Year: 2016

And Sveta was sneaking pictures of the grouches…

The car is finished. It runs like a striped ass ape and Svetochka smiles as we tool down the road. Sammy has a new sound and Boza has gotten all worried that Sammy the Volga sounds different. Boza is funny as he hears her new sounds and runs up and down the yard by the fence. I am working on the engine and when I rev it up, Boza gets all excited. Boza after a few days has learned that Sammy has a new voice…

Several issues had to be fixed, but they got them fixed and now we are ready to leave for Moscow tomorrow. I just realized, as I am sipping my cup of coffee, I get to take a hot shower tomorrow night. Haven’t had a hot shower for what? Five months, been just cold water and soap. I am clean, but something about the possibilities of hot water spraying on my head, really sounds good… 😉

Once back at Moscow, then the whirlwind starts. We have lots to do and little time to do it in. Winter is rolling in fast and while autumn has reclaimed a few days this coming week. Indian Summer is going to be short and sweet. And I have to leave the village as the temperatures rise to around +18 for two days. Oh well!

This morning I tried to be Boza, I closed my eyes and tried to walk around. Boza is in the dark and runs, plays, chases kitties and in general acts like he can see. I watch him closely and correct his movements by words, but he gets around really good. It was dark and we walked, I closed my eyes and with in a few steps, I had almost fallen down. Boza comes over to me, to see what I was up to and I realized that he could get around better than I can and he is blind. He can focus on sounds and pinpoint exactly where they are from and at. He is surefooted and rarely stumbles and if the breeze is blowing in the right direction, he can find kitties hiding in the grass. Amazing and then there is me; A stumbling, bumbling and grouchy bear…

Sveta and I have been talking and discussing life. We are trying to get the village home to the position for us to live a cheap and full life. I think she sees that life in the Tiny Russian Village is better for us in almost all aspects. I know when I see her rosy cheeks as she walks Boza and her huge smile. Svetochka is one happy girl in the village…

We have a warm village home, fresh clean water, perfect clean air to breath, good soil to grow food and freedom to express ourselves how we please. No one looking over our shoulder…

You know! I am going to make a pot of soup today. I have lots to do in the yard, packing the car and winterizing the village home and while I do that! I will simmer a pot of chicken soup with our own garden veggies in it. I bought a pack of chicken breasts 100% Russian grown and they ran 128 rubles a kilo, for boneless breasts. (About $2 per kilo and at 2.2 pounds per kilo = .90 cents per pound) Not a whole cheap chicken people! Only chicken breasts and boneless to boot! The whole chicken cost 50 cents per pound, but Svetochka makes faces at me, when she sees the whole bird and I cut them up. She is a city girl, You know? can’t image what faces I will get when I want to eat one of our chickens in the future. Do not have any now, but I wants to have chickens. Eggs are great and an occasional chicken soup sounds good. All home grown… But, Svetochka will probably not allow me to chop chop any chickens. They will be pets to her… 😉

Oh yes! The prices in the markets are dropping. I am buying milk at 32 rubles a liter, chicken as described above paragraph, bread is 19 rubles a kilo loaf, 100 grams of coffee was a penny a gram and so on and so on… It is nice to see…

One interesting thing I have watched develop; The Russians have started to produce an equivalent candy bar to almost any candy bar you can name. I tried a Russian version of the Snickers bar. A Snickers runs almost 50 rubles for a large bar. The Russian version, which is as good if not better in some ways, ran 24 rubles. Same size and to be honest, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference if unwrapped before you saw it. It has a slightly different layered internals, but it tastes like a Snickers. I have found the equivalent in most popular candy now in Russia…

Then of course, no one can beat the Russians at the best chocolate bars on earth. Russians love their pure chocolate and like them at high chocolate percentages at 75% and up! I have gotten use to it and find the milk chocolate type stuff is just too sweet. Real chocolate at a high percent of coca, is the best for you and Russians have known this forever…

I got things to do, see you later and probably I will not post until I get back to Moscow!

