Windows to Russia

Hot tea weather…

I will add to this tomorrow morning….

-20 and it is just 5:30 pm. The sky cleared and when the sun went down, the temperature dropped like a rock. It is brutal out there right now…. Just stoked the fire and it is +20 inside…

WtR

Update: It is morning and right now 2:30 a.m.. Boza and I got up at 1:00 a.m. and had a quick walk. My blood sugar was at 3.1 mmol/l and I needed to get things under control. I glanced at the temperature meter and inside it was +20 degrees. Then I focused on the outdoor temperature, -24.8 degrees. LOL, it was crisp out there and so wonderful…

-24.8 C is -12.64 F, if that helps to correlate for you better. Windchill is -30 and colder. Yes, we have a breeze blowing (Well okay, a gale is more like it.) Boza was all gun ho to walk and after 10 minutes, decided that life was better in the home. We scurried back and got inside to stay warm… 😉

Built a fire to help keep the chill out and Boza has gone back to sleep. Me? I am writing a post…

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There something so magical about stepping outside and the smell of a wood fireplace meets your nose. When the air is as crisp and clean as it is here in the Tiny Russian Village, you can smell a fire a mile away. Something just makes sense when you see the smoke curling up from a chimney. That tells me that home is warm and wonderful…

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Begin and end my day with this version of the song Sound of Silence…

Just seems fitting to the world at large…

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There is something striking about the realization that the sun struggles hard to even get above the horizon. It reaches many times barely above the trees and shadows are long and impacting as you walk. I have lived many places and been many places in my life, but never have I been anywhere where the soul is touched with such meanderings of paragon…

Russia is a country so enticing, but you must break away from the degradation’s that have molded your life. The depth of its ability to effect your innermost persona is a catching array of stigmas that you never have a shield against their intrusion upon you. Then one day, the veil lifts and you develop perception…

Perception then become recognition, awareness, consciousness, appreciation, realization, knowledge, grasp, understanding, comprehension, apprehension and cognizance all the same, but yet all describe different ways of perceptions that we meet in life…

I struggle with health issues and they sometimes get me depressed. Then, I have been checking Vova’s blood sugar and when he ran into the realization that he is having issues and is actually borderline diabetic, I saw myself in his face. For it struck him hard, he became sad, angry and worried in that order. He does not want to die and does not want to lose his legs. As we all know that person who has had that issue…

I realized that we all have to meet life and life will get you down. Life can be brutal at times and yet at the same time life can be so fluent and respecting, that we allow ourselves to be crushed by the downturns. I met such a downturn many times in heart, brain tumor, diabetes and other issues…

I stood outside a few minutes ago and it struck me…. I use to exist and not live. Then I found life…

I found my soul mate in Russia, I came to Russia, I fell in love with not only a Russian woman, but I fell in love with Russia and then my soul became Russian. Can’t explain it, for I am not smart enough to canalize such direct changes deep inside of me. Therefore, I have to simply accept such changes and garner my abilities to survive such changes…

I guess…

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”  ― Oscar Wilde

I chose to live…

WtR

No getting out now. I made my last trip for a few months several days ago. Once the serious snow hits, that is it and unless you have a decent 4×4 you are going nowhere. That is why I am searching for that perfect cheap 4×4 to use in the Tiny Russian Village…. Drifting snow is the killer…

Pretty simple; If you do not have enough food, water and firewood? You are in trouble…

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This is the type of 4×4 I have settled on finding. To buy it very cheap (I mean under 50,000 rubles,) you can even get them paperless, as in no registration. Out in the boonies, who cares and all it needs to do is get to the Fish Village. Then supplies are easily gathered for super bad winters. If you get such a vehicle, you can and ultimately will get it tagged properly, but it has really only one purpose; to get around when the going gets tough…. I am seeing them for 25,000 to 50,000 rubles and in decent shape. Time to get a 4×4 and or get a limited slip rear end under our Sammy the Volga…

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The bird in the image above is beautiful and he sings so heavenly. I have seen three of them at a time and they are really cool. They are around now, because I feed the birds and they enjoy the birdbrain buffet…

Maybe Svetochka can find out what they are called. She has lots of forums to show pictures on with people that would know…

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Russians love their vans… They are tanks and they look like hell after years of the snow and back roads, but who cares!

