tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666460814761043462024-03-13T03:47:56.549+03:00A Wandering Family"A breath-taking account of an epic adventure pitting two intrepid protagonists against an array of obstacles..." - Fuquay-Varina Independent
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"...Gripping...truly powerful" - Derbyshire Tribune
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This blog is dedicated to covering the exploits of a young family (J, B, and young Steven and Matthew), who, having left their home, have ventured into the world in an effort to improve it to the best of their ability. Welcome, and thanks for joining us today, at least in a digital sense.wanderingfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00119301641086703044noreply@blogger.comBlogger207125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-23650769610776371962016-02-08T21:34:00.002+03:002016-02-08T21:34:57.205+03:00US visit 2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We travel so much with the boys they have learned to sleep anywhere and in any position. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I took this picture to show our T friends how big the grocery stores are in the US and how small the carts can be. They love it because they have never seen anything like it.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Steven needed glasses so I let him pick out the ones he liked best. Once he put them on I was taken aback at the resemblance to Jesse. You can see it in the comparison (Jesse is on the left and Steven is on the right just in case you can't tell).</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the things I crave most when I come to the US is Red Lobster. So many people have tried to "introduce" me to "better" seafood but I always come back to the butter soaked deliciousness of Red Lobster. Mmmmm.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is T people's "fine dining". Mmmm?</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxIikSkBJc9j0nYKYlBOYQY3T3NrCeueZSCTDGVIbZZ97L3PH2KebMsPgGgcwWl-UgqjhJla-bwnvZt1lE7O_j4NDeUpfUTE2MjojLsiUGRGH3BmJGKqlnMoDVP0QV6wO48kp_iBP-KZ0/s1600/P1030134.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxIikSkBJc9j0nYKYlBOYQY3T3NrCeueZSCTDGVIbZZ97L3PH2KebMsPgGgcwWl-UgqjhJla-bwnvZt1lE7O_j4NDeUpfUTE2MjojLsiUGRGH3BmJGKqlnMoDVP0QV6wO48kp_iBP-KZ0/s320/P1030134.JPG" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid48Tul8GD2ftbonwuT73ApDxD4hWxoVcOZJsr0TS5T_zERAWSg1CImVsOupRIq0zdcA_KtY9phM8Lkm8SxydG0mQjvQuiXt1TgTcY9P_AGNHcRgQxf8XFu9PSDgXLnCKJyxyFJrDtFnI/s1600/IMG_20150504_112451167_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid48Tul8GD2ftbonwuT73ApDxD4hWxoVcOZJsr0TS5T_zERAWSg1CImVsOupRIq0zdcA_KtY9phM8Lkm8SxydG0mQjvQuiXt1TgTcY9P_AGNHcRgQxf8XFu9PSDgXLnCKJyxyFJrDtFnI/s320/IMG_20150504_112451167_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since there is no dentist here we can see we all get our dental work done in the US. Matthew had several cavities that had to be fixed. I want to thank Dr. Dan Howell (<a href="http://www.carypediatricdentist.com/">http://www.carypediatricdentist.com</a>) </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for all the work he did for Matthew. He is such a kind man with an amazing staff. I tried to make desserts for them as a thank you but it can not compare to everything they did for us. I'm sure Matthew will thank you one day too. :)</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2vDsGpBI7jgy_Sf9NFFPMt0loWZXjL9UTKIu3znyeEQHvvcWP530YHCITLWu2SkmrLOYatSEUGUJjtvd4v7GTUvw-5nO12DhCSpqz_qOGnzj84dIwNkF6wu0IJJzzPbguNu6NDU9ARMg/s1600/IMG_20150504_195337202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2vDsGpBI7jgy_Sf9NFFPMt0loWZXjL9UTKIu3znyeEQHvvcWP530YHCITLWu2SkmrLOYatSEUGUJjtvd4v7GTUvw-5nO12DhCSpqz_qOGnzj84dIwNkF6wu0IJJzzPbguNu6NDU9ARMg/s320/IMG_20150504_195337202.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My favorite, most relaxing time for me is when I'm fishing. The only time I get to do that is when Mr. Greer takes me on his boat, which he always offers to do every time we're in the US. It's always the highlight of our stay for me. Thank you Mr. Greer!</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs1fORm6C2k521OnD9zNcY5r76YX2LLDOPXxX3A_6TppR6Lw03UO3cWAYk7G3o9e3GKu5I-8Msxpv5b6BmpQot9R1CNCKc1J83FHkVW82BCLpp4gXihBSjEGBDGDNWyhs4d0dlHMGcods/s1600/IMG_20150505_214849850.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs1fORm6C2k521OnD9zNcY5r76YX2LLDOPXxX3A_6TppR6Lw03UO3cWAYk7G3o9e3GKu5I-8Msxpv5b6BmpQot9R1CNCKc1J83FHkVW82BCLpp4gXihBSjEGBDGDNWyhs4d0dlHMGcods/s320/IMG_20150505_214849850.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> My dream refrigerator.</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9eTTL_zRp07nE22OHWp_ucraAXKtmC_o7XTrs3WOQOSMJcBtSkdhh-6OzDT5pBScKidC_L9-rEsVv6TUFRl6B4Lts84ykXJ_VWSXXoyXsvtKiYlIbaCeXfK__jXjRTZln95GkpHANpNY/s1600/IMG_20150506_200944765.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9eTTL_zRp07nE22OHWp_ucraAXKtmC_o7XTrs3WOQOSMJcBtSkdhh-6OzDT5pBScKidC_L9-rEsVv6TUFRl6B4Lts84ykXJ_VWSXXoyXsvtKiYlIbaCeXfK__jXjRTZln95GkpHANpNY/s320/IMG_20150506_200944765.jpg" width="179" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My cousin graduated from college while we were there and I had the privilege to make her a cake. Congratulations on everything you have accomplished, Rachel. Great job!</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhomfWu0QVWQS1kVovVUIzbmHZxuRfY0O5rWIxrB55XtB4BrmMev81-OpPqhUH7m771ibigxq_Ehvy1uHBeTgcTrKjv_HmyEy0H4eiKjptkNOppK0b-ezOrKmSQxbhHZqNMxULwE-yFqfM/s1600/IMG_20150509_102559493_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhomfWu0QVWQS1kVovVUIzbmHZxuRfY0O5rWIxrB55XtB4BrmMev81-OpPqhUH7m771ibigxq_Ehvy1uHBeTgcTrKjv_HmyEy0H4eiKjptkNOppK0b-ezOrKmSQxbhHZqNMxULwE-yFqfM/s320/IMG_20150509_102559493_HDR.jpg" width="179" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Strawberry picking.</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbft9hyioBQp_-GdI8OIKNbX4VediEANmBWtl5h2SO-osc4Nyuk5Kju6spyn_voVtvl5FF7PU2hCpVnU89zxlSbjCIfsDHT7lQRACASGIJ7jocYWsSsiMz06gSuB8vaF8SysN05_Y11MQ/s1600/IMG_20150420_163310484.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbft9hyioBQp_-GdI8OIKNbX4VediEANmBWtl5h2SO-osc4Nyuk5Kju6spyn_voVtvl5FF7PU2hCpVnU89zxlSbjCIfsDHT7lQRACASGIJ7jocYWsSsiMz06gSuB8vaF8SysN05_Y11MQ/s320/IMG_20150420_163310484.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jesse wanted to try a new project with the boys so he decided to try to make each boy a knife. Here are a few pictures from that.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwn6DbO2dIF9Yc_pK93xBmZPsFml15X10SRAryHX9-s8jwuec48Vfr7raYEGU0mczbrD2Rhfl3G0_X1OtQtm_k5DjExoYO5v8-YJhRs8Hb5HzOAImcXf15mF1Oy2jS5_OLwGpdDgWqZhk/s1600/IMG_20150607_141005995.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwn6DbO2dIF9Yc_pK93xBmZPsFml15X10SRAryHX9-s8jwuec48Vfr7raYEGU0mczbrD2Rhfl3G0_X1OtQtm_k5DjExoYO5v8-YJhRs8Hb5HzOAImcXf15mF1Oy2jS5_OLwGpdDgWqZhk/s320/IMG_20150607_141005995.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO3h5THLva4j9ux8tVli4MznCisakrf-gebk6SGnJm60FDtRvyBX7jxzwNfadWj8PWpnLmyQ-BnmsaMwsa_1Yo1VYBxdM5671U548aTDSHbLOvFpjMtj-QgR_YN9IBbDOEI8dOyBXjySw/s1600/IMG_20150607_141043513.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO3h5THLva4j9ux8tVli4MznCisakrf-gebk6SGnJm60FDtRvyBX7jxzwNfadWj8PWpnLmyQ-BnmsaMwsa_1Yo1VYBxdM5671U548aTDSHbLOvFpjMtj-QgR_YN9IBbDOEI8dOyBXjySw/s320/IMG_20150607_141043513.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDjEf24XF0VtZ5JfRGgv76zYD7KAXK5KZ7F2REDVun0XzFVoQ-thOk_Ur2BHMggVgssSEz9PQCkSSH0RZbzR8ovoZEWMSX_4w1SyhT0oE44lYZLTtMmeSYWhSPDRP3yveU7tSqf8bHIc/s1600/IMG_20150607_153031941.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDjEf24XF0VtZ5JfRGgv76zYD7KAXK5KZ7F2REDVun0XzFVoQ-thOk_Ur2BHMggVgssSEz9PQCkSSH0RZbzR8ovoZEWMSX_4w1SyhT0oE44lYZLTtMmeSYWhSPDRP3yveU7tSqf8bHIc/s320/IMG_20150607_153031941.jpg" width="180" /></span></b></a></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Until next time!</span></b></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-65156506164027766252016-01-31T11:46:00.002+03:002016-01-31T11:46:10.938+03:00Updated picture blog 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, I'm back with more pictures from our time in the US last year. As I look back on these pictures I'm sitting in our kitchen starring out the window seeing snow and a coal dust cloud hovering over the city and -50 F outside. You might notice a lot of the pictures depicts beautiful summer weather and greenery. Of course, I have to include food pictures. </span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GW3NdkCHV6vuj7DzAGq5DfZVRiXHaBCjLcboxDBBAEsoYirL-o4vHjxvNh7PDWUHCSY2iI8J8HHZWTnREjmHlcVQZi6NsJkP0WXn1X5q7Ke7EWEvNKJ8i_jrHWqhPngCLTj5ADmCw6k/s1600/IMG_20150401_142112282_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GW3NdkCHV6vuj7DzAGq5DfZVRiXHaBCjLcboxDBBAEsoYirL-o4vHjxvNh7PDWUHCSY2iI8J8HHZWTnREjmHlcVQZi6NsJkP0WXn1X5q7Ke7EWEvNKJ8i_jrHWqhPngCLTj5ADmCw6k/s320/IMG_20150401_142112282_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I added this picture so you can see the difference between the playground in the US versus the best playground we have found here in T. Can you tell which one is from where?</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesse has a tradition of taking each boy camping every summer. This is the camping trip he took with Matthew while in the US. It was so much more expensive to camp here because you have to pay for a campsite and even for firewood. I think it's better in T-land.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Above is camping in T-land. The following pictures are in the US:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I took this picture to show friends here in T. They were amazed at the amount of different doughnuts. There is only one kind here.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hiking with the cousins. Beautiful green.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Matthew had his birthday with his cousins. It was so awesome to be there!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The kids playing in my brother's front yard. I miss seeing green grass.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love this picture. Matthew loved his cousin and still talks about how much he misses her.</span></b></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-32194215253589270552016-01-05T14:41:00.001+03:002016-01-05T14:41:54.098+03:00We're back<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A lot of you thought we had given up this blog. The truth is we've just been too lazy to update it. The last time it was updated was almost a year ago so we have a lot to catch you up on. I think pictures speak best so i'll just spend the next few blog posts updated you with pictures (and maybe a few explanations). Enjoy!<br />
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Matthew wanting to fly the plane. He spent about 10 minutes asking the pilot "what's that?" and "what's that?" and "what does this do?". They loved it.<br />
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Spring is so beautiful in Cary (where my parent's live). My favorite flower is the tulip. This yard has beautiful tulips every year. We came back after 4 month of cold, dark, and dirty (coal dust) Siberia to a warm, beautiful North Carolina spring. It was just what we needed.<br />
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Matthew in my parent's yard. Good job on that green grass dad.<br />
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Of course, the boys were overly spoiled by their grandparents (as they should be).<br />
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The most glorious site ever. After 2 1/2 years of eating chicken, potatoes, and mushy soup this is what my mom cooked for our first Sunday back (it was Easter). I couldn't eat fast enough.<br />
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Yes. This is me consuming a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts and I'm enjoy every minute of it. So what that I felt sick for 3 days. It was worth every bite.<br />
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This little cafe is where I spent almost every day of my senior year in High School for lunch. It hasn't changed one bit.<br />
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I'll leave this for now. Check back in a few weeks for the continuing saga our the last year. </div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-63199471319660855182015-12-22T11:28:00.002+03:002015-12-22T11:29:14.274+03:00Ho Ho Ho<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-6769870031420276912015-02-01T13:59:00.003+03:002015-02-01T14:04:13.027+03:00Winter Activites - a blog by B<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's been a long and busy winter. The pictures are pretty self explanatory but I'll inject a few comments here. As most of you know Siberia can get pretty cold. It's difficult to spend more than 20 minutes outside. On the warmer days (those that reach above -30) we get to have a little fun at the ice park the city has every year. </span></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The small slide</i></span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has small slides for the younger kids, a huge slide for the older kids, an ice maze, ice animal sculptures, and a small ice skating rink. The boys love going there and we would spend all day there if it weren't for their wimpy parents who are freezing after 30 minutes. We usually bribe them with hot chocolate to tear them away from the slides.</span></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The ice maze</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Matthew says he will marry this girl when he becomes a man. How cute!</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>I even roped J into making Christmas cookies this year</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Steven opening his stocking</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Skyping my parents so they can watch their grandchildren open up their gifts</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxcqT4DK7KVWuj2zmzzv5xpOo8lu7Gy1jP4CY7Fcdrr9STyz18INzugWVhWj8vKJSW3gc7d-tu255Jt0vZz_pQPdNpnZrYQ0Dpswf3zDfQAM-d5C3hvItYqen25SS4_Tg6ErxuAn-ZUEM/s1600/IMG_20141227_104102880_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxcqT4DK7KVWuj2zmzzv5xpOo8lu7Gy1jP4CY7Fcdrr9STyz18INzugWVhWj8vKJSW3gc7d-tu255Jt0vZz_pQPdNpnZrYQ0Dpswf3zDfQAM-d5C3hvItYqen25SS4_Tg6ErxuAn-ZUEM/s1600/IMG_20141227_104102880_HDR.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></span></b></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>It's tradition for kids to dress up for New Year parties - like Christmas and Halloween combined!</i></span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, Christmas/New Years is always a busy time for us. Between making Christmas cookies, opening gifts on Christmas Day, having New Year's parties at the school we stay busy. In between that, I had a few cake orders to fill.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In other news, we have bought a garage for our car. J can explain why it is necessary to have a garage (it has something to do with the oil freezing and the tires freezing to the pavement) but in the end we needed one and thanks to a friend we have one. It's only a 10 minute walk away which is really nice since most garages are at the end of town (a 30 minute van ride). </span></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Our new garage</i></span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">School has been out for 3 weeks because of the flu spreading fast in this region. So, they shut down all the schools to slow the spread (which according to the news it worked) and the boys go back tomorrow. It's been nice having them home and catching up on homeschooling and spending time with each other.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those who don't know yet, we will be coming back to the States from April-August. So, put your request in now if you want us to visit you since our schedule is filling up fast!</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjwQ8La7E4GyNve3qB4GEfBG93jJ91IKiouPFqkORmwK1A0H1EG1AmbdIJNYLD_Fg_6WZxvCBjzjPxF0cR8cDdx0WOayAM-LscI4a18bA-3BS3JWPDp9GL4gBB0JL8qzkRzyg9rOdBq4Y/s1600/IMG_20150129_165751277_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjwQ8La7E4GyNve3qB4GEfBG93jJ91IKiouPFqkORmwK1A0H1EG1AmbdIJNYLD_Fg_6WZxvCBjzjPxF0cR8cDdx0WOayAM-LscI4a18bA-3BS3JWPDp9GL4gBB0JL8qzkRzyg9rOdBq4Y/s1600/IMG_20150129_165751277_HDR.jpg" height="320" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">My pride and joy! I had always wanted to make a peacock cake and now I have! (buttercream and fondant)</span></i></div>
