Windows to Russia

Windows to Russia!

In our little village we have about 6 people who stay all Winter. Most of those 6 are babushkas. (4 out of 6) If I remember correctly our goat lady next door who supplies us with goat milk. Is about 86 years old. It is with this lady that I saw a wonderful blending of the ancient ways and modern technology…

Sveta a few days ago had come to me and said that the next door babushka’s computer was broke. They (family was down to harvest veggies) had been trying to get it to work but no one could get it fixed. Well Sveta had volunteered me to fix it. She knew that if anyone could, I could. Wives are great aren’t they? 🙂

Well I was very busy and it took a day for me to get around and find time that I could look at their computer system. It was intriguing me that a babushka in the middle of nowhere would have a computer in her house. In fact we are so far from nowhere that these people never go to a nearby village and get groceries. They live entirely off of what they produce and what family from the cities brings a couple times a year and those family members come by train…

I have to side step the computer for a second: This 86 year old babushka is an old bootlegger. She grows a huge field of potatoes every year and 90 percent of those potatoes become vodka. Home grown and home brewed. She is the vodka supplier for many many kilometers. Those potatoes are being harvested right now and they will soon make the basis for a new batch of Russian Vodka. This is her money in this unsure world and with her kind of money she will never starve or lack a person to do work for her… 🙂

Now back to the computer: Sveta and I went and over to see what was up with this computer. The first thing I noticed when entering the ancient abode of of the babushka was a huge flat screen TV, a new Samsung cell phone and a whole desk with a scarf covered computer. It reminded me of a shrine and was decorated with various items and things of importance. I could tell that this computer held a high position in this household along with the flat screen TV!

I then looked around the home and realized that I was in a Russian home of a hundred years ago. With a mixing of modern existence. The imprint of children was seen on the carpet in the room. It was a carpet of endless roads for a child to drive their little car all over it. The typical Russian carpets hanging on the walls everywhere. They were of beautiful colors in wool and gorgeous to bare. I was impressed with the feeling of the home and it was pleasant to visit…

After looking over the computer and realizing that trying to explain what I was doing was not necessary. It was not understood and never would be. They just wanted to play games and look at pictures and videos. So I gave it (computer) another go at life and think that they will get several more years out of it. They had one of their cd drives crash and burn (they had two). I just took it off line. The computer was happy and they all smiled and we got two huge pumpkins and two gigantic squash for saving their computer… 🙂

I looked at Sveta and said, “Imagine a babushka with a computer!” I then started to wonder if I could somehow get internet to the whole village? I believe that we could get more people to move back if we could get a few modern conveniences implemented…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!

Russia’s Gazprom started filling the Nord Stream pipeline (first phase) with technological gas on Tuesday in a testing process that is expected to be finished by October 6, 2011. The 1,000-km-plus pipe, Nord Stream is designed to directly deliver Russian gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea. The first phase with deliver around 27.5 billion cubic meters per year. Phase 2 done in 2012 will up that to 55 billion cubic meters per year. In particular, the fuel will be transported to the Czech Republic and Slovakia via Germany bypassing Ukraine…

The part of that little paragraph above that you should be interested in is: “the fuel will be transported to the Czech Republic and Slovakia via Germany bypassing Ukraine” This is very important and as South Stream comes closer and closer to being done Ukraine will be taken out of the picture as a energy transit country. Remember that Belarus has turned Beltransgas almost completely over to Gazprom…

As with the issues at hand right now with Ukraine over gas contracts. That is the driving force to bypass Ukraine. After listening to years of this conflict, I realize that Ukraine is getting its back up against the wall and does not really know what to do about loosing billions upon billions of dollars in transit money. But Ukraine only has itself to blame. It seems that Ukraine has its own gas deposits but that they are really only capable of supplying Ukraine if developed…

For all the love I have for Ukraine, I have to say that Ukraine has been a terrible gas transit country and has caused huge problems in the past. Just as they are waffling around right now about gas and stirring the pot so to speak…

The latest rhetoric from the Ukraine president, has definitely made the case for South Stream much stronger. One day Ukraine will be taken out of the gas picture and then you will see what is what for reality. The screaming about gas price is only one small part of the whole picture…

As we close in on cold weather we see the desire by Ukraine to cause issues but with a new pipeline called Nord Stream going online in full by October 6th. Ukraine will have much less maneuvering room to rile the sentiments of Europe over gas…

Moscow: Russia Today – Today Russia is not as dependent on the Ukrainian gas transportation system as it was in 2009, or in previous years. Moscow has practically bought out the gas transportation system of Belarus (Beltransgas). On Tuesday Gazprom starts supplying technological gas via the first leg of the freshly built Nord Stream gas pipeline (27.5 billion cubic meters per year), with the second leg to be finished in 2012, increasing gas supplies to Europe via Nord Stream to 55 billion cubic meters per year.

