Tidbit Time: Wrens…

I wrote about Wrens that stole my gate in the front….Well,I blinked my eyes twice and the babies are gone and flying all over the yard. A Wren it seems, lives on average about two years old….I guess that is better than a mouse that lives to be on average one year old?

Well there went the most used gate I have in TRV…

Breeding starts in late April, onwards. It nests in almost any type of hollow or cavity from ground level upwards, but prefers the side of a tree, a steep bank or a wall, up to a height of three metres. The nest is built by the male, as he is often polygamous, he may build a number of nests and install females in them. The nest is a stout dome structure made of leaves, grass and other plant material, which the female lines with feathers. Five to eight eggs are laid (occasionally up to sixteen). These are glossy white with very fine, dark spots. The female incubates for fourteen to seventeen days. Both parents tend the young.

Source: Wren Birds UK, Food, Nesting Habits & Facts | Ark Wildlife UK

Therefore the gate is usable again. I will watch for the signs that mamma wren may have another nest, but right now she is a busy bee and feeding the monkey birds…

Just some tidbit news and man ole man, that was fast. yet their lives are that fast….can you imagine if we only lived two years?

WtR

+2 C this morning in TRV…

I had to hand out little blankets to all the baby birds and give little coats to the mosquitoes and horseflies. Plus I had to fire up the heat for a bit…

Heck the sunflowers are all in a tissy this morning….yelling about, “Where is the sun?”

Two days ago it was 30+ C and today it almost froze and raining like crazy to boot!….guess I will go to the Big Village and get some supplies….Sammy the Volga is back and doing great….then maybe finish Mom’s wood stove…

Gotta love Russia…

WtR

Morning, noon and Night; Sunflowers tracking the sun…

I am enjoying learning about sunflowers…

We will have to wait to see if I can grow them or not. I am planning the way to support them against the high winds we have here and I know that the birds will be very happy if I am successful…

Life should be about learning and doing…

WtR

PS: Mamma and Papa Wagtail have promised to eat lots of bugs and help take care of the baby sunflowers also…

Some thoughts and Tidbits in TRV…

When I get up bright and early my sunflowers are all facing east and when I go to bed late, they are all facing west…

According to researchers only young sunflowers will follow the Sun. These flowers are following a natural circadian rhythm to receive the most light for photosynthesis. However when they mature the flowers will mainly face east. The reason for this is fairly simple, bees like warm flowers, and the flowers facing the east are the warmest.

Source: Why Do Sunflowers Follow the Sun? — The Wonder of Science

It is really cool to follow. At noon they are straight up….I almost cried as I had to thin the sunflowers. They are my babies, you know!


Something is wrong with the USA…

With 225 mass shootings by the end of May, the US is on track to have more mass shootings in 2021 than any recent year on record.

Source: The US has had 225 mass shootings in 2021 so far. Here’s the full list.

Something is really gone sour in the US society and lets just bang bang you dead, it all away…

Update: Look at this just a day later after talking about the issue…

TASS, May 30. Three gunmen opened fire on a crowd of people in Miami, Florida, killing at least two and wounding about 20 others, ABC TV channel reported citing local police on Sunday.”I am at the scene of another targeted and cowardly act of gun violence, where over 20 victims were shot and two have sadly died,” Miami-Dade police director Alfredo Ramirez III wrote on his Twitter account. “These are cold blooded murderers that shot indiscriminately into a crowd and we will seek justice. My deepest condolences to the family of the victims.”

Source: Two killed, over 20 wounded in Miami shooting – TV report – Emergencies – TASS

Really wrong and very sad…


Interesting thing happened:

I was busy and goofing off at the computer. A mosquito was bugging me and he decided that my hand was a good meal. I had forgotten about him (actually a her) and she got me. I started to swipe at her and she lifted off and started to fly away. Before I could do any damage like smash her she dropped right in front of me dead. Full and fat with my blood and dead…

I looked at her and then at my hand and as I itched, I wondered what happened?

Did my blood kill her?

Does some of the medicines I take kill her?

Maybe that is why I hardly have any issues anymore with mosquitoes?

Hmm….and no I did not feel sorry for her!


I have to answer some emails….when I find time…


I have to let the wood stove at mom’s dry one more day. So today I will mow Nikolai’s Home and wait patiently for word that our Sammy the Volga is done. They said that she will done today….yes, I know good luck on that…


Talk about a broke and weird country!

