Windows to Russia

Yesterday was get feed grain time for Vova’s animals. As in the past I am the designated driver. I do not drink and thus am a natural for driving around the other small villages and gathering foods for the animals. Therefore, I found myself driving all around the back roads, seeing the sights of nature and really enjoying the trip. I struggled with low blood sugar, but had a couple of pieces of candy and pushed through it all…

We stopped at a grain storage area and for a bottle of vodka, got a winters supply of what I call chaff, chaff in this case is is about 50% good grain and the rest trash. We gathered over a ton of it yesterday. The chickens love it and so do the rabbits. It cost nothing except a bottle of vodka and that ran 120 rubles at the local market. The only thing is that we have to be on the down low and not make a big scene and act stupid. But hey! That is my specialty (trying to not act stupid) and been doing it all my life to survive…. This is part of surviving and when we have chickens in a few years, this is what we will do…

I drive Vova and make sure that he is safe. He would go anyway, sooner or later and it is better that I do the driving, for as you know he kinda has issues with the demon vodka. He is a good friend and I want him alive not dead or in jail. We can not make him stop drinking and like many friends I have had, they have to hit bottom before they can get up (if they get up) and get better. Bothers me, but Vova will do anything for me and is a best buddy…. Alcohol is a demon… 🙁

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So yesterday, I ended up busy all day and this morning already, I have been again to the Big Village. It is snowing and looks to get very deep in the next few days. It feels like one or two feet coming and I wanted to get a few things to tide over the long snowing spell…

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Filled up the wood bin this morning and carried in twenty big split logs. The logs burn a long time and I have enough wood for a week right now, inside the home…

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Boza could see fair this morning and was running around like an idiot. I had to slow him down and be more cautious. But he was happy and that he could see a tree and it is hard to take away the occasional good days that he can see a little bit. I let him run and run. He is a happy dog and eats good. What more can we want?

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Got an extra donation for a few thousand rubles and I was able to buy something very necessary. I live in a village home with no closets and or dressers. I found for about a 1000 rubles a four drawer plastic mouse proof dresser. It is so wonderful and much needed. Thanks for the donations and this is the kind of stuff that helps make life a bunch better…

Therefore, I am ready for winter and will settle in to brave the storms coming…

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Gotta go and lots to do. Maybe take a nap, Boza had me up at 1 a.m. and had to do doggy business. That is life…

WtR

Try to start the car at sunup! If the car starts okay? Then off to the Big Village and get doggy food and other supplies. It reached -15 last night and the only thing that helps is the wind went away. It is bitter cold, but only a light breeze makes it bearable. Windchill is the same as the actual temperature. That is a blessing…. So far the coldest temp recorded on this new year in the last few days is -21.5 and that my friend gets rough as you walk around…

Regardless the coffee is perfect today and I am finishing my second cup as I write this article…

I am not sure Boza is going to town with me or not. I allow him to make the decision and when Svetochka is here, he likes to go to town with us. But we will see if he would rather stay home. I would like him to go, but he has to be comfortable with the situation…

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Dakota Access oil pipeline protests by the Sioux Indians has gone off the deep end. The government is using water cannons, rubber bullets, tear gas and other strong arm tactics and many Sioux are injured. This is a serious issue and this image shows the bottom line. From the day white man came to America, the Indian has been pushed around, cheated and degraded. As I was a little kid the ant-Indian propaganda was incredible…

The pipeline has been rerouted from going through a white town who complained and now going through the Indian reservation. I will not get into details, but if the white idiots want a pipeline, then put it through the white’s backyard, not through a small Indian Reservation full of people that were taken from their land and isolated…

Say what you want and say how it is progress, they do not count, we need the pipeline, blah blah blah…

But why do we have to keep shoving, hurting and degrading these people, these humans, who we destroyed years ago. have we not done enough in the past to wipe them out? Move the damn pipeline through the middle of a predominately white city and tell the white people to shove it up their ass. Then as they complain, use rubber bullets, tear gas and whatever to degrade them and destroy their city…

I personally see the image above and that represents America to me. That is America in a nutshell and as we progress to a full blown military society, one day you will wish that you had woke up sooner…

The image above is the pipeline and tells the tale…

Grow up people…

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Sorry but we are just a bunch of idiots and with all the oil, gas and stuff abundance that we proclaim through fracking and trying to sell it all over the world, what the hell are we doing putting in another pipeline, in someones yard and not our yard. Sounds normal for the US! That reservation is their land and property and we need to respect it…

I guess by killing them in the end. We show respect! ~Sarc~

I give up!

