try { _uacct = "UA-3830860-6"; urchinTracker(); } catch(err) {}Tumblr (3.0; @jrenich)http://blog.jrenich.com/<object width="400" height="336"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MaBTliinog0&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MaBTliinog0&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="336" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent"></embed></object><br/><br/><p>Jon Teague’s Naadam video.</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/795757113http://blog.jrenich.com/post/795757113Sun, 11 Jul 2010 10:38:26 +0900mongolia<object width="400" height="336"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ALD3AQb-300&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ALD3AQb-300&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="336" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent"></embed></object><br/><br/><p>Teague’s first Mongolia video!</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/788949286http://blog.jrenich.com/post/788949286Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:51:50 +0900<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l58qkkGlcx1qz8wreo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>It’s our deepest pleasure to introduce you to the newest member of our family. Say hello to beautiful Baby Tavennec Renich! We’re already 15 weeks in! <strong>SURPRISE!!!</strong>  ;-) Marielle is in France at the moment getting all sorts of good professional checkups and midwife counseling (something we can’t get here). SO EXCITED!!!!</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/785191811http://blog.jrenich.com/post/785191811Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:24:00 +0900<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l57vuaGFMq1qz8wreo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Bobo and the X-Boys. Can’t decide if it’s a new Mongolian band or some sort of sci-fi based dance show…</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/783389765http://blog.jrenich.com/post/783389765Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:20:34 +0900<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l57ruqXqfW1qz8wreo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>This is what I feel like after a day working on the house. That’s Marielle helping me get the rust out and joints moving again…  =)</p> <p><em>via <a title="Balakov" target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/4771673215/">Balakov</a></em></p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/783097836http://blog.jrenich.com/post/783097836Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:54:25 +0900housemongolia<img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l5735jbIih1qz8wreo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>New Eugene friend Teague arrives from Ulaanbaatar the only way possible, with a shirtless taxi driver…</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/781438599http://blog.jrenich.com/post/781438599Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:00:53 +0900<img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l571odfMdu1qz8wreo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>The new Paris Apple Store… as if I needed another reason to go home to France for a visit…</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/781349776http://blog.jrenich.com/post/781349776Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:29:01 +0900<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l557worWEF1qz8wreo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><strong>Get good grades. </strong>Today was a big gravel day. Slowly getting up the foundation trenches to the preferred height where we will pour cement and finally start building our basement. I’ve been using gravel from the local copper mine. Nice, big, large, clean, full of fools gold, big… did I say big? Gravel? Size was ok for the base of our foundation but yesterday I ran out and switched to our preferred size of 10-20mm which is probably more like 5-25 seeing the gravel… but WOW, what a difference. Shoveling is lightening fast and tamping it down firm is a dream. It was a bit more expensive than the big stuff, but totally worth it. I feel like a gravel geek these days, investigating sizes, grades, cleanliness, etc… thankfully the only gravel I’ll have to deal with after this is for our driveway and in the cement for out footing and basement walls… glad to be moving onto cement blocks and then finally wood framing in the (hopefully) near future. Gravel man out.</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/777185064http://blog.jrenich.com/post/777185064Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:48:24 +0900housemongolia<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l534bb8FIi1qz8wreo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Love this.</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/772675850http://blog.jrenich.com/post/772675850Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:35:34 +0900franceart<object width="400" height="336"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KoHXkmBh3F4&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KoHXkmBh3F4&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="336" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent"></embed></object><br/><br/><p>LOUIS SEBASTIAN!!!!</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/765176259http://blog.jrenich.com/post/765176259Sat, 03 Jul 2010 20:09:42 +0900<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l4ym5d0dip1qz8wreo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Building site as of July 1. Two words: Behind schedule.