Windows to Russia

I have to say something; Svetochka is about two weeks or less from becoming a “Babushka.” That means grandma in Russian and her mom is going to be a “Pro Babushka” or a great grandma. In Moscow Svetochka and her mother went to see the baby furniture that was bought by Sveta and her mom, for the new baby to come soon. By the end of the month and all looks good to go… 🙂

I think the idea is growing on Svetochka and she is starting to get excited about the new baby coming. I know she wants to come for her birthday to the Tiny Russian Village, but as she reads this. I want her to think about hanging around Moscow until the baby is born. This is an important and very special time in life. Mainly for her son and his wife, but also for the grandmas and great grandmas and yes even the grandpas. I have said before that I stay out of the Russian family business and other than saying to Svetochka that Boza and I miss her. Somethings are more important in life and a new baby is one of those special miracles that needs to be experienced. Especially as a grandma…

WtR

http://cartcoon.deviantart.com/art/Coffee-Bear-482102298

Two years since MH-17 was shot down and not a single word of facts; just propaganda and lies to convict Russia and they left out all the truth…

Makes me go hmm…

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The U.S. is gathering lots of warships around the Chinese at the disputed islands. America is no longer flirting with war, it is instigating that war and if the USA thinks Russia will not step next to China if something goes bang. Then America is as stupid as I think it is….Maybe we need to just start a war with Russia and China at the same time! Who the HELL is in charge in America anyway? I see lots of Hitler and Napoleon wannabees…

Makes me go hmm…

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http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-americans-waste-nearly-one-third-of-their-food-worth-161-billion/article/2544486

By the way! I would say that this is a low figure and most likely approaching half of the food is wasted. I know, I spent years dealing with food service and have seen the waste firsthand. Take this issue as fact and realize that we are at fault…

Makes me go hmm…

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My question today is; Is there a war going on “within” the USA?

Just asking….for it looks kinda like that there is!

Makes me go hmm…

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Turkey 6000 arrests! Erdogan is going hog wild and having a heyday over his staged coup… Heehaw..

That makes me go hmm!

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America is in her second childhood of the Wild Wild West; Ban guns and only the cops and bad guys have guns! Everyone has a gun and we will still all kill each other! Now that is a Paradox…

WtR

My experimental T-Rose is just about ready. After a rocky start it has really rooted itself and now actually has a total of 4 buds ready to bloom soon. I did not expect it to do anything this year and it was simply an experiment. The experiment will conclude next summer, if I can keep it alive and happy all winter also…. I will post images everyday now, to show that I can grow a rose…

Yes and while in the T’s; lets have Sun-T to drink. This batch is raspberry sun tea. Oh so good when it is hot outside. Russians are confused at to what I would be making in the sun to drink. 🙂

WtR

A Paradox?

Paradox: reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.

That is me to a Russian…

Yesterday I talked with two young Russians. They were walking the monastery and the woman was wandering if Boza would bite. Then after I expressed that he was safe and nice, she proceeded to use the situation to ask me about the monastery and she started to rattle at a fast rate of speech. This is where Russians lose me in talking. When communicating with a foreigner, they must slow their speech down. I have to assimilate what they say and I need time to convert words in my mind. My Russian is still poor and I get along, but when someone wants to just rattle away. They lose me…

To pace the situation, I have to let them know that I am American and speak English as native language. This is when I find that almost 90% of the time, someone speaks English and in this case, the guy spoke good English. So we talked to the grouchiness of the gal, in English…

This is when I find that Russians either affirm or destroy their beliefs in who and or what an America is. For many Russians, I am the very first American that they have ever seen or even talked to. With the exception of propagandized western media and Hollywood…. The TV show “Friends” is a perfect example of what Russians see Americans as…

A Russian has a hard time getting their heads around the fact that an American would drive a Volga, live in a Tiny Russian Village and or even survive such an experience in the first place. For the Tiny Russian Village is a place of hardship for even a Russian in most cases…