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Though truthfully, I would rather make Sammy into that tank and maybe next summer, we will gather enough money to get a limited slip rear end put under her. That will make her get around almost as well, just the depth of the snow will be a factor…. Dreams are good and something to work for. I have the money set aside, for people have donated for a 4×4 and when I find the right one, we can buy it. Down in the small villages these vehicles are plentiful and it will pop up one day… 😉

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-16 this morning. Boza let me sleep until 4 a.m. and then we walked for an hour. The air was crisp and the world was so beautiful in the flashlight I carried. Blood sugar was 5.2 mmol/l when I woke and I ate a pear and two cups of coffee. I feel good this morning and getting orientated to the cold weather more and more everyday. What was cold when I got here is now t-shirt weather, It is strange how we adjust. If we give ourselves a chance…

I keep the house dry and at first it is effecting to the lips and feet and such. Then after a week or so, you adapt and life becomes good. Keeping the inner home dry makes snow brought in a short time to melt issue and dry up. My boots dry fast and that is important when you walk so much. I wear valenki boots when the temperature gets cold and the snow is deep…

I have three pair! short ones, medium tall ones and very tall ones… Few more days of all this snow, the tallest ones will be brought out to play in…

Have a nice day…

WtR

Last week, a technology reporter for the Washington Post named Craig Timberg ran an incredible story. It has no analog that I can think of in modern times. Headlined “Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say,” the piece promotes the work of a shadowy group that smears some 200 alternative news outlets as either knowing or unwitting agents of a foreign power, including popular sites like Truthdig and Naked Capitalism.

Go ahead and read it! Link is below…

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/washington-post-blacklist-story-is-shameful-disgusting-w452543

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WtR

We walk and walk all the time. That is what Boza and I do to stay in shape. That is important you know?

This morning the air was perfectly still, the trees had become white leafed look, with the snow coming straight down. It has reached -5 right now at 6:30 a.m. but at 2 a.m. it was still zero. It will be cold today and in the next few days, it might hit -25 below. That will be fun…

The sky cleared in the last few hours and that always means crisp cold air coming from the north…

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Filled the wells this morning and have already walked three times with Boza. I just did his eyes and after that he sleeps another few hours. I take that time to get things done, such as trash hauling, wood stacking and writing. Then when the sun comes up, he will want to take a long walk and then eat again and again. He eats like a horse and every walk is another bowl of food. That is his pattern. We walk and then he eats… Must be nice!

Eat, sleep, walk, eat, sleep, walk and so on…

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The internet is working today, yesterday it was very bad. I guess the storm sent it into a tissy fit. Decided to post some images for you to see what we see in the Tiny Russian Village. You know? We still get lots of emails telling me that I am fake. That I as an American would never live under such conditions. Why with all my money and being from “AMERICA,” would I think that I could pull off acting like an American in Russia, much less living in a Russian Village!

My answer is, “Jerks!”

Gonna go walk Boza in a few minutes and try to get a few pictures of a covey of Partridges. There is about 20 to 25 of them and they always allude me as I try to get a good shot of them. It does not help that Boza gets wind of them and barrels along head first, like a bull in a China closet and scares them before I can get that perfect shot… 😉

I though they were Quail, but they are a Partridge and they are neat…

Partridge in a Pear Tree!

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Have a nice day to all my readers and to the ones who hate. God bless you also! For you give me many laughs over the years and I am a, “American living in a Tiny Russian Village!”

WtR

Do I look like I am full of thoughts this morning?

Maybe coffee will help that situation?

Okay second cup of coffee is down the hatch and thinking thoughts is not high on the agenda. Walked Boza, it is 4 a.m. and so far the main snow has missed us. It is actually +1 and it looks like I have a last chance to get to the Big Village and grab a few more supplies. I decided that the Birdbrains need more food in stock, thus I will get some more millet and oats. I also need to get a decent can opener, for using a knife to open cans is getting old and I decided that I need to stock a few more bottles of Vodka. Vodka is money…

Thinking of that subject…

Living in the middle of nowhere and what is money?

Salt, sugar, vodka, tea, coffee, cigarettes, benzine and individually wrapped candy pieces. That is money or substances that people would pay gold, silver, weapons, ammo and other necessities with…. If the end of the world came and money was worthless, the items above would be worth much more than their weight in gold. A man would be a king if he was well stocked in the above items. As long as he could protect such items?

