Year: 2016

In about an hour I have to go turn off the well. I allowed the water levels to drop to a lower than normal level and told everyone when I would fill the wells again. Therefore, I am filling the wells and the mosquitoes and rain are and is thick. Going to have to take a antihistamine this morning. I have dozens of bites…

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I woke at 3 a.m, my blood sugar levels were in the 4 range and when that happens, I can not sleep. I got up and started water for coffee, then Boza opened his eyes and said, “Since you woke me up! Lets walk!”

So we went to fill the wells and Boza takes this job very seriously. He leads the way and clears the paths of deadly kitties and frogs. Good to have a body guard, but he is not able to do anything about mosquitoes and I need a body guard for them. 🙂

Therefore, in an hour, we will go turn off the well!

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I received about a two kilo carp yesterday, cleaned it and froze it for when Svetochka comes. She should be here on the 12th of August! Yippy. I will slit in half length wise and we will have two meals from it. I have a new way to cook the carp and will try it out when she is here… Of course Boza will get the head of the carp…

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Not much to say, except, “Boza and I watching the birds!”

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Yesterday, I ate twenty strawberries from the patch. It is a constant producer and they are so good. The patch is in its first year and next year it will show its stuff…

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The rutabagas are getting huge. The beets are now finally medium sized and we will have at least a hundred pounds of potatoes. Carrots are getting perfect and we have a bunch, to say the least….

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I am drying another load of apples and this time, I put cinnamon and nutmeg on them. Oh My! You should smell the outer room. I just drool when I come and go from the home. 😉

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Now this is the simple and profound truth. We do need to grow up and become humans, we have the ability, but do we have the care?

Gotta go and turn off the well…

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Wells are full!

One last thought today; When all the churchies as I call them, came up the hill. A little boy was mad at his parents. He decided that kicking on our gate is the answer to life and tried to kick our gate to death. I was patient as they went up the hill and waited and watched. The parents did nothing, they did not even look at the kid. There was two more kids who were calm, but this boy was an animal. Then they came back down the hill…

The boy decided to start kicking again, he kicked at the gate so hard, that it flew open. It broke a board and I had had enough. I walked over to the fence, as he was kicking the gate again and looked at the parents. They tried to look at the sky and ignore what was happening. The kid looked at me and as if to tell me, “He will do what he wants!” Kicked the gate again…

I growled and said in my bear like voice. Nyet (NO!) and pointed down the hill. I did not say it nicely as in nyea or nye! Nor did I say it with a thank you after words. I said, “NYET!”

What happened next is hilarious and very sad…

The parents ran….The boy stood looking at me and as if his dad would help him….turned around and found his parents….hightailing it down the hill. Two other kids were even farther than the parents…

The little boy turned and looked up at me with eyes as big as 2 ruble coins and realized that his mom and dad had abandoned him. But he found out that he was the fastest one in the family, as he put on the afterburners and was at the bottom of the hill, before the others…

It was funny, but, it also made me realize that some people do not have what it takes to be a parent. Not because they are churchies in my eyes, but because they do not have the protection gene within their bodies. Self preservation is utmost…

I told you I am a big man and a grouchy bear! Don’t kick my fence people! And keep your kids under control… 🙂

WtR

Also around 2 p.m. Father Pavel is bringing someone by to see me?? I will see what that is about later today…

I wrote the above link and quote yesterday!