</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/763719914http://blog.jrenich.com/post/763719914Sat, 03 Jul 2010 11:12:49 +0900mongoliahouse<img src="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l4ylvvZ3x51qz8wreo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>I just watched my wife go thru customs and off on her trip to France. How am I going to survive the next three and a half weeks…</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/763701744http://blog.jrenich.com/post/763701744Sat, 03 Jul 2010 11:07:05 +0900mongoliasadnessdespairlove<p>Unfortunately I don’t have a picture or video to depict this but it’s great nonetheless. Lately on the land I’ve been working with two groups of people; a company building my neighbors cement driveway (thankfully they are done) and a couple of young guys working with me on our foundation work. I’m sorry to say this, and it’s not necessarily 100% across the board, but in general, workers in Mongolian are not very motivated. That’s a nice way of saying it and it’s REALLY frustrating when you’re trying to get work done. Any time the Russian directors of the road company are gone their workers are just laying in the grass, waiting until that fateful moment when they see the dust cloud in the distance that means the director is on his way and the need to get up and start working again. While slightly better, but quite similar, my workers work hard when I am with them but the moment I turn my back or leave to do something else start working like they’re swimming in molasses. A wheelbarrow of gravel that takes 1 min to fill suddenly takes 5 and after three shovel-fulls of dirt are so tired they must take a water break. Not much can break this… but I’ve witnessed things that can.</p> <p>1) An angry Russian. The road workers had to put in a drainage ditch / pipe for my driveway off of my neighbors driveway the other day. They were NOT happy about this. They wanted to do the neighbors road and that’s it. Minimum possible. When their director saw the obvious that me driving on and off the neighbors driveway into the ditch and up to my land would end up cracking the edge of the road they decided to put in a pipe / cement cap. The director left this up to the road workers who first laid in the grass and told me to dig the pipe ditch and put it in since it was for my driveway. After a good tongue lashing (I think they were surprised I could argue so well in Mongolian) they got up and dug it themselves (since they were being paid after all). In their hurry to get back to their soft grass bed they dug the trench too shallow, hefted the several hundred pound pipe into it and covered it with a 1-2in layer of dirt. Part of the pipe was even showing up through the dirt. Finally! Back to the soft grass. A couple hours later I hear angry yelling in Russian and see the director has returned and discovered their shoddy work. They have to dig everything back out again in double time under the watchful eye of their director and then get read to cement over the pipe. By the time the cement comes the director has left again… oh and you should see these cement trucks. It’s not a cement mixer, just a dump truck filled with the ingredients for cement which is then poured onto the ground and “mixed” by hand. Confused on where to dump the cement because the truck could not turn to back into where the pipe was they simply dumped an entire truck of unmixed cement onto my neighbors brand new driveway, loosing the majority of their water and wet cement down the drainage ditch they had just dug. They capped the pipe with the rest and of course there is still some beautiful iron pipe peeking up through the top of the cap since they didn’t dig their trench deep enough. Lesson of the story. Even if you hire one of the best construction company in Mongolia you cannot leave the workers unattended. Just cause they work for a good company doesn’t mean they can be trusted to do quality work. This story doesn’t include the additional facts about the neighbors driveway that was poured without rebar in the cement and is sitting on about 1 inch of gravel. Hope it has a warranty…</p> <p>2) A young Mongolian girl. I hired some great young guys to help with the house. They’re all in their young twenties, are respectful, need work, and work hard… when I’m there… I noticed something amazing yesterday when they were stuck in one of their molasses traps shoveling gravel. Seemed like an eternity between each shovel-full. Then, out of nowhere, the neighbors daughter of similar age took her dog on a walk down the driveway. Suddenly backs straightened, eyes grew wide and gravel flew like I’ve never seen before. I think they filled 4 wheelbarrows in under a minute. The guy pushing the wheelbarrow was <em>running</em>. I am seriously considering hiring this girl to sit next to the building site and read her book or something, I’m pretty sure I’ll make back double or triple what I pay her through faster working time.   ;-)</p> <p>3) Prizes. When my dad was here the workers were stuck in a big molasses trap. He suggested I tell them I’ll pay them an additional half hour of salary (about $0.37) if they finished a certain job on time. Again, dirt flew like never before…</p> <p>Lessons learned. It’s hard to find motivated workers here, it’s hard to be a building foreman cause I need to be coming and going from the building site all the time but the moment I leave everything grinds to a standstill. At this point there’s really just not much of a solution other than being present or giving little prizes to motivate them.