Category: Russia

This year we almost forgot about the Victory day holiday. We many times are in Moscow and get to see the parade or at least the effects of a huge parade.  This year though we are in the village and enjoying the emerging May bugs, 1000s of Lady Bugs hatching and Scissor Tail Swallows dancing in the skies. I have to say those swallows are beautiful and a deep purple with an orange breast. They eat mosquitoes like they are the greatest food on earth and thank goodness that we have so many swallows. The swallows look like purple martins in coloring, except much bigger…

So I am not going to write much about Victory day and if you want to know more just search the site and you will find many articles from the past on Victory Day…

Search “Victory Day” – Windows to Russia…

Have a good day. Sveta and I will, we are going to travel to another small village nearby and check out some new to us village roads. The great thing about these village roads is that you never know what you will come upon. I am always on the look out for old Soviet abandoned ares. They are just the “Cat’s Meow!”

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Cup of Coffee Thoughts Today:

Sometimes it gets interesting when Sveta and I take off on a vacation. Sveta is responsible for all the IBM Servers at the Gazprom Bank and when someone has an issue (and someone always does), she has to try to fix that issue even if she is thousands of miles away as we are many times on vacation…

So today has started out about normal and someone from the bank has called and she is trying to solve issues by phone. So I took the opportunity to write a post…

When she is dealing with issues like this it reminds me of my days past, as I always seemed to be working 24 hours a day at times and you never ignore a successful business, if you want to keep it successful. Sveta is now outside talking up a storm and trying to talk someone through the process of gathering the backup files and reinstalling those files that are needed. It makes me smile… 🙂

It makes me realize how wonderful these new cellphones are and the ability to deal with problems from all corners of the world. I spent most of my work life carrying a pager!  I really hated those things and they never failed to go off while you were sitting in a movie at the theater. We did not have the option of a cellphone and had to hunt down a payphone to call work and see what happened…

While in America my people would call and bother me if one of them got a hangnail. Russians do not even want to make a phone call unless it is a real emergency. So I know that unlike in my time, when I would be drawn away from a movie for a petty happening. Sveta who has the Gazprom Bank servers in her hands, has a whole different ballgame to deal with…

That is just my coffee thoughts today and later today Sveta and I are going to drive to a distant village and see what is happening there. A village so distant that we might even get in some very rough muddy roads… 🙂

If we get buried again, I will let you all know…

My Russian Gal Smiles: Even as I bury the Volga in Mud…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Sveta is reading a book, Boza is under the bed and sleeping and I am sipping a cup of  chicory with milk. Russian music is playing in the background, as it waifs in on the breeze from the neighbors place. I hear the intermittent roar of a huge electric motor as they try to fix the water fill station for the lakes and a teenage boy cruises up and down the hill on his motorcycle…

It all signals peace and quiet!

The village has lost more full time people and it looks as though there is only 3 people who live here year around. The village is full now as we are in a holiday and lots of people come to find that peace and quiet, but the village is dying and becoming a summer only place. just like the Russian dachas…

I have a dream to live here full time and I will not give up on that dream. This is one of God’s places. You know that place that we all dream of and just know that god has blessed it. That is the village “Sunshine to Freedom” to me. Why we even have a blessed water source near us and the village is part of an ancient female monastery…

Gods Place: A Blessed Water Source…

Our Village Monastery in Russia – The St. Nicholas Monastery…

I was just outside and saw that the lake is filling up with water and that means the fish farm is coming to life. Last year I fixed Sveta some carp that she really liked. I learned to cook carp from my grandma and since Russians love carp. Well it is a good thing that I like it also… 🙂

So I am going back to peace and quiet and read a book myself. I have been doing some thinking’s as I work on the car and wonder to myself how Sveta and I can live full time in this wonderful place…

Have a great week from the Russian Village called Sunrise to Freedom…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

After searching for a rebuild kit and failing to find a suitable kit to rebuild the carb with. I decided to install the new carburetor and go with that. I will keep the old carb and rebuild it at home and have a spare for when it is needed…

So after priming the engine and making some minor adjustments. It purrs like a kitten, which it has never run that good before. The last carb was a Chinese made version and it was just never right from the beginning. This carb as I said a few posts ago, is made in Saint Petersburg, Russia and it is just a whole bunch better…

Now I just have to wash the poor car and wax her. She is covered in mud and not happy at the way she looks. So it is bath time and then after she drys, I will touch up the bad spots with paint also…

Right now all we have is a few mosquito and flies. The horse flies and deer flies are not around yet and down in the village they are prevalent during the summer. Why they think that this American is a delicious treat and attack me from every angle possible… 🙂

So have a great day and Sveta, Boza and I are going to take the Volga for a test run and see how she runs on benzine. Gotta save that propane for going home…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

It is Sunday – May 5th, 2013. It is also Easter in Russia, Orthodox Easter to be exact. Today you will not find Easter Bunnies or baskets of grass full of candy, but you will find that yesterday, people were at the churches getting bread and eggs blessed for Easter. Eggs are blessed and then painted brilliant colors and bread is blessed before they eat it…

