Blogs from Centre, Russia, Europe - page 15

I know the stories are not in line but it takes me awhile to get the pictures downloaded to my computer then uploaded on here, but since I had the day off due to Women's Day, I thought I would get my blog updated and back in order. It was a nice day off and Gaukhar and I had a good day shopping and then I came home, made peanut brittle, played volleyball, and now updating the blog. They now call me the "traveling frog" at work. I think that is their way of saying I do not let the grass grow under my feet. I can not argue with any of the statements and want to take advantage since I am here. I sure could not fly to these places for a weekend if I ... read more

Yes, for those of you in the poultry industry, you know all too well, what we just went through. If you had not heard, there were several AI confirmed outbreaks in the Naro-Fominsk district which is the same as ours and there was one in Kaluga, which is a different region, but actually closer to us than the Naro-Fominsk's ones. Knock on wood, they are behind us, but they were way too close for comfort. We completely shut down the farms and many other biosecurity measures, but it was scary since the way we raise birds here, ALL birds are on the same properity just a few kilometers apart from each other in different zones so one break would most likely mean the entire farm. To make my life worse, we had a positive Salmonella come ... read more

My friend Alex, who is in the theatre in Moscow called on Saturday and wanted to know what I was doing on Sunday because he wanted to come to Obninsk to help celebrate "Pancake Day." That is not the official name, but everyone makes pancakes and fills them with calvar, fish, etc. and eats until they can not eat any more. And since we are talking Russia, yes, drink and drink until you can not drink any more. So Alex took the train, where I met him at the station and we made pancakes and stuffed them with turkey (I did not realize you were even suppose to stuff them with anything) but I had put a turkey breast in the crockpot with a great recipe using jelly, sugar, starch and cranberries. I figured the cranberries ... read more

It has only taken six months, but I watch a success yesterday in our weekly sanitation meeting. We had several out of spec results and we had the initial agruing over the data and who was at fault, but then something happened, without my involvement, my Chief Vet and Microbiologist along with my Sanitation Lead started brainstorming (in their own way) what happened. It was if the walls had dropped and each started thinking and looking for solutions. I just sat back and grinned from ear to ear. After a few minutes, they realized I was not part of the discussion and looked to me for my direction and I just smiled and said they did not need my help. I think that is when it dawned on them what they had been doing and one ... read more

Last Sunday was my cooking day in preparation for all of the celebrations. I thought Jamie was crazy when he brought me a suitcase full of jello. I wanted a couple, not the entire store. He said, I thought maybe you wanted to do Jello shooters for your birthday parties. I decided that would be a good way to get rid of the flavors I did not like as well as merge two different cultures/traditions so I was busy making Jello shooters. I can not remember how many batches I made, but I went through two liters of vodka making them...lol I also put my crockpot my sister got for me to good use. The only problem, I converted from pounds to kilograms backwards so instead of requesting 2 kilos of ground chicken meat to make ... read more