for our flight to Moscow and were loaded on a bus out to our 737 size airplane or in russian Sa ma l'ote for a three hour forty five minute ride. We rode on the same company lufthansa, the seats were a little ruff and the terbulance was a little crazy but we made er.. brent didnt even puke on that one, so he started feeling better after his last visit to the bathroom in frankfurt wich was a long one... We arrived in Moscow around 530 i think we were all a little tired after the long flights making my memory a little fuzzy. made our way through that airport wich was just massive but we managed to find the baggage belt. As we exited through customs it was more of a pic and chose for the security guys that sit in a desk and watch all the passengers walk by. and wouldnt you know it i was choosen to be screened additionally, musta been the cowboy hat. he told me at first something in russian then after i looked at him in a blank stare he says " put you bags on the belt " so i unloaded my little cart loaded down with 200 lbs of stuff on to this baggage belt opperated by this kid who was to watch the monitor. I was certain that my knifes were as good as gone with this check so i was prepared for the worst. as they went through two pretty foriegn girls walked through and the monitor watch stopped them to check there passports and obviously throw some game out. all the while my bags went through the belt uncheck so i took the opportunity to load them back onto my cart and head out while i had the chance. it was a lucky one and im not sure if any thing woulda happened but im sure it woulda taken a lot longer to get through. out side we were greted by Vladimir aka Big Boss Vladimir is one scary looking dude hes about 6'1" and built pretty well for a 45 to 50 year old man, balding with about half gold teeth on his upper set. Big boss dosnt know a word of english but he is the man. he watched over us like a hawk and made sure the masses of people were standing back as we came through. we exited the airport and finally got some fresh air. it was warm and real humid and the air actually smelled clean even though we were in down town moscow. from moscow we made the journey south to trubchevsk by car. i like to think of vladimir as the mario anndretty of russia hes an excellent driver but like any other country he just drives at least 20 over at all times. we ended up leaving moscow around seven and after a quick stop at a type of rest area we made it to trubchevsk around 3 we picked up our translator sergey and he showed us to our apartment. we made our rooms up and went to bed till about 11 the next morning. apparently sergey had been ringing our door bell all day and we didnt hear a thing. probably because the bell sounds like a bird of some sort we thought it was outside not knowing that the noise was coming from within the house. finally i ended up answering the door and we were taken to the miratorg trubchevsk headquarters office where we met phil george and his wife lanea theyre both great people and have shown us more than enough hospitality. so any way we are getting to know the town a bit and our way around, its not to big but big enough. and since the first day we have been fencing, serveying, and learning. its been absoltley great. we also met a few girls that speek english one of the girls mother is an english teacher here in town she is an awesome women with more energy to go around we usually meet her on the weekends for dinner and sometimes her girls. any way theres plenty of stories to go so i think i will sign off now. keep on fencing!

My People, The Containment Has Begun

Helllooo from Russia! Sorry to you all for the lack of posts, its been a long journey and it was straight to work the first day. The Rooskis as they like to be called are all very friendly here and the bosses are all very accomedating and hilarious. Rooskis all have a great sense of humor we've found. The project that we're working is larger than anything ive ever seen. theres land here thats selling for three dollars american and miratorg seems to be buying every bit they can. and yes it must be contained... The cattle should be here in a few weeks they were put on the boats yesterday!.... I am extreamly surprised at the food. its excellent! Every cafe weve been to has been great, with real good soups salads and breads. Pictures coming soon. the rooskis are still working on getting internet at the apartment, so hopefully soon. Happy day to all you mothers the containment general will stretch a strand of wire for you! HAHA Miss you all! peace!

Russian Containment

T minus seven days until russian containment.