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Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-72245898580962198382014-12-20T16:11:00.002+03:002014-12-20T16:16:46.637+03:00Catching Up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHqblO77zQuVslCBXYmRj0Uxxr2OSrdR4txxF6WdnLoXB-LTXe01ZLIqOSMQj1Mg59ckksWfzEL9RGe4iZbguHE8HbUyY53vqzIopJKBB7U3zKre3KANmO5Vp8OffGte1jfCGDTcdOCa4/s1600/IMG_20141104_152546453.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHqblO77zQuVslCBXYmRj0Uxxr2OSrdR4txxF6WdnLoXB-LTXe01ZLIqOSMQj1Mg59ckksWfzEL9RGe4iZbguHE8HbUyY53vqzIopJKBB7U3zKre3KANmO5Vp8OffGte1jfCGDTcdOCa4/s1600/IMG_20141104_152546453.jpg" height="313" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, we have a lot to catch up on, so let's get right in. First of all, you can probably tell that the above picture wasn't taken recently, because it's the middle of December in Siberia. That might just tell you how much, exactly, we have to catch up!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So yeah, going back to our last post, it was coming to the end of fall. And in a last flurry of energy before the winter set in, plus taking advantage of our new car, we tried our best to get out into the countryside as much as we could.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The boys love being outside, as most boys do, I think. They really enjoy practicing things like batoning wood for a fire; I think they're going to be quite the little bushcrafters. The only disappointing thing about a trip into the woods is having to come back into the city, which looks really grim once the hot-water plant turns on and starts pumping black smoke over the whole city.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let's see, what else has been up? Well, a close friend of ours had her birthday a month or so ago, and we were invited to come and speak at the ceremony. You can see from the audience how enthralling a speaker I am. :) Apparently the novelty of hearing a white guy speak in T wears off after a few minutes and you're having to struggle to figure out what he's trying to say.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I think most of you know, the pine nut facility is currently on hold. We had a poor harvest this fall, and combine that with the economic crisis and currency fluctuations and we decided this wasn't the year to be processing. Nevertheless, you have to keep a close eye on things to make sure the pipes don't freeze! We had a couple of pipes actually freeze on us and had to take steps to melt the lines and get everything going again.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here we're venting the steam/hot water from the system to fix a leak:</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're not just sitting around all the time, though - the government had me (J) in for a session on attracting foreign investment. I wasn't the guest of honor but I did have a chance to hear the governor speak.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, our oldest son Steven turned 8, too. Here he is, enjoying the most important part of any birthday party, the cake!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But there were friends, too. And toys, and a new member of the family that Steven bought himself. We told him if he could save up 200 rubles, he could buy himself a guinea pig (he earns 2 rubles for doing his chores most of the time). Well, he did it - I was very impressed when he passed up the chance to get ice cream for 15 rubles a few times, saying "No, I need to save up for my guinea pig." When it got to his birthday and he had the 200 rubles, we got him a cage (thank you to the T family in Moscow!) and we now have the newest member of the Wandering Family, Tom.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, yeah, there was Thanksgiving, too!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And our friends came over to show us how much their grandson has grown. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This one I just put in for my parents. I grew up with delicious fresh mangoes available in abundance in season. I was quite amused to see this for sale for almost $10/kg here - the most disgusting-colored mango you've ever seen. Needless to say, we'll wait for the next shipment of dried ones from Bolivia.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today we went out and enjoyed the nice weather a bit. It was up to -25 this afternoon and the New Year's tree was up, so we had to go check it out. First Matthew got a ride on one of the ice sculptures for the purposes of a picture.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then it was sledding, sledding, and more sledding. Although, as you can see in the video, the kids don't always wait long enough between trips and there is a lot of slamming into one another at the base of the slide. Fortunately, everyone is dressed heavily enough that serious injuries are rare.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And I'll leave you with Matthew's aka "The Christmas Pirate's" year-end wish for everyone. Thanks for stopping by!</span></b><br />
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Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-23683588314194356372014-10-23T09:40:00.000+04:002014-10-23T18:45:08.613+04:00Celebration Time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the biggest celebrations here is a summer festival called Naadym. It's a celebration of the T culture and the people. Every year they put their traditional yurts up, eat their traditional food, and have traditional games and competitions. It's their version of the State Fair. This year I (B) was invited to participate. I should of been prepared for what that day would bring since we've been here for a few years but I admit, my American upbringing didn't make this day very easy for me. I'll explain.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The company my friend works for asked me to set up food for their yurt that they entered into the yurt contest. They also asked me to make my flag yurt cake as a present for a high ranking official (very exciting). They told me to have everything ready by 9:00 am because the judges were to come around then. My friend and I spent all day the day before preparing the food. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next morning she came at 6:00 am to finish the preparations and had everything ready by 8:00 which is when they said the car would pick us up. So, we waited and waited and waited. Finally at 9:00 they show up. "OK" I thought, "I should have expected that" since the culture here is to do everything 1-3 hours after the said time. No problem. We get there and the yurt is not even set up. I start to worry and ask "what time are the judges coming?". They said "we don't know". OK. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, eventually we get everything set up and the food out. Everything was ready by 10:30. The cake is sitting on the edge of the table ready to be presented as a gift for when the officials come to see everything. So, we wait, and wait, and wait. As people start milling onto the fair grounds we start to get visitors in the yurt (it's like when people walk around looking at the displays at the State Fair). Every time a person came into our yurt they would walk to the cake and try to stick their fingers in it to taste it. After the first few attempts (a few succeeded in getting their fingerprints in it) I finally had to stand guard. This is unheard of here. If there is food you share. That is what you do. It's a community here and everything is everyone's</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I guess I have my limits. This was the most important cake I've made and wasn't about to let someone come in and destroy it (remember, I am still an American by nature). I should mention that I was struggling with the worst migraine I have ever had and didn't have any medicine with me. So, I was not in the best mood on this day! ;)</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, 12:30. The officials show up. My cake is presented and it was a big hit. Now, more waiting as they go from booth to booth and yurt to yurt with a few speeches to the crowd here and there. We wait and wait and wait. 3:30. My migraine is causing me to see double and get dizzy. My mousse cups are melting and the chicken fingers and cold. But, we are still waiting for them to come by (remember they told me that the officials and judges would be there at 9:00 AM). I finally said I had to go because I was sick but they begged me to stay. I decided that this was a great opportunity and stayed.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5:00: The lady runs into our yurt and announces they are coming. I was laying down at this point and was half asleep when she did this. I jump up and as I gathered my balance, they walked in the door. My friend who was standing beside me told me to fix my hair since it was sticking straight up. My makeup had run all over my face and, well, I wasn't exactly presentable. I was also suppose to say a phrase to them (in their language) which I was drawing a blank on so my friend spoke up and said it for me. We sat and talked for a few minutes and they left. But, I couldn't leave yet. My friend's coworkers and boss sat around the food and started eating. They begged for me to stay so I did until I got so dizzy my friend thought I was going to pass out (I started to sway). They sent a car for me and took me home. I spent the next 4 days in bed recovering.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You may be asking "was it all worth it?". Absolutely! Although I wish I had been feeling better during it, it showed me that I am in this culture and can't expect to have everything adjusted to my liking. I, instead, have to adjust to my surrounding. As J likes to say, the most important quality to have in our line of work is flexibility. I couldn't agree more. I guess I'm still learning that lesson but what a good lesson to learn.</span></b></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-43318480280146892762014-09-11T21:22:00.000+04:002014-09-11T21:24:46.548+04:00Happy Naadym!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Naadym is a festival held once a year here in T-land, and this year it was pretty nearby so we got to go out and get a little bit involved. But more on that in a bit.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First off, don't you like the above picture? I recommend clicking on it to see it closer up. The "T camels" (there are only a couple of people who still have them) are well-known touristy photo objects here, but we had no pictures of them until recently. We were going down the road, saw them resting nearby and Bobbie snapped this sort of artsy soft-focus picture (no photo effect added, her camera just fuzzed it out by itself for some reason) that I personally really like.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, summer life. We take advantage of the warm weather to get outside as much as we can, which the boys usually take advantage of to get as wet/muddy as possible! But then they come home and cuddle with their dog and look so cute it's impossible to get upset.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then it's back outside to see who can climb the monkey bars (which, as you can see, were definitely designed with safety as the top priority) the highest. Can you spot them almost to the top? </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fortunately, no one has slipped and broken a wrist/ankle. Yet.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjjMmxICg1oPVWFTAfzl3dFW0kFzKldWmx5GpOScMZ_GXX_mnXOTT78IAkWeIYvpkGQkAtQ39bccwP0iq3h72Cr06-jMGMBItqWEFS-udQxHStMxfZZuJAxSvk7TZuxlUYxkW27P_9irI/s1600/IMG_20140905_154622.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjjMmxICg1oPVWFTAfzl3dFW0kFzKldWmx5GpOScMZ_GXX_mnXOTT78IAkWeIYvpkGQkAtQ39bccwP0iq3h72Cr06-jMGMBItqWEFS-udQxHStMxfZZuJAxSvk7TZuxlUYxkW27P_9irI/s1600/IMG_20140905_154622.jpg" height="95" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But enough about our regular, boring lives. This is a post about Naadym!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once a year, people from all over T-land get together. Historically this was a gathering of nomads for trade and other events, so everyone brings their yurts and sets them up. I didn't get any pictures of the horse racing or wrestling but those are big features.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, in the modern age someone has to haul water and run a generator for everyone to have power and such, so the government does a good job of trying to balance the desire to keep everything as traditional as possible while also allowing for modern conveniences.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's sort of like a state fair, so there are of course booths set up to sell you anything and everything. Our favorite was the delicious Vat of Plov</span></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">â„¢</span><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> seen below, made the traditional Uzbek way with a ginormous round pot and a whole bottle of oil.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This gentleman can handle all your traditional healing elixir needs, including literal snake oil.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of my favorite thing to see was the displays from the reindeer-herder sections of T-land. They have a bit of a different culture to the rest of T-land as their area is too wooded for sheep so they breed and raise reindeer. Their dialect is a bit different and we don't have any close friends from this part of the state so it was interesting to see their houses. They live in American West-style teepees, including one that was lined with reindeer skins. Apparently it's quite warm, even in -50 degree weather.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that's it for tonight. The lovely Bobbie has promised to write a post very soon, so if there's not something up on here about her adventures (including preparing food for the governor!) in the next week or so drop her an email and complain. ;-)</span></b></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-9653072651507114482014-08-19T16:43:00.001+04:002014-08-19T16:43:30.576+04:00Father-Son Camping Trips Parts 3 and 4<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I really wish the forward-facing camera on my phone was half-decent, because I love the above picture from my recent camping trip with Matthew.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Anyway, this has been a month full of interesting activities, half of which I'll leave for Bobbie to post about later. For my part of it, I'm going to just fill you in on all the latest things that are going on with me. We put the pine nut production line on hold for the summer as the quality of the nuts we were getting wasn't the best. As a result, we've been able to do some family things, celebrate my birthday, and mostly get back into culture and language study in preparation for some stuff we want to start next year. So let's get into it!</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>So last month was my birthday, and my lovely wife took me out for sushi. There aren't a lot of casual dining restaurants in town but sushi is one of the options and since both of us enjoy it we try to go a couple of times a year. We turned the above tray into the bottom one in about 30 minutes!