Yippy Zippy a 6 trillion dollar budget…

The US government suggests increasing taxes on corporations (from 21% to 28%) and on the wealthiest citizens

Source: Biden unveils record-high $6 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2022 – World – TASS

And yet the taxes are hardly half of that amount…

Current Revenue of the U.S. government’s total revenue is estimated to be $3.863 trillion for FY 2021. Income taxes will contribute $1.932 trillion. Another $1.373 trillion will come from payroll taxes. This includes $1.011 trillion for Social Security, $308 billion for Medicare, and $43 billion for unemployment insurance. Corporate taxes will add another $284 billion. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act cut taxes for corporations much more than it did for individuals. In 2015, corporations paid 11%, and income taxpayers paid 47%.

Source: US Federal Tax Revenue by Year

I was taught to live within your true money available….guess that does not count anymore? (Anymore? maybe for a very long time it has not counted?)


Time to mow. I have already watered everything and we have a whole bunch of beautiful multi-colored purple irises blooming. They had almost been killed off from neglect and I salvaged them. They are simply beautiful…

Now that is a pleasant sight to start the day!

WtR

TRV Mom’s Wood Stove…

Installed twelve new bricks, three heavy steel braces, four corner flat steel pieces to hold the thing together and mixed so far about 25 kilos of clay fireplace mix, good for 1600 degrees temp…

I also installed  an old car one leaf spring to help support the main body of the upper bricks. I seriously wondered if things were going to come tumbling down for a few hours, as I tore brick after brick out…

Now it has to dry for two days….then I will finish with mortar stuff and mix the plaster covering substance. Then I will mix a thin plaster whitewash and paint the whole thing. I still have about a week to get it finished, due to drying times…

I also have to rebuild the door to it and then clean everything up…

What a mess and it was in bad shape….took me six hours to get it usable again…

Recipe for mortar – 10 : 3 : 1.5 – in the order of – Sand, Calcium Aluminate cement, Fireclay. This is what I made and mixed. The clay is from our backyard, special cement from the Big Village and sand from the hole in our back yard….oh yes water!

I had been built with the wrong clay and the wrong bricks and just clay and sand was used. No cement!

WtR

Tiny Russian Village Walking Time…

 

 

 

I took a long walk yesterday and went to what is called bald mountain. It is not bald, but I am to easily believe that many many years ago it was a huge sand dune and very bald. So, I believe that is where it gets its name?

It is the highest place around and thus called a mountain by the locals…

I tried to get to the Holy Water spring, yet it was just too overgrown to get to. Too many ticks anymore…

Gods Place: A Blessed Water Source…

Gods place is being ignored…

Today, I start rebuilding Mom’s wood stove at her Tiny Russian Village Home….I will post images about the process….maybe! If anyone cares? 😉

I really like the Bug Artwork and the huge ant mound. I had to move fast around the ants….there was literally millions of them and they did not like me so close to their home…

WtR

Very simple and yet very true…

So many people like to believe what “their” media tells them regardless of it being true or not…

Just look at the mess things are right now and look at where the brunt of the information comes from that is causing the mess. Then look at who is benefiting from this information and who and what is happening. Also remember information said months ago and do not accept the new information at face value…

The biggest thing is for people to stop accepting every word being twisted by the main stream media and start thinking for themselves…

Right is right and wrong is wrong, no more no less!

Very simple and yet very true…

WtR

Mom’s Tiny Russian Village Home is painted…

This morning at the break of daylight, I started and finished the long project that I started a few weeks ago. Finally finished painting moms, Russian village home. This is the second time I painted her home since I came to Russia. The first time, I did not do a good job, too sick still from recovering from six heart attacks, a brain tumor and terrible diabetes…

Plus, having lost 50 kilos of fat….has helped a bunch in getting things done…

This time I was thorough and did a much better job. The same as I did on our home nearby, Nikolai’s home, last year…

I also finally mowed both places, including our big lot that belongs to our Nikolai’s home. I have been very busy and today, I find myself worn out. Kinda just taken it easy. I already worked 6 hours solid this morning and decided to write a post as I sipped on another cup of coffee…

I noticed that the pear trees have a hundred pears growing on them and they are too small to hold that many. Thus, in the next few days, I have to thin them down to about a dozen pears each. The trees are still way to young to hold that many pears….will break all the thin limbs off. But they are doing great for that matter…

I had a time deciding how to paint around live electrical entrance lines? I had on rubber gloves, a paintbrush stuck into a PVC pipe and taped in, rubber boots and even stood on a huge piece of wood. It is not perfect, yet it is painted…

I also am so happy to have lost weight….I can now get around on the roofs and paint everything. Last summer I could not finish Nikolai’s home for that reason, yet while I painted mom’s, I also finished our home. So yes I have been busy as a bee…

Sammy the Volga never made it home. So, it looks like next weekend we will get Sammy back. Then I can get chalk and finish the windows at mom’s home…

Next year, I need to think about roofing mom’s home and then our home the next year after. Just have to decide what roofing to use and to set aside the money for the projects. I am not sure if I can do the job anymore or not? I am getting older and not as steady as I use to be!

