Windows to Russia

Just some pictures of what we are looking at in the village. Sveta likes to take pictures of everything in sight. She has a good eye for what to photo. I will be posting lots of images of the work being done on the monastery this summer. It looks like they are going to do lots of work…

Like I said just some pictures…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I realize this morning while sipping  piping hot cup of coffee, that we have forsaken our roots for material items and instant comforts. That is not to say that we should not live comfortable, but maybe we are living way too comfortable and need to get back to reality, plus our roots…

To be truthful, I remember last year before I came to the village for five months or so, I hesitated and wandered about, “No hot showers, electricity is on then off, no running water, no proper toilet, no this, no that and no tons of things…”

I being touched by necessity sins and was actually hesitating about living in a backward society! Me a country boy, worried about hot water? Gee-sh…

Though over the years I found that some of our civilization has made solid inroads into even the village world, such as internet (and really good internet at that) and emergency pay telephones in every village. This was all I needed to be happy, for happiness is really in the eye of the beholder and in my eye, internet function, electricity and emergency communication is utmost…

The water a bucket at a time is the best way to get water and by far the least wasteful. The outhouse is a product of my past and was always a viable usage device. No TV is my life anyway and nothing but nothing can match the fresh air, dirt between the toes and healing effect of living in the country…

Therefore this year, I was almost begging to get to the village and every time I wanted to get here something got in the way. But here I am and realization that my feet are already healing, plus Sveta has noticed some issues she had healing almost immediately, when we got to the village. One thing that I feel strongly in is that this village is a real monastery and this old female monastery has healing properties. The fact is a fact and I even have chunks of brick from the old monastery in the village home to help spread the healing. Why ignore obvious, either mentally or physical help, to heighten the mind and souls existence?

I guess what I am trying to say is that as we live in concrete jungles called cities. These concrete jungles sap the life out of us, until we are just walking dead souls. Man came from the earth and from the earth he draws energy. This energy is then put toward life and betterment of mankind. If we do not energize, we tend to obliterate the good around us and I find myself in the same situation…

The world has lots of room, but we congregate in large hives of activity and in these hives, called cities, we dwell upon each others sins, fears, demons and desires. Man needs space t grow and hives offer no space, for stimulation of becoming better…

Yes of course, you may disagree, but until you allow nature to heal your soul, you will never see what I am talking about and that is a huge portion of the world. From sea to shining sea…

Have a nice day! For I sure will… 🙂

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Memories, nature, humans, karma and all existence are like the bridge and so is everyday life. Things get washed away but with a little patience, effort, and pure luck they can be rebuilt and or mended. Our bridges on the river at the village, are all like life at its best and this morning that cup of coffee is really good and perfect…

Every year the walk bridges get washed away by the spring rains. They resort to building simple wood bridges now, for in the past after trying concrete supported bridges and various cable supported bridges; they all wash away and are a huge waste of money. So now a simple walk bridge is built every year and it seems to be the best compromise with the flow of life around these here parts. It just makes it hard to get to the stores and that is part of life…

http://windowstorussia.com/new-bridge-in-the-russian-village.html

The most important things are very simple in life. The bridge is not exceptional and is not strong, but it is essential for life to progress. That is why at first I kept wondering why they would not build a super strong bridge to withstand the ravages of time?

They did build these bridges, but all that remains of such bridges is memories and a few concrete supports. That pretty well sums up life in a nutshell and to keep the flow going, sometimes simpler and temporary is the best. For when the village does not need the bridges to be functional, Mother Nature washes them away and she will do that whether they are super bridges or not. For this is an untamed river and nothing is sacred to this river as she roars in spring…

That makes me think about life and how it is and how it should be. We sometimes pressure life to much and all the while doing it, we should be embracing said life and mending, molding and sharpening such life. Life is precious and we should treat it as such. That seems to make sense to me, but we seem to have forgotten about such simple thoughts…