WtR

—  The birdbrains are gathering at sunup and waiting for me to put food out. They sit in the cherry trees near the outhouse and watch for me. They no longer fly away and gather in greater and greater numbers as the morning goes on. I am trying to feed them at sunup and make it a habit to help them get the food before bigger birds come. I chase the biggest birds such as crows and mocking birds away. Most of the time the little birdbrains are in such numbers, that they keep the big birds away…

Boza has taken to eating all the time. He is running as we walk and between Boza and the Birdbrains; I keep busy feeding them…

It is good to see Boza eating, in Moscow we had issues with him not eating, but in the Tiny Russian Village, Boza eats like a horse. But!!!! Last night we had to get up twice and go for a walk. Boza had doggy things to do and they got urgent. That is okay, I like it when he eats. He will settle down and it shows me that he is happy and the Tiny Russian Village is his safe home in his eyes…

He lays here next to me on his bed on the couch and is sound asleep as I write this. Glad he can sleep! He kept me running around all night in the -15 degrees cold windy weather. It is sunup and -13 right now. The weather station is working good and I finally got the hard drive in shape. I had to isolate the bad sectors and bypass them. There is about 2 Gigs of dead space on the drive and if all goes good, I will make it until Svetochka comes back with the old laptop. Going to have to get a new hard drive for my computer,but that will wait a while; money is all spent and the budget can not be stretched to meet that demand. Oh well! We make do with what we got…

Was going to go to the Big Village today, but I do not feel like it. I need to pick up more doggy food, but we have enough. I just like to have more than enough. Boza likes to eat. I think I will go tomorrow, if sleep is good and all else is good. I will start the car today and warm it up, to make sure all is good. It will be sunny for the next few days and cold, cold and more cold…

—  Kinda sore this morning. Fell yesterday and landed on my right side. This hill is dangerous when covered with snow and I have to learn again to walk carefully. But sore I am this morning…

Ouch!

—  The sun is up and so beautiful. Gonna walk Boza again soon. We will try to get pictures this morning. I have to build a wall to enclose the outhouse better and find myself a roofing panel to make a entrance cover. Got to keep the snow out of the outhouse. I also will split wood today and get ready for a long winter. I have enough wood, but really, you never have enough wood! 😉

— Going to make a Windows 7 Live CD, that means I have to find some burnable cd’s at the Big Village. I have to be able to save my data easily, Puppy Linux does the job, but I need back up, in case…. I have installed Puppy Linux inside of Windows 7 and it works perfectly. Really a good thing to do, for it creates a new boot menu that allows you to get into Puppy if need be. The program is called LICK (Right here)…. Works really good and saved this computer so far. Something to think about if you have an issue. Just get it ahead of time and install just in case. Make sure that you download a copy of the Puppy Linux you need in ISO form. It will simply install that ISO within the system. You do not have to worry, it will still boot automatically to Windows in a few seconds. Best to use the latest Puppy Linux and make sure it sees everything on your computer first. Just use a flash drive installer (Rufus) and try it out like a Live CD. Does the job…

— I post things like above to do with computers in that you may fix your own issues one day. It does not hurt to have this information and if you are reading this blog right now, you are on a computer of some type. Information is the key to success and you need to learn all your life…

— Time to walk Boza in the sunshine. It is cold as all get out, but it is beautiful to walk in. Yesterday, Boza and I walked to the Fish House and looked around. Then we walked the lake bed. The bed is almost frozen hard enough to walk safely, but we found a few soft spots. Just have to be careful….

— For those who have asked, Svetochka is doing good in Moscow, she misses us and we miss her, but she is busy as always and her mother has a birthday and Sveta will be going to her today to celebrate. As far as Mother in laws are concerned, Sveta’s mother is a jewel and a very good person. An old Soviet intellect, who from my understanding was working with computers in the old days. I bet she has seen some interest changes in computers over the years? She has a Samsung Tablet in the 10inch size and uses that to look at the internet. I see lots of babushkas with tablets in the villages. These ladies stay in tune with the world and know what is going on…

Time to walk Boza and see the world of the Tiny Russian Village…

WtR

Boza and I got up at 5 a.m. and were kinda sad. Svetochka is gone back to Moscow. We took her last night in Sammy the Volga to the train station and Boza and I had a long lonely ride back home. But! We are doing our thing this morning and filled the wells, ate breakfast, took our medicines and the sun is coming up. It is going to be a beautiful day here in the Tiny Russian Village…

Now Boza and I will get in a pattern and get healthy. We will eat at the same times, walk at the same times, work at the same times and go to bed early & rise early. This is important for us and it makes us heal and get better. A schedule is important and to Boza it is vital as he gets much older. I will rearrange the home today and make clear paths for Boza to get from my bed to his bed. I am also going to move his food and water bowls. They have always been by the door and he is having issues with stepping on them. This is an issue that I can solve with little repercussions for him to find his food and water…