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>It's been nice to have some more fun times with the boys as well. If you'll recall from last year, we have a tradition that I take each of them out for a one-on-one father/son camping trip once a year (obviously in the summer).</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>This year, first up was Steven. His favorite game is to throw rocks into the river (especially if there is some sort of "target" to aim at) so we did a lot of that.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Of course, you have to have hot dogs cooked over the fire if you go camping!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>So yeah, we had a great time. I'll post some pictures of my trip with Matthew in a sec, but first, take a look at our garden! The corn is doing surprisingly well, and the Brussels sprouts are shockingly big and full. Not so much the iceberg lettuce, but you can't win them all.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Even the okra has grown. We're not going to have much of a harvest before the frost, but I'm mildly surprised that we're going to get anything at all. I reckon we might get 5-10 pods, which isn't much, but hey - better than nothing!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Anyway, back to camping! This time it was Matthew's turn, and he's really a huge outdoorsman. Steven likes camping but in the end could take it or leave it. Matthew, on the other hand, LOVES to be outside.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>First we set up the tent, with Matthew so cheerful he was just about unable to stand still long enough to put the poles in.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Then he tried Steven's favorite game of rock-throwing, but really preferred to just roam and explore.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>My favorite part of the day was when we woke up in the morning. He opened his eyes and immediately started to cry. "Why are you crying? What's wrong?" I asked. "I'm awake, Daddy," came the reply, "that means that now we have to go home!"</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>So we ended up spending half the morning there enjoying our fire and exploring a bit more.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>On Saturday I was all geared up for a nice day of sleeping in, but in T-land you can never really make any plans because if a friend calls and needs help on the spur of the moment you're committed to help out. And help out I did, and it was actually a good time to catch back up with a man I haven't seen in a while. He needed help re-drilling his well.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Of course, normally a well is dug by a giant rig on the back of a truck pounding a pipe deep into the earth, but this is T-land and so we can't have that. Instead, elbow grease is the key. And, of course, hopefully you remember to bring along more than one bottle of water because obviously you won't have a functioning well if you've been called in to repair one.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>This is the drilling "machine," it's basically just a heavy pipe with a cap on one end, and three people lift it up and slam it down onto the end of the pipe that's going into the ground. On a good blow you can get it to penetrate about a centimeter or so, if you hit a rock obviously you'll be slowed up for a few blows at least.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Needless to say, it's hard work, and more importantly, thirsty work. Next time I'm asked to help out on one of these jobs I'm definitely going to bring some more water along!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Anyway, eventually we got the pipe 8 meters into the ground at which point it was theoretically able to deliver some water, though I had to go before we got the pump attached and got it working.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thanks for stopping by, as always. Bobbie should have a post up soon about her latest adventures, including meeting some local leaders and serving them cake!</b></span></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-21330822442248148902014-07-10T22:30:00.000+04:002014-07-10T22:30:13.013+04:00Can't Think of an Interesting or Fitting Title<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Just, like, "Life," or something, maybe? Anyway, blogpost title creativity notwithstanding, things are going pretty well at Wandering Family headquarters these days. Production has paused at the pine nut facility while we try to sort out the sales side of the business, so that's given time to return to language study and things while we wait for all that to be arranged. (Please lift up sales, by the way; we need to get a few contracts for regular sales soon in order for things to operate smoothly through the fall.)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Anyway, Bobbie has returned to her cake baking as an occasional thing to do to help build relationships and to just enjoy her hobby. Above is a recent example she made for a friend's wedding, and she already has a deal arranged to do another wedding cake next month.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Below is what really takes up all our time; two active boys! The summer weather is the perfect time for us to get outside and enjoy the limited months we have where outdoor activities are possible, so we've been doing that as much as we can. And of course, like for all little boys, a bit of tree climbing is always fun!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I think I may have introduced you to our swing before? Matthew got a swing for his birthday; the local swingsets are all broken or have parts missing so we take our own rope. It's really easy, actually - I pre-tied all the ropes so all we have to do is swing them over the swingset, tie one knot and voila! - a functioning swing. The boys love swinging, and then after a half-hour or so we untie it and take it home (it would definitely get stolen if we left it up).</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I haven't taken a picture of the garden in a few weeks so this is when everything was still just coming up, but it's been a pretty decent success. The iceberg lettuce and chard aren't doing well, but the spinach, salad greens, corn and even okra (much to my surprise, that last one) are doing OK.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I know, to look at me you definitely wouldn't think "That guy probably really likes a leafy green salad" but it's true, I do! It's probably down to craving it since we don't get any fresh vegetables for a really long time in the winter, and when they're available in the summer I wolf them down whenever I get a chance! Throw a few radishes and pine nuts in with these fresh greens and it's like heaven.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sorry I don't have a lot of pictures this month. Please keep lifting us up, as I mentioned we need to get sales going for the pine nut business very soon, plus we're trying to get back into language study so you can be thinking about that as well. See you again soon!</b></span></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-25456372852577842252014-06-15T18:11:00.000+04:002014-06-15T18:14:55.651+04:00Wandering Faster<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I've already had more than one person ask if we were pregnant again (!), so I guess I didn't word that bit on our last post about how we had a "big surprise that will change our lives" very well!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No, just to clarify. It's a surprise that changes our lives, sure, but not THAT much. It is something that allows the Wandering Family to increase the range and extent of our wandering - a new car! Well, not new. New to us, though. It's a 2005 Toyota Succeed, with the extremely dubious figure of 160,000 kilometers on the odometer (many Russian cars have had their odometers wound back). Not that we're complaining, though, it's the first time anyone in our family has owned any car that was fewer than 10 years old, and we love it.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obviously, purchasing a car meant taking a trip over the mountains out of T-land, to a magical city known as Krasnoyarsk. Ah, Krasnoyarsk. A city with peanut butter and marshmallows in the stores, a city with fast food restaurants with displays for kids to poke their heads through for photos, a magical place!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sadly, I didn't actually take very many pictures there. It would look too much like your home city to be interesting, anyway. Much better is the beautiful Siberian scenery on the way:</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eventually, driving our own car (full of peanut butter, marshmallows, and the like, of course), we got back home. One tire blowout on the road, but fixed quickly enough.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I must be turning Russian, because where in America I would almost never wash my car, I felt a compulsion to go down to the river to enlist my sons in a project to immediately wash off all the dirt the road had added to our new baby.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2WWQJ3CBHnu_F3-gc7vVwlccpspraK1KcA55m7m2OisKbce5mPqUK6oECzDElQ_q6ilNNV4La2lw5EZ0A5GXUfJPdyRO8OVp7EgZONeZtYN3d8aSPWQuA6Nr1_OM-xPQReeq10Kj6Pm0/s1600/IMG_20140609_213941.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2WWQJ3CBHnu_F3-gc7vVwlccpspraK1KcA55m7m2OisKbce5mPqUK6oECzDElQ_q6ilNNV4La2lw5EZ0A5GXUfJPdyRO8OVp7EgZONeZtYN3d8aSPWQuA6Nr1_OM-xPQReeq10Kj6Pm0/s1600/IMG_20140609_213941.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw28Tn2idwdrlW8Kl0DsAI0FpqNw2TMttlSBtJY7Z8JfxLJ-8Ro8GuFmhz_rTacSlBzp7BUyvkLO_A3d1LwCShtpGX_Gc7zQ79o942fAaaz6Yb40EsolkE63Wc_5NX5e62QOKKwOhTRu0/s1600/IMG_20140609_214002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw28Tn2idwdrlW8Kl0DsAI0FpqNw2TMttlSBtJY7Z8JfxLJ-8Ro8GuFmhz_rTacSlBzp7BUyvkLO_A3d1LwCShtpGX_Gc7zQ79o942fAaaz6Yb40EsolkE63Wc_5NX5e62QOKKwOhTRu0/s1600/IMG_20140609_214002.jpg" height="320" width="208" /></span></b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>They hated it</i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, and I just popped this post up really quickly to avoid any more of you thinking we were going to announce a pregnancy any time soon (seriously, not happening), but thought some might be interested to see the latest progress in our little experimental garden. From front: American spinach, sweet peas, salad greens, and Russian spinach, all growing nicely so far.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSD9dhgAWce93ON8xhzo_mRSLKZan1bKDq6MBz9-cKg7yBzQ84pta0wE7ivimPQb123exBYZBxVICLpuhlPVthREK8IVNLC1Xzog9vffFT9nh3T6e8CcaZ0VcS-Pmqy3RlV1521m0EUAM/s1600/IMG_20140610_183651.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSD9dhgAWce93ON8xhzo_mRSLKZan1bKDq6MBz9-cKg7yBzQ84pta0wE7ivimPQb123exBYZBxVICLpuhlPVthREK8IVNLC1Xzog9vffFT9nh3T6e8CcaZ0VcS-Pmqy3RlV1521m0EUAM/s1600/IMG_20140610_183651.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-87320864787341690202014-06-04T19:07:00.001+04:002014-06-04T19:07:41.182+04:00Summertime<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Qm6QTreYaxytUUjiDbLKf_LGCdX8_CmbfoRhXFTsVAqgloj2Idr4iHVhD_SlrLA-KsjMDk8evcUGyEPmj1ED02b28iQsQmlGiPNU5WtL-vhZH4HenxIQKVCS1so1ZB_RBF53Lqo1kYY/s1600/IMG_20140601_183918.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Qm6QTreYaxytUUjiDbLKf_LGCdX8_CmbfoRhXFTsVAqgloj2Idr4iHVhD_SlrLA-KsjMDk8evcUGyEPmj1ED02b28iQsQmlGiPNU5WtL-vhZH4HenxIQKVCS1so1ZB_RBF53Lqo1kYY/s1600/IMG_20140601_183918.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Summer is the best, isn't it? Especially when it comes after 7 months of winter! So, what do we do here when it heats up?</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, Bobbie does this year-round, but the first picture I have is of some of the cakes she made this month. She started doing this a few years ago for some friends and it has blossomed into a sort of tiny cakes-for-order business. No money is made, but fun is had, and more importantly relationships are strengthened. This one was part of an order for a party for some kids leaving kindergarten to start school in the fall.</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQABSm2AwfapS_clFNdYt963fUn7lJhHBOWjNuC_FkI4DxciNjh4e5ZJneDwgk3AyoBQAJq6S9ozQuJDARymFAmUI7VecFNkaPU3RrVH21jb96VA1xlvmHPY324dberBTceq5Tvjt5Jz8/s1600/IMG_20140520_224049.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQABSm2AwfapS_clFNdYt963fUn7lJhHBOWjNuC_FkI4DxciNjh4e5ZJneDwgk3AyoBQAJq6S9ozQuJDARymFAmUI7VecFNkaPU3RrVH21jb96VA1xlvmHPY324dberBTceq5Tvjt5Jz8/s1600/IMG_20140520_224049.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Above: school-related items, below: a copy of a Russian cake she found online with a stylized figure going off to school.</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2bFQDa3BlUN77kYhyqGG2QcL5d_12pHqE87Duidx3a-oNRz5LdYayZ5lMM0reCPPNZFKpx26smKAHlrxmH66ZTTHkxVgCHVbqbYJ4YrN6ITLCw8YIvPyK0cd8b6S-W3-kehToSkGVqVY/s1600/IMG_20140520_224206.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2bFQDa3BlUN77kYhyqGG2QcL5d_12pHqE87Duidx3a-oNRz5LdYayZ5lMM0reCPPNZFKpx26smKAHlrxmH66ZTTHkxVgCHVbqbYJ4YrN6ITLCw8YIvPyK0cd8b6S-W3-kehToSkGVqVY/s1600/IMG_20140520_224206.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last post we mentioned Matthew's birthday, and one of the presents he got was a swing. Unfortunately, all of the playgrounds we have here are missing their swings (with one exception - I think we posted a picture of the lone surviving swing in the city a few posts back?). Anyway, we don't leave this one out on the playground because it will get stolen but I rigged up a way to hang it up with ropes and we can set it up in just a few minutes every time we go outside.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixbloBmKrrqE_FfXu4JlLPpAXU5nHLbnR8bLg8UzGJT10wzSSIXQPa0kvrZjT0qy-6FKlNug_eJIP9Eb3mR04rR4RgGAv3GIaAO9RMHx9qOIbynEFc-IRqSnei4s63oFw4QJR5ohKFdcs/s1600/IMG_20140601_180752.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixbloBmKrrqE_FfXu4JlLPpAXU5nHLbnR8bLg8UzGJT10wzSSIXQPa0kvrZjT0qy-6FKlNug_eJIP9Eb3mR04rR4RgGAv3GIaAO9RMHx9qOIbynEFc-IRqSnei4s63oFw4QJR5ohKFdcs/s1600/IMG_20140601_180752.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other fun outdoor project of late has been a garden! Our pine nut facility has to have a rather large area as there are sanitary requirements for the septic to be at least 50 meters from the well. So, we have a lot of space behind the building that's not being used for anything, and we decided to take advantage to see if we can't grow a few things there. Just three raised beds (all Russian gardens are raised beds, pretty much), so it's more of an experiment than anything but the boys still love it.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQj2NRrWW8jdvLcuUK8u_VBwTA3AVAkWhCluYB5Hwca06UDR6KSRNFT3Z63_B_Z4X9ZpFCIDisKbzBacY9095ycHtnY-rd5TSLP0qMRHjByC7ZkVJsIdYpoB30HDv9kqJpAv3SGhtrh7I/s1600/IMG_20140524_175841.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQj2NRrWW8jdvLcuUK8u_VBwTA3AVAkWhCluYB5Hwca06UDR6KSRNFT3Z63_B_Z4X9ZpFCIDisKbzBacY9095ycHtnY-rd5TSLP0qMRHjByC7ZkVJsIdYpoB30HDv9kqJpAv3SGhtrh7I/s1600/IMG_20140524_175841.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, all of our friends think the expanse is the perfect place to plant potatoes and can't understand why we wouldn't just do that. Perhaps this illustrates a difference in cultural values, but my take on it is that potatoes are so cheap in the fall as to be virtually free, and I don't see the point in putting in all the labor to grow them if I can just buy them for next to nothing. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what did we plant instead? Mostly long shots, plants we brought over from America that we can't get here in the stores. Sweet corn and especially okra are very unlikely to succeed, but who knows? If you're growing a garden for fun you may as well take a few chances on stuff like that and hope to get lucky. Most of the rest (spinach, peas, squash, Swiss chard, salad greens, lettuce, and Brussel sprouts) should do pretty well. In fact, since I took these pictures a week ago most everything has at least sprouted, so we'll see how it goes.