Life is sweet and delicious with my Sweet Pea Svetochka nearby…

WtR

Long day yesterday! Spent hours in the Big Village helping to get the Volga mostly done. It still needs several hours of work, but it is work not related to the new engine. The work to be done is little things to make the car better all the way around…

Drove home last night and for the first time ever, I had a working dashboard. I mean the gauges (except speedometer) are all working, the dash lights up and we even have ability to see the fuel level. The car has never had a working fuel gauge and now it does. One issue is that it seems to need a thermostat, but we have gained heat for once. Sammy has almost never had any heat and now she has abundant heat. We had a new heater core put in and a new heat valve. Try a Russian winter with very little heat! We have many times…

The car flies! I mean the car is three times more powerful and flies literally down the road. It is hard to keep her under the speed limit. I am use to driving a crippled car for years and now she has power. Serious power to propel itself down the road, in style…

We will see how well it starts this morning. I have to learn a new way to start and drive Sammy the Volga. She has fuel injection now and everything is completely different…

First frost this morning. Not a hard freeze, but our weather station shows -1 Celsius. That is why I said, we will see how Sammy starts…

I could tell that it was cold. I woke with a feeling in my bones and as Boza and I walked outside this morning at 4 a.m., the sky was crystal clear, the air was crisp and the grass crinkled under my feet. Boza had this funny look on his face as he snuffed the ground. He sneezed a couple of times, as he snuffed up some frost and then we were off and walking. The air was perfect and there was a tiny sliver of a moon. It was a perfect morning and Boza, who always checks to see if Sammy is in her spot, was a happy doggy. He found Sammy this morning, right where she disappeared from over a week ago. So Boza sniffed all the doors, marked his tires and after being satisfied that Sammy was there, we walked a little bit more…

Boza knows Sammy is family and he has been checking to see where she is at, for a week now…

Svetochka has train tickets for tonight. She will come to the Big Village and I will pick her up. Then after getting everything finalized at the Tiny Russian Village, we will leave for Moscow. Then starts the whirlwind of activity to get everything done. Boza sees a specialist for his eyes, I have to leave the country for awhile, I have a broken tooth (not cracked but broken,) I need to see a doctor for a checkup and about a million other things…

We also are looking at finding a 4×4 for the long winters in the Tiny Russian Village. I have the money set aside from donations to purchase such a vehicle. It actually does not even have to be a truck with proper papers. It will not leave the general area and the farthest it has to go is the Fish Village. That is the beauty of Russia, you can buy really cheap a vehicle with the papers messed up, off road it never has issues. My world in our Tiny Village, is all off road…

I need the 4×4 to pull cars out, get supplies in deep snow and to just have fun in general. Now if I could afford a snow plow? How good it would be in our village…

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Something that I was thinking about was that Svetochka and I need to buy at least two cases of vodka. Vodka in the boonies, like our Tiny Russian Village, is worth more than gold. Gold you can not drink, vodka is life itself. Vodka buys the main road cleared. Vodka buys anything out in my world. You want a pile of wood moved? Vodka gets it moved. Money in any form means nothing, for even if you have money, if you can not get to the store. You can not spend it…

This summer I watched people pay twice the cost for a bottle of vodka, or a loaf of bread and or anything. They do not have cars and only are able to get what comes to them. So they will pay 600 rubles for a 200 ruble bottle of vodka. I remember many people doing that stuff when I lived in rural America. The worlds are the same, well except, whiskey was the drink in America. You could buy the world with a case of whiskey in America…

Moonshine! Now that was some serious buying power and we always had a case of moonshine around the farm to entice people to do some extra work. It is all in your poison that you drink and it is just vodka in Russia….