I think mom’s home looks really good, for I was not sure about the colors that I picked….yet they look okay!

WtR

Sammy the Volga will get a new dashboard , Nikolai Day in TRV, Sunflowers & paint…

Hopefully we will get Sammy the Volga back today?

New wiring harness and a new but used dashboard. Sammy the Volga has probably 250,000 kilometers on her and has been over some very rough roads. Not always at slow speeds, I mind you. So now, Sammy gets a interior uplift with a newer year, but used dashboard. This will allow us to have a speedometer and working tachometer again. It also solves a bunch of issues with electrical problems…

I remember a 3102 model Volga that we bought for a man in America and it had the original old dashboard replaced at that time with a modern 3110 model dashboard. Everything is interchangeable on these cars….and it is easier to just swap complete sections, instead of trying to hunt for the issue, one wire at a time…

So, swap dashboards it will be….just like we years ago & more recently swapped front ends, complete motor, drive train. Sammy has been modernized on swap at a time…


Yesterday was Saint Nikolai day in our Russian village. The monastery is named after Saint Nikolai…

A visit to the monastery of St. Nicholas – Посещение святой обители святителя Николая

So since I am called Nikolai, due to Russians seeing my name as Kolia and for friends Ki, I had no choice but to partake in the festivities. It also does not hurt that we own Nikolai’s home

Home Sweet Home

Oh and I finally got to, “Get out of Dodge”. After several locals from the monastery and TRV decided to start fighting. Of course Vova was in the middle of it all….Gotta love it and it gave me an excuse to get away from the mess…

And someone lied about the bell at the monastery? (We were told that the bell was cracked?) They rang the bell (Yes same bell!) yesterday and it is just fine….now that is what basically started the fighting yesterday and I can see why! The whole Tiny Russian Village believed that the bell was dead and it has been silent for awhile…

I myself was very thankful that the bell is okay. Yet I have to wonder what was behind the lies?

The bell tone is beautiful…


Sunflowers…

150 sunflower plants and I will wean it down to 100….Gonna be lots of chickadee food this year!

Oh and little Mrs. Wagtail tolerates me now. She peaks once in awhile at me with that beady black eye and otherwise ignores this grouchy bear. It is nice to be loved and ignored!

Love – Hate relationship, you know?


Mom’s home is a day away from being done painted. I have about two hours of work to finish the last roof eve on our home and still have the eves to do on mom’s home…

Mamochka’s home…

I also have some roof work to do on her home and then start rebuilding the brick wood stove…

If the weather cooperates? I will get it done soon!

Gotta run….too many things to do and maybe Sammy the Volga will be coming home this morning?

WtR

Sammy the Volga Cardboard Model…

Many years ago, I met online a gentleman who has become a friend. Never met, yet we still have stayed communicative off and on, all these years. It seems like it has been about 13 to 14 years now since he first commented on Windows to Russia….very few people I meet online are sincere and not playing games of some sort. This gentleman is a true person and is sincere about his actions and presence online…

He has a hobby of making cardboard models of cars that he likes and I inquired about getting a model of Sammy made….sent he images of Sammy the Volga and he has been working on her as a project. Yesterday, he sent me some images of what has been done…

I was amazed and felt excitement at the end project that is happening. You know? When you get old and grouchy? It takes special instances to stir the blood and make happy thoughts! 😉

I asked him if I could post the images that he sent and he said, “Okay”…

I have owned many cars, yet Sammy is the car that means the most to me of all that I have owned. She just is family and Sveta and I love taking trips in her. She is an old girl now, yet to us she is timeless and beautiful. I guess that is why, as we are doing right now, having more work done to her. Sammy is in the Big Village getting a new wiring harness put in. We get old and things start wearing out…

Svetochka looks at Sammy as family and I have to agree with her. You take care of family…

I will not name the gentleman and I suspect that is the way he prefers it. If not? Then he can give me what he would like to have posted when the model is finished. For I will show the end project and then we have to figure out how to get it to Russia? Safely…,I know that this is a bunch of work for him to do, even if it is a hobby for him…

Or maybe he wants to keep it for his collection?

Sometimes, there comes along a tidbit of life that grabs a spot of your old life and well, this is one of those times!

WtR