So as Sveta took the picture of the washed away bridge, I look at it and realize that it just looks correct for the moment we are here in the village. For within a few weeks, the local government will rebuild the bridge to the markets and once again we can walk and ride bikes to get necessitates of life. Then the many summer villagers will start flocking to stay in the little village called Sunrise to Freedom…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Life in the village is simple and good. Water is gathered from what Russians call wells, but I call it a cistern. A well is always with water naturally and a cistern has to be kept full of water by an outside source, such as a well. A cistern is what we have and on top of the hill is a Soviet era well. The infrastructure use to be very nice and they had running water to many homes, but as many things in life, when population drops, so does the money available for repairs. Thus we now have to dip our water with buckets from as we call it our well…

We also have two natural, year around running springs. These springs are the life blood of the original monastery and springs like this village has is why you build a village in the first place. Water source is very important. When the village was developed during Soviet times, it was made into a school for the deaf and blind. Actually two schools were next to each other and made from the old female monastery that was originally here. The village also had a regular school for the village kids, its own store for supplies, a blacksmith shop and many other businesses. All in all it looks as if at one time several hundred people lived in this village…

The schools brought steam heat, oil for fuel and a whole bunch of infrastructure that helped the village to grow. So for many years this village was an important landmark for disabled kids. It is just in the last few years that the Orthodox church has been able to acquire all it s land back. Therefore, that is why the church is rebuilding the monastery…

Monastery here… — The village here…

For now I am getting acclimated to the village and in a few weeks will start all my projects. It is cold and wet still, but I am seriously contemplating staying all winter this year and that means serious work has to be done, for winters are very harsh in Russia. Boza and I have to stock plenty of food and firewood to allow us to get by, for once the snow sets in, we will not be traveling very far except on foot…

That means of course, that I would post articles from the village all winter as long as there was power available and internet. I think internet is the most stable item due to being by sim card and through Megafon and with my ability to post from a tablet, I have ways of charging said tablet, even with the power down. So I guess I would post with no issues… 🙂

I am going to find a good hurricane kerosene lantern and then Boza and I are set for the winter with necessities other than food and firewood…

This morning Boza and I took a long walk around the whole village and we found that the fish lake was full and stocked with fish. the men were out in the boat feeding the fish and the water was roiling with hungry fish vying for the food. That surprised me, for we are a month earlier than normal and the lakes are already fully stocked. One month ahead of normal. This is going to be  two crop season! What a fish farm this has become…

Well that is enough for today. I have to get Sveta up and out of bed. She has paperwork to get done in the village and I have some items to buy for repair of the home. If the day is good, I will BBQ this afternoon and that reminds me of grilling carp in the summer. Now that sounds really good…

Grilled Carp…

Have a nice day and come back tomorrow for the new story of the village…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Up at 6 AM and out walking the village this morning with Boza. Sveta always sleeps in until noon when we come to the village and in fact that brings up a conversation that I had last summer with the men living in the village; their wives always sleep late and the men get up with sunrise. I am no different and I really think that it is called peace time for the guys. A sleeping woman is a quiet woman and therefore we drink our coffee and watch the sun come up in peace… 🙂

The image is of the village house as we found it after all the work last summer and inside it was perfect. So the village home is a good start to the first photo of the village area. If the home is good, then all else will follow as being even better…

An interesting thing has happened the last few years and we have found that ladybugs bless us ever year with a new hatching of young’ums and the village home is full of ladybugs at the start of the spring time: I was taught that…

Ladybugs are seen often by many in the world as the messenger of promise and love, the ladybug reconnects us with the true joy of living. Since fear and joy can not co-exist, we then should have no choice but to release our fears and return to promise and love; this is the main message that a Ladybug tells us as they teach us how to restore our trust and faith in the great spirit. When the ladybug appears, it is telling us to get out of our own way, spiritually and physically, then allow the great spirit to enter into our lives…

The ladybugs are running all over the village home and I smiled this morning as I watched them sneak away from around the windows this morning in the sunshine. For they leave without doing any harm and with blessings they will be back next spring also…

I feel better already and Sveta literally came to life and you could see the effect on the place on her. She beamed again as she smiled and the energy she absorbed really made her feel good. As I said, she is now recharging her batteries and sleeping, sleeping and sleeping…

Today we will go to the big village and buy tons of groceries and supplies. There is a new supermarket in the big village and I want to check that out. It looks great. Now our big village has several very large supermarkets. That should tell you about the economy in Russia. It is growing…