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7JAN8fiBKZ2rhFhXy7Z5SAzXQa9GEjdtcCiJSemFSJJc58fIcoEIcQY85w8ADeaVhjuBAiRGTKXmnusxw69NzF40Z5Od9OFWNH4vHC-RrA_vD5auIb4PPEh1dfRVGkv0sFx00_0UrC9M/s1600/IMG_20140524_182133.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7JAN8fiBKZ2rhFhXy7Z5SAzXQa9GEjdtcCiJSemFSJJc58fIcoEIcQY85w8ADeaVhjuBAiRGTKXmnusxw69NzF40Z5Od9OFWNH4vHC-RrA_vD5auIb4PPEh1dfRVGkv0sFx00_0UrC9M/s1600/IMG_20140524_182133.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our soil had to be reinforced with some organic material as it was pretty much just a sandy loam (I knew there would be some benefit to that soil science class all those years ago!) and the boys have had a great time with it all.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOC7InZelBm1zrf7KOSF6wSHFjYC-uLcbx0cuIKDHREnPv4P1oAuFhmAVA54BeNc6vwnM_egaqeHBb9CX01unUL8mkhXs4jig7Bw3L_7Bi01eX_d9pRYjTijay6js09iKXUrG-nIdKl_Q/s1600/IMG_20140524_180005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOC7InZelBm1zrf7KOSF6wSHFjYC-uLcbx0cuIKDHREnPv4P1oAuFhmAVA54BeNc6vwnM_egaqeHBb9CX01unUL8mkhXs4jig7Bw3L_7Bi01eX_d9pRYjTijay6js09iKXUrG-nIdKl_Q/s1600/IMG_20140524_180005.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unfortunately it requires a good deal of water as it runs right through the sandy subsoil, but that's why we had boys, right? </span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBToE1jeIsSmHlxiTZ3qrgRnagoxJL4TcKzBuW6iC1Ec2Hfs8Qv2PwQbzoFANA_Wf_8seEH-TnMkRfSjj6tDU0MYT7ni_hW4mZsfIwgd5rOAWwo5QZLIrIS59TC84xEljlMc_twy1cO84/s1600/IMG_20140524_180023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBToE1jeIsSmHlxiTZ3qrgRnagoxJL4TcKzBuW6iC1Ec2Hfs8Qv2PwQbzoFANA_Wf_8seEH-TnMkRfSjj6tDU0MYT7ni_hW4mZsfIwgd5rOAWwo5QZLIrIS59TC84xEljlMc_twy1cO84/s1600/IMG_20140524_180023.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Found this interesting: a pretty decent-sized snake on our property the other week, sunning itself. Don't know how they make it through the winters; must be a pretty deep cave somewhere around?</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0c77KQzjBeFpgWLZ3uAA1GU3zrsDDK7oFzAoXsMctdw1nbTh0oQH7pl5w7N9hayV8qnfagRlK4itltWZ-itvXRMBezd9lehlJCQ4NQJanu52-zCuq-StEADWLWp-zl5yC_w4Jg_rEWyc/s1600/IMG_20140523_183015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0c77KQzjBeFpgWLZ3uAA1GU3zrsDDK7oFzAoXsMctdw1nbTh0oQH7pl5w7N9hayV8qnfagRlK4itltWZ-itvXRMBezd9lehlJCQ4NQJanu52-zCuq-StEADWLWp-zl5yC_w4Jg_rEWyc/s1600/IMG_20140523_183015.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The pine nut facility, by the way, is in full swing. This is a picture of one day's produce - around 100 kg. You may think "wow, that's nothing" but it's worth a decent chunk of change and if we can be consistent with that amount we can start heading towards profitability in short order.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghsmUUgC2FL1E3viIDBJsFwrFe0coD3qA_KE3NMWmVjg3UKciFRbomQA4c-kuYZ6x8h4wPvFZiaGEkMb_cL0W9tTSLa0BPKQecUgrIfPXXmdpAdWwbLzYdEPGbM9UALTMP-XxQuvlORWU/s1600/IMG_20140530_184537.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghsmUUgC2FL1E3viIDBJsFwrFe0coD3qA_KE3NMWmVjg3UKciFRbomQA4c-kuYZ6x8h4wPvFZiaGEkMb_cL0W9tTSLa0BPKQecUgrIfPXXmdpAdWwbLzYdEPGbM9UALTMP-XxQuvlORWU/s1600/IMG_20140530_184537.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Boxes loaded up onto pallets, ready for someone to pay us for them so we can send them out! Recent contacts with potential customers have been encouraging so hopefully in a few weeks we'll have fewer pallets just sitting there.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Wgva2oM9vtcoSEMMkz_udYyA2G8C_npivF28T5kgc3nALjdndEET9MWdcErJyvNqOKTc6FP6h4P1TGPjY9t-W21gAGKyyPk5qkppU8V68YF566YVdOPV6ShlG4SJIKcHcQCb378WT64/s1600/IMG_20140530_184404.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Wgva2oM9vtcoSEMMkz_udYyA2G8C_npivF28T5kgc3nALjdndEET9MWdcErJyvNqOKTc6FP6h4P1TGPjY9t-W21gAGKyyPk5qkppU8V68YF566YVdOPV6ShlG4SJIKcHcQCb378WT64/s1600/IMG_20140530_184404.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is what the boxes look like right before they get sealed; 4 vacuum-sealed bags of 3 kilograms each in every box. That's an awful lot of yummy!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Again, as always, thanks for stopping by. We love you guys and look forward to hearing from you - see you again in a few weeks. In fact, we should have a surprise in our next post, something that will be sure to change the lives of the Wandering Family!</span></b></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-86328911982757940042014-05-08T16:33:00.003+04:002014-05-08T16:54:36.885+04:00Happy Easter/Birthday to Matthew<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCybg2gpG_FWbMq_TBR-D5SvPEIkeh_VRMeIs5G7rVr9jwgTTEM4rEjDjx2TP_eKWBW6zHIvxnz8K4wb_uXpuA1AljOt3HRD4btTBkE0WUtY216SzoFqb9xj8NYFLo_bMAGSJLVVzaVmI/s1600/IMG_20140426_203040.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCybg2gpG_FWbMq_TBR-D5SvPEIkeh_VRMeIs5G7rVr9jwgTTEM4rEjDjx2TP_eKWBW6zHIvxnz8K4wb_uXpuA1AljOt3HRD4btTBkE0WUtY216SzoFqb9xj8NYFLo_bMAGSJLVVzaVmI/s1600/IMG_20140426_203040.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>You'd think, after so long with no posts, that this would be a long post, full of extended discourse on what we've been up to. But I'm too lazy for that, so instead I'll show you some pictures of Matthew's birthday celebration and Easter. Deal with it. :)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>A functional swing! Can't tell you how long we've waited for one of these in town, and within walking distance of our apartment, no less!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>We celebrated Easter in multiple stages. First, we went out for shashlyk with some friends. Then, as seen below, Bobbie hid a few eggs in our living room for the boys to find. I don't think they associate eggs with Easter, really, but there was candy inside and that was plenty of motivation.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>For Matthew's birthday celebration, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went down to the river to engage in his favorite activity, throwing rocks into the water.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>His "big" birthday present was from his aunt Andrea and his Papa (Poppa? I don't think we ever discussed how this is spelled when talking about grandparent nicknames?) and Grandma - a trampoline! I think just about every day since he's spent at least a half-hour or so happily bouncing away. It's a perfect combination of a way to get exercise in a little apartment and a toy.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>And that's about it, I guess. Work is going well, we're producing a ton of shelled pine nuts every month or so now from our factory and slowly but surely it's taking off. Please continue to lift up the business as well as our relationships and friends here.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I will try in a few weeks to get some photos of our latest adventures with the boys - a garden - onto here. Until then, thanks for stopping by!</b></span></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-63724341297616734772014-04-08T13:36:00.002+04:002014-04-08T13:36:26.988+04:00The Thaw<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Global warming has most certainly taken hold here in Siberia, to which I say ... about time! It may eventually flood all you guys in Florida, but here it can't be anything but good! ;-)</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, after a particularly warm winter (only -40s for one week!) we have had a really, really early spring. Where we're normally just starting to melt in mid-April, this year we could see parts of the ground as early as the first week of March and the last of the snow melted by the 20th or so. We've had sweater weather for about 2 weeks now!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All of which means we can do things like take the boys out for a walk, which we usually try to end down by the cafe we like to eat at:</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, of course, it wouldn't be spring if we didn't go outside and play a bit of footy. Both the boys are now enrolled in a class at the local football club, where they go to practice 3 times/week. They're both pretty new to it and still figuring out what to do, but Steven in particular is starting to get the hang of it.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not everything can be outdoors yet, even if the weather is a bit nicer. We still have time to have friends over for board games (and you can be lifting these two up, we spend a lot of time with their family):</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last week we even decided to have shashlik (shish-kebab-style barbecue, cooked over coals outside) it was so warm. Of course, my business partner Scott and I were still working when the evening came (long days at work these days) so in the end we asked our wives to bring the food out there and we made a little fire in the yard and cooked there while we continued to work.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And I'll save the update on the factory and how it's coming for next time. Suffice it for now to say that it's pretty good news; we have our first sales going out the door and are hopefully on track to start selling a few tons of nuts every month in the very near future.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As always, thanks for stopping by and thanks for remembering us!</span></b></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-13190238146164956742014-03-13T12:12:00.000+04:002014-03-13T12:12:00.207+04:00Pine Nuts!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The lovely Bobbie will, at some point, be on here to tell you all about her "Ladies' Retreat" up in the frozen north, but since it's been too long I wanted to at least post something while we wait. And, since we have the first nuts off our production line:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Above: Loose-sorted pine nuts. Below: Vacuum-packaged 3 kilogram block of pine nuts (this bag is worth around $75!)</b></span><br />
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Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-69239981585866101032014-02-17T11:11:00.002+04:002014-02-17T11:13:47.398+04:00A Siberian Winter with 2 Lively Boys<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>So, too busy to keep up with this every week, but I did want to post at least a few pictures of the boys' winter. At times when it's -40 our small apartment can feel like a prison for them, but Bobbie does a good job of varying the activities in an effort to keep them occupied and growing/learning.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Above we engage in a family game of Monopoly (kids' edition), one of their faves. Below, dressing up for a party at school.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The snowman outfit was actually part of Matthew's Christmas present, so he put it on Christmas morning to open the rest of his presents.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The boys, who both love to help their mommy cook, got a kitchen toy to practice their skills with and a pirate boat-tent thing.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Poppa and Grandma also got in the act, as they skyped in to watch the boys open their presents on Christmas morning.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gingerbread house master-in-training.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Of course, we have to get outside some, too. Even when it's -45 like last week, we can still do it, you just have to cut it short after 10-15 minutes or so.</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sledding is one of the only things to do outside when it's that cold, but it's so much fun that I don't think the boys mind much.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Steven has started football training with a bunch of other boys. He goes 3 times/week; he's only just started this so he's catching up to the other boys a bit but he LOVES it. Matthew will start next year (if he wants, currently he can't wait).</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Oh, and we couldn't complete the post without showing you the jackpot we hit a month ago! It turns out that there was another foreign family living in town, and they had decided to move back to their home country. We got word through the grapevine that they were looking to sell some of their stuff (and, of course, this being T-land, there aren't a lot of people looking for Pam spray and Ranch powder). </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Well, we were more than happy to take all of it off their hands! We've been thoroughly enjoying the Oreos, vanilla flavoring, Crisco, etc. It won't last forever but it makes a nice break from our regular fare.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>And that'll do it for today. Check back soon for more interesting pictures of the pine nut factory, which officially began production on Friday!</b></span></div>
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Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-39558170935481426112014-01-08T22:57:00.000+04:002014-01-08T22:57:21.908+04:00Pine Nut Equipment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhly2TrGBQD4vVfUYedw7oUFfCfNVtfIgwLWdG93q1-If6CziW2g7ZQKmckR7l0fISD_Sq_salOR5_tvPubtG4myQkNihPuvouRyc_w-88T9YNbk4HUrKZy4RKoglVdSpn_i1BrB44dCgQ/s1600/1+-+Equipment+Delivery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhly2TrGBQD4vVfUYedw7oUFfCfNVtfIgwLWdG93q1-If6CziW2g7ZQKmckR7l0fISD_Sq_salOR5_tvPubtG4myQkNihPuvouRyc_w-88T9YNbk4HUrKZy4RKoglVdSpn_i1BrB44dCgQ/s1600/1+-+Equipment+Delivery.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>So, we're almost caught up now, so just a few last photos will get us up to the New Year! Hurrah for a burst of posts!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Anyway, this week we have an update for you on the state of the pine nut business. And business is booming. Or, well, more like humming. Loudly. But more on that in a bit. As you can see above, on Christmas Day we took delivery of the equipment that will process our pine nuts. I didn't really want to work that day, but it's not celebrated here in North Asia and it just so happened that the guy who was travelling in to setup all of our equipment could only be here on the 25th. C'est la vie. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>We did our family Christmas on the 26th instead, which in previous years wouldn't have bothered our boys as they wouldn't have known unless we told them. Unfortunately they've learned to read a calendar this year, which led to much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth at the delay for Christmas! But I'm getting off track.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiINSP-y1KaB3UnZPzC_OTq1VvEieqPizM8jbJpnjmbcCyZfT5RHAt0sLfYeo9sOqwkycd1RqJkwKovBQv0p8wFgoFfyDI9EiWJd2xMhBGid7IzJWlynXGaQdu8S1IUOHOqN3-T5X4O_Bg/s1600/2+-+Production+Floor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiINSP-y1KaB3UnZPzC_OTq1VvEieqPizM8jbJpnjmbcCyZfT5RHAt0sLfYeo9sOqwkycd1RqJkwKovBQv0p8wFgoFfyDI9EiWJd2xMhBGid7IzJWlynXGaQdu8S1IUOHOqN3-T5X4O_Bg/s1600/2+-+Production+Floor.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Anyway, stage one was to get all the equipment into place. In the foreground you can see the first separator, it separates our nuts into different sizes. Behind it, next to the car (which obviously won't be there when production begins!) is the machine that actually shells the nuts. Then, to the right, the second separator which separates the shells from the nuts, etc. Behind that there is another machine to peel the shelled kernels, and over to the right there will eventually be a washing station.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The separators required some adjustment after a test run to get them running properly; apparently we'll be doing a lot of this so I had to learn how to do it all.