Graves are visited during this holiday and small villages are full of kids, dogs and adults, so driving through a small village is done with caution at this time of the year. It is Spring and Easter and everyone is out and about…

Village life is wonderful…

Happy Easter…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Sveta looks at life as just a wonderful excursion and she smiles no matter how stupid I am. This is what I am thinking over a cup of wonderful coffee in the village. Yesterday we had to gather some help and get our Volga pulled out of a mud-bath that I let her play in. We almost made it and about one more meter and we would have been home clear. I made a tactical error and took the right side, instead of the left side of the road and the right side was semi-quicksand…

This is a typical Russian road in the village areas and now you understand why we are going to have a special rear-end put under Sammy the Volga. A cone type limited slip differential. That way we can get around better, even though a pack mule would have issues in this stuff…

We finally found a guy in the village of ours that had a Land Cruiser and he was after several attempts he was able to get us pulled out backwards down the hill. We tried forwards, but gravity was too much for the land Cruiser and it just dug itself a 4 wheel hole to settle in…

Sveta loves this picture and she said, “See how proud I am as I claim that I stuck our car in the mud! I am a proud girl!”

You know! I am thinking that I am a lucky guy! She never gets mad and looks at things like this as fun and a good time…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I have a ton of articles about Volga cars and since there are a few out there who will appreciate what this is. I decided to post about the carburetor that I just bought today. This carburetor cost more than I have spent in the past and that is due to it being a pure Russian made carburetor and not a Chinese made carb. It ran 5500 rubles instead of the usual 3500 rubles… (3500 rubles is $112 and 5500 rubles is $176.)

It is made in Saint Petersburg (Санкт-Петербург) and I decided that would be the best way to go. Getting tired of that Chinese stuff that seems to be everywhere and we all need to buy locally…

Now there is no such thing as rebuilt car parts in Russia. At least I have not run across them yet as I have traveled all over. Everything is new built and no core return is wanted or needed. That makes it great in my book, as I have lost a lot of money on core fees in America and not getting the core back in time…

I have to take this carb apart and install a propane base-plate, plus a few other goodies inside it. That is a mission for the village…

So anyone who ever wanted to know what a new carb from a Volga Gaz looks like. This is it! This is basically the same carburetor that would fit on any Volga Gaz with a ZMZ-402 engine…

Maybe this much more expensive Russian made carburetor will last longer?

We will see… 🙂

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

…

When in the village or traveling Russia this is what you will find for a auto parts store many times. It is for Gaz. Gaz makes cars or trucks…

I have had many e-mails and comments that wonder why I would ever drive a Volga? Why would an American drive that kind of car? Well besides loving the car to death and thinking that a Volga is one of the best cars that I have ever owned. I can get parts almost anywhere…

So after 7 years of living with Volga’s, I have lots of experience in keeping a Volga running and happy…

The guys inside let us take a picture of their store and probably thought Sveta and I were crazy. But they have never had an American in their store before…

Not too bad for a backward third world country, like everyone seems to consider Russia…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Related articles

• Our Russian Village – Called Sunrise to Freedom… (windowstorussia.com)
• Russian the Main Roads (Highways) to Villages… (windowstorussia.com)
• Our Village and that Cup of Coffee… (windowstorussia.com)

The Volga we have is a carburetor style car and as anyone who remembers the old days. That carburetor has to be rebuilt once in awhile or replaced. It just seems to be an issue in life and our Sammy the Volga is no exception to the rule. In fact the rule is stronger in Sammy, because we burn propane and the benzine does not get used enough to keep the carburetor moistened all the time. Thence we have about a yearly rebuild issue that comes up every Spring…

This time I am going to take a new carburetor and a repair kit along. I will try to repair the carburetor first and if I am not happy with the results, I will replace the carburetor. Now replacing is harder than repair, because I have to take parts from one carburetor and put them on the other carburetor. This is due to being a dual fuel car. We burn benzine and propane…

I also want to find some body filler and do a little body work on the old girl. For that matter I am going to try to find if they have Navel Jelly in Russia. I want to remove some rust…

Oh yes and we have to get windshield wiper arms. The whole arm from the post to the blade. Someone broke one and stripped the arm out. So I will replace both with brand new ones and fix that issue…

I am lucky in the fact that Sammy the Volga has electronic ignition. Nelly the Volga (Our first Volga in Russia!) did not and that entailed the adjustment of points, to keep the car running tip top. Sammy is a great car and I will spend some time in the village working on her. It is the best way to keep the car good to go and Sveta and I are planning a long trip to North Russia and see some friends up there…

So I gotta run and I am going to ignore the stupidity that is called news for the next few days. I got lots to do and get together for the village trip…

Thinking for today:

I have seen the epitaxy on the worlds surface and it reeks of anger, malevolence, and resentment, plus its name is Main Stream Media…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

One of my favorite subjects is the Bell Tower that stands in the Village called Sunrise to Freedom! There use to be a clock in the top of the tower, (we were told by locals). I would like to know who is the Saint in the painting in the clock face? These paintings were on all four sides and I have pictures of them to preserve the past…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…