Most of the time, when they find out I survived winters in a Tiny Russian Village. They look at me as if I am lying. They can not fathom this happening and then the thoughts turn to; How could a person from the land of Gold and Honey like it here? They finally realize that I am real and right in front of them. They realize that I have contradicted everything they know and yet they still have issues with the data assimilation being tossed at them. From a Tiny Russian Village way out in no mans land…

Father Pavel then came by as we talked and then they walked on together and out of the village. I thought about what I see time and time again and then it hit me…

I use to feel that changing Americans opinion about Russia was important and necessary. Now I realize that I am changing Russian perceptions about Americans and in my 10 years here in Russia, I have affected the thoughts of thousands of Russians and not a single Russian has left my presence, even if they hate me, without their old preconceived ideas, being torn asunder and restructured. Good or Bad…

I do not fit what is the accepted about Americans and I bring a new logic that falls upon the unacceptable at times. I then realized that I teach everyday and learn just as much everyday. My existence within Russia, the fact that I thrive, the fact I enjoy and the fact that I accept Russia as she is……. And do it alone in many ways…

Is the paradox…

Many more exchange students from the western world have run crying from Russia, than who accept Russia as she is. These exchange students are what many Russians know about and the diehard American who loves what Russia is and is about are few and far between. Yes, Moscow has Americans, but 95% of those Americans never leave the safety of the big city and they almost never live amongst the natives. Either due to fear or preconceived notions about mafia neck tie’s…

The English speaker that makes it in Russia, realizes it is not the ability to be Russian in all aspects that succeeds. It is the ability to see the opportunities and grabbing them. Russia is a profound experience to the ones who try. But too try is the real thought there. Russians are exceedingly intelligent and they will adapt to the necessary communication to do what is needed. Just as I adapt and betwixt them both life is expressed…

Yes I am a paradox to the Russians at times, but then I realize that I am a paradox to Americans at times…

Therefore, hate me or like me, be perplexed as to my motives and desires and or wonder why I am what and who I am; I bridge a gap that has only widened as time has passed. I am a bridge much more important than the Embassies and consulates between the countries. I live as the Russians, I work as the Russians and I embrace the Russians as equals. I bridge a gap between Russia and the western world. A gap that should have never been developed…

WtR

I try!

It is Sunday, the coffee is great and it is cooler this morning. I keep hoping the world will slow down and stabilize, but the powers to be have a different agenda…

A failed “setup” Turkish coup, U.S. military operations out of Turkey’s giant Incirlik Air Base suspended by Turkey and No One, but No One is asking why the hell the U.S. is storing 50+ – B61 nuclear bombs there in the first place. Turkey! Such a great place to store nukes… 🙁

The mainstream media should be screaming bloody murder over nukes under siege….Turkey could take that base fast if it so desired. I am sure half the staff is Turkish, even with U.S. passports or not…

Seriously; how many damn nukes does the U.S. have scattered all over the world? You should never have to ask who is the real terrorist in the world. The Western Empire just has to look in the mirror as it shaves every morning…

“That there is a terrorist!” they should say…

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Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed bluntly to western reporters to understand that the whole world is flirting with war…

“We know year by year what’s going to happen, and they know that we know. It’s only you that they tell tall tales to, and you buy it, and spread it to the citizens of your countries. You people in turn do not feel a sense of the impending danger – this is what worries me. How do you not understand that the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction? While they pretend that nothing is going on. I don’t know how to get through to you anymore.”

Said Quote above, “The Russian President Vladimir Putin”

Sanity expressed by Russia and insanity demonstrated by the U.S….

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World War Three (WW3) will not be between nuclear superpowers only, it’ll be everyone (countries) fighting everyone, massive brawl, kinda like a saloon fight in an old western movie, but with nukes and then knives. Who ever is not bombed to oblivion, will have the knives to slit the throats of who are left, as they crawl from the radioactive ashes and piles of rubble. Interesting, to survive a nuke and have your throat slit as you think you might just make it…

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Record stock markets! Nothing like some world terrorists attacks to raise the fake value of a bunch of worthless companies?