</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/752085998http://blog.jrenich.com/post/752085998Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:03:51 +0900housemongolia<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l4t3c4G8FW1qz8wreo1_500.png"/><br/><br/><p>Finding quality building materials in Mongolia isn’t easy. Either it’s locally made and of questionable quality or from China and of questionable quality. Mixing that with building a “Canadian” (as they call it) style building here is not an easy recipe to cook. We needed a lot of materials for our house, materials that could be found locally but were all imported from China with a 30%, 40%, or even 50%+ markup. Things like plywood, sheetrock, insulation, doors, furniture… well, pretty much the whole house. My friend Tugu and his dad were heading to Eren, a southern border city between Mongolia and China and offered to send back a bunch of stuff for us. We made a huge list, and ended up with something similar to the picture you see above, even included the kitchen sink. It was supposed to take a month to get here but 6 days later I get a call saying my stuff is waiting for me to pick up at the train station about 15 min out of town. Completely unprepared, I drive out there with Tugu’s mom to find a massive 40’ container packed from end to end waiting for us. It was snowing. We got it all unloaded and sent to another storage facility where we stuffed it into a 20’ container and a garage building. Seems like I had to yell at the loaders every 5 minutes to ask them to be gentle with the sheetrock, don’t drop the toilets, careful with the furniture, etc… etc… hired daily workers aren’t exactly the easiest people to work with. Since then the material has simply sat in those containers. At that time spring was just around the corner and I figured that we’d have our garage/basement built within the month and be able to move everything out there… it’s now been 3 and we’re haven’t even built the walls yet… pretty discouraging. Also, considering we’re paying per day for the storage space had I been more realistic on the time frame I could have used our storage rental money to build a temporary shelter on our land for all the materials and then torn it down for building materials later… but oh well, gotta learn my lessons someplace, even if they’re expensive… ** Current progress. Am filling the foundation trenches with gravel (finally) and preparing foundation drainage tiles to fight frost heave. More soon.</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/752000516http://blog.jrenich.com/post/752000516Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:38:00 +0900housemongolia“And we thought Zidane was a disappointment.”<br/><br/> - <em>Bleus Schmleus…</em>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/738725643http://blog.jrenich.com/post/738725643Sun, 27 Jun 2010 01:22:00 +0900<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l4kjvavOaM1qz8wreo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>My parents’ 3-week visit in Mongolia just came to an end. Was a great time with them seeing some of the country, Edurelief projects, and working on our house. Experiencing the fashion things move ahead slower than a tortoise crossing the road they suggested I keep a journal of all my “exciting” adventures experienced while building our house. I think it’s a great idea. Hopefully it’ll give you some insight into how things work here and how much we have to struggle for even the simple things, bring some laughs, and even help anyone who might be considering building in Mongolia or another developing nation. I’ll have to backtrack a bit to return to the beginning and cover the sheer madness that was gathering building materials so just hang tight and I’ll start at the beginning in my next post.</p> <p>Check the tags on the left side of the posts on this page. If you even want to see posts only regarding the building just click the tag called “house” and you will be presented with a page of all posts regarding our progress.</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/734333963http://blog.jrenich.com/post/734333963Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:56:00 +0900housemongolia<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l3uy4q3d631qzpwi0o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>U N B E L I E V A B L E . Someone make this a t-shirt now.</p> <p><a href="http://thedailywh.at/post/687392543/venn-diagram-of-the-day-mathematical-reddit" target="_blank">thedailywhat</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Venn Diagram of the Day:</strong> Mathematical!</p> <p>[<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/cdxzd/its_true/" target="_blank">reddit</a>.]</p> </blockquote>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/690095005http://blog.jrenich.com/post/690095005Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:43:00 +0900<img src="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l3vwdo6ETu1qz8wreo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Got planes on my mind…</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/689290248http://blog.jrenich.com/post/689290248Sat, 12 Jun 2010 13:27:21 +0900<img src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l3vjwdYnj41qz8wreo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/688569768http://blog.jrenich.com/post/688569768Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:57:49 +0900<object width="400" height="336"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jbHF63b7g50&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jbHF63b7g50&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="336" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent"></embed></object><br/><br/><p>Don’t need any explanation…</p>http://blog.jrenich.com/post/652393402http://blog.jrenich.com/post/652393402Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:58:12 +0900