Windows to Russia

Yes I know, Russia and snow go together like a horse and carriage. But it still is snowing and Boza and I are very happy. Boza is running around like a crazy nut and I walked him two hours this morning, just to watch the snow fall. The ground is still too warm, but it is snowing and we are happy…

The thermometer I installed outside the front window said, -4 Celsius this morning when I got up. (-4°C×9/5+32
= 24.8°F)

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I worked on the stove yesterday…

It works great and is warming the home right this minute, but…

I found a problem after I fired up the stove today. I have a loose brick inside getting ready to fall out. Bad news, I will think today and then tomorrow after it cools, I will repair the issue. I am looking at replacing the brick with a metal brace. The brick does nothing for the usage, just support of another metal brace. I will design and make today the support piece and fix it that way…

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Got to do dishes today and that will be that last time to wash outside. I will install the new heater sink we bought and use that to wash myself and dishes for the winter. I have an idea where to put it and that is another project today. So tomorrow the stove and today the sink…

Time to make a cozy warm home, Sveta is coming Saturday night and I have to have it warm for her…

She will be grouchy otherwise… 🙂

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Time to get busy. Boza and I were astonished at the beautiful peace of the village this morning. Just an occasional raven yelling at us and all else was quiet as a church mouse. Boza and I walked over and looked at the empty fish house and then checked out the place where the pump is kept. Time to work, play is done…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Five a.m. my internal alarm went off. I sat up and even Boza was still sleeping soundly, thus I pushed him with my foot and he groaned and looked at me. I smiled, for as soon as I would say the word, “Walk?” He would be bouncing all over the place, since he knows me well, he laid his head back down and listened to me start the coffee water in the boiler. Then he laid there as I grumbled at him to get out of the way, but of course he just lays there… 🙂

I fired up the computer, sipped my coffee and checked the weather, e-mails and comments. I looked over everything and set it all aside after approving four comments and trashing three. Then I said, “Walk?”

You would have thought that that word could raise the dead!

Boza jumped up and started to wiggle and squirm all over the tiny room. He wiggled and got in the way until I grouched at him and then as if on cue, he sat by the door and was a good boy. It is our normal pattern most mornings and he loves to push me until I get grumpy and grouchy then he leaves and acts like he did not do anything wrong. Which he did not do anything wrong, I just grump early in the morning… 😉

Then we walked…

The ground was frozen, the water buckets had an inch of ice on them, Boza was running at a hundred miles an hour and I just stood and breathed the most wonderful air. Perfect in all ways, clean, crisp and full of oxygen. I walked and noticed the moon was a sliver of itself, then next I noticed the huge star near the moon and that triggered me to stare. What I saw was our Moon, then in order of alignment Venus, Regulus (a star,) Mars, and Jupiter. I stood a stared, then from the old dormitory building exploded a hundred bats, they made a last loop in the sky, as dawn became prevalent, around the moon and the other heavenly bodies, then swooped into the dormitory area and became still and silent…

Then I looked down and saw Boza staring at the sky, just like I was and he noticed that I looked at him. He looked at me with his puppy dog eyes, as if to say, “That was really cool dad!”

Then as if on queue, a white cat ran out in front of us and the chase was on. Boza took off like a bolt of lightening, the cat screeched and ran like the devil himself was after him and I laughed, as I realized…

What a perfect morning!

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

PS: The icing on the cake is when Sveta shows up…

Which one?

Did you succeed?

Image courtesy of the Russian Embassy…
https://twitter.com/RusEmbassyUAE/status/650898242318680064/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

Maybe this image will help…

Ask question people, quit being a sheeple and looking the other way. Ask questions…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Boza and I…

Soon I will go back to Moscow for a month or less, if Sveta can put up with me? 😉 Then after dealing with a few things, I will be back to the village to stay the winter. I am hoping that Sveta is able to spend the New Years Holidays (9 to 11 days) with me in the village, but that will be a wait and see thing…

When I get back to the village, I will start my winter posts officially. I will be taking pictures and such of what the place looks like all winter. We will see how deep the snow gets and we will see how cold it gets. I have about two cords of wood available and that will see me through a rough winter. I also am cutting another half cord as weather permits…

I am adjusting to the weather and just took a shower out in the rain that is falling. It is +6 Celsius and it was not cold. I feel good and clean, I now have the window open and Boza and I are comfortable. I realize Sveta will make faces at what I just said, but Boza and I are adapting, it feels good and I am watching how this progresses. If you remember correctly, I am a Biologist by degree, so things like this mean a lot to me…

I am thinking about going to town today, but with the rain pouring from the sky, I just may wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow is sunny and cold, but clear and dry. I have a lot to get done tomorrow, for the next week is going to be snowing and -4 Celsius. Therefore, it is time to think winter and frozen, for once winter gets its icy claws deep into the area, it will stay frozen like a rock for 6 months…

