Year: 2016

Father Pavel came to the Tiny Russian Village yesterday and they put up a cross in a field…

Oh yes, the note on the cross talks about a cemetery for the monastery from the old days. It talks about male monks, but I know that the monastery was a female monastery?

No says Svetochka, “They talk about female monks cemetery and it talks that male monks put this cross in memory cemetery of female monks and their abbess Evseviya.

Oh well okay, I still told Svetochka that there was a cemetery up top of the village. She never understood how I know this, but I do and maybe the wandering souls will find peace in the fact that they have finally removed the homes that were built on top of it. I also know that several Saints were buried in this cemetery…

Looks like the Orthodox Church has reclaimed this piece of land and pulled it back into the monastery fold. That is good, but the guy living across from the cemetery seems to be unhappy. I doubt anyone realized that a cemetery was actually located here, inside the village borders. Everyone thought that it was only down by the pine forest, in the valley….This is a church cemetery from the olden days…

WtR

Vova stopped by first thing this morning, he has been waiting for Svetochka to leave and now I get to have a Vova a day to keep the doctor away. I pulled a bad tooth for him, I guess he was waiting for Sveta to leave to have me help him. We tied a nylon fishing line around it and I yanked it out. It was loose and ready to come out, it also gave him terrible troubles. Three shots of vodka and a hard yank did the trick. Damn tooth was long and now he has a trophy to show everyone… 😉

I suspect that he will hit the bottle for most of the day… Got to disinfect the mouth you know…

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Boza and I are sad today, but we will get into the swing of things. Fun time is over. Sveta is gone back to Moscow and will check on her mom and family. I am hoping that she can convince her mom to travel to the Crimea and spend some time in a sanatorium. Russians love their sanatoriums for rest and relaxation. Expensive, but full board and lots of delicious food. Also lots of exercise in a good way. The use of a sanatorium is a leftover from the Soviet times and Crimea has some great ones…

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Time to paint, cut grass and cut up firewood. I also have to keep the garden under control, being much bigger this year will make that interesting. It has been a blast having Svetochka here in the village, time to work…

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It seems this is the first time for the women in the military to march in the Victory Day Parade. Sveta was excited about this fact…

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Victory Day Parade 2016! We watched it from the computer in the village and we had hardly any issues with internet…

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Got to go and get to work….Will take pictures soon of what is happening around the village…

WtR

The Tiny Russian Village has one thing that is definitely in abundance; Mosquitoes…

Water sitting everywhere from all the winter snow melt and recent rains, means sitting water for growth of mosquitoes. The frogs are doing their best to eat them, but the swallows are just now starting to come home for the summer and they are not up to speed yet. Thus without our wonderful swallows eating the demon mosquitoes. We are being slaughtered by the little devils…

Last night they gathered up on the window screen of the only open window of the village home and after they became a blanket thick enough to stop air flow. I sprayed DEET at the window in a cloud of mosquito death and they either flew quickly or died in a huge pile on the outer window sill. Contrary to popular belief, DEET when sprayed directly upon a mosquito, kills that mosquito dead as as door nail and fast….Maybe it is something else in the spay I use, but all the spray I buy in Russia kills them dead and makes me happy. It is DEET, I have used DEET even in the deep dark jungles. I know what DEET is and it did the same in those damn dark jungles…

But I know; DEET kills nothing and thus, I am an idiot as usual, as I spay the stuff and keep me from becoming a pin cushion. I when using the outhouse, play a game of shoot the mosquito. Since even spaying first and waiting for the fog to clear, does not stop the vast numbers of demons. I spray any mosquito that tries to fly in to say hello. They drop immediately and after three to four seconds of flopping on the ground. They die. Thank god!

What ever works, I say…

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Svetochka goes home today to Moscow. I sad…

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Bozachka and I will be bachelors again, we have to put up the, “No Girls Allowed!” sign…

Boza and I keep the sign up when Svetochka is not here. Then when she leaves we put up our sign and keep the girls away. Not that any girls really want to bother us, but it makes us feel better and safer. For girls are mean…

Well except Svetochka…

WtR

My opinion of course, but I read the news from all over the world. I do not and refuse to isolate myself to just a western media source. I can not think of something more reprehensible than the western press. The western press is so opprobrious, that I conceivably cannot fathom how they live with themselves. Except for the fact that morals, liberty, freedom and expression have been cast out the window, as the train reverberates toward its final resting place, to be smashed into the side of a mountain or sink to the depths of the ocean blue, such as the Titanic did….And they do not care what the world thinks of their petty minded ignorance, of all around them. As they twist the facts of real life to mold itself into a semblance of the needed agitprop canvases to instill the message…

The presidential game is sad; Obama bad mouthing Trump. Hillary saying she is the only hope to save the country and the world. Sanders all but lost in the democratic process. Cruz sank like a rock. Republicans are cleaved worse than a log on log splitter and the democrats are showing true colors, as corruption rivals the republican levels of graft. Looks to me that the two parties need to just become one party and quit the games of unbelief….Maybe call it, “The CRAP Party!”