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I went to bed thinking and I thought in my dreams and I woke thinking and I am still thinking; In fact….I must grab another cup of coffee and sit outside this morning and think some more….I will be back…

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I think a bunch, but, I think on my feet 99% of the time. Once in awhile, I have to stop and contemplate things. Those are dangerous times! When I have to stop all activities and mull over what I experienced. Mulling is defined with me as, “When I must deeply understand something, I mull over it!” When black and white as an answer does not fit the situation…

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Yesterday I met the ???? (I was told in English he was a Bishop!) His name was Matthew (Yes, he is a bishop.) and he allowed me to call him Matt. “Ματταθίας” (Mattathias), was probably one of the most intelligent men I have met. He had spent six years studying in the UK and was very fluent English. In fact it was to me as he said to him, to speak English and converse was a tremendous pleasure. Never much chance to use English in his line of work, is how I understood it… 😉

Mathew was the top Orthodox? Blockquote below is directly from Orthodox Wiki…

Those of the major orders are the bishops, priests, and deacons, the same offices identified in the New Testament and found in the early church. Bishops include archbishops, metropolitans, and patriarchs. Priests (also called presbyters or elders) include archpriests, protopresbyters, hieromonks (priest-monks) and archimandrites (senior hieromonks). Deacons also include hierodeacons (deacon-monks), archdeacons, and protodeacons.

Now I become lost for I can not tell you the actual title of the gentleman I met. In fact I am confused as to what status Father Pavel is in the ranks? I believe Father Pavel is a priest and he is over our monastery, but I am asked to call him Father Pavel. Just as Bishop Matthew told me to call him Matt! (Yes, Father Pavel is a priest.)

We exchanged phone numbers at his (Matt) insistence and I am glad he insisted. For I realized later how profound everything was that happened to me yesterday. Surreal is how I describe it all and definitely not in a bad sense…

Maybe he will comment as to the positions within the Orthodox? He wanted the address to this site and I know he will be looking at it. Windows to Russia is a vast database of Russian knowledge. The monastery and the Tiny Russian Village is and has become an intricate part of the blog…

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I am not going into deep discussion about what was said and what we did. But, I will say that; I experienced a Orthodox church service, I sat at the table with the Orthodox priests and Bishop, I had tea and food with them, they presented me gifts, we walked around the bell tower inside and we sat and talked for several hours about various issues and other things related with the village, monastery and the world…

Oh and a tidbit of information; We do not say and or call Jesus, just Jesus: I am confused at this. For I used the term Jesus and the priests laughed, not making fun laugh, but still they were amused.  They tried to explain what term to use to call him, and it was explained that they do not just use Jesus. It was not a bad thing, but it was something that I realized, different about religious upbringing…

It was a moment of enlightenment for me and I truly think that Matt was sincere and very glad to meet me. He wants to get together again later in the year. He understands that I must leave Russia several times a year. This was something that I sensed he contemplated with ideas known to him only at that time. We both had underlining expressions, that were passed as markers of future endeavors and I realized that he placed my position in the Tiny Russian Village as important and my desires to learn about the monastery as a benefit to the monastery…

As I have said before; I have become a Russian Villager in a very Tiny Russian Village and a very Tiny Russian Monastery…

I will be talking more about this in the future, today I still have thinking to do and I still have some soul searching to do. I have talked about the Old Soul of Russia and yesterday, I met it face on as I walked and talked with the entourage of Orthodox priest surrounding their Bishop!

It was sincerely an important point in my life and as I have found out, Russia is full of these points of necessities to growth of the inner soul. This is something that has to be experienced and not something that can be given to you by only words…

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I have also made it clear that Russia is a country of intellects; yesterday I had my thoughts confirmed about the intellectualism of Russians. Orthodox clergy and upwards are highly intelligent and very insightful. It made me feel good to be amongst them and while maybe I should have felt out of place, I felt comfortable sitting with these men from the Orthodox Church!

I saw the interesting interaction between the Orthodox Church and her people that attend the services. I call it the “flock” and they are strong believers in Orthodoxy. Once again, it is something to experience and words will not tell the tale of how the interaction between the two entities of groups. Absorption, listening and gathering data is the only way to assimilate such an encounter!