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!

Two weeks ago, western journalists swept into Tripoli on a wave of euphoria as the city welcomed the NATO/TNC with open arms. Not a shot was fired as the city where just a few weeks previously, millions of people had turned out to support Muammar al-Qathafi, came out to celebrate. Then why is the NATO/TNC leadership still holed up in Benghazi?

Read More >>>

Sveta and I (and Boza of course) are getting things together on this last day in the village. It makes me kinda sad and I really do not want to leave. But we have things to get caught upon at home in Moscow and since it is a new school year in Russia. I have to get ready to start teaching my students again…

We are coming back in a few weeks to finish the fence. We have to gather supplies to build a new complete fence across the back of our village home. It will be the last 60 meters and the hardest to get done. We are also trying to see if we can fence off more land than what is now fenced. Sveta will work on that while I get the supplies together. Sveta says that we can almost double our land legally according to the old regulations. She is going to see what is what and if we can. I would love to have a whole bunch of new land to work on with the village home…

I have to work on the car and make sure all is running good before we travel the 400+ kilometers back home. With school back in session we will have an easy trip until we get into Moscow. In the summer everyone leaves Moscow and when school starts everyone comes pouring back. The city swells like a big fat balloon… 🙂

It is getting cold already. The trees are turning yellow and red already. Last night it dipped into the single digits and frost will be right around the corner. As I have said many times in posts. Winter is 7+ months long and it does not wait for autumn to play around. It (Winter) just comes on full force. So in a few weeks we either get the back fence done or hold our peace until Winters over. Several villagers have packed up and left for the city for the Winter already. That surprised me but as I stepped out this morning and shivered. I realized that they are responding to the change in weather…

It looks like next year that I will spend 3 to 4 months in the village. There is just too much to be done and if it does not get done we will have serious issues with the village home. Sveta will come down on weekends and such. Boza of course will stay with me and enjoy the life of a village dog. Chasing birds, cats, goats away from the yard and running through the woods…

So I thought I would post a picture that Sveta found of the village. It was created by a student of the school that use to be located here where the Monastery is and was. It is accurate to a degree and is beautiful. Several of the structures in the foreground of the Monastery are still there and used as homes by villagers. The picture above is one that stirred my soul. It is of the huge church that was located at the Monastery and it was blown up by a real scumbag type person many many years ago. What a crying shame for it was a beautiful church. As you can tell from the picture…

Kyle and Sveta
Windows to Russia!

Moscow is celebrating its 864th birthday. Historians assume that the city is actually much older, but the first recorded mention of Moscow dates back to 1147.

Despite floods, fires and invasions, the city grew and developed.

During the next few years, Moscow will more than double its territory to 251,000 hectares and may soon emerge as a major global financial center.

Mass outdoor festivities are being held across the capital on Sunday.

Dozens of concerts will take place in various parts of the city.

In the evening, there will be fireworks and a fantastic laser show at Vorobyovy Hills, which may enter the Guinness Book of Records.

Windows to Russia!

One of the things that I love about the village as I loved about living in the country all my life is really something very simple and easy. It is something that is such a pleasure and so easy to overlook. It is something that city people never see because of the glow from the city obscures it at night. It is something so immense that it is beyond normal senses as to the vastness of it all…

Next time you are in the country at night away from all the lights of a city and the sky is clear. Stop and look up at the sky. Let your eyes adjust and then when you can take in what is above you, that is when you should go, oh wow…

The Milky-way is just one of the most incredible things to observe with our bare eyes, that there is in our known universe. The whiteness of the huge streak across the blackened sky is only one thing. A vast amount of stars and planets that encompasses billions upon billions and billions…

It is agreed that the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, 100,000 light years in diameter, with observations suggesting that it is a spiral galaxy containing 200–400 billion stars. Depending on its structure the entire galaxy has a rotational rate of once every 15 to 50 million years. The galaxy is also moving at a rate of 552 to 630 km per second depending on the relative frame of reference. It is estimated to be about 13.2 billion years old, nearly as old as the Universe. The Milky Way is part of the Local Group of galaxies. Read More >>>

This morning sipping on that cup of chicory, I was thinking about the Milky Way and here in Russia at the village there is not a single light to effect your vision. It is really an incredible sight to see…

If you haven’t studied the night sky for awhile then maybe it is time to do it again. If you never have studied the night sky, then you are in for a real treat and you should be lying down to help keep from being overwhelmed…

If just 1/10 of a percent of the stars had a planet with life around it…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!