I am looking forward to winter, my only issue is that having to leave, may make it hard to get back. Old man winter gets mean and rough and may block me into Moscow. I will get back, because I need to…

I sipped my coffee, I look out the window and summer went by and with a wave of her hand. She blew a kiss to all and went south with the birds…

Have a nice day, for I sure will…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

First summer post of 2015…

http://windowstorussia.com/almost-cried-when-i-finally-made-it-back-to-heaven.html

In the villages, nothing goes to waste. When it is mushroom season, they scour the hills for mushrooms, strawberry season is the same, so on and so on. So why would it be different with the shutting down of a fish lake?

It is not and once the lake people got what they wanted, they cleaned up, locked the doors and waved goodbye until next year. Then out from the woods came the scavengers… 😉

No not foxes, bears and wild dogs. But villagers from the surrounding villages. They bring nets of various sizes. Thus, some of them get bigger fish and some just want the tiny little fish. There is enough for all and all have to work hard to get what there is left over. So, of course I took some pictures as they tramped through the sandy mud of the lake…

At one point about twenty villagers from somewhere were scooping the left over fish. When they would get a big one, you could hear the whooping and hollering all around. Boza and I walked the empty lake edge and we saw a guy with a huge bag of small fry fish and he was high-tailing it across the lake and going home. He had a big smile on his face, for momma was going to fix fish tonight… 🙂

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

How involved is the US national security machinery in Ukraine? The answer to that question is contained in a sampling of information available from the US embassy in Ukraine and the Pentagon’s contract awards announcements. Other publications (links provided below) have also been consulted.

Vietnam 2.0 is in the making in Ukraine. The US civil-military establishment, Republicans and Democrats alike, want a shooting war with Russia, even though it was the US that caused the carnage in Ukraine, not the Russians. Yet, that inconvenient reality has been nullified by the US propaganda campaign which, of course, the Russians have responded to with their own.

Surreptitious escalation of US military involvement in Ukraine is the order of the day. Consider this comment from US Senator Jack Reid (Democrat): “One step that should be explored, he said, is taking Ukrainian forces outside the country and training them on the provided weapon systems, “so they’re ready.” “Second is the possibility of transferring some of these systems from other countries into Ukraine, which doesn’t raise quite the visibility of the transfer,” he said. “And then there’s the possibility of taking some of our systems and beginning to…deploy them to training areas particularly so that they can train on them and have them ready to move into areas of conflict,” he said… He also said Ukraine has an extensive military industrial base that could be used to produce the weapons, but that would take time and financing.”

It’s becoming apparent that the US Army, US Air Force and US Navy want, respectively, the 21^st Century versions of the Battle of Prokhorovka, Hiroshima/Nagasaki, and the Battle of Midway. Maybe the plan is to make proxy wars so hot that world war will follow with Russia (and China). It’s doubtful that the US Marines want another Iwo Jima or that US special operations warfighters want to be dropped into no-win situations (they are smarter than that).

No matter, Americans shoot up war like a junkie shoots up heroin. Destroying Syria and Iraq as functioning states did not provide the high, nor did the War on Terror, or the War on Drugs, or Afghanistan (10,000 US soldiers remain there). The next score needs to be higher-dose, longer lasting, “real man, you know what I’m saying.”

California-Ukraine (US Embassy website)

So California is Ukraine’s buddy? Just great.

California–Ukraine State Partnership Program: SPP Mission is to promote democracy, free market economies and military reform, by establishing long-term institutional affiliations and personal relationships at the state and local level. The California – Ukraine partnership directly supports both the goals of the US Ambassador to Ukraine and Commander, U.S. European Command. As part of the Governor’s Cabinet, the Adjutant General of the California National Guard facilitates partnerships throughout the state and local governments in California as well as the private sector. Recently, a tuberculosis clinic in Odessa was renovated with funds provided by this office

Defense Cooperation between US and Ukraine (US Embassy website)

Joint Contact Team Program-Ukraine (JCTP). The mission of the Joint Contact Team Program (JCTP) is to deploy US military teams to Ukraine to acquaint the Ukrainian military with various aspects of western militaries. The program was developed in 1992 to assist the armed forces of Ukraine, as the military of one of the emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe.

International Military Education and Training (IMET): The IMET Program provides training in the United States to selected foreign military and related civilian personnel. The overarching security cooperation objective is to promote stability, democratization, military professionalism, and closer relationships with NATO.

Foreign Military Sales/Foreign Military Financing: The FMF program assists the Ukrainian military in conducting defense reform by providing funds for Ukraine to purchase US military equipment and services.