And yes there is moonshine in Russia. The vast crop of potatoes in the small Russian Villages, makes a huge allotment of high grade moonshine. Mason Jars everywhere and the people that store the moonshine, never have to worry about getting work done…

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Well America threatened Russia over Syria and seriously people. I do not even have to try to make something up. America does a damn good job of pissing off the world, all by herself. I just have to check up and see the stupidity for myself. Yes we are full of stupidity again and again and again. Russia doesn’t give a damn what America says anymore. So if we want to push and push and push? The Russian people know that America sucks and that war is coming. The only people that do not understand this fact is the peasants in the US! Russia just rolled another submarine off the assembly line. Russia has been turning out nuclear powered, nuclear armed submarines for years now. Say what you want, but a sub with nukes, is going to be the terror of the world when WW3 starts. Subs are not for show and tell, they are for delivery of silent death, from someone’s beachfront…

I am amazed at the fact that we allow the Neocons to run amuck in America. I guess we really do not care and we will be shouting, “We are #1,” as hell rains down. Exceptionalism of America, from American eyes, has ended up pissing off the world and when the going gets tough. We are going to be crying a river and running around screaming, “What did we do?”

Want a perfect example of, The pot calling the kettle black?

https://www.rt.com/usa/360992-us-warns-russia-violence/

That is that exceptionalism that I talk about. The biggest terrorist state in the world (US,) keeps talking about other countries as if we (Americans) are all smelling like roses, when in fact we stink like a hog farm…

I said, “So if we want to push and push and push?” We will have a war! Always when pushed enough? There is war. Look at Japan in WW2. We, “So if we want to push and push and push?” Then right into a war. Yes we did…

https://mises.org/library/how-us-economic-warfare-provoked-japans-attack-pearl-harbor

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Well! Gotta go! Boza wants to walk again. It is daylight and I wanna walk also. I promised him several extra walks today, for I was gone much of the day yesterday. So walk we will do, I always keep my promises…

WtR

I have a delicious cup of coffee and a few thoughts to get off my chest. +1 Centigrade this morning and the sky is clear. Not sure it will stay that way, but a day without rain would be nice. Boza and I got up at 2:30 a.m. and walked for an hour in the dark. It was a beautiful night walk, with the stars as our light…

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Did you watch the debate? You know the debate of pathetic against also pathetic? You know the presidential debate in the US?

I did! We are in serious trouble in America and if you need proof that the system is rigged, then watch the debate between Hillary and Trump. But do me a favor, watch it as a bystander and you have never seen these two before…

I saw; Trump really does not care to be president and Hillary does not either!

Hillary is a puppet and her strings showed and Trump just wants and has succeeded, to increase his brand! Trump is better off losing, for he wins much more if he does. He is set to become one of the richest men in the world, not just a low end billionaire, but a high end billionaire…, if he loses and that is really what he wants. It shows…

Seriously; he never thought this game would go this far and he did it all for brand name increase. He somehow got stuck holding the bag…

Neither Trump nor Hillary really wants the job, one is forced and the other opened his mouth…

Tells me how messed up America is in almost all things….from energy use to military chest thumping…

We need a leader, a real leader!

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Drying potatoes! I am on my third batch and they are drying great. I now have apples, potatoes, turnips, tomatoes, mushrooms, and several other goodies dried to make soup with during the winter. I also need to find some powdered cheese mix to allow me to make potatoes dishes. Ones to bake in the little toaster over we have. I need to get a good deal on bananas and dry them next. I like banana chips and they are great for energy during super cold days…

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I made fried green tomatoes this morning. I love fried green tomatoes and when I eat them they remind me of Juliette, Georgia and the Whistle Stop Cafe. The place where Fried Green Tomatoes the movie was filmed and a place that I have eaten at a dozen times, or so!

I was running the food service at Georgia Military College (GMC) and would drive to eat there on a day off or even half day off. It was always good food, good conversation and soul recharging…

Georgia and GMC was a good time in my life. That was a job that I should have never let my company move me from, the college wanted me to stay and I was in my element there…

Good memories…

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The lake is being drained, they will harvest the fish in the next few days. The season is about over and the fish are big. I will try to get pictures, but I got a bunch last year… (1) (2) (3) (4)

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Sammy the Volga should be home today! I really hope it is! Please it is time to get her home….They said today! ????? They received the wrong radiator and the correct one is being delivered this morning, That is about a 15 minute job to replace….Plus I told them to replace the generator. I did not like the look of the one that was on there. It was showing weak output and they are cheap cost for a Volga…

