Kaliningrad, Russia-- March 2013

In 2013 I wrote 8 accounts of my time in Kaliningrad, Russia. Very few people have read these journals but I figure they would be fun to share over the next few month.

Saint Patty’s day has come and gone in Kaliningrad. I have to confess that I didn’t wear a lick of green, and I spent the night drinking vodka and getting acquainted with my Russian farm manager, Tygran. We have a large language gap, but each new weird cured meat or fermented cheese followed by a shot of vodka seems to bridge the holes in communication. 

This week, my Russian crew and I had our first successful heifer drive. It was a slow, awkward event that caused several minor outbursts on my part. (I feel guilty about my behavior, but, in Russia, the bulk of the communication is yelling, so I’m pretty sure I’m just coming off as normal). On the ranch in Russia, everyone and everything is shiny and new – the heifers, the staff, and even the ranch buildings. After having such a difficult time herding the first couple of groups to their summer pastures, I have found myself reflecting about our crossings in life on the trot back to the ranch. At the peak of my frustration during the drive, trying to get the heifers to cross a small, iced-over creek, I realized that each step that the cattle, my Russian colleagues, and I took was unmapped. 

Coming to the creek bank each time the heifers are looking the situation over like it is some insurmountable obstacle, walking it back and forth and sniffing the ground and air. I assume that, in their minds, they want to make damn sure that they don’t get tricked into loading on a barge and ending up in some even more foreign land. The whole crew approaches each new task with this anxiety as we are all confronted with navigating new crossings. It’s a rare treasure in life when you get to stumble and start- fail and succeed and influence something from the beginning. I enjoy watching the individuals on my crew and the heifers find that harmony that I have taken for granted. When I return to the US and move cows and calves effortlessly across brooks and roads and down steep trails, I will have a little more respect for those that struck the trail many years before; they had not only the inner drive but a little savvy, and were wise enough to know that a little stay would get them beyond the minor setbacks and over the horizon. 

In closing, I have to say the ranch that I’m working on is in a beautiful part of Kaliningrad; it is teaming with wildlife, and I’m sure that, once the snow melts, spring here will be amazing. The toughest part so far is the language barrier; I trying to learn fast but this is a unique language. The horses and heifers understand English, so I have that going for me. 

#russia #ranching #cattle #ranch #pasture #internationalcowboy