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJb8Toa9nhXjptqT8xMomibCYQtB-q05M5JMqp1PbQ5qpV5ewU2QmbXwZSUaH4kYTrCAMLSjFK7Q3PyyWx_79OoRF7plNb-bxptgT1Fl6AVGCNGYK5aARvU0qagmtOwk_1l7hXBGMqiVg/s1600/3+-+Separator+Setup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJb8Toa9nhXjptqT8xMomibCYQtB-q05M5JMqp1PbQ5qpV5ewU2QmbXwZSUaH4kYTrCAMLSjFK7Q3PyyWx_79OoRF7plNb-bxptgT1Fl6AVGCNGYK5aARvU0qagmtOwk_1l7hXBGMqiVg/s1600/3+-+Separator+Setup.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Below you can see how this actually works, if you can peer through the dark (I apologize for the darkness of the videos, it appears my phone requires a more well-lit area for video than I thought) to see it. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>As you can see, or probably can't, the nuts are shaken over a series of mesh sheets that separate the nuts by size. This is important because the bigger nuts require the shelling machine to be set differently than the smaller nuts, so you must first separate the sizes before shelling them.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Below you can see the shelling machine itself, it spins the nuts between two drums which crack the outer shell.</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWfIU3sxLpiam1VvD1927LgGpfnQ9JzwEM6aqbhSLz3qwgcNctKGT2WBWQPI-LcrdTqlsYzNQP0wbQScr7Gsre0GS_B2KOyzDdAGLzwWsptezvDRF_Jz-BGIzq-uaQwx4BPr0FbT8By2Q/s1600/4+-+Testing+Sheller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWfIU3sxLpiam1VvD1927LgGpfnQ9JzwEM6aqbhSLz3qwgcNctKGT2WBWQPI-LcrdTqlsYzNQP0wbQScr7Gsre0GS_B2KOyzDdAGLzwWsptezvDRF_Jz-BGIzq-uaQwx4BPr0FbT8By2Q/s1600/4+-+Testing+Sheller.jpg" height="196" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I'll try to put up a video of this as well so you can see what happens. Hopefully you'll be able to tell that what comes out is some shelled nuts, a lot of nuts with cracked shells, and some shells already separated from the kernel. This mixture then goes into the second separator (being worked on in the picture below the video) to put these into separate containers for further processing.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Finally, you wash the nuts, then dry them, and then they go through a machine that peels the membrane from the kernel itself (sort of like the red membrane on a peanut). What comes out of that machine looks like this (in box) with the peels at bottom on the green bag.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Interestingly, you can sell these peels, which are light and fluffy and have a wonderful smell of pine, to companies that use them to make pillows!</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTZQtePk01LURqWna2WL2IMA0sYH-qoSyOnm6nN7Bg5afpU189hf4m_EEcY7NnP4qjXEqqOaMHpdXy5E9uJbbfu7EAdbryW61JS2LeZtJfA-ds8V-C3zK8KoRX80RZYaYXbQQsn-JOKaw/s1600/6+-+Cleaned+Kernels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTZQtePk01LURqWna2WL2IMA0sYH-qoSyOnm6nN7Bg5afpU189hf4m_EEcY7NnP4qjXEqqOaMHpdXy5E9uJbbfu7EAdbryW61JS2LeZtJfA-ds8V-C3zK8KoRX80RZYaYXbQQsn-JOKaw/s1600/6+-+Cleaned+Kernels.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Even better, of course, are the wonderful nuts (seen above in the box) that you can then sell for a lot more than you paid for them. Best of all, perhaps, is the option of eating them, but at the prices they sell for we can't afford to do much of that!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>And that, dear folks, is how pine nuts are processed. If we get more lights installed in the facility I'll take better videos and pictures one day, promise. For now, we only ran a couple of bags through the machines to test them; everything is still packed up until construction of the building is complete. Getting close on that, though, most of the walls are in now, just a few more to finish, a good cleaning and a bit of plumbing and we'll be done! Well, and a ventilation system and a fire safety system to meet code. And then we'll be done, and ready to start doing this a lot more!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thanks for stopping by; see us again in a week or so when ... well, I'll think of something to post. Hopefully.</b></span></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-75593445473319178362014-01-03T14:23:00.000+04:002014-01-03T14:23:41.888+04:00See? Told You I'd Post Again Soon!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See? And you thought I'd never actually do it!</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And yet, here we are. With a post that stretches all the way back to Thanksgiving (pictured above). Normally, we have a massive Thanksgiving feast with all our T friends who have never experienced one, but since we're running out of friends who haven't ever had a Thanksgiving dinner in their lives, plus we were just kinda tired, instead we invited over an American single guy who's teaching English in town that Bobbie met at some sort of English expo a month or so earlier. Being a Southern woman, she felt the need to take him in and feed him as his mother is 1000's of miles away, plus his roommate is a Chinese guy who hadn't ever had Thanksgiving, so it all dovetailed in perfectly.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No turkey this year, as we could only find a ham, but it was delicious and of course when you have stuffing that's the only thing that really matters (well, and deviled eggs) at a Thanksgiving meal anyway.</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRQAAFZqBz-laGvnCrJ9Cuw5Np8dFQKp8dCLzuILY4q9q3d214t932iGsnrjwvMzTr923A-OAUGcF0Fjdy7ztMNKm_citTU9FVOLh0NXyROasdpovU4wxYpHy7420PnPQo-i1drVTjH60/s1600/IMG_20131206_111440.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRQAAFZqBz-laGvnCrJ9Cuw5Np8dFQKp8dCLzuILY4q9q3d214t932iGsnrjwvMzTr923A-OAUGcF0Fjdy7ztMNKm_citTU9FVOLh0NXyROasdpovU4wxYpHy7420PnPQo-i1drVTjH60/s320/IMG_20131206_111440.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the other interesting things I did in December was take part in the local government's "One Village, One Product" program. This is a rather ingenious idea to try to boost the economy by stressing that each village should, at a bare minimum, try to come up with one business that produces something, thus providing employment for at least a couple of people. One of the big challenges T-land faces is that there are no jobs in many of the smaller villages, meaning that people, younger people especially, are naturally drawn to the capital to find work. This leads to villages that once supported 1000 or more people in the Soviet times now consisting of a hundred retirees and maybe some of their grandkids, while all of the working-age people live in the city.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The government has tried to stem this tide by offering grants/loans to small business owners, and they held a big expo in December so every region could show off the businesses they were running. Some of them were ideas with little upside for future sales growth (the production of T coats, for example) but others were interesting and showed promise. Above you can see some of the ones that were displayed outside the expo center, with businesses that produce ready-made yurts or a hay-growing collective. Below were some of the fur-trapping businesses that I found interesting, offering mink/wolf pelts for sale (presumably to garment manufacturers?).</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our region managed to scare up a passel of very cute T kids in traditional garb in an attempt to win the judges' favor:</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Me with one of the other small business owners from our area. He takes raw cast iron sheets and shapes them into interesting stoves that can run on used motor oil or kerosene. They can be used for heating a home or cooking. </span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtqHieMl2AS1ZY5sbrwJuCdsqdppxX5PTWRNzvXsmglJywAfdB6x76IXS7eIUX5nq8tOfMDkt3vEMZF3PPRo2Twm6MTrhgy4PLysCqN8z2tTGK9RlF0nkQDxrUfqPHYshk88s4nNwhyphenhyphen9g/s1600/IMG_20131206_115147.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtqHieMl2AS1ZY5sbrwJuCdsqdppxX5PTWRNzvXsmglJywAfdB6x76IXS7eIUX5nq8tOfMDkt3vEMZF3PPRo2Twm6MTrhgy4PLysCqN8z2tTGK9RlF0nkQDxrUfqPHYshk88s4nNwhyphenhyphen9g/s320/IMG_20131206_115147.jpg" width="240" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Interesting, but perhaps without the same potential for future sales growth, was this business that offered stuffed sheep stomachs and milk vodka:</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvCN4RhD691smspKzqMi8yKAV0ohEWwH_IEMHKCzuOnqChzYh510bDaobTvMy9CaeSVIMD6-LkAjyyY49Hpz2-sNXcb-GGtMElLgFQSLoHK0-41FBxgM7qVckdQ-IqPhb2X9iFZWAnEq8/s1600/IMG_20131206_125059.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvCN4RhD691smspKzqMi8yKAV0ohEWwH_IEMHKCzuOnqChzYh510bDaobTvMy9CaeSVIMD6-LkAjyyY49Hpz2-sNXcb-GGtMElLgFQSLoHK0-41FBxgM7qVckdQ-IqPhb2X9iFZWAnEq8/s320/IMG_20131206_125059.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I doubt you can see it, but among the judges was the vice president of the republic (the equivalent of a lieutenant governor in the US). I got to chat with him a bit about our pine nut business; it was a privilege to get to share what it is we're doing and our vision for the future of the business.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS02xYtpGqOof5Beid-8Uy92xCkn0-YUsmilUprWI-wRhOwBdsHn-X1fWuEvbJYyXvCSxE5dOhn8evtyaneiQL5Sk9SQP4BSjIt2FECuyGCdsUiUIFH5q0DsdsHMlqBiVQ1PjutYQoO1M/s1600/IMG_20131206_163333.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS02xYtpGqOof5Beid-8Uy92xCkn0-YUsmilUprWI-wRhOwBdsHn-X1fWuEvbJYyXvCSxE5dOhn8evtyaneiQL5Sk9SQP4BSjIt2FECuyGCdsUiUIFH5q0DsdsHMlqBiVQ1PjutYQoO1M/s320/IMG_20131206_163333.jpg" width="212" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, for the business itself, I'm going to save the latest news for the next post in a week or so, but when I last showed you photos we had basically an empty frame set up. Well, since then we've been hard at work progressing to actual interior walls!</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqS2o7ig9k9X3Zozddryb3rruOCgqA9qU8Ee7I4isJTuUxkg5s-O17DYT-63dX-83jqZdkg2bh6IjpY-TXMdVNHgb3l1GgkM-0xzdgKsyysA3waiYBvIPpszZrgqkHJF7PFShgRSHvtJk/s1600/IMG_20131209_134349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqS2o7ig9k9X3Zozddryb3rruOCgqA9qU8Ee7I4isJTuUxkg5s-O17DYT-63dX-83jqZdkg2bh6IjpY-TXMdVNHgb3l1GgkM-0xzdgKsyysA3waiYBvIPpszZrgqkHJF7PFShgRSHvtJk/s320/IMG_20131209_134349.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Above: the enclosure around the generator</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Below: the staircase to the second floor going in</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaaKFciAtdOu70_wY6UUZUtSWNV_zzp_3TYvv9yna6U28GAgxeNgCgWIBKcxhyW3a1F-_B6qxEhJtCRW1Sen1_bnN47mk2cHRDvmA4kaZlKLO_1Mu1woIJAq4nhf9Dcl4LxxdQ9PO7MSE/s1600/IMG_20131203_150828.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaaKFciAtdOu70_wY6UUZUtSWNV_zzp_3TYvv9yna6U28GAgxeNgCgWIBKcxhyW3a1F-_B6qxEhJtCRW1Sen1_bnN47mk2cHRDvmA4kaZlKLO_1Mu1woIJAq4nhf9Dcl4LxxdQ9PO7MSE/s320/IMG_20131203_150828.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And this is how it looks now, with actual walls going in. Actually, it's a bit beyond even this now, so I need to go out and take some more pictures, but that will have to wait for our next update.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIwIiqut9bCj7cjowkEslXwKbUxGf2XvtVdCMcGe0xBAyg3oVLeD2Iv3E74BjOQbMfxbZJvI39es64Be98D_vVtukuCmAawm3z0JRbiIZY8I_LorNu0Fm3zv7lyyfyDbpeyCc3BQPJlBA/s1600/IMG_20131213_153501.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIwIiqut9bCj7cjowkEslXwKbUxGf2XvtVdCMcGe0xBAyg3oVLeD2Iv3E74BjOQbMfxbZJvI39es64Be98D_vVtukuCmAawm3z0JRbiIZY8I_LorNu0Fm3zv7lyyfyDbpeyCc3BQPJlBA/s320/IMG_20131213_153501.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for stopping in, and we hope you'll have a very happy New Year!</span></b></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-34600410276262321062013-12-28T12:14:00.001+04:002013-12-28T12:14:53.265+04:00Too Long<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was once told by a friend of ours that we started every blog with an apology over how long it had been since our last post. Well, after noticing that she was right, I did my best to stop doing that; after all, though it was our goal to get a post up every week what did it really matter if we did only 3 a month instead?</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, this time I really should apologize. It has been a whole month since our last post! And it's not like nothing has been happening that we could post about, either - in fact, excessive busyness is part of the reason we haven't had time to write up a blog post!</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But enough excuses; I'll post only a little of what we've had going on for the past month here, and then I promise that during the next week (which is a vacation week in Russia, so we don't have a ton going on) I'll post a couple more to catch you all up to date.</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFTmL9pdC8p3oBtw8YqXfLQ9_B1jv0hG56Fq8h-IlOd_oH3ffIvHqWegoO9kAsStiYk3RUqratHvWP9QNxBsbe-Bd3JJhvXIm6k8uNuBN-eUhXuZQTDfCJC71kwuVZ7IlICzlxWloZSLo/s1600/IMG_20131121_101101.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFTmL9pdC8p3oBtw8YqXfLQ9_B1jv0hG56Fq8h-IlOd_oH3ffIvHqWegoO9kAsStiYk3RUqratHvWP9QNxBsbe-Bd3JJhvXIm6k8uNuBN-eUhXuZQTDfCJC71kwuVZ7IlICzlxWloZSLo/s320/IMG_20131121_101101.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, as Bobbie's last post alluded to, I was gone for a few weeks in November. It wasn't a trip out of the country this time, but just up north to visit some friends and check with them on how their language learning was going. You may think it's cold here, but they have even colder temperatures than we do - it's the "real" Siberia!</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmMXZlsHDXfd0dLqEvmc4U3IXlM1mKCUCo45B-DBUbUe5lwv-Eo2BHe6TOT1OfBK4dx4jYQv1epllArz05utRpT9EheOhSpV4TZIzcCu-8GtbKI1xQ9JZBJ-AvqU9RHi4uRQYellBESo/s1600/IMG_20131117_153951.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmMXZlsHDXfd0dLqEvmc4U3IXlM1mKCUCo45B-DBUbUe5lwv-Eo2BHe6TOT1OfBK4dx4jYQv1epllArz05utRpT9EheOhSpV4TZIzcCu-8GtbKI1xQ9JZBJ-AvqU9RHi4uRQYellBESo/s320/IMG_20131117_153951.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had a great visit with the folks there and it was a real privilege to be able to tell one couple that they had reached the level of language that they've been aiming for over the past few years. Oh, and they had cute kids to play with, too.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge7Zc46onXPk1y36qTcZ1m5l7rr7dwV9adQ07LfSRwDa5klK0AIz2WW0PceToEPyf0s0xTPiXk68ryWyyRK-wrkvd-xjaUJMf04zkybwUL4jzrkjPwLmxCRcFDFYF294tnhXWmT8ou6K0/s1600/IMG_20131117_170754.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge7Zc46onXPk1y36qTcZ1m5l7rr7dwV9adQ07LfSRwDa5klK0AIz2WW0PceToEPyf0s0xTPiXk68ryWyyRK-wrkvd-xjaUJMf04zkybwUL4jzrkjPwLmxCRcFDFYF294tnhXWmT8ou6K0/s320/IMG_20131117_170754.jpg" width="261" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They have an ocean nearby, so some of the street wares are a little different from ours. However, just like in T-land, no freezer facilities are required to keep your produce fresh!</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNCVCqJse0TvGSNyxmlQ7KqwbhcwdqbUHULiW6PEhNLJ8IubUyjfDzzwqhAH_mDFyzMTHgs3_76yHfzLzkgDijXMYqR1_Vz_VsbffeB0kPbRcx3FvbHCr5Rrv9cFGCanglsLRz97z4LUw/s1600/IMG_20131120_102137.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNCVCqJse0TvGSNyxmlQ7KqwbhcwdqbUHULiW6PEhNLJ8IubUyjfDzzwqhAH_mDFyzMTHgs3_76yHfzLzkgDijXMYqR1_Vz_VsbffeB0kPbRcx3FvbHCr5Rrv9cFGCanglsLRz97z4LUw/s320/IMG_20131120_102137.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the way back I had a day delay in Novosibirsk, so I bopped over to the Ikea for Christmas presents for Bobbie (a set of pots) and a dinner of cheap meatballs.</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzsX_8iRH_ZnvFgKtneru3vgQZkZiFLUmPEcN7pLbiCyuwnX_EzePBBwucpvX_U4JsYZvvP6Jh9_dEqlDGD-wc8XHeSw7QyArXVh7M3I8WLNrAVLDDzgOqcGHd7M2VeBfD99dGaRHvOwE/s1600/IMG_20131121_141654.