Have a nice day. I have more thinking to do…

WtR

Yesterday, I was so busy and could not get it all done. I could not even get apples cut to dry! The Tiny Russian Village was demanding and today is the same…

I dug a hole and set a huge fence post, finished setting the gate I built, put a bird feeder out (on the huge fence post,) moved the bird bath I made last year, dug two other fence posts, met with Father Pavel, gathered supplies from the Auto Magazine (that comes on Friday,) cleaned out the wells to fill today, walked Boza seven times, took a bunch of pictures and did about twenty other things, plus ate twenty strawberries…. Yummy…

The fence I install was a green wire fence. I decided that this inner piece would look good in the yard, green in color. It would blend better. It cost more than regular chain link fencing, but someone sent a donation to help build a shower house and new fencing. Thank you, to that someone! 😉

Right now I am fighting a false hypo; The false hypo is the feeling of being hypo, which, while it is uncomfortable, is not a crisis, and is, in fact, a well-understood phenomenon that can happen if your fasting blood sugar has been more than 20 mg/dl over true normal levels for any period of time.

Now that is all good and well, but tell that all to my body and my splitting head and then you will see that my body says eat, eat and eat lots of candy! LOL…

I call it, “Cravings of sugar!” and you have to just push through it!

Only when it gets in the low threes, do I start to worry, but I am learning to adapt and I keep a Little Bear in my head, with his wooden sword to fight the sugar demons. It works…

I try to keep learning everyday and I have learned that at one point, my body will do its best to adjust itself, especially now that I have lost so much weight. But, sometimes the Little Bear stays real busy and he likes donuts for payment!

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I did a ton of laundry this morning all ready and Boza is giving me those puppy dog eyes to try to get me to walk him again. Therefore, soon we will walk for the fourth time. I will finish this article and see if he has gone to sleep yet. We have walked kilometers already doing the wells and such. And yes it is good for me, for soon the sun will bake the earth and we will hide. Also around 2 p.m. Father Pavel is bringing someone by to see me?? I will see what that is about later today…

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Coffee Thought on the presidential issues:

Nobody is really paying attention at this point.  It is interesting to me that the main stream media is floating stories about Trump dropping out or being replaced…

Elections are a pressure valve, an trompe l’oeil of control and competence placement. We wait for the knight in shining armor who never arrives, because there is no knight and the armor is not shiny anymore, simply put, they could never show up to extricate the situation we are in, given the methodology that is in place. Non-corrupt people do not understand and or blinkered by fear, if they did, they soon become corrupt when they arrive at the place that they qualify for candidacy. For noncompliance is a ticket to non-candidacy. – Kyle Keeton

Have a nice day…

WtR

I sip a cup of coffee at 2:30 a.m. and allow my sugar levels to get stabilized, before Boza and I walk this morning. I woke in a daze and immediately took my blood sugar, 3.2 and dropping. I have finally worked my system down and fought through months of false hypos. But when it gets this low, my body wakes me and does not allow me to sleep again. It tells me to get some carbs going…

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Some people asked about the water tower and therefore, I am standing in the shadow of the top of the bell tower, looking at the water tower. It is almost to the woods at the back of the village. We live at the front of the village and Boza and I walk to fill the wells several times a week to that tower. Not far, for Boza and I walk many kilometers a day, everyday, all the time! Round trip from our home is about one kilometer to the tower…

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Boza and I were out and it was still very dark. We heard a noise and Boza said, “Monster?” I agreed and said, “Yes, Monster!” So we ran back into the house and hid! We heard the monster leave and now we are safe! 😉

We are such brave guys!

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Vova and Mia! Vova does not have a picture of him and Mia together. I took several, this is an okay image. I have a better one, but we will save that for later. Svetochka is going to print it on our Moscow home printer and she is thinking about having a T-Shirt imprinted with it also. Vova and Mia are bachelors too! Well Mia is a girl, but that counts also, as she is a bachelorette…

Yesterday, I ate lunch at Vova’s. We had spicy chicken wings, salad and chai. I noticed an area on his wall where he reserves only for family pictures and now amongst these pictures, are the images that we have made prints of for him over the years. There was one empty slot left and I realized that this image of Vova and Mia would be there. Vova first, when he gets a new picture like this, he takes it everywhere with him and shows people. The picture I took last month of him and his antlers has finally found a spot on the wall. Now it is time to give him a new image to show the world…

Oh and when I look at the village and pictures I take, my mind always centers back upon my past and my family from the Ozarks and Smokey Mountains; Hillbillies!