After I get Sammy, I will call Sveta and she will get geared up to come to the Tiny Russian Village again. Then we shut the village home down and go to Moscow. She wants to have that car ride home. I told you she just loves excursions in Sammy the Volga….She is my navigator…

WtR

My home; Zarya Svobody and or Dawn of Freedom (or better yet,) The Tiny Russian Village…

Just a recap of some of the many images that I have taken…

This Tiny Russian Village, as I call it; Sunrise to Freedom. Is my freedom and it, plus my Svetochka, have saved my soul. I have grown, I have become healthy and I have gained a new lease on life…

Boza, Sveta and I hope that you enjoy the past images. I know that I did, as I went through them again…

WtR

The Tiny Russian Village is getting less people all the time. I am all alone on the bottom side and so the wells are staying fuller than when the village is fuller. Therefore, it has been three days since filling the wells. But, I am filling them this morning. Boza and I got up late, due to getting in bed late and for once we had daylight as we turned the wells on. I feel like I have been run over by a big fat truck and they did not stop to see if I was still alive…

Ate wrong, slept wrong and took my pills at the wrong time for my heart…

It looks as if around Tuesday, we will get the car back. It is running and almost ready. They will tie up a few loose ends and it will be done. It is getting the new exhaust, new heater core and several other new parts to round the old girl out. One thing that has been lacking with Sammy the Volga is the heater and we are going to get that fixed this time. One thing about Russia is that if the car heater does not work good, life gets rough. No air conditioning is needed, but have that heat working…

The young man running the shop came out to the Tiny Russian Village last night and picked Svetochka up. She got to the train station on time and talked to me before bed. I finally fell asleep around midnight. We found out something interesting last night; people in the Big Village do not all know where the Tiny Russian Village is! These poor guys got lost, our mechanic had the son of the head of the orthodox Church in the Big Village with him and they have never been out to our end of the world. Big Village is like a huge city in comparison and people always give this American a strange look when I tell them I live in the Tiny Russian Village called Kommuna…

Crazy American!

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Svetochka just called and she is doing good. She is back in Moscow and plans on taking a bag of carrots, potatoes and beets to her mother today. The fruits of our labor will be given to family, so that family will share in the results. Food from the villages is very important. It is grown with no chemicals and free of all contaminates…

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Almost ready to turn off the wells and my cup of coffee is almost done. I think since I feel so bad today; it is raining, my sugar levels are messed up and that imaginary truck keeps running over me, I will end this early today. I have some images to post, but I will think about that later, after I get sorted out. Boza is sleeping again and the place is warm and cozy. Svetochka said she really missed us and I can tell that she loves the Tiny Russian Village again…

They bought this place many years ago for Sveta’s son Misha to spend summers at. That is a very strong tradition for Russians. Kids spend summers in the villages and dachas. Mandatory and if you do not, you are a bad parent…

It dawned on me that I may be watching a little kid in a few years, as I work on the Tiny Russian Village home…

If that happens? He will learn English, how to plant gardens and how to fix fences and stuff. Sounds like a winner to me….I need a helper, even if he is a little one…

WtR

Aleppo,Syria is the main goal! Once Aleppo is freed, all western hope for a gas pipeline from Qatar is destroyed. That is what all this Syria issue has been about. Qatar needs Aleppo to run their pipeline, or better yet, the gas pipeline for Europe. Qatar could not do it due to manpower, but the Western Empire with Qatar money, their CIA factions and their military has started this whole crap storm in Syria.  Now Russia has, after allowing America to hang itself again, is on a full scale bombing of terrorists and Syria is going to take Aleppo back…

Russia allowed America to stick its nose out and try to make a deal and Russia simply has called the Western Empire’s bluff! You better hope we are bluffing…

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said, “If you say to me the West is too impotent, I would have to agree. I would have to agree that, since we took those decisions in 2013, when those red lines were crossed, we have not really had a viable military response, or any kinetic response to what is going on. I don’t think there is any real appetite for such a thing.“