Isn’t that the name of the game. Exploitation? Hold out what people need in their minds to survive and they would even trade a rifle with ammo, just to get a bottle of vodka, or that last pack of cigarettes. How about salt? Salt is necessary for life to function and curing meat with salt is almost the only surefire way to keep spoilage at bay. Yes you can smoke it, sugar cure it, but salt is quick easy and salt is money…. Sugar curing is easy also, but you simply do not need sugar to survive. Salt is essential for certain body functions to operate…

Sugar in the form of candy would have twice or better, the value, than plain granulated sugar…

Then simple items like matches, toilet paper and a thousand other things would make you everyone’s favorite friend. I realize that you can wipe your butt with a leaf, but there is something about toilet paper that makes you feel civilized. Besides in my world, I would grab a poison ivy leaf in the dark and that would be a bad thing… 🙁

The world I live in now actually functions more the way stated above than not. I live in a world that what you have in hand has a million times more value than what you have in the bank or on the books. What is that saying?

A Bird In Hand…

A bird in the hand. Something of some value that is already acquired. Taken from the proverb “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” which means that having something, even if it is a lesser quantity, is better than taking the chance of losing it in order to attain something else that seems more desirable.

I do not smoke and or drink vodka. But I have both in hiding within my reach. People pay well for such items when they run out. I started to stock these items after being asked a thousand times, “Do you have vodka?” As they held out money to show they want to pay for it…

So I decided this last summer to capitalize on my options…

Vodka and cigarettes are money…

WtR

Birdbrains watching

Buffet Time

This morning after the snow started to let up some. I found myself being watched. I decided that it would be a good idea to feed the little devils, before they tried to eat me and fixed up another batch of birdbrain food…

They are a joy to watch as they fight over the food. They squabble and squabble…

Have a nice day!

WtR

Well good thing I made that last trip to the Big Village yesterday. Looks like a week of snow and right now it is a literal blizzard. Boza and I are safe, warm and cozy in our Tiny Russian Village home and we walked this morning at 2 a.m., to find the world had become a foot deep and very white. It took Boza a few minutes to assimilate to the new surroundings and he stayed closer than normal to me, but soon he got his sightless bearings and off he ran to trip the snow drifts fantastic…

I will try to get images later, but it may just snow for days at this point and it is all I can do to fight the white and drifting snow. Much less try to stop and take pictures of the world. I think in a few days, I will be able to get some images…

Boza is smart, he did his doggy business at 2 a.m. and home we came. Then he settled at my spot on the bed and fell sound asleep. Therefore, I am writing a post. I tried to shovel snow, but as fast as I shoveled, the wind blew it back. Some times you have to just wait and let the world stop being wild and when it calms, you dig your way out…

It is not cold! Just -1, but a 20 to 30 kph wind is making things interesting. So it is cold regardless as the wind cuts through everything you wear. The wind is coming straight from the south, 91% humidity outside and max gust of wind was 48.2 kph. Old Man Winter has woke up and he is playing today…

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I do have to say something; The propaganda about certain so called dictators in the world by the Western Empire has reached a whole different level of sadness. Castro has just died and we have people celebrating in the streets over his death, I saw this over Bin Laden and have seen it over several things like this in my many years. The comments on websites are atrocious and we as a race should be ashamed of what is happening. To celebrate any death is sick and a sign of the moral structure of a country…

I lived in Florida for years and knew many Cubans from that association. Florida is a crime heavy state. Mostly gated communities, emergency call boxes every mile and on and on. Security measures are number one in Florida. The Cubans in general were not all of the socially moral type who came from Cuba. We acted like they were and the good Cubans who are out numbered by far, do not lay the same groundwork of terror that the hate filled ones do about Cuba and its past. When you get a societies dredges because they were kicked out of their country. You get what you take in and praise as wonderful. Once again, we made our bed and we sleep in it nightly. We accept the propaganda about Cuba as verbatim and do not stop to look at the sources of these propaganda…

RIP Castro he is a serious part of our history and will go down much higher on the list of importance than almost all of our presidents of the US! If we can not separate the chaff from the grain in such instances, then we are lost to propaganda and that is what is wanted. We blindly follow the narrative and worse of all; We blindly murder for the narrative…

He was no angel of mercy, but seriously, we in the USA are actually far from an angel of mercy! That self proclaimed illusion that we like to associate ourselves with. We are not but a reflection of what and who we condemn. We are our own worst adversary for peace in the world…

It was the US that tried to assassinate Castro numerous times. It was the US that spread lies about Castro and his doings. I know, Cuba is one place I have been in the military. All is not what it seems when we as a country (USA) talks about Cuba. The narrative has been and still is a narrative of hate and digression about Cuba…

Do you ever want to know the real truth?