Defense Contracts for Ukraine (Pentagon Website)

September 2015: Aerovironment Inc., Monrovia, California, was awarded a $9,049,306 firm-fixed-price foreign military sales contract (Ukraine) for the small UAV RQ-11B Raven analogy system. Work will be performed in Monrovia, California, with an estimated completion date of May 11, 2016. One bid was solicited with one received. Fiscal 2010 other procurement funds in the amount of $9,049,306 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Natick, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (W911QY-15-C-0102).

September 2015: Harris Corp., Rochester, New York, was awarded a $65,669,054 firm-fixed-price, incrementally funded foreign military sales contract (Ukraine, Lithuania, Lebanon, Chad, Niger, Mauritania, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Ethiopia) with options for Harris Radio Systems, (multiband (AN/PRC-152A: AN/PRC-117G), high frequency (HF) and dismount), antennas, BMS software, data terminals, touch tablets, field service representatives, and training for installation, operation and maintenance. Work will be performed in Rochester, New York, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2016. One bid was solicited with one received. Fiscal 2015 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $38,950,534 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W91CRB-15-C-5029).

July 2015: AM General, South Bend, Indiana was awarded a $372,936,476 firm-fixed-price multi-year foreign military sales contract (Afghanistan, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Ukraine, Tunisia) with options for 2,082 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs) and contractor unique spare parts. Work will be performed in Mishawaka, Indiana with an estimated completion date of April 29, 2016. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Fiscal 2015 other procurement funds in the amount of $372,936,476 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command is the contracting activity (W56HZV-15-C-0155).

Training the Ukrainian Military

July 2015 (from Defense Industry Daily): Ukraine will receive external link an additional $500 million from the US government to finance the training of Ukrainian military personnel. The Obama administration modestly increased US training to include Defense Ministry forces in June external link, after US personnel were first deployed to train Interior Ministry troops in April. The announcement comes several days after a report external link published by the Center for New American Security identified several strategic deficiencies with US policy on defense assistance.

Propaganda Generates Profits: Bellicose Neighbor=Joint Procurement

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are discussing external link the possibility of collaborative defense procurement. The NATO states border an increasingly belligerent Russia and may also seek to join the development activities of the Nordic Defence Cooperation’s external link (NORDEFCO) Military Cooperation Areas in a bid to maximize rising defense investment. Estonia already meets NATO’s target defense spend of 2% GDP, with Latvia and Lithuania planning to meet this target by 2020. Lower per-unit costs through larger equipment buys are likely to drive joint investment, with air defense systems specifically mentioned. The US and Poland have been keen to develop the Baltics’ air defense systems, with Sweden also planning a revamp of its capabilities.

John Stanton is a Virginia based writer. Reach him at captainkong22@gmail.com

Having established a base on the Syrian coast, Vladimir Putin last week began air strikes on ISIS and other rebel forces seeking to overthrow Bashar Assad.

A longtime ally of Syria, Russia wants to preserve its toehold on the Mediterranean, help Assad repel the threat, and keep the Islamic terrorists out of Damascus.

Russia is also fearful that the fall of Assad would free up the Chechen terrorists in Syria to return to Russia.

In intervening to save Assad, Putin is doing exactly what we are doing to save our imperiled allies in Baghdad and Kabul.

Yet Putin’s intervention has ignited an almost berserk reaction.

John McCain has called for sending the Free Syrian Army surface-to-air missiles to bring down Russian planes. Not only could this lead to a U.S.-Russia clash, but U.S.-backed Syrian rebels have a record of transferring weapons to the al-Qaida affiliate.

The end result of McCain’s initiative, sending Stingers to Syria, could be airliners blown out of the sky across the Middle East.

Hillary Clinton wants the U.S. to create a no-fly zone. And Friday’s Wall Street Journal endorsed the idea:

“Mr. Obama could make Mr. Putin pay a price. … In Syria the U.S. could set up a no-fly zone to create a safe haven for refugees against … Mr. Assad’s barrel bombs. He could say U.S. planes will fly wherever they want, and if one is attacked the U.S. will respond in kind.”

U.S.-Russian dogfights over Syria are just fine with the Journal.

Saturday’s Washington Post seconded the motion, admonishing Obama: “Carve out safe zones. Destroy the helicopter fleet Mr. Assad uses for his war crimes.” Has the War Party thought this through?

Establishing a no-fly zone over Syria, which means shooting down Syrian fighter-bombers and helicopters, is an act of war. But when did Congress authorize the president to go to war with Syria?

When last Obama requested such authority — in 2013, when chemical weapons were used — the American people arose as one to say no to U.S. intervention. Congress backed away without even voting.

Unprovoked air strikes on Syrian government forces would represent an unauthorized and unconstitutional American war. Does the Party of the Constitution no longer care about the Constitution?

