August 23, 2008

Hi everybody,
Just wanted to drop a short note to let you know that we are still alive and well!
We have been here for two weeks and are starting to get adjusted.
We have not had a chance to get everybody's email into our address book, so if you see anybody not listed here; please let them know we are ok.
We do not have internet at the farm yet, so we have found internet at the local library and they are nice enough to let us use it. If you email back I can receive it on my phone and send short messages back. We will probably have time to make it to the library on weekends only.
We are still living in a local hotel. Our apartment should be ready soon. They are remodeling the bathroom. Everytime we ask about when we will move we are told "tomorrow". This has become a running joke with us and the employees at the farm and we now have learned the Russian word for tomorrow. Everything will happen tomorrow.
The cows have been delayed. We are now told they will leave the U.S. on the 28th. It will take them three weeks to get here and then a truck ride to the farm. This delay is not a bad thing for us. It will give us time to get settled and learn more about the new systems at the farm. They are getting us all of the systems manuals in english. This should be very helpful because we are finding that we already know more about these systems than they do. Which is a little unsettling!
We have started chopping corn silage and the plan is to harvest 15,000 tons. That's a lot of corn! We also learned something interesting about the cows that are coming on the ship. For those of you without a farm background, let me explain real quick. Normally cows have a 50/50 chance of having a female or male calf. These heifers are all bred to "sexed semen". Which means that 80-85% of them will have female calves. And ALL of the females will be kept and raised on the farm! Jennifer has figured it out and in February we will have a total of 734 calves drinking milk! Well, at least its not 800!
Other than that we really are having a lot of fun so far. Our interpreters are good and the staff here is really friendly. (All 800 of them!) That is a joke, but it is crazy the jobs they create for the simplest things!
When we get in our apartment and get internet we will send photos and will get our blog started.
Miss you all!
Kevin and Jennifer