Category: Russia

Armenia is where we will be next week. Sveta and I cannot wait. We are going to spend a week in Armenia seeing the sights and looking at the cradle of civilization. Sounds cool huh?

Just walking this morning and looking at life in the Moscow area called Korolyov….what a wonderful city. I am lucky to be an American living in such a beautiful city within Russia…

Last image is of a woodpecker. Right in the middle of Korolyov, Russia. He did not care as I stood and watched him. He was busy digging bugs out from a tree and ignored my presence. When I got done looking at him, I turned and found three more people watching him also. That is the way it is in Moscow, everyone ignores everything, until someone stops and looks at something…

Even in a department store, you look at something and people flock to see what you have found. It has taken me awhile, but I am getting use to it after all these years…

I have found it comforting that the Russian spend lots of money on parks. Parks are very important to Russians and in cities such as Korolyov and Moscow they are also very important. People need a place to escape the masses of humanity, and lots of parks help…

Today I sat in a new park, no one was around for it was Saturday morning and a squirrel, a sparrow and a stray dog, all came by to say hi. I growled at them and they laughed as they went to other exciting things to see…

I guess Big Bear is not scary to some…

WtR

It is bewildering watching many of the US Americans, they do not understand and or not able to comprehend and or accept that China is no longer interested to deal in anyway with them, China found and has been shifting exports for years now, knowing that the USA is a bully in the sandbox…

Additionally, the US Americans believe if the USA stops buying from China, China will go bankrupt. Not knowing their (USA) buying share of the Chinese export market is and was only more or less, 16% of all China exports to the world…

Propaganda has wantonly overwhelmed the USA masses…

Effectively, the US Education System, mass media, Gov ruling the peasants, like everything else interposed within the USA borders, is extremely superficial in nature. Which I suppose is a perfect match for the people in the US…

Exceedingly self-perceived intellectuals juxtaposed to land whales…

I think it, hear it, see it and thus it is true…

WtR

I started it as an experience before I left for the Tiny Russian Village. Sveta took over the care and she did a great job. I transplanted it. I bought a fresh new pot and potting soil and now we have an Avocado Tree growing…

I think Sveta did a wonderful job of taking care of our new baby…

WtR

I love to walk in the morning, after getting Svetochka on to the train to Moscow…

I inevitably pass by a huge bakery that produces bread fresh daily, actually 24 hours a day and in the morning the smell of cinnamon rolls is overwhelming….the image is of just the storefront and the bakery is about two or even three blocks long and the same deep…

хлеб – (khleb) is bread… Look at the sign above the door of the green entrance in the image below…

I swear that just walking by and breathing the fresh baked odors wafting in the air is enough to gain a kilo, as you walk by…

Thus, I have to walk faster and farther just to work off the smell of those cinnamon rolls…

Regardless, I have to stand there and breath for a minute. They are truly heavenly…

WtR

We got hot water and I am going to take twenty showers… 😉

WtR

It’s the Famous Happening – Shut the Hot water Down

Well I just get back from being in the Tiny Russian Village and was looking forward to that hot shower. You know? Water comes out of the tub shower head and you get to scald all the months of TRV dirt off your body!

But I must have upset the hot water gods….we do not have hot water and I will grumble and mumble about taking a cold shower. I could have and did take cold showers in the Tiny Russian Village. In fact, if it rained, I went out and showered that way. Kinda hard to run out here in Moscow and shower in the rain, with 20 zillion people all over the place…

But hey, look at the bright side of things. I have running cold water and do not have to pour cold water over my head from a bucket, or jump in the river and or fall in the lake, just to get clean. I can stand in modern day Moscow and take a cold shower… 😉

It should be back on in the next few days?

WtR

PS: Just have another cup of coffee and all will be fine…

I realize that it is scary at times to look around and focus on what is happening farther than the end of our nose. I am pretty sure that God did not hand out brains to us humans to waste that marvelous organ of intricacy, upon only contemplating our bellybuttons…

Therefore, while 80% of the human race is wishing to be left alone to languish away their existence on earth. 20% of us humans are conceiving, conniving, contriving, convincing and convicting “our existence” to just live in peace and harmony…

Do you ever stop and wonder why such a small percent of the human race has such power to destroy the balance of life on earth?

WtR

The time spent in TRV (Tiny Russian Village) was simply too fast, to short and too busy…

Now we have to gear up and get ready for Armenia. Time to make an important trip to…

Armenia Cradle of Civilization

Then when we get back…

We have to get me to the doctors and get checked up…

I have several spots on my arm and face that do not heal and it is looking like it is time to remove them and check for cancer and issues. Probably skin cancer cause by sun over many years of constant exposure, as I work outside as much as possible. That has been most of my life…

Sammy the Volga is runny and driving like a new car. Sveta helped and we installed our homemade shackles on the rear suspension, we installed a new idler arm, we greased the whole front end, we installed a new clutch slave cylinder and a dozen other little things got done…

We got the rear suspension to sit less than a centimeter difference in height and that changed the complete way the car handled, drove and increased safety. The idler arm was the last of a long list of parts that I installed in Sammy’s front end. It should have been installed sooner, as I see some excessive toe tire wear at the front tires. Kinda made me upset at myself. Finally found an excellent grease gun and with Sveta’s help, I was able to grease the ball joints good and that made me happy…