What part of Hotel California and Rigged Casino is unclear?

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Drive-by shooting injures 14 in Bakersfield…

Obama: Globalism will defeat terrorism… – (Not when you are the leader of the terrorists, besides Obama just goes through the motions anymore and says exactly what he is told to say!)

How about a million more pathetic links (just look at the news.) Net! Just too sad, or scared, or worried, or blind and sick to read them…

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I think about another twenty million additional refugees into Europe, will just about garner the army needed to send Europe to the swirling drain and cesspool…

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Is there any truth in the world anymore?

Or do we enjoy a masticated information rhythm?

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How about them nukes stored in Turkey? Such a fine place for nukes to lurk, in the safety of the Turkish country…

Have a nice day…

WtR

The coffee this morning is perfect! Not as perfect as on a -30 degree day, but still perfect in all its glamor and glory. Coffee is, “Soooo….the flow of life within the body, mind and soul!”

Coffee seems to transcend all boundaries, both physical and mental…

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I was bit so many times yesterday! The horseflies are terrible and I mean terrible, well to me they are terrible, but it seems that many people around here don’t see them…

My hand is swollen from a horsefly bite and while these demons swarm me, we have women and children running around the village basically naked and in the kids situation, they are naked. I can not understand what is happening. Boza and I are attacked as if we are looking like a rare piece of steak waiting to be consumed and we have parents in bikinis and children, butt naked…

In the last few days I have received at least twenty bites and my system is suffering from it. I even wear long sleeves half the time. It is hot and I am in long sleeves. Damn these demons from hell!

I have a swollen hand, swollen elbow, swollen neck and a back that looks like a dart board….They bite right through two shirts and jeans also…

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I am filling the wells right now. Boza and I got up at 3:30 a.m. and walked to the pump and turned it on. Gonna fill them to the top with water. People are consuming lots of water, it is hot and water is life…

Besides, I need lots of fluids so that I can keep my blood supply up. The horseflies need to drink also… 🙁

I will write this article and then go check the wells…

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France chaos, Turkey chaos, Britain chaos, America chaos and so on and so on…

Looks like Gerald Celente was right years ago…

Things are unraveling; slowly but surely…

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My suspicions are that you need to gather some basics. If you have water and shelter assured, most everything else will fall into place. I think it is time for people living like kings and flaunting it,need to tone it down and find a man-cave to develop. Learn that less is more, for as things progress to a higher boiling point. The less you have the better you will be in the mob rules eyes…

Everything that the Western Empire’s tentacles have touched, are now starting to fracture and waver, as they have found themselves with a whole bunch of empty promises. Promises of grandeur that end up debited to the hilt…

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Since I am now the great snake hunter; I had a Tiny Russian Villager knocking on the door at 5 a.m. and it seems the upper well had a snake in it this time. This time it was a poisonous snake and after I got it out of the well. I carried it into the woods and was about to stomp it to death and it looked at me as if to say, “I will be good!”

The snake promised to stay away and not come back and Boza shrugged his shoulders, as did George the Birdbrain, as if to both say, “What ever!” and we let the snake go even deeper in the woods. It slithered away and I swear I could hear it whistling a happy tune! Do snakes whistle? Nah! Just my overactive imagination… 😉

Then I turned off the pump and finished the wells ups…

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I am going to answer a comment here. I am diabetic number two. Yes eating potatoes will cause issues, but I have lost so much weight that I can now afford to splurge once in awhile. Yesterday spiked my blood sugar, but now it is short lived and since my diet is mainly protein at almost all times, my body was happy to get the good food. I woke slightly groggy, but that is the price to pay when I eat off balance once in awhile. Weight is my biggest issue with diabetes… And I like to eat also…

I have fought a battle with diabetes since I was forty years old. It seems no matter what, it will be a battle I fight all my life…

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I decided to shave before I finished the article. It is cool and the bugs are at a low point right now at 6 a.m. and I was kinda beast like…

When you get old, do you ever stop and look at yourself in the mirror?

