slow work – rebuilding lost systems – quiet audits – relentless bureaucracy lessons – earned calm - speaking wins - DIY projects
November was a very relaxed month work-wise, where I was able to finish all annual audits and reverts (that’s when your previous audits come back with findings and you rework something). But if you remember my change of status from permanent employee and auditor to just auditor subcontractor in August: I sent the company laptop back and started working on my personal computer. I also had a different Microsoft account with limited rights and wasn’t able to access previous data entries or files in Microsoft cloud. I wasn’t able to access my audit documentation or files I had created before August.
If reverts were related to long multisite audits that sometimes run for 6–7 months, or if it was an audit where I sent the audit agenda before August and then got reverted after, I had to redo all documents from scratch because of that. And it created so much work and was soooo annoying. But that was my November — with only two weeks of audits, so many speaking events and lectures, so many pleasant and fun DIY projects, crazy cold weather, and… going through the same audit documents from May–June and recreating / resubmitting them.
And it wasn’t all! If you remember, in August I decided to change the LLC name that I had created six years ago and, as I realized later, it was an incredibly stupid decision that created so many challenges — starting from multiple in-person bank visits, IRS issues, and trying to convince my company, DNV, that they had to use the new company name too, even though it didn’t reflect or match the IRS EIN letter.
So at the end of November the perfect storm happened — my cell phone stopped working as it was suspended, and I realized it only two days later (I was so happy no one called with new work demands!), but apparently it was because the phone wasn’t working. I called my phone provider and they tried to invoice my bank with the old company name and old address (which was completely their fault, as I notified them about the address change 1.5 years ago), but of course the bank declined it.
And now — intense drums… they sent an email notifying me about this issue to the work email that was affected by DNS transition issues of the domain.com in September, and I didn’t receive it. Told you — perfect storm!
Why on earth does a phone company notify you only through email but not by phone or at least through the app — nobody knows! Probably they never heard about iMessages, even though they sold me that iPhone themselves. Anyway, my bureaucratic battle continued in December, and I spent so much time on that.
Also in November all my 4–5-year-old Apple devices stopped working simultaneously: Apple headphones, AirPods Max, and iPad. Apparently they couldn’t be fixed and had to be replaced — how convenient, right? What a great business model, Apple! You just need to push new software that isn’t compatible with 4-year-old hardware and voilà!
I replaced the iPad with the new Magic Keyboard and quickly realized that it doesn’t have keyboard lights and the charge-through is not working… because now it needs to be charged separately. What? Those were the two most essential features! Why did it lose functionality but cost twice as much now? That month I can highlight as my first serious disappointment with Apple devices, accessories, and services. The world will never be the same.
On the farm I had a few small challenges and one major project. Small challenges were helping specific ducks and chickens with nutrition to get them through the molting stage without making other chickens and ducks too fat. It's very tricky!
The major project was preparing all farm animals and their watering system for freezing temperatures at night. It included a long list of designing and building tasks:
• build an insulated cover and stand for the water tank and pipes
• put electricity closer to the watering system and install an electric outlet and pipe heating system
(My husband does the electrical part as a certified electrician, but I have to do all the design, drawings, buying parts, and calculations of wattage, AWG, infrastructure load — and what is most annoying, ask 100 times to do the part I cannot do myself, where my entire project stops) But we did it. Finally.
I feel sorry for my husband and son sometimes — they have these slavery-not-paid contracts with a very demanding manager (me), with zero patience and they do not have the right to quit. But, hey! any manager at work will be the understanding fluffy nice Easter Bunny after me 😂
Anyway, the freezing preparation was multilayered, including insulation of the bottom of the coop because someone (not me!) was cutting corners when we built it, and I couldn’t convince them it was essential in the summer. Well, eventually we did it anyway, but at the last moment, and it added way more panic and chaos to the daily work schedule.
I also needed to calculate chicken nutrition precisely so they would be not too lean, not too fat, but full of vitamins and nutrients for cold weather. The temperature in the coop should be stable — not higher than 12°C during the day and not lower than 5°C at night. That allows them not to lose winter weather and down and not to create extra stress on the immune system. This is also hard as it's not too many good quality poultry feed on the market, so it's always trials and errors.
But I cut the light day significantly to match natural day length so as not to stress their immune system. Compared to last year’s data, they stopped laying in October and were very lethargic, coughing, most of them isolated for 2+ months, and started laying only in February.