The only thing that I see, feel and hear that is wrong with Sammy is that the gearbox is getting worn out. I would say that Sammy has basically 400,000 to 450,000 kilometers on her and not all the wear has been under ideal conditions…

Since Sammy the Volga is family, we treat her like family and get her worn out parts fixed, rebuilt and or replaced. I with Svetochka’s help try to do 90% of the work ourselves and I am dusting off the memories of rebuilding gear boxes in my past youth and flexing my ancient muscles to get ready for dropping the gearbox and either rebuilding it myself. Or finding a replacement and we will install it…

Right now Sveta is looking into the little known fact that a Volga 5 speed gearbox can be replaced with a GAZ Gazelle – maybe??? (truck) 6 speed gear box and that will give us a granny gear to help around the Tiny Russian Village…

We were very successful in what got done in the Tiny Russian Village. Between two homes I stayed busy and even lost 7 kilos of weight, I think mainly in my brain, but all is good as brains are overrated anyway…

I will most likely stay at least a few more weeks at the TRV, before winter hits hard and vicious, but we got done what had to get done and all I really have to do at this point is spend a weekend and winterize the homes…

I am tired and will end this wandering thought session…

WtR

I put up one big jar of Butter Plum Jam, that is for Svetochka and her sweet tooth. She then decided to pick purple plums and can then as jam and give them to family…

Yesterday, I did two jars and nothing is more satisfying than to have the lids show a vacuum has been successful. I do two jars at a time because that is the only way to be assured that I do it right. Not much room to work in and unless I want to build a fire outside, I have to limit myself to the size of pans that work with our stoves. Thus my favorite sauce pan, will hold enough plums and sugar to make one liter of perfect plum jam…

It is very simple, actually too simple and no one will accept that I have no issues with jam like this. For you see everyone wants to have a secrete ingredient, be it a pinch of vanilla, lemon juice and or grandma’s secrete spice. Jam is nothing but fruit and sugar…

Pectin is not needed with plums. They have enough pectin built in….no added water is necessary either. They have enough moisture to make a fine plum jam…

Take one kilo of pitted plums…
Take one kilo white sugar…

Put in a sauce pan to hold it all and coo it down. Boil it (do not burn it and that means stir it constantly)….turn off the stove and remove the pan from the heat….later (20 minutes of so), put back on the stove and boil it again….This time simmer it and stir it for a good half hour….Get it thickened by boiling off the moisture to your happiness level (remember it will thicken as it cools also)….Take off stove and cool again. Check after cooling to see if you are happy with thickness?

Do this up to five times, before calling it finished. I do mine three times and it makes a very thick jam. Always go one to one: one kilo of pitted plums to one kilo of pure sugar…

Then eat it without canning (Sveta has a cup full- yum yum) and or can it, to long term store it…

I will not tell you how to can it. I have my own way and it works. Grandma taught me how to can food. Jams and jellies are the easiest to can and enjoy later…

But you said Sveta had Butter Plum Jam?

Okay you got me…

Kilo of yellow (Not purple? Okay use purple, but yellow are better for this.) plums, kilo of sugar and a big chunk of butter (real butter) to taste. Cook the same and add one more cooking session, and you will find yourself with, not apple butter, but plum butter and toast will love your plum butter. You just might like it also?

Plum Butter is more of a thick spread and there are not chunks of plums in it. It is all cooked into a thick smooth paste. The thickness is how long you simmer and remove moisture from the product…

Lets see: two more jars today and I will have the family covered with delicious plum jam…

WtR

Svetochka is taking pictures, as she is the best between her and I. She has patience, where as I don’t. She has little fingers, I don’t. She is calm and collected, I am not. 😉

I am a bear and my sweetpea is my compliment. It is always nice when she comes around to temper me and my actions…

We will leave for Moscow this weekend and I still have things to do, yet what has been accomplished has be almost a miracle at times…

I spent two weeks with a very bad infection, prostatitis, I ended up having to take NISE and that messes me up. It did help a whole bunch with peeing though and I struggled through it all. Sveta came with antibiotics and in two days it was kicked out and good. I will take the antibiotics for a month, the prostate is very hard to get under control and it takes an extended antibiotic regimen…

We have plans for next year to have Earnest the Grand Monkey Boy as a guest. It may not happen, but he needs to spend a month with the bear to get a different outlook on life and get some hands on real world…

We will see and at the same time we are trying to get Sveta’s mom to come down and next year we hope that both her and Earnest will come to stay…

I got the place (both places) ready and cross your fingers…

We are getting ready to spend a week in Armenia. We can’t wait and then come closer to winter it will be time to get to the Red Sea and soak up the sunshine and saltwater. Maybe two weeks at the Read Sea in Egypt?

Russians have the most supercalifragilisticexpialidocious tour packages to so many places around the world. Just a few hundred dollars takes a person for a week in fantastic places…

Time to go. I have much to do and the least of all is cook breakfast for my sweetpea…

Later today, we will grill a huge carp and and and Yummy!

WtR