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I want to thank the people for donations that have come in this month. These donations have bought Boza all his medicines and food for both him and I to use for the whole winter. They really came at a good time, for we over spent our budget tremendously in Moscow and now are just about back on track. Money is always an issue, the US does not send me anything for disability and or past services killing everyone all over the world. I have a website that generates $100 average a month and basically that plus donations is what Boza and I live on. I am working on retirement funds from America, but that is like trying to squeeze blood from a turnip. If you are younger than I am, do not expect any help from the government for all that has been paid into the system. If I ever get it all worked out, the system may be so broke and all the money stolen by the government, that I will get nothing anyway…. Wish we had that trillion plus dollars back in the system, that we used from it to play war games all over the world, in Iraq and Afghanistan…

I paid for years into private retirement plans for several companies and as many know and have found out, pension funds from the old days failed and both companies are no longer in business and there is no retirement available from a defunct company…

We hear Social Security is broke and we hear that it is fine. I guess as long as we continue to borrow money at the pace we borrow it at, then anything can be said to be okay! But, the can has about stopped rolling and since our legs are broke, it will be hard to keep kicking it down the road…

I live on almost exactly the same amount that a Russian lives on with a pension, about $150 a month average… It is enough…

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The birdbrains are eating happily at there buffet. They are waiting for me in the morning and have their bibs on and ready to eat. I buy millet and oatmeal to mix for them. They love it and we have about 50 birds who like the buffet. The millet runs 20 rubles a kilo and the oatmeal runs 18 rubles a kilo. A kilo of each mixed together lasts four days. I have budgeted this and will feed the birdbrains all winter. This is my payment for them to keep the bugs out of the garden in the summer… 🙂

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Our Tiny Russian Village home…

Sunset…

On a clear day you can see forever…

Yes it is heaven here!

WtR

Boza had a really good day. He could see some things and chased a blowing plastic bag, chased a kitty in the morning and walked all around. Then night came and he went totally blind. This is the new normal, his sight comes and goes all day long. He never has good sight anymore, but he does see at times and if the light is right. Last night it bothered him and he came to me to be comforted. It is rough, for you can not just make magic and make it all go away…

Boza scared me yesterday! I opened the door to let him out and the next thing I knew he was gone. Svetochka had gone to the trash area and then to the neighbors to take a fish to her. Boza tried to follow Svetochka…

Boza got lost and after frantically searching up the hill where Svetochka went, I found him by the trash area. He had gotten turned around and tried to follow a path him and I take in the summer to the lake area. He lost her scent and got turned around. I yelling his name, the wind was blowing hard and snow flying all around. Then in my flashlight beam, I saw something move and found a scared and very happy to see me doggy. He literally jumped into my arms. Svetochka had gone back up the hill to try to find him and she was one happy momma to see her doggy…

After that escapade, I put Bozaś medicine in his eyes and we settled him down for the night. The medicine helps his eyes after a long day of use and when he wakes up in the morning, he can see much better. One issue is; We have enough medicine for a year, but due to sanctions by America and the EU, we will not be able to get anymore. Sveta scoured Moscow and snapped up all she could find…

This medicine is used by people also, for eye issues and sanctions keep Russians from getting such medicine. This is why I say, ¨Sanctions are an act of War!¨

This same medicine for Boza is also used by Svetochkaś uncle and she bought the last supplies for him also. I asked Sveta to ask her uncle to see if Boza needs to come over and show him how to do his drops in his eyes… But seriously; Why do we try to hurt people this way and BY GOD, we Americans and Eu people allow our governments to hurt people all in the name of games, power, money and hate…

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Well the ice fishers are out on the frozen lakes. Yes our lakes are frozen deep already and guys around the villages love to ice fish. They have augers and drill the holes and then fish all day. Lots of fish right now. Sveta has been eating fish most of the time she has been here. Everyone is giving fish to everyone else. The lakes had a huge bumper crop this year, even bigger than last year and it is salt fish time for the villagers…

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Sveta leaves tonight, I will take her to the train station in the Big Village and off she will go, back to Moscow. Boza and I will stay and work on the Tiny Russian Village place and get ready for another long winter. The village home is warm, the air is fresh, the water is clean and life is good for the soul…

My Russian soul that is… 😉

WtR

Sassy with Porky

Mikheil Saakashvili or better known by this blog as, Sassy! He is up to his antics in Ukraine and I still see a future of games and presidency for him. Sassy is a very well paid puppet leader for America and he has been in Ukraine for a few years now. He has been down playing in the Odessa region and has just quit his Governorship given to him under pressure by America, well look at this article…

http://kommersant.ru/doc/3144817

Simple summation is this…

Mr. Saakashvili said that after the resignation from the post of governor in his “second chance,” he is ready to contribute to a complete change of the Ukrainian elite by the same methods as used after the Georgian Revolution in 2003. On a direct question by a journalist, whether he is preparing a new revolution in Ukraine, Mikhail Saakashvili has answered evasively: “We’ll see, time will tell, it all depends on the circumstances.” Then he added: “The people here cheated and angry.”