We stopped at a Magnet Supermarket before driving out to the boonies and the prices were all much cheaper than in Moscow. I was surprised and very happy; prices cheaper than Moscow? And that is within the small villages in the country side. Understand for clarification, when I say Big Village, I mean a village that has several thousand people as compared to our village of only about 5 people right now. So our big village is still a small village…

I really did have tears in my eyes last night as I stood in our field behind our house. The air was fresh, the ponds are full and ready for fish, the monastery had lots of work done to it and everything was just perfect. Then the icing on the cake was using our well water and making the perfect cup of coffee…

Boza at my feet, as I sat in my easy chair, Sveta sleeping, the birds singing, internet working, ladybugs crawling, and peace prevailing over the Russian Village…

Nothing more is needed and nothing more is expected…

Have a nice day, for I sure will…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Within the next two days, we are going to the village. It is May Holidays in Russia, so Sveta has a week off and she will spend that time in the Russian Village (with Boza and I,) that beautiful Russian village! Then I will stay the summer in the village and work on the garden, house and yard. Time to plant beets and turnips and or rutabagas?Actually a carrot or two will find its way also…

Sveta will get back to Moscow in time for the big parade on the V-Day on May 9th, 2015. I hope her and her mother get to go. Since I am not a social person (and I admit it,) I prefer the peace and calm in the village and Boza will be there with me as we walk around the forests and fields, checking on all the new spring foliage growth; plus writing in the blog and dealing with the internet businesses we have…

Boza and I might just spend the winter at the village also? I think it would be good for him and I…

Therefore, today I will finish packing Sammy the Volga with all out goodies and I will take almost all my clothes this year. Last year I was not ready and did not take enough clothing. It made it hard to act at times. Got to have my hiking boots and mud boots, for simple things as that make or break a days excursion…

I am taking every tool that I own and all my electronics and such. Even if I stay only six months, that is a long time and I need all my tools of the trade. As easy as it is carted down to the village, it can be carted back to Moscow… 🙂

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I will be posting about the village and mainly just the village. That is why the upper section of the blog is devoted to articles about the village. If I had my druthers, I would live full-time in the village and never leave, but alas; life does not allow such happenings and they are just wanting thinking within my personal desires. Hopefully those desires will become reality and I will someday be able to spend the rest of my days in the village here in Russia. I also have a goal to work at the Fish Village in the farm ponds and I will be trying to perfect my Russian to allow that to happen. I think that they could use a native English speaker…

* * * * * * * * * *

I am almost besides myself trying to be patient and wait to get to the village. I miss it so much that it almost hurts; last year I healed almost completely and I realize that this is from the village that is a monastery. I am even thinking of doing like many do in the area around the village and drinking only Holy Water from the special springs in the forest. We have several springs of fresh water that are blessed by the Orthodox church and many people use this water for their source of liquid and they swear by it as being beneficial…

Regardless of right or wrong, if it makes me feel better; then it will so be…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I have an interesting quote: “Welcome to my world!”

Sip a cup of coffee and absorb the story that I posted in Feb. 3, 2009. I found it buried and lost in an archive on someone’s website. I guess when they rip off content it helps at times… 🙂

George Steele, 49, was a veteran of 8,000 parachute jumps and the pair were the last of about 10 skydivers to jump out of the plane. Daniel Pharr, a man diving with and being trained by Steele, enjoyed a minute of free fall as the cold air rushed by…

“He (Steele) pulled the chute,” Pharr said. “It got super quiet. It’s eerily quiet up there…

I made the comment to him: “It’s surprising how quiet it is.”

And he’s like: “Welcome to my world!”

A few seconds passed, and Pharr asked his instructor another question…

This time, Steele didn’t answer…

Pharr repeated his question…

No answer…

It seems that Steele had died of a heart attack while in free fall training someone to parachute. He died quietly , peacefully and seemingly in no pain. He was in his world…

Give credit to Daniel Pharr: He kept his head about him and kept it from being a double death…

I doubt we all will go to the pearly gates doing what we love more than anything else in the world…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…