This year, in November, we had the same energy, scandals, and fights for the best nest — and the same number of eggs as in September by the end of November, which was incredible, after record-low temperatures for three nights in a row and it felt like a true victory!
Here is the more detailed post about the medieval era security system I implemented: https://bobkova.online/farm-security-layers/
I also needed to insulate and install heating systems for the geese pool and ducks’ water, and build a warmer house for ducks. The main idea was not to do that 2-hour exercise of running back and forth with hot water every freezing morning. And most importantly, I really didn’t want to have so many sick and isolated chickens this year.
Along with having so much to do on the farm… I started a new project — why not, right? Crazy woman.
I bought a tunnel greenhouse and built raised beds.
My grandma in Siberia started planting tomatoes — and everything — in March, because there was one month of spring (June), one month of very hot summer (July), and one month of fall (full August of rain and cold weather). Winter was nine months long, and two of those months were −30 to −50°C, where Fahrenheit and Celsius are the same.
In March, when she started planting everything outside in the greenhouse, it was −20°C at night and 0°C during the day, with two meters of snow or more. How did she do that? She planted in raised beds with fresh cow manure at the bottom, soil as the next layer, and straw on top. Each raised bed was covered with extra glass or plastic until April. The manure increased the overall temperature in the greenhouse. So I started that project, but in November I only managed to build the raised beds, have the guys install the greenhouse, and get about one-third of the manure needed. After installing tons of sensors, I realized that the high humidity dropped down the temperature for 5 degrees comparing to outside, so after a few iterations and playing with humidity, the temperature now higher for 3-5 degree than outside without any active heating system and always above 0C in the soil.
Imagine the picture: Elena came to pick up manure in full white clothes and started taking pictures 🙄😂 Bloggers…
In November I also discovered the only way to boil fresh eggs so they peel cleanly and easily. Here is the post about that discovery: https://bobkova.online/why-eggs-peel/
We went to an amazing forestry and tree disease lecture from the professor of the Virginia Tech who dedicated the entire his life to that research, and I prepared a full profile presentation on our trees 😂 After the lecture I had a solid pile of books ordered for future learning and still learning more every day:
The temperature and data comparison in the coop showed how much we achieved this year through thoughtful design and insulation. Last year, without heating, the old coop temperature inside was 9 degrees lower than outside! High humidity, lack of sun, and cold wind created a freezer effect inside the coop and there were no place to hide for poor chickens.
This new coop had a stable inside day temperature 12 degrees above 0C (53F) - no matter what is outside — from warmer daytime temperatures, insulation, raised floor, and wind protection for the basement part. When outside was −10°C at night with "feeling like -17C", inside the coop was +1°C without heating! We also built low roosts for silkies to give them a warmer environment than the floor, and they absolutely love it.
The automatic waterers froze only at −10°C at night, which I also consider a great success.
This year we bought a tractor and fixed it, bought another one and fixed it, bought two trailers, log splitters (fixed those too), and both old and new generators. Compared to last year’s unusually cold winter, this year we were fully prepared.
I had two great opportunities for AI risk management and AI law and governance lectures / public speaking. One was at Genworth, which they booked in March — nine months ago! It was a huge audience and so very knowledgeable. I tried my best to give as much value as I could, and the feedback I received was beyond all expectations.
In November I also went to DC and spoke at the FedRAMP / FedCert conference, which also went really well with great networking opportunities:
Here is my most significant public speaking, training and workshop feedbacks:
Elena Bobkova
I attended a really cool RVAtech Code & Cloud networking event, with the rare opportunity to meet and chat with an Nvidia engineering team lead and the Richmond mayor. I didn't took selfie with her because we met already on previous events and know each other, but Jessica one of the brightest and charismatic speakers I met.
I recorded most of my successful and best-performing reels this year and wrote posts, even though LinkedIn changed the algorithm completely (for the first time in the last 10 years). My 180K engagement became 1,800 😂 — all because now they ask money for post promotion, so the precious time of organic growth on LinkedIn has unfortunately passed.
We went to the Twilight in Concert event and it was sooooo nice! I didn’t expect that at all. We watched all the other parts at home with healthy popcorn 😂
I finished another part of the firewood drying wood shed - cannot be proud more of the final result 💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻
I continued my historical wood stove restoration project - which I cannot tell you how much frustration and annoyance it cause me!! All historical restoration projects completely screwed up with the imperial and metric system. It's sooo annoying sometimes. But I will show you the final result in December review and you will be amazed how it turned out!
Overall the November was the month of my dream - the perfect balance of work and home projects that I want to have next year.