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzsX_8iRH_ZnvFgKtneru3vgQZkZiFLUmPEcN7pLbiCyuwnX_EzePBBwucpvX_U4JsYZvvP6Jh9_dEqlDGD-wc8XHeSw7QyArXVh7M3I8WLNrAVLDDzgOqcGHd7M2VeBfD99dGaRHvOwE/s320/IMG_20131121_141654.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"So, what's been going on with the pine nut facility?" some of you are thinking. Well, maybe not, but I'm going to tell you nevertheless. When you last saw it it didn't have walls on the ends, so I'll start slow and just show you what it looked like when that much was done:</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMS5-fm92KQtrDh407TRenBFmdK6CNDK8y55YUlfVhErt-5LqBDZNF0mAyzR-fY96ipnIF7BYd_kP6H_NQTUKAGk0ft9X21vT4ChypSBI8wC9EK5d0k13V0Kb-I0kV1ow0OacWaxow6Bk/s1600/IMG_20131125_110011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMS5-fm92KQtrDh407TRenBFmdK6CNDK8y55YUlfVhErt-5LqBDZNF0mAyzR-fY96ipnIF7BYd_kP6H_NQTUKAGk0ft9X21vT4ChypSBI8wC9EK5d0k13V0Kb-I0kV1ow0OacWaxow6Bk/s320/IMG_20131125_110011.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlYMHXieJIgQfO9EWpZAz16RwaMEwvsQ_H0cYoLzQpCmQev90MQlImcnwZn8pKvphtL6W6VgaowMWKPAhrBo67QHc2YryViMmw33t-lADaaUvvHdfnVyUmADMr1bhbBNX6ZT2bMEQRZww/s1600/IMG_20131125_110027.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlYMHXieJIgQfO9EWpZAz16RwaMEwvsQ_H0cYoLzQpCmQev90MQlImcnwZn8pKvphtL6W6VgaowMWKPAhrBo67QHc2YryViMmw33t-lADaaUvvHdfnVyUmADMr1bhbBNX6ZT2bMEQRZww/s320/IMG_20131125_110027.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwZE5d5-r3EWzItTecmZJNdwIh5q45kt93wnXXdxmTW1jKViKucT4PfRZhsfgv7j-3xC6JNuszKRhuEyUvHZ7_BsOc677vmFACu-nhcClP4RnYy_UYE-ZqD9qHYSWjh3qRTlAI2KFxm2U/s1600/IMG_20131126_112106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwZE5d5-r3EWzItTecmZJNdwIh5q45kt93wnXXdxmTW1jKViKucT4PfRZhsfgv7j-3xC6JNuszKRhuEyUvHZ7_BsOc677vmFACu-nhcClP4RnYy_UYE-ZqD9qHYSWjh3qRTlAI2KFxm2U/s320/IMG_20131126_112106.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, it's way beyond this now, but more on that in the next week in those posts I promised!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks again for thinking of us, we love you and wish you all a Happy New Year!</span></b></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-50724863685263564582013-11-27T10:03:00.002+04:002013-11-27T10:03:54.042+04:00Culture Differences - A Blog By B<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.iespta.org/images/hospitality.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.iespta.org/images/hospitality.gif" width="295" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I LOVE to have people over! I love to socialize and to cook - it's one of my passions. It's been a way to form relationships here, so there are other benefits as well. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet, being in a different culture has presented some challenges in my quest for showing hospitality. Once you live in a different culture for 5 years you would think the challenges of accepting certain parts of the culture would be easier. At least that is what I thought until last week.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let me start of by saying that T-land is my home. I love it here. The people think differently and interact differently, and their whole view on what is socially acceptable and what's not are completely different than what you would find in the West, but I'm OK with that for the most part. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, last week I was struck by the realization that I still struggle with parts of the culture here. Let me give you an example: our neighbors have become one of our best local friends in the past 4 years living here. We call each other sister and brother (a sign you have been adopted into the family). They are at our house at least 2-3 evenings a week. Last week while Jesse was gone they came over to keep me company. We played games, talked, and ate. They also brought their 8 month old grandson over with them. </span></b><br />
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<a href="http://aceoflifewellbeingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/soup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://aceoflifewellbeingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/soup.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are some things that happened that caused me to have to restrain my reaction (which was surprise and shock). One evening we sat down to eat some boiling hot soup (I make sure it was hot since they don't like things unless they are boiling hot). As we are eating they were taking small (boiling hot) bits of food out of their soup (like pork, potatoes, and cheese) and putting it in the baby's mouth. My brain is saying "No, it's too hot, don't. He can't chew and swallow, he'll choke." </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now I know how the kids here can tolerate boiling hot tea without blinking (tea that would burn my mouth if I tried to drink it). I didn't react too much but I did offer to puree everything into baby food for them which they accepted. The baby ate most of what I made so I guess he liked it. Of course, his tummy wasn't used to so much solid food at once so it was, hmm, how shall we say, "rejected," and it came flying out over the couch and pillows. </span></b><br />
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<a href="http://media.dcentertainment.com/sites/default/files/files/2012/02/MAD-Magazine-Projectile-Vomit-Baby-Seesaw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="118" src="http://media.dcentertainment.com/sites/default/files/files/2012/02/MAD-Magazine-Projectile-Vomit-Baby-Seesaw.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Blog Manager: I'm putting this up instead of one of the many pictures of babies vomiting available on google images, so you should definitely be thankful it's only this tasteless!</i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Babies do this so it didn't bother me one bit. At least not until our guests just started wiping the pillow and couch off with their sleeves! After they got most of it they rolled their sleeves up and continued talking and playing. I went to get a moist rag to complete the cleanup and they said "Oh, it's OK, we got it". So, as not to offend them, I left it there until they left. By then, the throw up had transferred to every chair in the room and some on the floor. Thankfully, dirtiness does not bother me as much as most Westereners so I was able to hide my reactions.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other thing that I just had to laugh at was what my friend did. She loves sweets - and in saying that I mean that she would eat pure sugar all the time if she could. How do I know this? Because she chugged my maple syrup! </span></b><br />
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<a href="http://genaw.com/lowcarb/food_photos/cinnamon_pancake_syrup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="http://genaw.com/lowcarb/food_photos/cinnamon_pancake_syrup.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>A highly under-syrupped pancake, according to our friend S</i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I offered her some pancakes I made and brought out my maple syrup for her to try since they don't have anything like that here. She started by putting a little on the pancake. A little syrup turned into a lot of syrup. Finally, after absolutely drowning the pancake she pushed it away, took my syrup bottle, and started drinking it out of the bottle. </span></b><br />
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<a href="http://media.culturemap.com/crop/c4/57/800x600/Super-Troopers-trooper-chugging-syrup-contest_171751.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://media.culturemap.com/crop/c4/57/800x600/Super-Troopers-trooper-chugging-syrup-contest_171751.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mouth agape, I just started laughing which startled her because to her this was an accepted practice. Once I regained my composure a bit, I explained that was the first time I've seen that done and she was shocked and told me that it's the way they do things here. So, I waited until she left, emptied the bottle, cleaned it, and made some more. (I confess that I hid it away.)</span></b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/DS8MegEiKLk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Google tells me the above picture is from a movie, but I've never seen it so here's a clip from a much better (probably) movie. I would put money on our friend actually enjoying spaghetti with syrup in it.</i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It didn't stop there. Now, remember, they can't afford disposable diapers so they just put leggings on the baby and train them from the time they are 2 months old. How do they "train" them? By pulling their leggings down every hour and holding them in a squat position until they urinate or poop. Since their traditional yurts all have outhouses they don't want to hold the baby over the hole in the out house. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, what is the next best thing to them? The floor. That's right - they would just pull down the baby's leggings and let him go right on our floor! I had 3 puddles of urine and 1 pile of poop on my floor. I finally got a towel and tried to discreetly give it to them which they took and started using. I've seen this done at other houses but this was the first time anyone has done it at our house. I just did a lot of cleaning after they left.</span></b><br />
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<a href="http://www.babylife.co.za/product_images/uploaded_images/baby-boy-potty-training.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.babylife.co.za/product_images/uploaded_images/baby-boy-potty-training.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Why would you go to all this trouble?</i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Does all of this mean the people here are worse just because they do things differently (and, granted, dirtier) than Westerners? Absolutely not! Remember, they have had to adopt to a hard life in yurts, sheep herding, all in -50 weather, and the system that the T people have developed has served them for a long time. It's just interesting to watch them try to adapt some of the old ways to a modern environment, and it does take some getting used to.</span></b></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-9927401977736788432013-11-10T20:28:00.002+04:002013-11-10T20:28:26.076+04:00Grand Opening! <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyv73GKxFcMT2aj12H-pVo3r-vDvbFMIcrZmyZFeKqTfedCpNR_TSC1qrB-EHnX1zlRLiU3WNhQ_ZW-hq3uqZ7iwfDbqN-EXHBCDbkQXHhl0xX5T5H8jgpFYRdso5iqbZxqdEtUu5yFfU/s1600/IMG_20131031_132846.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyv73GKxFcMT2aj12H-pVo3r-vDvbFMIcrZmyZFeKqTfedCpNR_TSC1qrB-EHnX1zlRLiU3WNhQ_ZW-hq3uqZ7iwfDbqN-EXHBCDbkQXHhl0xX5T5H8jgpFYRdso5iqbZxqdEtUu5yFfU/s320/IMG_20131031_132846.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, remember when we posted a couple of weeks ago and there was only the beginning of a roof out at the site of our future pine nut processing facility? Yeah. Take a look at that (points upward)!</span></b><br />
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<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCD9z_0EmztKYKCfHDvaw8Hj3cFmkyDNwYvSul4wAS6aAuvJFxojltAHmLtpdxNUV7Nrz6W6FaXKHdl8vvD_g-v1B2N_wV5W4CglCxIZBw_zQtXkMLTiG7NLeqpg4gWUXGlZRrl-DIUaE/s1600/IMG_20131031_132819.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCD9z_0EmztKYKCfHDvaw8Hj3cFmkyDNwYvSul4wAS6aAuvJFxojltAHmLtpdxNUV7Nrz6W6FaXKHdl8vvD_g-v1B2N_wV5W4CglCxIZBw_zQtXkMLTiG7NLeqpg4gWUXGlZRrl-DIUaE/s320/IMG_20131031_132819.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Indeed, though, the trash heap has turned into a lot which has turned into a foundation which has turned into a hangar roof. Now we just need to add the end walls and we'll have turned the whole thing into a usable building!</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzbSdM6Jxo7TTkqZbgunRPgCALxG_iF5-smwAx6kqTRrqI53zPguv49TawDvw3mSRU_8c4x7VhzlvkLTOacMZ0BiwJmOETxeAf5vr_4emkd6jIpUnoKTIyQN1TSfCI0RCQH4X1mu5a-64/s1600/IMG_20131101_102543.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzbSdM6Jxo7TTkqZbgunRPgCALxG_iF5-smwAx6kqTRrqI53zPguv49TawDvw3mSRU_8c4x7VhzlvkLTOacMZ0BiwJmOETxeAf5vr_4emkd6jIpUnoKTIyQN1TSfCI0RCQH4X1mu5a-64/s320/IMG_20131101_102543.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Not to get too carried away, though, this is where we are now. The insulation gets cut into little chunks and then unrolled between two layers of metal which are bolted to the foundation. Then we bought our most expensive construction material yet - a few tons of steel I-beams for the end walls. They get welded together like so:</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxxDCItFBP5nY-AxpRMjZdMotj0HfFBgvfRomWoTSFL_tuJNWretIneeaCkFm9V52jrSmBSJ48X0KQ01OP7DijFfHuBFVFfhwpcjw5B8_RCQF5wjMFqISZ3UTxUx1Dn6dXm1YSWgCw6Q/s1600/IMG_20131105_094646.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxxDCItFBP5nY-AxpRMjZdMotj0HfFBgvfRomWoTSFL_tuJNWretIneeaCkFm9V52jrSmBSJ48X0KQ01OP7DijFfHuBFVFfhwpcjw5B8_RCQF5wjMFqISZ3UTxUx1Dn6dXm1YSWgCw6Q/s320/IMG_20131105_094646.jpg" width="240" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>But enough about construction. The really exciting news is that our facility is now officially open!</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>No, we're not using it to process nuts yet - that won't happen until the delivery of the rest of the processing equipment next month. We did, however, have our Grand Opening celebration during a recent visit from a representative from the investment group who supplied the capital to get this whole thing off the ground. We had a ribbon-cutting (which I managed to get video of but no pictures) and a tour of the facility with the investor and some government officials. We even had two different TV channels onsite to document the event for the evening news, it was that big a deal.</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEcmHhsipY1zu4lG_GI5n6EPqEe6EEDxqLi7kzdaKMhdmK3hYfG78vA0rtOuiKEeLEIljaTFssfs50KlB0HBX2WiUQ6MygY0Dv6zDm4D_fWbWFEhyphenhyphenB5shUKuXPS-mKu8R0BXiQgm4IVEM/s1600/IMG_20131108_164434.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEcmHhsipY1zu4lG_GI5n6EPqEe6EEDxqLi7kzdaKMhdmK3hYfG78vA0rtOuiKEeLEIljaTFssfs50KlB0HBX2WiUQ6MygY0Dv6zDm4D_fWbWFEhyphenhyphenB5shUKuXPS-mKu8R0BXiQgm4IVEM/s320/IMG_20131108_164434.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>My photographer (ahem!) wasn't the best, so you'll just have to trust that these silhouettes are of me, my business partner and important government officials touring the site and getting an explanation of what will happen there.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFq-D5sVgWLGwOmF_qxif489l-pSQ0l6Ms3XV2BYrPINiX2xORb_KZQ6zV9kIBSsvn1DY258xWLjR6SYKYGOS3SFMn-9-YAAmPwSt8XNH2F7K59tsyNiFvs6nVCKeNMmEBVSvB-ozHhrg/s1600/IMG_20131108_164451.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFq-D5sVgWLGwOmF_qxif489l-pSQ0l6Ms3XV2BYrPINiX2xORb_KZQ6zV9kIBSsvn1DY258xWLjR6SYKYGOS3SFMn-9-YAAmPwSt8XNH2F7K59tsyNiFvs6nVCKeNMmEBVSvB-ozHhrg/s320/IMG_20131108_164451.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Our friend, D, who helped with getting all the land documents and in the process became good friends with Bobbie.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL7KwWVB3ra_UuU3QlZqWXy0-bocyzUIb-mjmJB1XyC037iLWDUb5z970tfFBJNbAeR-wYEuCbmgKZopXDKOcxyOOl4UA8gfooi7ii6xJ0TrKllD6B0G3-bWUYTEHAgeN8hQayQ8BappE/s1600/IMG_20131108_164542.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL7KwWVB3ra_UuU3QlZqWXy0-bocyzUIb-mjmJB1XyC037iLWDUb5z970tfFBJNbAeR-wYEuCbmgKZopXDKOcxyOOl4UA8gfooi7ii6xJ0TrKllD6B0G3-bWUYTEHAgeN8hQayQ8BappE/s320/IMG_20131108_164542.jpg" width="206" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Between my business partner's wife and my wife, they put together quite a spread! It was the talk of the event, with some of the officials even asking when she planned to open a restaurant so they could enjoy food like this on a regular basis.