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Boza and I are going to wait for daylight to have our long walk. That is something we do, snow, rain, sleet or shine. We walk and see the world of the Tiny Russian Village. I am going to check my vitals, such as sugar levels and blood pressure. I woke at 4.4 mmol/l and 89/55 blood pressure. I want to see how they are doing after breakfast and some coffee…

Therefore, gotta go and get ready for life… 🙂

WtR

We got lucky and the snow missed us in the Tiny Russian Village. More coming, but for at least another day, we will have it easier to get around. It should be snowing right now. The weather station is flashing major snow storm, the regional weather reports say major snow storm, but I see stars and a sliver of moon. Granted it is 2 a.m. in the morning, but since Boza needed to do his doggy business, I am writing a post…. Thus, morning may come and the snow may fall…. They call for blizzard this afternoon… 🙁

We will see!

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I had to laugh at the games being played right now over the presidential election in America. I guess Stein wanted to join Sanders in the free money for your soul campaign! But they say everyone has a price!

Now you should see the point I make; “America is the land of Chaos” and this is a perfect example. Jill Stein wants a recount in three states and she has no horse in the race! Actually she did, but her horse died. Shame, but it looks like we will all be in hell anyway when it is over, no matter who is president…

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Well there is a list of what is being posted as propaganda Russian websites…. and WtR is not there! So I guess that means my site tells the truth, What ever! Hard to fault someone living in Russia and reporting on Russian life from a first hand experience. The sites I see listed are sites that are different than mine. Most of these do not even reside and or even based in Russia. Some of them are 5th column sites against Russia out of Moscow. So they may have a point about propaganda games…. I live and breath Russia… My favorite is; Ron Paul is on the list…

I will be able to sleep better at night knowing that I am not on that list!

Yup and have a nice day…

WtR

Happy Thanksgiving 2016…

Kyle, Svetochka and Boza…

Yesterday was get feed grain time for Vova’s animals. As in the past I am the designated driver. I do not drink and thus am a natural for driving around the other small villages and gathering foods for the animals. Therefore, I found myself driving all around the back roads, seeing the sights of nature and really enjoying the trip. I struggled with low blood sugar, but had a couple of pieces of candy and pushed through it all…

We stopped at a grain storage area and for a bottle of vodka, got a winters supply of what I call chaff, chaff in this case is is about 50% good grain and the rest trash. We gathered over a ton of it yesterday. The chickens love it and so do the rabbits. It cost nothing except a bottle of vodka and that ran 120 rubles at the local market. The only thing is that we have to be on the down low and not make a big scene and act stupid. But hey! That is my specialty (trying to not act stupid) and been doing it all my life to survive…. This is part of surviving and when we have chickens in a few years, this is what we will do…

I drive Vova and make sure that he is safe. He would go anyway, sooner or later and it is better that I do the driving, for as you know he kinda has issues with the demon vodka. He is a good friend and I want him alive not dead or in jail. We can not make him stop drinking and like many friends I have had, they have to hit bottom before they can get up (if they get up) and get better. Bothers me, but Vova will do anything for me and is a best buddy…. Alcohol is a demon… 🙁

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So yesterday, I ended up busy all day and this morning already, I have been again to the Big Village. It is snowing and looks to get very deep in the next few days. It feels like one or two feet coming and I wanted to get a few things to tide over the long snowing spell…

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Filled up the wood bin this morning and carried in twenty big split logs. The logs burn a long time and I have enough wood for a week right now, inside the home…

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Boza could see fair this morning and was running around like an idiot. I had to slow him down and be more cautious. But he was happy and that he could see a tree and it is hard to take away the occasional good days that he can see a little bit. I let him run and run. He is a happy dog and eats good. What more can we want?

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Got an extra donation for a few thousand rubles and I was able to buy something very necessary. I live in a village home with no closets and or dressers. I found for about a 1000 rubles a four drawer plastic mouse proof dresser. It is so wonderful and much needed. Thanks for the donations and this is the kind of stuff that helps make life a bunch better…

Therefore, I am ready for winter and will settle in to brave the storms coming…

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Gotta go and lots to do. Maybe take a nap, Boza had me up at 1 a.m. and had to do doggy business. That is life…

WtR