Interesting discovery of a verification of a fact that was known. But as with all facts they are ignored by the scared masses of humans who hide in their homes…

The documents revealing the links of CIA with the Libyan intelligence have been found in Tripoli, the New York Times reports. These documents date 2002-2007, when the Libyan intelligence was headed by Moussa Koussa, who later became Foreign Minister and now has taken the side of Gaddafi’s opponents. According to the documents, the US authorities send suspects of terrorism to Libya despite the fact that Libya is known as a country where tortures were used during interrogations. Libyan special services cooperated with Britain’s MI-6, which even hacked phones for them. Link >>>

But it is all okay and everyone can hide some more. It is just a shame that we became working partners for years with Libya against terrorism and then stabbed our partner in the back…

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

I remember well how Libya had become a friend to the Western world and everyone greeted Gaddafi with open arms…

That should give other countries something to think about. Democracy at its best…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!

Today that cup of chicory was perfect and with it was lots of thinking’s. So I decided to post some pictures of what has happened the last few days…

First is a sign to the entrance of the Fish Farm that our village is located inside of. 1933 is when it was built and it is still producing tons of fish a year. They have it down to an art…

Second picture is the top of the bell tower in our village as it peeks over our fence…

Third is a young lady who is visiting with her parents in the village. They have a home here also like we do. As you can see Boza wastes no time in making friends…

Fourth is a new product that we found. I have looked all over for diet drink made in Russia. This is made in Tula, Russia and as it says on the front it is called Tula Drink. It has the flavor of Kvas, no sugar, no carbohydrates and a twist of lemon. It is so good that I bought a whole case of it to have back in Moscow. We have never seen it in Moscow. But then again we find lots of stuff outside of Moscow. In Moscow they don,t allow many outside products that will take away from the big purveyors like Pepsi and Coke. This is a wonderful thing for this diabetic to have something other than diet cola to drink…

Fifth and sixth are the start of a huge thunderstorm. Sveta got pictures as this storm started to grow. It grew right in front of our eyes and grew to cover the whole sky. I feel that we were lucky to get that anvil shape (cumulonimbus) of the cloud. By the time Sveta got the picture it was almost bigger than what the camera could capture. This storm went from a clear sky to what you see in just a few minutes…

Seventh picture is the goat that supplies us with lots of good milk. We just had to show you our prize raw milk producer… 🙂

Then last but not least a picture of Sveta doing what she loves to do best. Reading under the shade tree…

Now that is living…

Kyle and Sveta
Windows to Russia!

This morning I was sipping that cup of chicory. While I was enjoying that cup of chicory I was doing some thinking’s. I was thinking about sunflowers and a reservoir that Sveta, Boza and I stumbled upon yesterday…Lets start with the reservoir. In Russia you do not have signs everywhere telling you what is here and what is there as you drive. You either get a premonition or just are plain lucky to find things that are really cool…

We took a trip yesterday to refuel the car with propane and get groceries. On the way back we pulled off the main byway on a farm road. Normally a farm road has about 30 feet of asphalt then becomes dirt. But as we let Boza run and play and Sveta was taking  pictures. I was staring at a asphalt road that disappeared into the distance. It just seemed strange to me that this road was asphalt as far as I could see. Granted it was old and looked like it had been mined with bombs at one time and they all had been set off. But it was definitely a road to something important. I then studied a pothole and saw the tale tale signs of a concrete base under the layer of asphalt. I knew then that this was a Soviet era road covered over. I have discovered that the Soviets were happy to build roads out of prefab concrete slabs that are laid like cobble stone but much much bigger… (Russians still make roads that way sometimes.)

When Sveta and Boza wandered back to the car. That is when I said lets go and see what is at the end of this road. Being a good camper and adventurer Sveta said okay… 🙂 (Boza always wants to go!)

Within a couple of kilometers we saw water. and that water grew into a huge lake in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by huge fields. I knew immediately what it was. It was a man made reservoir to water the fields…

We found a man who was using the waterfall at the outlet as a shower and he told us that it was an old irrigation lake for the fields. It was a beautiful isolated lake that humanity in general has forgotten about. That makes it a perfect place for Sveta, Boza and I. We are going back to swim this week before we leave. The water is warm and inviting…

Now on to sunflowers. This year there are wheat fields but I have to say in our area there is more sunflowers growing. There is kilometers and kilometers of sunflowers everywhere. Wheat definitely took a backseat this year to sunflowers. At least in our area…

Knowing farmers the way I do they planted what they can make money at. What with the games played last year over wheat by the Russian government. I do not blame them. You have to make money to stay alive. I find it interesting that we have an abundance of wheat this year and yet I see hundreds of kilometers of sunflowers instead of wheat. Interesting…

That was what was interesting yesterday and today we have to get back to work. We have 50 more meters of fence to do and we are done this time with fence. We still have about 60 meters left after today, but we will wait until we get different fencing in Moscow. We are going to replace 60 meters with a new fence completely and that will be a new project all together…

Have a nice day…

Kyle and Sveta
Windows to Russia!