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I do not know about you, but I see an Obama in crash control and everything out of his mouth is either; he saved us all including the world, or his actions did not cause that! Pass the Buck Obama, Pass the Buck….Sad…

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The USA has been allowed to push herself against a brick wall and now she is unable to raise interest rates and she can not afford the destruction of more Quantitative Easing (QE). I watch Russia with 11% key rates right now and America at? .05%! Yippy Skippy! Russia has tools and America has an empty pot to spit in…

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One thing that has happened in America is that propaganda has finally reached a peak of beyond legibility. It is no longer clear where the propaganda ends and the truth begins, because so many lies have been told about so many people, places and things. That we have lost the ability to even know if our government is telling the truth about even a simple thing. Everything that comes from the USA government is now subject to immediate scorn….Even the past endeavors are subject to disbelief…

This is the worst thing that we have done to ourselves, we have not only ruined our future for us, we have tried to ruin the future for the world, the whole world. All due to shortsighted prospects and actions…

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I guess the best way to look at America is this; We are shipping LPG to Europe in huge special tankers. All the way across the ocean, far far away from home. We have priced this gas at a huge loss to ourselves and our country, just to spite others in the world and we think we are cool for doing it. We are shipping our limited resources out, as we buy resources to use ourselves and we circle the drain getting closer and closer to the sucking sound…

Why are we shipping resources that are really in limited supply in America, yes they are, and not utilizing those resources to help Americans get ahead? Build businesses and build individual lively hood at home, not try to sell our soul to the world and hurt us back home. Sorry but Fracking is short term and the results should have been used to keep our energy needs low in cost. Low in cost for the long term, not just trying to sway an election process..

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Ever wonder why we as Americans have no say about our resources and no ability to benefit from the abundance of said resources? I see Greed as the factor and our resources in our country need to have a say so by the people of that country…

Like I said, “My opinion of course,” but this hold true to any country and I feel Russia should consult her people, so this is not just a one sided thing in my mind. I just have stronger feelings about the waste that America does…

WtR

Just some images of the Tiny Russian Village place we live…

Today we need to finish the garden and goof off…

WtR

Had to take a pain killer last night. Worked too much, Dug too much, walked too much, planted too much, hugged Svetochka too much and had to drag Vova’s Niva across a field to jump start it. Just too much in one day, but happiness is abound and I feel like singing like a lark this morning. Now if I could just sing!

We have half the garden in, the strawberry patch is done, the irises are done, a mint grass patch for tea time is done and the tomatoes are in and covered with old bottomless buckets. I checked the new fir tree this morning and after checking the T-rose; I declare all is good in the Tiny Russian Village…

Svetochka is sleeping, Boza has been walked and is sleeping again and I am sitting here drinking coffee, taking my heart pills and writing an article for today…

Today we will finish planting the garden. We will put in beets, carrots, sweet peas, turnips, spinach, rutabagas and tend to the newly planted potatoes. Yesterday we planted some Blue Eyed Potato seeds and they truly have bright blue sprouts coming out of the eyes…

Over forty potato plants put in and the garden is looking good. I will be posting images as the garden develops. In fact I will post all the gardens as they develop, looks like I will be running around a watering a bunch… 😉

This year the chickadees have decided the yard is a good place to be and as I worked the garden, these little souls grabbed worms and grubs from the freshly turned ground. I would ignore them and they grabbed and ran, as I worked. They also are using the bird bath that I made last year and are a bunch of happy critters…

Birds are my pest control and I encourage as many birds as possible to come on in…

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A few days ago, Sveta and I built a brick BBQ grill. It is just a small stacked walls of broken bricks and last night we had shashlik and it was oh so good. I built the fire and Svetochka cut up the chicken. The grill worked perfect and now we do not have to have a flimsy metal grill (into the trash it went.) We will get some concrete and I will disassemble and mortar together the bricks later. It was perfect and a perfect way to end a day….Bozachka thought it was the best thing also and guarded the grill like a real watch dog as the shashlik cooked… 😉

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Oh yes and you all have a nice day…

WtR

I think that the image of a walking burger is so appropriate for Moscow and what I think about Moscow. If I saw that burger walking around the Tiny Russian Village, there would be a war. I would stomp that burger and run it out of town. Somehow it just seems normal in Moscow, but is that real life and is promoting burgers good for us?