Is a Republican Congress really willing to give Barack Obama a blank check to take us to war with Syria, should he choose to do so?

Is this what America voted for in 2014?

A no-fly zone means U.S. warplanes downing Syrian planes and helicopters and bombing antiaircraft defenses at Syrian airfields.

To Damascus this would mean the Americans have committed to the defeat of their armed forces and downfall of their regime.

The Syrians would fight — and not only the Syrian army. For Russia, Hezbollah and Iran are all allied to the Damascus regime, as all believe they have a vital interest in its survival.

How would Russia, Iran and Hezbollah respond to U.S. air strikes on their ally? Would they pack it in and leave? Is that our experience with these folks?

Today, the U.S. is conducting strikes on ISIS, and the al-Qaida affiliate. But if we begin to attack the Syrian army or air force, we will be in a new war where the entire Shiite Crescent of Iran, Baghdad, Damascus and Hezbollah, backed by Russia, will be on the other side.

We will have taken the Sunni side in the Sunni-Shiite sectarian long war. How long such a war would last, and how it would end, no one knows.

Whatever one thinks of Putin’s policy in Syria, at least it makes sense. He is supporting an ally, the Assad regime, against its enemies, who seek to overthrow that regime.

It is U.S. policy in Syria that makes no sense. We train rebels at immense cost to fight Assad, who cannot or will not fight. We attack ISIS, which also seeks to bring down the Assad regime. And we, too, want to bring down Assad.

Who do we think will rise if Assad falls?

Do we have a “government in a box” that we think we can fly to Damascus and put into power if the Syrian army collapses, the regime falls and ISIS approaches the capital?

Have we forgotten the lesson of “Animal Farm”? When the animals revolt and take over the farm, the pigs wind up in charge.

For months, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia has called on Congress to debate and decide before we launch any new war in the Middle East. One wishes him well. For it is obvious that the same blockheads who told us that if the Taliban and Saddam and Gadhafi fell, liberal democracy would arise and flourish, are now clamoring for another American war in Syria to bring down Assad.

And who says stay out? Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, both of whom also opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq. There is something to be said for outsiders.

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Source: War Party Targets Putin and Assad

South side of home

Three cans of paint is what I think will get it done. I have small rollers and a paint pan, thus, when I go to town tomorrow, I will get three cans of white enamel and get the south side done…

Sveta told me that I had to cut the tails off the left window and since Sveta wanted it, I did it this morning. Then I reset the window trim and strung the modem cable and nailed a bunch of boards tight. Now it is ready to finish painting and I am hoping to have it done by this weekend coming up…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Ran out of paint! The wood is just sucking it up like a sponge. Thus, when I go to town again, I will buy a couple more cans, that is 4 litres per can. That runs about 300 rubles per can…

It is starting to look good though and when I get the back done, I will paint it the same way. That will make this home last longer…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Russian tea…

I drink a lot of hot tea now and this morning I decided to try starting off with tea. Just a strong black tea with milk and while it was great, it just did not cure the morning blues, like a good cup of coffee. Tea to me is sweet tasting, whereas coffee has that bitter bite that is akin to the first puff of a cigarette in the morning. Smokers know what I mean and I realized this morning that I do not want to give up that coffee bite, first thing in the morning. I gave up the cigarettes years ago…

I drink one or two cups of coffee and then tea or chicory the rest of the day. Tea has been winning over chicory and with it cold like it is outside, I grab a tea bag, hot water and a cup and in a few minutes I am back outside sipping a hot tea and getting back to work. It is perfect for that quick pick me up and like I said, black tea tastes sweet compared to coffee…

So the experiment told me what I needed to know and coffee will stay number one in the early morning times. Then tea becomes the daily drink…

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This morning the guys were still at the fish pond and still pulling in fish. It looks like maybe another three days at this pace. There is still a lot of fish in the pond and I see two shifts of twelve hours each for the men working. This is a gruelling job and it got down to -2 last night. They send the big fish to the sellers trucks and they take the smaller fish to the Para Lake trucks. Thus, every fish is hand sorted and that is why it takes so long. They put the smallest ones in the big permanent lakes and sell the rest. Big operation…

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Right above my head flew an eagle this morning. I was not ready (never am,) thus the image is poor focus, as the auto focus did not move fast enough. I resized it to fit the screen better, but it is uncut. No zoom or anything, just a snap of the eagle as I fell backwards trying to follow it. Boza was jumping in the air trying to catch it and I caught it as it went right over my head. Boza leaped over me as I hit the ground and he ran chasing the eagle for a 100 meters or so… (Looks like a Steppes Eagle or Golden Eagle!)

What a perfect start to a morning… 🙂

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Going to be a wonderful day and I am going to paint. I am sore from cutting wood and my hands hurt from hammering and digging, so I will paint today…

Have a nice day…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…