The Newest Addition to the Wandering Family

Introducing ... Pepper!

Pepper is a 4-week old dachsund that we have just adopted.  What with coming back for a longer stretch this time and the boys being at the right age to have a pet, we've been on the lookout for a small pet that could live in our apartment.  We considered guinea pigs, rabbits, and small dogs, including terriers and beagles, but all were either too expensive or too far away.

When we saw his picture on the Russian version of craigslist here in town, we knew we had found the right one so we ran over and picked him up.  The boys are quite excited, as you might imagine.

He's obviously still pretty tiny, and he has to eat 5 times a day, but he's doing well and will be well-loved I'm sure.  Not much else to blog on, since we're just still in the routine of language study and getting the business up and running, but we did want to let everyone see our new addition!

The Things I Have Pictures Of ...

... are pretty limited.

Since we've been home it seems like someone has been in our home at least every other day, if not every single day, but we didn't take any pictures!  So, we're stuck posting the one thing I did take a bunch of pictures of: the future site of our pine nut facility.

You have to get creative, almost squint a bit, to see the potential in this building, but it's what we have.  During Soviet times it was a part of a big grain-processing facility, so the usage doesn't change that much, really.  But it obviously isn't in great shape at the moment.  Fortunately, we budgeted a goodly sum to fix it up; hopefully we can get it repaired on a budget.

 
Above you can see the ruined warehouse that hopefully, after a new roof and some work on the loading dock, will be our new office/production facility.  The building is actually way bigger than we need, so we'll only be renting half of it.
 
Below you can see the inside as it stands.  Fortunately everything structural is in good shape, but the cosmetics are a bit rough.  This is where most of the work will be done, building walls to separate offices from production space, etc.
 

 
This is the other side of the building, the side that faces the road.  Not much will change on this side, except that halfway down the length there will be a wall dividing our half of the warehouse from the half that doesn't get remodeled.
 

 
I really need to start taking more pictures, because that's about it.  Seriously, I think people were over for dinner every day this week, and the days were full of running around trying to get the paperwork for the new business completed.  But there's not much use in taking a photo of the bank manager or our accountant; it just doesn't seem the kind of thing you do.  So you'll have to make due with a few pictures of our kids.
 

 

It's finally warm enough to enjoy that most Russian of treats - ice cream!  Of course, it did briefly snow last week, but for the most part it's nice and warm here and we're enjoying our one month of spring before it gets hot.

And that's it, at least for now.  Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts, and we'll try to make an effort to carry the camera around a bit this week so there's something for next week's post.

We're Here

Just haven't gotten any pictures downloaded yet.

But I just wanted to post very quickly to say yes, we've arrived (over a week ago now) and are planning to update this blog at some point.  It's been a busy time with getting into gear with the new business and all, but this week there are two holidays in Russia so it's a bit more laid back.  We're hoping to be all the way back to our schedule (with the boys back in kindergarten and us back in sync with our studies and work) next week.

I will post sometime when I get some pictures.  Thanks for stopping by!