Hee Hee

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Something that has hit me hard mentally, painfully and expensive, is testing for blood sugar. There are many days I have to do it twenty times of more and test strips are terribly expensive. But as Svetochka says, “Just do it!” and I do!

I work so hard at times, that my sugar will bottom out, yet the day before, it was normal, under the same conditions. At times it rules my life and that is an issue with me…

Sveta is trying to see if Russia has a bloodless tester. I know that there is such a thing out there, but if it can not be found, I will keep poking away. It is a necessity and I accept it…

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Time to walk Boza, he giving me those sad puppy eyes, it is light out now & no monsters around and Boza is making dog talk at me! Urumph oof harrumph!

WtR

Boza and I spent the last two hours filling the wells. It is interesting for me when I turn on the pump. I stand on the path and wait after I turned the pump on and hear the buzz of electricity. I wait for the tale tale sign of pinging and booming. Much less noise in cooler weather, than when it is blistering hot, but the well talks to you and it tells you that either everything is all right, or something amiss…

So I stood silent and Boza knows to stand and be patient. Then we both hear the gurgle sound and a noise that we call, “It Awakes!” At that point Boza and I look at each other and know we can go walk some more. The beast in the village has woke up to give us its life blood and soon we will have full wells again. This noise of gurgling is a comfortable noise now. For with out it does not come the next noises and no water will flow to keep the village happy…

We start walking away and in another minute or so, the expansion and contraction of the big water tower starts. Yes we have a water tower and that is the first sign that the village had full pressured water to all the homes, or at the least to each well. Total of six wells is what I have found, but only two function these days. Plus a broken line in a field, that gurgles happily when I fill the wells… 😉

Thus, the water tower talks to us as we walk away and I imagine it says, “Good Morning Sir!” Or in Russian, “Dobroye utro!” I say, “Dobroye utro” back over my shoulder, as we walk away to do other things for awhile….Such as write a post like this one…

Sometimes on a particularly hot morning, I can even hear the tower talking to the whole village as people wake up. It says, “Boom, bang, whup and gurrrrrrgle!”

It talks and tells everyone to get to the wells, for some fresh water!

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I have a roll of fencing to finish the inside fence and now I have to scrounge up two fence posts. I have ideas and will probably cut some posts next week or this weekend. Not today, for it is raining cats and dogs and Boza and I have been wet enough this morning. Want to stay wise & healthy, forget the wealthy part!

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Wild storm yesterday; The Brown House across the street from us got hit hard by wind, so in between storms. I grabbed another neighbor and we fixed a huge tent they had, that had blown almost out into a field and possibly would have ended up in the lake. The ropes had been snapped holding it tied down…

There is only two women and four kids there right now. The men were all in Moscow, grandpa had to get tests run for his health issues…

I got a thank you, cup of chi and a cookie for helping. Women are smart, satisfy a guys stomach and he is happy!

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The last three or four days have taken a toll on me and today, I must settle down and rest. I can feel it in every part of my body. It is good to stay busy and exercise, but I must remember that I had six heart attacks and that is that!

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Something very interesting; Boza and I both had serious health issues growing on us in Moscow. It was a place that neither of us could get totally better, though it was a 100 times better than in America. The village has helped me tremendously, but it has also helped Boza. Boza had teeth getting loose in Moscow, I was looking today, at his dismay, at his teeth and every single tooth that was loose, is now fully tightened up and healthy again. He also has some issues with arthritis, but as me, we live with it. General health for both Boza and I are much better, in most cases multiples of times better. That is worth its weight in gold…

Therefore, you can call my issues being better mental, but Boza, not a lot of mental to affect things. Life is healthier and better all the way around…

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Oh I am a grouchy bear!