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuo3yZ4Wv1ILberUYZ1xdIbLnJvWsNoZA8iBQV-y9WIZL5miQ9I-SKrcytEwPIvIyPUvgnLGKARUDyHDdlv9lFzCEfDjHPUtlT_X26RBj1YBQ04o-PPEvYj87MYug4LQNuEc4Lgsbrx18/s1600/IMG_20131108_164843.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuo3yZ4Wv1ILberUYZ1xdIbLnJvWsNoZA8iBQV-y9WIZL5miQ9I-SKrcytEwPIvIyPUvgnLGKARUDyHDdlv9lFzCEfDjHPUtlT_X26RBj1YBQ04o-PPEvYj87MYug4LQNuEc4Lgsbrx18/s320/IMG_20131108_164843.jpg" width="250" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Our investor rep gave a speech of his own (in English, with Russian translation), much to the delight of the assembled crowd. They were especially pleased to hear how much he enjoyed the beauty of the area and the potential for growth in the pine nut industry.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnfJesexoJGx5uMlLUhY3MTpSIL-c8xVrIOqBH2MgdwAVtscSpD-UtLTgEDMqDVJ7oh_0-JCycKn8nhUWIOS9Gw3JtlykqnBcDZfdtToqPaKGqM9SlN81f6rS9EcdOCfiRaVeIsFdt-kc/s1600/IMG_20131108_171031.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnfJesexoJGx5uMlLUhY3MTpSIL-c8xVrIOqBH2MgdwAVtscSpD-UtLTgEDMqDVJ7oh_0-JCycKn8nhUWIOS9Gw3JtlykqnBcDZfdtToqPaKGqM9SlN81f6rS9EcdOCfiRaVeIsFdt-kc/s320/IMG_20131108_171031.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>And now, since I'm out of pictures, I'll leave you with a picture of one of our cute kids just being cute.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thanks for stopping by. Please do keep me lifted up this coming week as I have some travel coming up, and for Bobbie and the boys as well at home without me. We'll try to update you sometime toward the end of the month; hopefully by then we'll have the building all put together and will be working toward completing the interior - exciting times!</b></span></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-31799762546805002062013-10-29T14:19:00.000+04:002013-10-29T17:09:12.466+04:00Structure<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaTdw8e7LxgCkHnGGTr4K0q6OeQL0xNqpnqbqJOVSAPbCNeaQFdtAIHcRFRcmzw0YbsCtdABEbih3lxKrrgQKngpDSGXtoXksbCZ0llLL4tUZv4wfGYRV_mjCEf5fZHETZKYuavhhQWMQ/s1600/IMG_20131017_155324.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaTdw8e7LxgCkHnGGTr4K0q6OeQL0xNqpnqbqJOVSAPbCNeaQFdtAIHcRFRcmzw0YbsCtdABEbih3lxKrrgQKngpDSGXtoXksbCZ0llLL4tUZv4wfGYRV_mjCEf5fZHETZKYuavhhQWMQ/s320/IMG_20131017_155324.jpg" width="300" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Structure, yes. But first, look at all our beautiful pine nuts. Well, look at not-so-beautiful sacks, anyway; you'll just have to take my word for it that they're all full of beautiful pine nuts. 10 tons of them! All now dried and stored away, waiting for our shelling equipment to arrive (due sometime in December). </b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTCToLAbBYHBJiBW_JXSAeW_EEsMFoS6evMGX_DbPqc_fPDob14BAbvOZU04uKBgnkDvbhA1d4G-Z7LSQ6KwdnyG8d0jfZH8kv6q9R0GgtQn3pfU-PY7OvFhb6bGeBoOXF_CNFzpXVpLg/s1600/IMG_20131019_165828.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTCToLAbBYHBJiBW_JXSAeW_EEsMFoS6evMGX_DbPqc_fPDob14BAbvOZU04uKBgnkDvbhA1d4G-Z7LSQ6KwdnyG8d0jfZH8kv6q9R0GgtQn3pfU-PY7OvFhb6bGeBoOXF_CNFzpXVpLg/s320/IMG_20131019_165828.jpg" width="240" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ooh, and check out this sweet generator! That arrived the other day too, and after spending a day trying to get it to work we finally realized that at some point in the shipping process someone had bumped the safety "emergency off" button and that's why it wouldn't run. Reset that and presto! 48 kW of power, at our fingertips anytime we feel like spending $8/hour to run the thing.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwYujZhd4ybbo0fFng3EC-jZ7oP6XC42hrFBzIoxiqB4jd9FgrEz1pxmXgAcV0-24YvjGuFRjX7yEma34z9LNfJeMdVELh4f-yzGfNeBrTMo3RdBcOXPq_ojY0yUlbPAX3kwLpTJSvfN8/s1600/IMG_20131023_150847.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwYujZhd4ybbo0fFng3EC-jZ7oP6XC42hrFBzIoxiqB4jd9FgrEz1pxmXgAcV0-24YvjGuFRjX7yEma34z9LNfJeMdVELh4f-yzGfNeBrTMo3RdBcOXPq_ojY0yUlbPAX3kwLpTJSvfN8/s320/IMG_20131023_150847.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>But the really exciting recent development is the fact that there is actual structure going up on the site. I think for the first time it actually feels real, like there is an actual business there. The foundation, despite taking forever, is pretty much all underground now, so for a while it's just been a couple of stumpy walls and a floor, but now there is actual progress on top of that and a building is starting to take shape!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>This is the 7-ton machine that was brought over the mountains into T-land to press the metal into the shapes we need to build the hangar-style building.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5n1RpiTkQTyPK6y0NbCxEaQGaZKjit6EQ_ieLaLCsRKysJl5NDulhuHbrTZ9kble_tKLBHVTge4E9avgx76oNq52da6XotoszQ7pdktvuNpPFQPnoeOIJQ2R8RVmTk2HsVg4O3Fpdlgo/s1600/IMG_20131025_082310.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5n1RpiTkQTyPK6y0NbCxEaQGaZKjit6EQ_ieLaLCsRKysJl5NDulhuHbrTZ9kble_tKLBHVTge4E9avgx76oNq52da6XotoszQ7pdktvuNpPFQPnoeOIJQ2R8RVmTk2HsVg4O3Fpdlgo/s320/IMG_20131025_082310.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>While we had the crane out there, we had him also move the temporary roofs we had built over our equipment. Everything had to get out of the way so that the actual roof could be built, and we are now using these roofs to keep the rain off of our coal and wood.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgAFKfDOK3tO2D7o-jg1RcrRDeizmZhpmIGjroKMjsw0eanIvNR7CZC7nViFrAIa-wfNWuHO3zkot9Y_xg8ocOGrc28n_JMAg-ZEL7GeNvIS7iEHlX3DiTYNeDSdRTgkK0k3i5j2pxeVI/s1600/IMG_20131025_114756.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgAFKfDOK3tO2D7o-jg1RcrRDeizmZhpmIGjroKMjsw0eanIvNR7CZC7nViFrAIa-wfNWuHO3zkot9Y_xg8ocOGrc28n_JMAg-ZEL7GeNvIS7iEHlX3DiTYNeDSdRTgkK0k3i5j2pxeVI/s320/IMG_20131025_114756.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I'll put a video up that may help to explain this a bit, but this is how the machine looks in operation.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG0-1qv4N30Kya8089_a6jcZIx0kxg12IORZvx10phRhBhWSXiU4k5RXvZG7sQHQprt2YgJQNdd8elE9UtpxHFvQpdCE-hx0vWeiKBSYJ1CgkW5kO2HgJh7syifwFO4Vh27g0__mKAxf0/s1600/IMG_20131025_141838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG0-1qv4N30Kya8089_a6jcZIx0kxg12IORZvx10phRhBhWSXiU4k5RXvZG7sQHQprt2YgJQNdd8elE9UtpxHFvQpdCE-hx0vWeiKBSYJ1CgkW5kO2HgJh7syifwFO4Vh27g0__mKAxf0/s320/IMG_20131025_141838.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The first step is to press a roll of sheet metal into a "U" shape:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/0K1dGhpYT3Q?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Then, you move that "U" shape over to the next part of the machine and run it back through, where it is bent into, well, a "U" shape relative to a different plane, preparing it to be a part of the roof:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/rmCzw3x8eWk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The, you take the piece that you've just bent over to stack it on top of the others. There is a little machine that works like a giant electric can opener that then crimps the metal together from two strips, to seal them together. They stack the strips 5 high, sealing each piece to its neighbors:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ykw2PV5fqE8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Then, these 5-strip pieces are lifted into place by a crane:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/LYWsiE5YcB4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>For those of you who can't watch the video, this is basically what it looks like as the crane gets the piece of the roof together.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNE7psO4fgNX-LlR_ROkDmcD7OGgIBXHKkuZQnut3iQz5TCZRJVbvjA4D_JyBOt6unBFLYLjlFZErHBxpXQNi_UxXykjien_-9XMFGwmlM4eTdc16H05G7cnhsW_El1JrQtSmGDchyphenhyphen7BE/s1600/IMG_20131028_160427.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNE7psO4fgNX-LlR_ROkDmcD7OGgIBXHKkuZQnut3iQz5TCZRJVbvjA4D_JyBOt6unBFLYLjlFZErHBxpXQNi_UxXykjien_-9XMFGwmlM4eTdc16H05G7cnhsW_El1JrQtSmGDchyphenhyphen7BE/s320/IMG_20131028_160427.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Fnkaatqp6PGh8HTlTfrA8U85wKpwsr4X-U1Db74BAS3nbbNR9gwuSjWWjvT9hjz9qKLIKnCzMr7_APePrmkoSwHeddQcd4Gdla42_Rxw5r1eiurijSFuCBPDs3r0Nbj8mNAtSsqr9ME/s1600/IMG_20131028_160713.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Fnkaatqp6PGh8HTlTfrA8U85wKpwsr4X-U1Db74BAS3nbbNR9gwuSjWWjvT9hjz9qKLIKnCzMr7_APePrmkoSwHeddQcd4Gdla42_Rxw5r1eiurijSFuCBPDs3r0Nbj8mNAtSsqr9ME/s320/IMG_20131028_160713.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Then, these two guys come along and tap two bolts into each section, connecting each "U" to the steel corner piece, which is in turn welded every 2 meters to a piece of steel that is embedded deep into the foundation itself.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkOCYYxIDVwBdu7W3j1KWLYa7k5r4H2PGdXscfejezuOnsl1krFlRjeLmnlKisU25trTh4xlmvWbAq-X_ruM8cFltMKVOLAfuZEpfXRvGu10cJfUKVSkrMXQQSbFA7v3yf67bFrPnx8W4/s1600/IMG_20131028_161354.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkOCYYxIDVwBdu7W3j1KWLYa7k5r4H2PGdXscfejezuOnsl1krFlRjeLmnlKisU25trTh4xlmvWbAq-X_ruM8cFltMKVOLAfuZEpfXRvGu10cJfUKVSkrMXQQSbFA7v3yf67bFrPnx8W4/s320/IMG_20131028_161354.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJwyuf2jbU-qhCfbSweipy4tEx637U73Om-FAwXw3mepkRVNOXU6kMImlDnFkm4NZ25DuEMqChZ104OjTN0iHjphe89_ZezGKH81ONnfu1MzJ9tTo0-qgfKFGMkAO2N0wkyDZPvyrjjKI/s1600/IMG_20131028_162300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJwyuf2jbU-qhCfbSweipy4tEx637U73Om-FAwXw3mepkRVNOXU6kMImlDnFkm4NZ25DuEMqChZ104OjTN0iHjphe89_ZezGKH81ONnfu1MzJ9tTo0-qgfKFGMkAO2N0wkyDZPvyrjjKI/s320/IMG_20131028_162300.jpg" width="240" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>And that's where we're at. Nice, no? It actually is starting to look like a building!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tomorrow the crew is planning to finish the first row of roofing, and then they need to put insulation down into each one of those "U's." Once that's done there's another level of sheet metal that keeps out the rain and looks nice that goes over all of that. Then we just have to put up the end walls (I know, "just") and we'll be done! </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I figure we still have about a month of work left before the building is at least livable, but hey, that's not a bad thing as it means we'll be ready for our equipment to be delivered in December. Then we can actually start processing pine nuts, but at this stage I don't even want to start dreaming about that yet. Too many things in between here and there!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Thanks again for thinking of us - I have a busy couple of weeks ahead with our American investors coming in for a visit and then a trip up north to visit some colleagues, so please keep it up.</b></span></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-41037873592201875672013-10-09T18:08:00.000+04:002013-10-09T18:13:11.784+04:00Nut Factory Starts to Take Shape<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, I don't know how many of you will remember how the business' plot of land looked a few months ago when we started putting up our pine nut processing facility, but if you scroll down a few posts you'll see that this summer it was just a patch of grass with a lot of trash scattered on it.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, a few weeks ago we updated you and we had foundations being poured and a metal garage that was being used as a storage facility and a shack for the guard to live in. Well, now I want to show you where we're at now, because it's quite a bit of progress since then:</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkbG4zL1Ejr5lusteMDVcE76WYhn8B32hNctI_lDkqS2ufD31ifvR6ufj5Jt1xT4d2_UMAwhTPygr7jgNrZQQYWYSTp0CNKg-DWSYU6gFKs8cvaBx-h5HxlkGV2ceADLqUUcZm1OAQT6o/s1600/IMG_20130923_133727.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkbG4zL1Ejr5lusteMDVcE76WYhn8B32hNctI_lDkqS2ufD31ifvR6ufj5Jt1xT4d2_UMAwhTPygr7jgNrZQQYWYSTp0CNKg-DWSYU6gFKs8cvaBx-h5HxlkGV2ceADLqUUcZm1OAQT6o/s320/IMG_20130923_133727.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This picture is a week or two old already, but when we last left you we were just completing this part of the job - the foundation. You can see here a couple of the workers working to put a drainage pipe through the foundation wall.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRUiz97CB7gWFZsR8ag4oaxSSlBX6KboWQuICjPrxOFAvekWrbM-H2mTijJ_k0S3WyVwveheB3HnJ0AH_bF-vt_cZYMlUeb-xUV8sU9dGE4kE_5C7rK24B-S6IiLS1Vr_daCfJg9GbsOo/s1600/IMG_20130926_163318.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRUiz97CB7gWFZsR8ag4oaxSSlBX6KboWQuICjPrxOFAvekWrbM-H2mTijJ_k0S3WyVwveheB3HnJ0AH_bF-vt_cZYMlUeb-xUV8sU9dGE4kE_5C7rK24B-S6IiLS1Vr_daCfJg9GbsOo/s320/IMG_20130926_163318.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next on the agenda was a floor; they poured reinforced concrete about 6 inches deep over the whole thing, making sure to line it up with the proper height to match the foundation and also to leave a slight dip in the middle for drainage when we wash the machines with hoses. As you can see below, a rain proved that they had done a good job leaving a slope to the drainage hole (even though the drain is yet to be installed so the water is just standing).</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhayYu4NNyEyixQo5nfYsJKfc8Ma2RSkh3CGkU10_LwIPptu3RAPyLI2kHrleAu5u5L_pt64_MJO-KSKodezHrPe3NJw4HSM3MzJOCyg-fU5ObTPQLdJYX5UUXySGgPiWZTgTxiyNI8WfY/s1600/IMG_20130930_093739.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhayYu4NNyEyixQo5nfYsJKfc8Ma2RSkh3CGkU10_LwIPptu3RAPyLI2kHrleAu5u5L_pt64_MJO-KSKodezHrPe3NJw4HSM3MzJOCyg-fU5ObTPQLdJYX5UUXySGgPiWZTgTxiyNI8WfY/s320/IMG_20130930_093739.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next we had our first equipment installed to the site. Ideally, this would have been done after we already had the hangar there, or at least a roof, but we were running behind and nut season was upon us so we got the dryers out and to the site so that when we started buying the nuts we would have a way to dry them!</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHhC-ulDZi6FbVdgXyE7twCAplBff7gxijJFW-VWryCEmIAt-D7Y-gVNGgyF12YvKBQv_1kFFHUEfqNZmN03rDcACyjTnOYfuosd7NyeYF06bQKDSUxTaCblEzy9MHgPc-2ishP8ml0QY/s1600/IMG_20131001_170320.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHhC-ulDZi6FbVdgXyE7twCAplBff7gxijJFW-VWryCEmIAt-D7Y-gVNGgyF12YvKBQv_1kFFHUEfqNZmN03rDcACyjTnOYfuosd7NyeYF06bQKDSUxTaCblEzy9MHgPc-2ishP8ml0QY/s320/IMG_20131001_170320.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While we had the crane out there we decided to unload our furnace as well. Which was good, because we had been wondering how we were going to get that massive 1000-pound piece of cast iron out of the back of my coworker's truck!</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwrxp8g7M5fQBDKV087pLo8KilXiQulwDwKGnjHIvefTPKjaVSU6fq5TZ2v5gwsUF6HiEZr9Zi_q-3AS0ThuVm545NeHEQ2AogzVcp845TgZcZWn2DSNV6A_IvcyAHC8qbbKZZDeVYEsU/s1600/IMG_20131001_173022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwrxp8g7M5fQBDKV087pLo8KilXiQulwDwKGnjHIvefTPKjaVSU6fq5TZ2v5gwsUF6HiEZr9Zi_q-3AS0ThuVm545NeHEQ2AogzVcp845TgZcZWn2DSNV6A_IvcyAHC8qbbKZZDeVYEsU/s320/IMG_20131001_173022.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our first nut purchase! In the background you can see the initial equipment delivery, in the foreground is about one ton of pine nuts still in their shells.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh70Ax525JQdsgkafI3VOpTwRhtqukzklqlL8YCTXczdpuoPlgNAo_PD_qxWGF52ccLaxw7DTf6EacYrC-mirewYESrvw07eAYd0qnu8ibwZKj5z_aZv54zLcoIDGP9VlfV1qKMP6zAChI/s1600/IMG_20131001_173341.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh70Ax525JQdsgkafI3VOpTwRhtqukzklqlL8YCTXczdpuoPlgNAo_PD_qxWGF52ccLaxw7DTf6EacYrC-mirewYESrvw07eAYd0qnu8ibwZKj5z_aZv54zLcoIDGP9VlfV1qKMP6zAChI/s320/IMG_20131001_173341.