Russia allowed that rope to dangle and the west pulled it around their neck and hung themselves. Russia is fed up with the games and it is time to clean Syria up! America and cronies either have to give up or go to war against Russia…

Right now America, through the biggest Neocon Samantha Power is crying a river of hate and disgust. It is pathetic, so it does not even get interesting or funny to hear what is going on…

Fact is; If the Neocons get their way, we will be at war with Russia real soon. Is that what we want? War with Russia? Is a war with a country that will bring hell down on our country, even if we win, what we want? You seriously think that Russia can not put a hurt upon Europe and America, before we take them down? If you do, you live in box, in a cave somewhere in la la land…

I imagine Moscow in calling that the United States of Chaos in bluff will in time bring forth the facts that the USA and European governments have sold out to the highest bidder in the Middle East. This is all geopolitical and games of assets and resources. Why else would we push a country like Russia and to a lessor extent a country like China to the brink of war. Just as if it was all a game and if we get them to back down, we win. The point of backing down has been passed and the Western Empire has crossed way too many red lines and can not find their way back. Not without losing face in it status within the world community. Thus, we have hissy fits being displayed from certain factions of the Western governments…

Big issue; normal people and countries try to get along! But when you want it all and no one else to have any, then it can get very bad. It is greed and power and that is all it is about…

The Russian people, Russian government and many others smart enough to see what is happening, realize that a World War is building right now. Lets hope that America does not have the stomach for such a war. Lets hope that sanity prevails! Lets stop the few warmongers and get the world straight again…

Syria has become at least the 14th country in the Islamic world that U.S. forces have invaded or occupied or bombed, and in which American soldiers have killed or been killed. And that’s just since 1980…

Let’s tick them off: Iran (1980, 1987-1988), Libya (1981, 1986, 1989, 2011), Lebanon (1983), Kuwait (1991), Iraq (1991-2011, 2014-), Somalia (1992-1993, 2007-), Bosnia (1995), Saudi Arabia (1991, 1996), Afghanistan (1998, 2001-), Sudan (1998), Kosovo (1999), Yemen (2000, 2002-), Pakistan (2004-) and now Syria.

Whew, I guess calling us a sick country is too weak of a word!

Why do we allow this to happen? Looks like we have personal issues and need to see a shrink. maybe a few sessions on a couch talking about how our mother ruined our lives would help! Lets wake up and get real…

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Chaos:

Pentagon officials refused to say whether they would obey President Obama…

In an unprecedented act of terrorist reprisal the rebels shut off the water supply for 1.5 million residents in government controlled West Aleppo causing an almost unheard of humanitarian toll with UNICEF raising the alarm of an imminent danger of mass childhood fatalities if desperate families are forced to drink contaminated water…

“It is time to say who is carrying out those airstrikes and who is killing civilians,” Samantha Power said. “Russia holds a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. This is a privilege and it is a responsibility. Yet in Syria and in Aleppo, Russia is abusing this historic privilege.”

“The Russian bid to bring peace to Syria is very, very near the end of its life and yes the Security Council needs to be ready to fulfill our responsibilities,” said Britain’s UN ambassador Matthew Rycroft.”

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Want to read what Russia thinks about all what the west is doing?

Read this article and get some information…

http://theduran.com/heres-summary-sergey-lavrovs-speech-un-general-assembly/

WtR

Svetochka has found her new love of life in the Tiny Russian Village. I have been transforming the old village home into something that is cozy and almost modern by village standards. I have a bunch of work left to do, but the work I have been doing for two years is showing. Svetochka has found that living here is comfortable and more than acceptable for a good life. In a few years Svetochka will be able to draw pension and then she can live here full time. I need to get pictures of Sveta, but she is the one running around taking all the pictures and Boza and I are the objects many times of those snap shots…