My Samsung tablet literally blew up. It was old, but still! I was using it, as I do many times a day and it started to smoke. Instantly, my mind went to an article I read about a man whose iPhone blew up in his pocket…

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/mobiles/sydney-bike-rider-gareth-clear-left-with-thirddegree-burns-after-iphone-exploded-20160801-gqirdx.html

So like a nut, I ran out the door with a smouldering, hissing, popping and hot as hell Samsung Tab 2 P3110! Then I threw it into the first thing I saw; a half bucket of rain water! 🙁

That solved the burning issue, as all became quiet and destroyed the tablet the rest of the way. Now, it is not like the tablet would be any good anyway. It was fried, but I wanted to stop it from flaming out…

Oh I am a grouchy bear!

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I really have to thank Svetochka for posting for me the other day when the internet was down. I think she did a great job and really wish I could get her to post every so often. I like the way she thinks and writes. She really has good command of English and I respect her for that….Plus she can even speak Russia… 😉

Plus I want to thank people for several donations. It really helps…

WtR

Several days of images, since internet was down. I just tossed a few here to look at. Mainly what interests me as I walk Boza. One thing Russia has is spiders and you have to look over your shoulder all the time. Or on your shoulder, in your hair and on your nose! 😉

Good shot of a Hawk? Eagle? Not sure, but beautiful. I think a Hawk, for it was fairly close. One thing for sure, it was about half the size of Mama Eagle…

Fourth rose bloom on the T-Rose and looks like two more will bloom soon! Very successful, I would say. Next year, rose food, rose bug powder and something to try to solve the spotting fungus issue!

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Hot today, but we look for rain and cooler tomorrow. 32 degrees today, 23 tomorrow and then two days of hot again, then it cools down. By the end of the month, it will be in the teens everyday!

Weather Station is really accurate and is recording all the record rainfall…

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Bought a 10 meter roll of fencing and will finish the inner fence in the next few days. I have started the shower house and had to rebuild some crumbling fences, to do it right. I built a new gate and will be posting images soon at what I am up to…

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Svetochka is talking about coming on the 12th of August and Boza and I are happy, happy and more than happy!

Gotta go, have lots of work to do! Have a nice day!

WtR

This morning after realizing that Svetochka performed miracles, after two trips to the main office of our internet provider in Moscow and got our Tiny Russian Village Internet back on. I will be nice, because Svetochka wants me to be nice and not name who it is. They messed up and that is that and they gave our money back. The internet I have now is not as good, but very sufficient and hopefully by the time this package runs out, they will have things back in order. Svetochka is happy and therefore, I am happy as to the results… 😉 Svetochka did good!

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At 5 a.m. Boza and I were checking the wells. This is a daily job to check, because sometimes people drain them faster than other times, so Boza knows the way and we make our rounds. Well it seems that the Tiny Russian Village  people know the same way and route…

Today I got paid…

Boza and I went to the first well and all was quiet. The well was half full and so we went to the second well. At the second well was five people. I thought to myself, it must be empty and squared my shoulders and Boza and I went to meet them. Surprise…

I asked is the well okay and is water good? They all smiled and had their hands behind their backs. Then they smiled even bigger and presented me with tokens and jesters of thanks…

The same thing happened at first well as Boza and I went home. People waiting to thank me…

I walked back to our home and had twenty fresh farms eggs, a bag of candies, a chocolate bar, ten new potatoes, a dozen fat strawberries, five huge apples, a small bottle of vodka and six or seven hugs and a dozen spasibo or thank you and even a couple blagodaryu tebya! That means; I give to you and thank you… (? new term for me.)