I see my dad as I shave, but I see a man who is older than my dad was. He died at 50 and will always be younger than I, in images and my mind. I realized today that my beard is literally 100% white. I looked behind me and could not see the old guy in the mirror, but when I looked back, there he was again. I said, “Oh well!” and continued shaving. For that grouchy old guy could not be me! Right?

All in the head…

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We live in a strange world…

I was talking to Svetochka and she agreed with what we were talking about…

Things are messed up and to the very bad side of existence; I told her that, “It is better to truce with the enemy you know and keep peace, than to antagonize the old enemy unto new waves of violence.”

America is making new enemies and now in a unknown why and reason, antagonizing old, but neutral enemies and creating turmoil out of what was a steady love/hate relationship and intentionally threatening countries that are powerful enough to bite back, right into the center of our civilians. It is bad enough that we have gone out of our way to create new enemies to play games with, but as the world shrinks in size, both virtually and physically, through technology. We are finding that a few hours is enough to find life is not so secure anymore…

One day when instant transportation is available…….

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One day you need to stop and think…

We can feed the world. We can have peace. We can grow up. We have enough resources. We have a good world. And we are capable of creating a utopia out of what we have…

But until we get over money as a god, having to own everything, religion as a weapon, and a bunch of other idiosyncrasies, we will never grow up!

WtR

What I will have for lunch today…

I was going to dig up several potato plants today. I simply love new potatoes and wanted to get a few for eating with turnips. The turnips are the perfect size and definitely ready to harvest, but I stopped at one potato plant; twenty one small to medium potatoes off of one scraggly plant. 21…

I finished shelling the last of the peas, cleaned three nice turnips, and received as a blessing 21 potatoes. I nosed around and saw that all the plants are this way. We have a bountiful potatoes harvest coming…

Today is garden tasty day. I will slice the turnips and potatoes to fry in a skillet, with slices of salo cooked for the grease. Then add a fresh farm egg from Vova to stir together; then take the peas and add Caesar dressing to them. Then I will have a healthy lunch… Everything in moderation and lots of fresh well water to wash it down…

Tonight I will harvest the rest of the turnips and allow the rutabagas and beets to keep growing. I eat carrots just raw and fresh from the garden. What a wonderful day it is. Hot, but with homegrown food, it is plain alright…

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I am thankful and just wish Svetochka could be here to eat this wonderful meal with me. But she will have plenty, for we will have lots to store for the winter…

Have a good day…

WtR

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls. – Mother Teresa

The term God is what you make of it. Many have turned from this term called God! Many scoff at the idea that there is a God. Many, many more than we look around and see and acknowledge, have lost the way of God. God is what you make of him, it, them and or the idea…

I am a very scientific person, I have a degree based on genetics within biology. But I believe in God…

I believe in God, in gods, in angels, in demons, in the devil, in a guardian and in life as a miracle. I understand the basics of life as a biological viewpoint, but to ignore that there is something, someone and a presence beyond our control, is to ignore life itself. Humans have a tendency to dance the tune of the devil and we always seem to fall back to such tactics, as we develop. This seems to be the nature of humans and it is a dredging up of our animal beginnings. A beginning that was never developed naturally. This it seems is a degradation of society and we allow ourselves to self immolate into our worst part and or soullessness…

Today I will extend a depth into silence. We all should; we have walked a path never before seen by humans now on earth. I will not say never on earth, for we are but just a genetically accelerated species and have a long ways to grow, to encompass our potentials. I ponder if we are even able to reach those potentials, but the potential is there nonetheless…

Today I will enjoy the silence. It is hot, muggy and silence is needed. The world is in multiple forms of chaos and silence is needed to contemplate, but silence is also not to be extended. For with silence comes acceptance of all that is wrong…

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance. – Khalil Gibran

We need silence to gather what we need to express…

I will be silent and garner what is happening in the world and why we seem powerless to stop the crushing decadence of our societies…

Maybe we are silent too long, Silent to deep, Silent when we should express? Silent maybe when we should have actions! Silent when others suffer! Silence kills as readily as bombs! Silence is growth and hindrance at the same time. Silence is a very powerful and silence is more than lack of noise; it is also oblivion…

Silence is sometimes important and sometimes not…

WtR

“Nice” the city, many deaths! I absorbed what happened and the first thing that waved over me was. A truck killed 80 to 100 people. Much more efficient than a gun. Yet there will be no calls for removal of trucks.