Yesterday Svetochka and I planted, a bush style spruce tree, strawberries, a T-rose, moved an iris bed, planted two pear trees and went to the Big Village to get food. Today we need to get some more strawberry plants, if possible, start digging up the main garden (called a kitchen garden in Russia,) then I need to get out the chainsaw and weed eater and start cutting things up…

Svetochka planted her first gardens and flower beds! 🙂 I did not realize that she had never really planted much of anything and I taught her to make brick borders around some areas and we planted some flowers and stuff. I had a happy Sveta as she realized that she could do it and be successful. I forget that Sveta is a city girl, born, raised and infused with Moscow. It just seems strange that they have this perfect spot in nature, these city folks, that I love so dearly. Yesterday, I saw an awaking, as Sveta got in touch with nature and saw that plants can be moved and cared for. Svetochka is just the perfect girl and wants to learn all the time. I am a lucky guy…

The apple trees are in bloom, the cherries are in bloom, the yearly delicious asparagus is just popping up, the grass is growing like a weed, the peonies are a foot tall and the Tiger Lilies are all reaching for the sun…

Boza and I got up at around 4 a.m. and walked. He is sleeping as is Sveta, as I write this post. I let them sleep as long as they want. I drink my coffee and by the second cup I will be done and outside working. I have to start digging the main garden. Got to get the tomatoes in and potatoes. Then we will see what seeds we have and decide what we will plant. I am thinking carrots, beets, garlic, onions and various grasses for seasonings…

I rewrote a Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, and John Denver song that I love and it fits so well to how I feel about the Tiny Russian Village…

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“Take Me Home, Village Roads”

Almost heaven, Russian Village, Deep Green Valley, Para River.
Life is old there, older than the trees, younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze.

Village roads, take me home to the place I belong.
Russian Village, Babushka mamma, take me home, Village roads.

All my memories gather round her, farmer’s lady, stranger to the city sky.
Dark and dusty, howl of the wolf, misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye.

Village roads, take me home to the place I belong.
Russian Village, Babushka mamma, take me home, Village roads.

I hear her voice in the morning hour, she calls me, it reminds me of my home far away.
And driving down the road I get a feeling that I should have been home yesterday.

Village roads, take me home to the place I belong.
Russian Village, Babushka mamma, take me home, Village roads.

Village roads, take me home to the place I belong.
Russian Village, Babushka mamma, take me home, Village roads.

Take me home now, Village roads,
Take me home now, Village roads.

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I am so glad to be back home. My soul has found its home and it does remind me of the home far far away in my childhood and growing up. Sometimes we have to wander away from the past to find the future and gather up the past, even if it is just memories of a time gone by!

WtR

What else can be said?

The village, a bike and the sabaka!

Svetochka takes wonderful images. This is her idea of a perfect world…

WtR

You watch as the US tries the same games in Russia as they successfully did in other countries. Russia is not other countries and Russia is stable. I see a backlash upon the US and it is growing…

I see fear in the making within the US administration. Wake up people and drive that fear home against the US government…

America us unstable and ripe for a legitimate coup…

WtR

To make the presidential Easter cake:

• 450 g wheat flour
• 130 g butter
• 14 g dry yeast
• 10 g vanilla
• 150 g raisins (soaked in brandy)
• 180 g sugar
• 10 g salt
• 60 g candied fruit
• 9 ml cognac
• 45 ml milk

Grab a bowl – Pre-soak the candied fruits and raisins. Grab another bowl – put in flour, yeast, vanilla, sugar, salt, and milk. Knead the mixture to make the dough and then knead in the melted butter. Take soaked raisins and candied fruit (leave the cognac and brandy with the fruit,) and add to the dough. Knead the dough again and the finished dough should be left in a warm place for 2 — 2.5 hours and it should increase in size by 2.5 times…

If you follow the recipe correctly, you should have a 1 kg of Easter cake. Yes, you can cut it up and share…

WtR