Those who could gave from their meager supplies and those who could not, smiled and hugged me twice…

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I knew not to refuse from the gifts, for that would hurt feelings and they obviously had planned this. This was important to them. And that I fully understand, water is life and that is that…

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My arms full of gifts and Boza happily bouncing down the village road, it struck me…

Tears started to flow, for these people had just paid me for my services to the village. For over two months the village has had no water issues and Boza and I are diligent, but never expect any return on what we do. Somethings in life are necessary and those things must be done. As I have said, “Water is life and water must be available.”

We have lost touch with Reality…

I sit here and write this post and realize that I was paid one of the most important rewards and or thereof in my life, I was paid from the heart of the village people. They have no money, but they all have what is important to them and they gave…

I then wiped my eyes and looked at my bounty and realized that I was rich!

Never, has receiving my pay been so wonderful. For I realized we have lost touch with reality and think that money is the only thing that counts but, I found something worth more than all the gold in the world. Worth more than all the money in the world and worth more than all the silver in the world…

I found reality…

WtR

Hello everyone, Svetlana (Svetochka) is speaking!

I just want to say to all of you that Kyle and Boza are OK. I talk to Kyle everyday end everything is alright there in the Tiny Russian Village (TRV).

Today Kyle’s already filled the wells, driven to the Fish Village to bring some food for our villagers who does not have a car and there are a lot of such. But Kyle was especially concerned about one old babushka at the top of the village who lives now by herself. Somehow last Friday she missed the foodtrack. So Kyle brought groceries for her and everyone else.

So Kyle is busy, Boza feels OK and even George the Birdbrain is there and doing good. But they all don’t have the Internet.

Our Internet-provider (cellphone company) has some technical issues what looks like they try to steal our internet money what we just paid for the next 30 days. I don’t want to mention their name yet because they promised to solve the issue as soon as possible. We’ll see…

I am fine, in Moscow right now and trying to solve the Internet issue for our village home. Kyle promises to update you with new pictures and new stories as soon as he has Internet back.

Have a very nice day!
And we remember you… always.

Best wishes,
your Svetochka.

Third batch of dried apples will be bagged in about an hour. I have so many apples and too small of a dehydrator. I could keep four dehydrators going 24 hours a day. Nice huh? Apples for winter…

Today I will also dehydrate a row of tomatoes. This is experimental time and I would like to have tomatoes to put in soup this winter. I also will dehydrate turnips for soup. My mind is dancing with the possibilities of what I can make this Winters with all this dried food. Example: Apples can be dropped in hot tea and allowed to re-hydrate while waiting for it too cool enough to drink. Oh my, how good that sounds…

But! I will cut up another dehydrator full of apples before the day is out and get another bag of about 30 apples to use this winter. Svetochka is trying to figure out how to make long term apple juice to store also. We have thousands of apples and I am trying not to waste them…

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Too hot for this bear!

Therefore, I have to pace myself. It rains off and on during the day and the gardens are like a jungle. I have 30 turnips to munch on and they are so good. The rutabagas are getting huge, the carrots are so sweet and the tomatoes are all going to ripen at the same time. The beets are slow this year, but the potatoes are done and sitting patiently in the ground, like good potatoes should do. The beets will grow until first frost and then can be stored inside. The potatoes will be dehydrated for the most part and used for soups and such…

Going to walk the Bozachka and do it before it gets hot. Boza needs to stay indoors when it is hot. The village is fog city and we are leaving right now to look at the foggy Tiny Russian Village…

WtR

Реконструкция Тверской в рамках проекта “Моя улица” — Reconstruction of Tver in the framework of the project “My Street”

Yes, that is the Red Square in the background…

That is how to get it done and this is how I see things being done in Russia all the time. Pave a road, bring an army of equipment and men. Combine a field, bring all the combines in the whole area! Everyone helps everyone. Fix a bridge, the men live there until it is done. On and on and on…

Yesterday six combines were doing the fields across the river. It is a good sight to see…

I know the video is sped up, but seriously that is an amazing video. I love the sped up rollers. They are like insects running all over the place and there are not just one or two rolling the street, they have dozens or more…

Enjoy, I did…

WtR