Not stupid as it sounds. Anything can literally be used to kill, including you bare hands. It is never the device used or means to kill that is the issue…

It is humans that are the issue and as long as we antagonize and degrade others in this world. Retaliation will be common as mud after a rain storm…

The earth is now too small and too assailable to all. Retaliation is easy…

We cry to the heavens because France was attacked again!

Why are we not crying to the heavens for all the deaths we create and or cause?

Things that happen such as in Nice is never right, but also at the same time it is never wrong. It just counts on which side of the fence you are on and how you look at your place in the world…

Small planet really; If you slap your neighbor, expect retaliation in some form or another…

Kyle Keeton

A trip to the Big Village is and can be an interesting diversion from normal Tiny Russian Village life. Yesterday, I ended up with three people going with me and it was an interesting time. Two of them were born and raised in the Tiny Russian Village and I was shown the hospital where one was born. He also told me how he walked to school to a nearby village; rain, sleet, snow and or shine. Five kilometers one way to school…

Except for not being in miles, I have heard that kind of stuff before. It is called the olden days and we did not think about how terrible things were. We just did what we had to do, to get it done. I lived the same way and we really should garner some courage and get back to our roots and toughen up some…

When I go to the Big Village, it is okay that people want to go also. It saves them a whole bunch of money. We have two big chain grocery stores in the Big Village and when you can buy new potatoes at 30 rubles a kilo and older potatoes at 18 rubles a kilo; then that makes a difference. The truck that comes out on Fridays, potatoes are 75 rubles a kilo. Not good…

Now if I was a some Russia hater, I would use the avto-market truck as the only price and claim that Russia is over run with rampant destruction of its economy, due to sanctions. 😉

Sorry Charlie! Not true….prices are really okay and people are not hurting, well except some people want their special cheeses from Europe and life is centered around those cheeses. Those people are nuts…

Therefore, yesterday the Volga was fully loaded as we came home. Packed with people, packed with food and everyone was, “Happy Happy Joy Joy…”

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The Tiny Russian Village is busy right now and I am filling the wells again. It is hot and gardens need watering and kids need water to play in and I need water to pour over my head, to get heat relief…

Speaking of gardens; our peas are done and I will pick the last of them today. Then dig them under to fertilize the ground again. The tomatoes are getting big and we will have a bunch of them. I get to eat about six strawberries today, that is after four yesterday. Yummy! The turnips are done and I need to pull them, I will eat lots of boiled turnips in the next month. Yummy! Beets are still growing and rutabagas are doing their thing. I love new potatoes, so I am digging them up now and going to even have several meals of new potatoes and turnips. I will mash them, smash them, fry them, bake them and broil them. I will even try to grill them when Svetochka comes again…

Today I will make a salad of turnip greens, beet greens, onion greens, garlic greens, shelled peas and the last of the delicious Caesar salad mix. Yummy…

The apples are almost ready and I eat one a day to keep the doctor away. We have just hundreds and hundreds of wonderful apples…

Our T-Rose is getting ready to bloom. Looks like three buds will bloom in the next week period. I hope the heat does not hurt them. One is showing white blossoms as I write this. I will get pictures of our rose experiment…

Gardens are the best…

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I got to go! I have to check the wells and it is going to be hot today. I did laundry yesterday and when it is happily baked in the heat, I will bring it in. Today, I need to rest! I kinda feel the need, just walk the dog five or six times and read a book…

WtR