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Svetochka helped me and after the stairs were put on the outside of the shower house, we put the roof on the building. We double layered tar paper and this morning it is raining. The inside is dry and comfortable. I built a bench seat in the shower house and now it will sit until spring. Winter is here and no shower out there right now… 😉

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Coffee time; We went yesterday to see Sammy the Volga and she is getting done, slowly, but getting done. There is a wonderful group of young energetic guys, if not a little bit hungover at times from the party nights, working on her. They are a entrepreneur driven group, one of them is even a local cop in the Big Village. I call times like this, growing our roots deeper into the community, through spending your money locally. I could have got Sammy back to Moscow and spent the money there, but that would mean nothing to Moscow, for Moscow to me is just another western style city. Money spent in the Big Village grows exponentially and fruitfully within the community…

The boys (all in mid twenties,) all make money, the parts stores all sell parts, the local grapevine is buzzing with gossip about the American, the pie store sells pies to the five guys working on the car and many other places are involved in the money working its way around the community…

Speaking of money! We have received several donations for getting Sammy fixed and I just got a special repeat donation this morning. It was from the very first person who donated on January 18th, 2016. They did not specify for what and I want them to know that their donation, just bought Sammy her new electric fuel pump. Several other specific to spend only on the car donations, have also (big oops here,) installed complete new exhaust on Sammy. Oops, The exhaust is on the opposite side of the engine now and we got enough money to go from engine, all the way out the back with new pipes. Thank you all for the donations. For any extra money that we have personally saved will be spent on Boza and most likely eye surgery to try to save some of his vision…

We will be able to either save some vision or he will have to have his eyes removed. Then prostheses eyes will be put in. We are praying for saving some vision and will hold to that thought as mandatory to thinking…

I always say, when it rains it pours and Boza has had a rough summer all the way around and Sammy has been struggling to keep going. Lucky for Sveta and I, we are doing good….Knock on wood!

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Looks like during October after we get Boza settled with his verdict on his eyes, I will leave Russia for a week or so. I do not have a choice and this is when I take a train to another country and stay out of Russia. Russia does not always make it easy to survive for us expats at times and this is one of those, does not make a damn bit of sense, moments. My Russian friends get all upset that I have to leave Russia. They do not see the reason and I am glad, for I thought I was the only one who thought that having to leave, even with a three year visa, is stupid….Did I say, “Stupid!”

Border crossing is always the most stressful times. You never know what rules have changed and what is going to happen. Russia is good about changing the rules and ignoring the fact that they tell no one about it…

Keeps me on my toes…

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Sveta leaves tonight and the guys working on Sammy the Volga will pick her up and take her to the train station. Sad face time… 🙁

* * * * * * * * * *

I have a new philosophy. I’m only going to dread one day at a time. – Charles M. Schulz

Have nice day and I will be back tomorrow. Have to fill the wells tomorrow and hopefully finish weatherizing the village home. Boza and I should be back in Moscow by next weekend…

WtR

Well! Svetochka just purchased train tickets back to Moscow for Sunday night. No option, Sammy is going to take a few more days! The engine is in, but and there is always a but, it just will not happen in the original time frame. Therefore, Boza and I stay one more week at the Tiny Russian Village and next weekend if all is good, Svetochka will come Friday night and ride home with us after a few days in the village again. This is not what we planned, but it is the only option right now…

I told Sveta that we would drive home after it is done and all will be good. But she wants to come back and ride with us. Svetochka loves road trips and she loves cruising the highway with her guys. We like when Svetochka is with us too…

Today we go to the Big Village to see Sammy the Volga and make sure all is getting done. They (guys working on Sammy) will come and pick us up and take us to the Big Village. The guys are working hard on her, but they seem to have a parts issue and parts take a couple of days to get them. It is all good and we need to go to town to get more food, because it looks like Boza and I will spend at least another week here in the Tiny Russian Village…

Truth is; We do not wanna leave! Oh well! I also want the car done correctly and the guys should not hurry to achieve something that will be Jury-Rigged to get it done…

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Oh that coffee is so so good. I think I will have two cups this morning and a cup of hot tea to boot!