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The dryers weren't set up yet that first day, but the weather was nice and we were worried about spoilage so we decided to set up a tarp and just dry the nuts in the sun. My coworker's wife here illustrates what a ton of pine nuts looks like drying out on the ground:</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwaOnnEIblznA_eDi2RomT-ukX8hao9dQ7Hiney3p7PjLtphAdOOXFFdQ5VSiGHct_FvWFs05YSuEAHVOlNij3arj-GafiO7vqXNT7F9JGwR6T2QogB-OmxcuW2TlzpZMNePUqSicg4O0/s1600/IMG_20131002_160000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwaOnnEIblznA_eDi2RomT-ukX8hao9dQ7Hiney3p7PjLtphAdOOXFFdQ5VSiGHct_FvWFs05YSuEAHVOlNij3arj-GafiO7vqXNT7F9JGwR6T2QogB-OmxcuW2TlzpZMNePUqSicg4O0/s320/IMG_20131002_160000.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We placed a single ad on TV, just a text line running across the bottom of the screen, 3 times per day, with our number and "We buy nuts!" It was <i>massively</i> successful, bringing us all the nuts we could handle (and eventually we started turning people away because we couldn't afford to buy any more than 10 tons or so this year).</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr97DU6m3ZPugm0jXl2-TGGrS5tmQzWap-_A1oGp4qRMTEQ8A1LIYkb71fLie9KuAy7PojjzPbzVFEP5eyOhLPvVa5RiNXGXEzdXHz2_JVnNcSFG_G1Pzp00i8791aas5wxGKQPv5mVpI/s1600/IMG_20131004_170126.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr97DU6m3ZPugm0jXl2-TGGrS5tmQzWap-_A1oGp4qRMTEQ8A1LIYkb71fLie9KuAy7PojjzPbzVFEP5eyOhLPvVa5RiNXGXEzdXHz2_JVnNcSFG_G1Pzp00i8791aas5wxGKQPv5mVpI/s320/IMG_20131004_170126.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We built very temporary roofs to shield the dryers and other equipment from the rain, and started drying the nuts. We're only using one of the dryers currently, as our little generator can only run one of them at a time, but it's enough to dry several tons a day and we'll hopefully have all our nuts dried by the middle of next week (plenty of time to make sure they don't mold, we hope).</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1aoyY7RREakNRfZtBuaA3YOXN6dKblXq4Em_D-dJfYd9aRJnUVerIM1-59YtBvvcDWLL3BHpWuwtDedS9ljBr4IQyvw0SU-Hgi-mFlTlT7mc5z83VtORXnBvs84l0hpbGLkIX34qX2aQ/s1600/IMG_20131006_142511.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1aoyY7RREakNRfZtBuaA3YOXN6dKblXq4Em_D-dJfYd9aRJnUVerIM1-59YtBvvcDWLL3BHpWuwtDedS9ljBr4IQyvw0SU-Hgi-mFlTlT7mc5z83VtORXnBvs84l0hpbGLkIX34qX2aQ/s320/IMG_20131006_142511.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nut buying can be an adventure; sometimes the whole village bands together to bring their nuts together in one truck, which means a lot of people milling around the weigh station and confusion as to which sacks of nuts are whose and whether or not we've weighed them already. After a few hours we had a good system set up and it worked well. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These people's livelihoods depend in great measure on these nuts, which might be as much as 25% of their annual income in a good year like this one!</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9NQBAbWDV4biRlhh-DJm1zeyg8TrrwWT6js9kbfnALZesLWOMHIQIZ-i4jgqXoZ2re4vxoNQndEXno0-7ufTVsSK4NFrJ7sTKkWni8AWtu18z6JiE3FrTOTH3bG5MPTsrcB0P42z1V7w/s1600/IMG_20131007_132708.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9NQBAbWDV4biRlhh-DJm1zeyg8TrrwWT6js9kbfnALZesLWOMHIQIZ-i4jgqXoZ2re4vxoNQndEXno0-7ufTVsSK4NFrJ7sTKkWni8AWtu18z6JiE3FrTOTH3bG5MPTsrcB0P42z1V7w/s320/IMG_20131007_132708.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The dryer, now up and running, is capable of drying out about a ton of nuts every 4 hours or so. If, that is, you can keep from eating them all while you wait!</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw2p3_hol2W8Qw4PmQ9mgLIfXnVQIO2KOF1bdf0wUZnEWvijl_ScxTSH2Qmm2LpCPr3fKVNb2tjaxIXokhzi78vHSnZ2QTPW-iTtjVqPunmI_9-fQmQ19hMfR5hWnJS6eTWi-loayEjCY/s1600/IMG_20131008_154047.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw2p3_hol2W8Qw4PmQ9mgLIfXnVQIO2KOF1bdf0wUZnEWvijl_ScxTSH2Qmm2LpCPr3fKVNb2tjaxIXokhzi78vHSnZ2QTPW-iTtjVqPunmI_9-fQmQ19hMfR5hWnJS6eTWi-loayEjCY/s320/IMG_20131008_154047.jpg" width="240" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's a video of how it all looks, but you'll either need to mute your sound or just ignore the generator running in the background, sorry:</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that's about it! Hopefully by next post we'll have an update that includes a hangar-style building going up over top of all of this, so check back soon for that. </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for stopping by, and most of all thanks for keeping us in your thoughts in this busy and stressful time.</span></b></div>
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Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-90771158450100463052013-10-01T16:46:00.004+04:002013-10-01T16:46:55.962+04:00Eating "All-Natural"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKpXBL9voHdIIHWeMCbZv7jkNlXEF4gnwvNWwLFLIpuu6NjXL27JqhcILx1uR958HOPhy6QIMqnimNgNTuEszK4vIDRZBGUPm5pLGNKTKW66kx_joMadVqrEyJYujcSWQRvyU2GoLzySw/s1600/IMG_20130928_170522.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKpXBL9voHdIIHWeMCbZv7jkNlXEF4gnwvNWwLFLIpuu6NjXL27JqhcILx1uR958HOPhy6QIMqnimNgNTuEszK4vIDRZBGUPm5pLGNKTKW66kx_joMadVqrEyJYujcSWQRvyU2GoLzySw/s320/IMG_20130928_170522.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>We've had occasion several times in the past few days to go out and enjoy nature and the foods thereof, and I thought I would turn it into a post.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>First, some new friends invited us over for dinner, and afterwards we out to help them harvest their garden. They even gave us some of the produce! </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVf_MBQkpUvWm7Aplaa1Yk7rvBfc8AfSumuqzCHEv2kbWPh7Qiqklez0BEVu2Um7HgkycXR2rcfdkgduuzUjYYgQ6UOS_bywe578ihPbA9sqHfxQwQS5nq3aeq4n-NPidwFhZn8NWkvIM/s1600/IMG_20130921_185144.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVf_MBQkpUvWm7Aplaa1Yk7rvBfc8AfSumuqzCHEv2kbWPh7Qiqklez0BEVu2Um7HgkycXR2rcfdkgduuzUjYYgQ6UOS_bywe578ihPbA9sqHfxQwQS5nq3aeq4n-NPidwFhZn8NWkvIM/s320/IMG_20130921_185144.jpg" width="207" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b> The boys love carrots, which seems weird to me for little boys, but I'm not complaining!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Then, this weekend, some of our closest friends invited us to go out and gather pine nuts, as the season is in full swing and why would you miss the chance to be outside when it's so nice?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjGD2dNt6mE_mii0p9yH5TG2ae4IlXU2E9yz0wpkVv8Hz9KAYR5EtvLRG_GVeZFmXuQuBGpSy631n1c9Ikn9HGi4kAZvYX-f6A4eJnAP5NyhijRcb3DS2q0NV7TlzG6tJmk0lkGuMgAQQ/s1600/IMG_20130928_155859.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjGD2dNt6mE_mii0p9yH5TG2ae4IlXU2E9yz0wpkVv8Hz9KAYR5EtvLRG_GVeZFmXuQuBGpSy631n1c9Ikn9HGi4kAZvYX-f6A4eJnAP5NyhijRcb3DS2q0NV7TlzG6tJmk0lkGuMgAQQ/s320/IMG_20130928_155859.jpg" width="320" /> </a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Steven found the first pine cone and mushroom, and he was very proud: </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVfSniO6GBPH01_sy5-96Bx6PAqv054MkoTzZJ_ce3tMkVQDrg7wm8_lHMKE22isvmApIE9kcq7KpJP0W-xT_f_IqFoPmkW1SLM3BZilQ6UuMkimM-98zmTG5K2IDInhjhghVKLW40ytU/s1600/IMG_20130928_141658.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVfSniO6GBPH01_sy5-96Bx6PAqv054MkoTzZJ_ce3tMkVQDrg7wm8_lHMKE22isvmApIE9kcq7KpJP0W-xT_f_IqFoPmkW1SLM3BZilQ6UuMkimM-98zmTG5K2IDInhjhghVKLW40ytU/s320/IMG_20130928_141658.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b> We didn't find enough food in the woods to sustain us (we were too close to the road and almost all the pinecones and mushrooms were taken already), so we also brought along shashlyk (shish-kebabs).</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBchNFAPTR5TbcS_2SwJtviDt-IRn_HB0armWh8KzPIV2lxqFjA1FN74B0_f5PL74pXW6-ZxuxZ9jwAt9lfHvshTVQE3Pc2wfyOvPoSFjxk9lArdbaFhZurmEgyNdc9TIj3deny6GEgDM/s1600/IMG_20130928_150435.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBchNFAPTR5TbcS_2SwJtviDt-IRn_HB0armWh8KzPIV2lxqFjA1FN74B0_f5PL74pXW6-ZxuxZ9jwAt9lfHvshTVQE3Pc2wfyOvPoSFjxk9lArdbaFhZurmEgyNdc9TIj3deny6GEgDM/s320/IMG_20130928_150435.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Matthew was so proud of his pinecone that we didn't have the heart to tell him it was one of the ones the squirrels had already gotten to and eaten all the nuts out of.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiIaakwdsnTJ6D89X1KI1OQk6Imgl0E2m-GELLFxug4rMRPOajBAttJz-3AtYGWjF3dzvyYuTMNNCin0q9slWFACPT0wgT4yta3O6b-2lEiKrBH6dlZnp_si1h4GEVyf41kQnNjCylY_0/s1600/IMG_20130928_162350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiIaakwdsnTJ6D89X1KI1OQk6Imgl0E2m-GELLFxug4rMRPOajBAttJz-3AtYGWjF3dzvyYuTMNNCin0q9slWFACPT0wgT4yta3O6b-2lEiKrBH6dlZnp_si1h4GEVyf41kQnNjCylY_0/s320/IMG_20130928_162350.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Even though we didn't find a lot of nuts, we still had a great time as a family walking through the beautiful stand of trees. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm_I-vUiELbP2t1sP2yuAbuUWzIjlx1GaWN3g_Zm9opxYpdXO5IxP40u_NbfBXOQ1S_MKetFl3A_mYWaksssO1PypryngDg-kyLGERev3kFK8Eq3qybY_J9jNzUwH-LVPS0Z2QelE4dBY/s1600/IMG_20130928_162622.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm_I-vUiELbP2t1sP2yuAbuUWzIjlx1GaWN3g_Zm9opxYpdXO5IxP40u_NbfBXOQ1S_MKetFl3A_mYWaksssO1PypryngDg-kyLGERev3kFK8Eq3qybY_J9jNzUwH-LVPS0Z2QelE4dBY/s320/IMG_20130928_162622.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Even though the nuts were all gone, we still got a demonstration of the way T people gather the nuts. Either they take a log and beat the tree with it ... </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP8KJZYjd8YgJSMSw9fPPi2yRTHAhuFnqhYbJgqKAF3n11Dcb1RKMcWnTAk5zEFwKjxPHBV3I1saiuJ9Q_DEAy1o5Nu_FPP8KZDELL7wPB0zcSyAjNV8PQguyGK9LRmEMocRfQaVWKRyc/s1600/IMG_20130928_163501.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP8KJZYjd8YgJSMSw9fPPi2yRTHAhuFnqhYbJgqKAF3n11Dcb1RKMcWnTAk5zEFwKjxPHBV3I1saiuJ9Q_DEAy1o5Nu_FPP8KZDELL7wPB0zcSyAjNV8PQguyGK9LRmEMocRfQaVWKRyc/s320/IMG_20130928_163501.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>... or, if they're more of an enterprising type, they might make themselves a wooden mallet. Either way, the key is to pound on the tree (don't worry, tree-huggers, it doesn't hurt the tree!) and get the top shaking hard enough to make the cones fall.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaLs7-r7ocKgVHuMn7cKCKnk5n7iKhWScFzx8wcTFvD_eUUTCmVSmbCYcLql4bqxRi2dFOJTY2esywt51KdryzI5EomErxp6Z7HpJoUuUVrqwufnfS1kBfL59BrejNV9NhUI3xzsDIEc/s1600/IMG_20130928_164506.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaLs7-r7ocKgVHuMn7cKCKnk5n7iKhWScFzx8wcTFvD_eUUTCmVSmbCYcLql4bqxRi2dFOJTY2esywt51KdryzI5EomErxp6Z7HpJoUuUVrqwufnfS1kBfL59BrejNV9NhUI3xzsDIEc/s320/IMG_20130928_164506.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Anyway, it was a great day, and the cones we did manage to find were delicious! Plus, we had fun together, which was the main goal of the day.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFmsxUNjZmAZveMi83x3FqjAP-6hxy3HeMRlEn6f4yrLXC56zy3mggYtDlqoNo-W2TTRZHPJ36fViE7p-ewjNoiUv9Dlt2H7mdTyv0LlKBb136vkoYcKfGkr9aRKNBSv6VPZpY4bSviYM/s1600/IMG_20130928_170750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFmsxUNjZmAZveMi83x3FqjAP-6hxy3HeMRlEn6f4yrLXC56zy3mggYtDlqoNo-W2TTRZHPJ36fViE7p-ewjNoiUv9Dlt2H7mdTyv0LlKBb136vkoYcKfGkr9aRKNBSv6VPZpY4bSviYM/s320/IMG_20130928_170750.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>More exciting news on the pine nut facility coming up next week, so be sure to come back!</b></span></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666646081476104346.post-17114717825821723702013-09-24T17:26:00.000+04:002013-09-24T17:26:08.352+04:00Father/Son Camping Trip, Pt 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_aIYmQss8FHGzldlwNEztEhY-L08ZXjF9qhkFuTag6MFWpnBkEywSBd5g8CVBzHAddG6v16WWan8BWeI8_wzlHb9bMGCPAn6qYxxyX0yUzeGh3Dx9MAkxe2bB39EXFpqlaS5qCTJdKGI/s1600/P1020830.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_aIYmQss8FHGzldlwNEztEhY-L08ZXjF9qhkFuTag6MFWpnBkEywSBd5g8CVBzHAddG6v16WWan8BWeI8_wzlHb9bMGCPAn6qYxxyX0yUzeGh3Dx9MAkxe2bB39EXFpqlaS5qCTJdKGI/s320/P1020830.JPG" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't know how many of you will remember Father/Son Camping Trip Pt 1 (<a href="http://wanderingfamily.blogspot.ru/2012/09/fatherson-camping-trip.html">link here</a>), but last year I took Steven on an overnight camping trip. Well, Matthew felt left out, so I promised him that next summer it would be his turn to go camping with Daddy. Since the summer was coming to an end (it's definitely over now, with temps below 0 at night, but these were taken a few weeks ago) I decided it was time for Daddy and Matthew to get out into the woods.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfplnIljoeD-ChQnICfHXzZplvHtX7JfWTPEIKFFWwM5YMt0yEVQ93V-rqFOjo375q20GSlFiAXv-H4aV8AVvglXO6kRWy-5d9AMa0DzfHKM4Qg_eSopVgK93ySTvqZStaO0R69oPonrA/s1600/P1020832.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfplnIljoeD-ChQnICfHXzZplvHtX7JfWTPEIKFFWwM5YMt0yEVQ93V-rqFOjo375q20GSlFiAXv-H4aV8AVvglXO6kRWy-5d9AMa0DzfHKM4Qg_eSopVgK93ySTvqZStaO0R69oPonrA/s320/P1020832.JPG" width="264" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All the wood was wet, but after enough coaxing, we managed to get a fire going, much to Matthew's delight.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWRwo0gOnFwLxKYJhORz_fZMhJr2JZh9i21mmj338mn8zT43AGJvfOxeThHu_BTJqk6l9O0eajDhNfhbFKEFD3rqZYXzV8gdwHNUROGiVUYSW-4v9Wqw0eMPQYn8re63TswT4JaNjaDY0/s1600/P1020845.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWRwo0gOnFwLxKYJhORz_fZMhJr2JZh9i21mmj338mn8zT43AGJvfOxeThHu_BTJqk6l9O0eajDhNfhbFKEFD3rqZYXzV8gdwHNUROGiVUYSW-4v9Wqw0eMPQYn8re63TswT4JaNjaDY0/s320/P1020845.JPG" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Better still, a delicious hot dog to roast over the fire was the next order of business. It was a busy agenda, though, because straight away after supper we moved on to the evening's entertainment - throwing rocks into the river.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2xwSr71ddLR_wJgXChyphenhyphengKo17pa9xB3TB7jSDW4L26tNvDpcKVHYdRds3JZjPdr2JujiwR93G497yVkTF1uYY37ENMUcc07UdJ99C5TAg320GoduVZip8axS-e6S5uBVvwMkmWCsKJ3x0/s1600/P1020852.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2xwSr71ddLR_wJgXChyphenhyphengKo17pa9xB3TB7jSDW4L26tNvDpcKVHYdRds3JZjPdr2JujiwR93G497yVkTF1uYY37ENMUcc07UdJ99C5TAg320GoduVZip8axS-e6S5uBVvwMkmWCsKJ3x0/s320/P1020852.JPG" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPvZxGYAk_ZMxn4BbpRTtrp9KI6fFYzzP0aE6V6ZWnFoKc6cpUqvEBvOvUoSqFyPpRGSDq59InxONjVzAcGxz6yctRT1iIwbbDbEtc5aizO_dctxMpbLIo4qellBXB51G3WVEc7XGCQrs/s1600/P1020857.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPvZxGYAk_ZMxn4BbpRTtrp9KI6fFYzzP0aE6V6ZWnFoKc6cpUqvEBvOvUoSqFyPpRGSDq59InxONjVzAcGxz6yctRT1iIwbbDbEtc5aizO_dctxMpbLIo4qellBXB51G3WVEc7XGCQrs/s320/P1020857.JPG" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We did this until I couldn't stand the mosquitoes any more (though as you can see above Matthew could have done it all night; he was having a great time) and moved into the tent. The novelty was fun for ... about 20 minutes or so. Then we read a book (we're working our way through the Little House series) and went to sleep.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjWeIVASTKDqkvyBf1CvKgnwo_oUH3FhBicp1FKrwnA_reT68MP7uDyMJDFREO8r_inQwELIN5idFio4n1BYgAGg7Vh19eSMYP2oflEbx2jbhkoNETSZ9c91vVdSrtlq4dftdwnpl0jxo/s1600/P1020862.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjWeIVASTKDqkvyBf1CvKgnwo_oUH3FhBicp1FKrwnA_reT68MP7uDyMJDFREO8r_inQwELIN5idFio4n1BYgAGg7Vh19eSMYP2oflEbx2jbhkoNETSZ9c91vVdSrtlq4dftdwnpl0jxo/s320/P1020862.JPG" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A fun time was had by both, though as you can see below by the next morning I think Matthew was ready to head home.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to tune in next week when we hopefully will have some pictures of a completed foundation and maybe even the concrete floor poured at our pine nut factory site.</span></b></div>
Wandering Familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09728343997736447463noreply@blogger.com