It’s going to be a good day, yesterday was sunny and cold, but sunny! Did I say sunny? Today the same and we will get lots done. Yesterday, we harvested our crops. Over a hundred beets, a hundred carrots, hundreds of potatoes and tomatoes galore. We had strawberries, but Svetochka has been eating them as fast as she finds them. She is fun to watch, her face lights up with delight when she finds a strawberry that she missed the first time. Then it is yummy and smiles…

I love that girl!

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We have a whole dehydrator full of mushrooms and they will be done this morning. We ate mushrooms and ate mushrooms, but still had too many mushrooms to eat left over. So, I am drying them. They will be great for soup, along with all the dried tomatoes and turnips. I have dried untold thousands of items total this summer. Soup is a Russian mainstay and I will be making soup all winter with all the goodies I have in stock…

I am thinking about dehydrating potatoes, they will store easy that way and will last for years that way. In the food service world I worked in, dehydrated potatoes is a mainstay for price control. So easy to hydrate and use for many things… Dehydrated potatoes in soup are the cat’s meow…

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Sveta and I need to take the wheelbarrow to the pine forest and gather pine needles to winterize our plants. I figure if we can get the pear trees through this first winter alive, they will make it. The rose is going to be another story and it hopefully will be protected somewhat by its proximity to the home. The little pine tree, still loves his “protection can” and wants it all winter. No! He wants his big can around him for the winter… 🙂

Who am I to argue?

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I can feel it! I hear it! I see it! It is going to be a hard winter. The people are talking, the animals are busy getting ready and the ones who were going to try to stay, have skedaddled. Old man winter is beating his chest, as he wakes from his short sleep. I keep looking around and wonder, what happened to autumn?

That’s Russia for you and Boza & I love it!

WtR

 

Svetochka takes pictures constantly. This is a few she left on the desktop of the computer. So I posted them…

Boza (who has lots of pictures of him) and I seem to be in front of her camera all the time. 🙂

We were mushroom hunting and we found a whole bag full of delicious mushrooms. We found the mushrooms prized by all the Tiny Russian Villagers and these mushrooms were in our yard and the small field next to our home. If you look closely at the image with Boza, his ball and me picking them. You can see the mushrooms right in front of Boza. Small brown domes and this year, after about five years, we had another crop of them under our birch trees. Then we went to a small cluster of birches near our yard and finished loading up the bag with yummy mushrooms. These mushrooms in the field had evaded the eagle eyed villagers. For one thing Tiny Russian Village people do is constantly mushroom…

I think that mushrooms rank up there in healing powers, along with honey, garlic, basil and even cabbage leaves for throat issues. Mushrooming is serious business and a Muscovite will drive all day to get to there famous mushroom spot, that only they know about…

We have such a spot in out yard and every few years it will produce a bunch of mushrooms and now I found another spot that no one has discovered. So keep it a secrete, will you? We like our mushrooms also, as well and or too… 😉

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Got and e-mail…

Well my extreme distaste of your nation harbors ever so slight pity on the ones who understand what your country has become. I only hope you and the likes of you can change this course your country has taken, but I don’t see it happening. The USA (you) will be the cause of more wars and greater wars till your country disintegrates from within, or is destroyed through other means. The freedom of the world now depends on the destruction of the USA, removal of its stranglehold on the world financial system, military occupations, terrorist funding and and destructive global influence.

I answered:

Not all of us, is correct. But for you to harbor any pity is too lose the edge over what we do as a nation against the world. There are still some people who think freely in this country and or other western countries. There are still some of us left here and or there, we are just treated like crazy people when we voice our opinions. We are attacked by both the fearful peasants and the driving force of the governmental agencies. Both sides feel they have much too lose and everything to gain by keeping the status quo…

That is the new normal in America and even the west, to treat the remaining free thinkers as crazy lunatics…

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That is how I feel and yes I am crazy in most eyes…

That kind of crazy that never stops a job he has started and when I believe in what is correct? I will fight to the death, good or bad and I have been alive a long time doing just that. So there must be something in the method of my madness!

There are times we must stand up and fight! If you always turn your head and look at the pretty propaganda, they will play behind your back, as you are distracted. Gathering gumption and clenching your fists is sometimes the only way to drive yourself to do what is needed…

I care about America; I know that we have always been a corrupt nation, but when they did not impress upon us little people and allowed us to live in freedom of simple actions and curtailed in many governmental pressures. It was all tolerable….Cops were the friends, you could eat and drink what you want, carrying a beer open on the street was not a crime to humanity, smoking was okay (bad for you but okay!), children could be children, a fag was a cigarette butt, Gay was still a woman’s name and a word of joy and so on and so on…

Look we did not fool ourselves; we knew our government was a piece of crap…

But it, the government, stayed out of most of our affairs… “Not anymore!” , said the little chickadee…

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The truth is; We are all crazy!

You are crazy if you do not want to change things for the better, you are crazy if you hide behind locked doors, you are crazy if you accept governmental nanny state as necessary, you are crazy if you hate big government, you are crazy to want raw milk, you are crazy to want to collect rain water, you are crazy to question orders of the police, you are crazy to be gay, crazy if you are not gay, crazy if you are a communist, crazy if you are a Zionists, crazy if you want to abort children, crazy if you want to have children, crazy if you believe in God, crazy if you wear furs, crazy if you have tattoos, crazy if you don’t pay taxes, crazy if you pay taxes, crazy if you listen to Fox News, crazy if you don’t believe all that New York Times says, Crazy to want to walk and not get mugged, crazy to walk at night, crazy to tell the truth, crazy to lie, crazy to let your kid ride a bike without protection, crazy if you do even let them ride a bike, crazy to spend your life raising a family, crazy if you try to work a job and raise a family, crazy if your kid is left home alone, crazy if you do not want to pay out half your paycheck in childcare, crazy to be fat, crazy to be skinny, crazy to think for yourself, crazy if you even think at all, crazy if you dream, crazy if you stagnate, crazy if you loan money, crazy if you save money, crazy not to buy a new home, crazy not to buy a new car, crazy if you did buy a new car and can not afford it, crazy that you can not keep up with the “Jones’s,” and lets end with, you are crazy to think others are crazy, for they think you are crazy for thinking they are crazy and everyone thinks everyone is crazy, for not doing exactly like they want you to do and as a bonus ending – to top it all off; Big Brother our government is crazy, but we are scared to death of that “CRAZY”!

And that my friend is the worst crazy of all!

WtR

The stove is probably the most important item for winter in the village home. That is assuming that your roof is sound, your walls still standing and no one has made huge holes through the house like Swiss Cheese. The stove is what heats your home, cooks your food and boils your water for coffee and tea. The wood stove keeps Old Man Winter outside and you warm inside…

Yes it is old and yes it is not fancy. But it works and Boza and I stayed comfortable last winter, with +30 kilometer winds and -33 below zero. It got frosty… It is not the cold, it is the wind that is the killer…

I work on our websites and write Windows to Russia, as Boza lays next to me on the couch. He likes his warm spot and he can lay his head on my lap if he wants to be scratched behind the ears. Boza my buddy…

I just love these mushrooms popping up all over the place…

Boza and I live a very simple life…

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Svetochka made it here safe and sound. She is sleeping away this morning and is happy as a bug in a rug. I built a fire for her last night and it got a little warm for me, but she was happy…

We are hoping that today we get a sign from the automotive gods, that our car is ready. It is hard to be patient and so far away from our car. It is not like I can walk down the street to the local shop and say, “HI! Need any help?” The help word makes mechanics cringe and shudder. They also may get the job done faster, if they think you may come everyday, every hour, Uh; every minute, maybe even live in the shop with them and say, “HI! Need any help?” Heaven forbid trying to help… (Then again they may hurt your ass also!)

All the while you have no idea what you would even do if they said, “Yes, go grab that crescent wrench and turn on the huge propane tank valve at the dumpster area and smoke a cigarette. Please!”

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Have a nice day…

WtR