Sassy had been given Ukraine citizenship and a cushy job (under pressure by the US against Poroshenkoś better wishes) in ruling over the peasants in the Odessa region and area. I said when he was put in this position, (Saakashvili) that he has been planted by America to stage a future revolution. The basic is that he has been waiting for his Masters to tell him when to make his move and with the mess Ukraine has become, he has been told to start the games and revolution…

https://lenta.ru/news/2016/11/11/saakashvili_rada/ : This link to the left will take you to Sassy and his new party of trouble…

He has increased the rhetoric against the Ukraine elite and is now stationed himself in Kiev. He has lots of money to play with and he has the backing of the US government. This is Plan B, if Plan A failed and Plan A failed in complete totality. Now the man who was run out of Georgia and has an immediate arrest order if he crosses the border into Georgia, has his fingers deep into Ukraine and we find the literally the most corrupt man on earth trying to rule literally the most corrupt country on earth… (You have to feel sorry for the Ukraine people!)

Really kinda makes sense in some morbid like factor…

I have followed this man since he tried to destroy South Ossetia, when he was president of Georgia and have watched his career as a US Puppet. The man will do anything and whatever his bosses tell him and to put it simply; He will destroy Ukraine and turn it into a perfect little USA puppet state…. If given a chance…

Saakashvili is every Western Neocons dream puppet. He does what he is told, when he is told and does it for a reasonable price. Even when the west failed to support him after telling him to attack Russia. He still takes that paycheck from them and does what he is told…

The future is interesting for Ukraine and turmoil is going to be on the menu for many years it seems…

Thanks America!

WtR

Sveta found out what I have talked about in the past here in the Tiny Russian Village. Her camera froze up and quit working. She walked Boza and tried to take pictures. The camera shutdown and froze with the lens extended. I had to laugh and then frowned, because, I hoped that the camera was not broken. We thawed it out and recharged it and it started to work okay again. But as I have said, ¨It gets damn cold when the wind is blowing like crazy!¨ Svetochka found out that was true…

The wind blows hard in the Tiny Russian Village. We are located on the highest point around and they call it a mountain, the wind whips up the side of the mountain and shoots across the village at an accelerated pace. Good for the summer, but hard in the winter…

This weekend it will warm up some and Svetochka will be able to get images taken. She wants to capture all she sees. She did get a picture of George the Birdbrain…

George was being hard to capture, but you can see him in the middle of the image above….I imagine the camera froze while she tried to get pictures of him…

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Today we will put out a birdbrain buffet. We bought oatmeal and millet to feed them with. Both are dirt cheap here and I know that they will be happy birdbrains…

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Went to the Big Village yesterday and gathered more supplies. I am well stocked and Svetochka leaves Sunday. After she leaves, the weather looks to get real bad and Boza and I will be snowed in for a few months. The Volga does good, except when the snow gets to deep. It snowed yesterday and the world is becoming pure white…

In town we found Ninaś daughter; Nina is a full time Tiny Russian Village person I have talked about before and the daughter is here for a week to help Nina get ready for winter. We brought the daughter back with us to the village when we were done shopping. It saves her a bunch of money and hard work. She has to take a taxi to our walk bridge and then walk a couple of kilometers carrying huge bags. We were glad to help. So we made room next to Boza and she climbed in the car…

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Vova had a birthday earlier this month and we were not here, so we had a party for him when we got here. We bought him a disco ball with a light and a sensor to flash to the music playing. He has it on his front porch, next to his outside speaker and plays music at night. The multi colored flashing lights explode all over the village top and this morning at 4 a.m. Boza and I walked around the monastery with lights dancing in the snow and wind…

Vova is a mess…

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I am charging my cameras and will try to start recording images again. I have a little camera that seems to do the best in the cold and will start carrying it as Boza and I walk. Right now I walk Boza early in the morning and let Svetochka walk him the rest of the times. She loves to walk Boza and after a few more days, I will get the job of walking Boza all the time. We have to watch the weather and decided if Svetochka can come to the village or not during the winter. Last year she was able to come several times, but this year, winter looks to be rough. It is all good and if the going gets too rough, there are three of us full timers here to pull together. We will have one more stack of wood done by next week and that will be the buffer stack of wood. Saturday, Svetochka will help me stack a bunch of rotted fence pieces. I will break them into smaller fireplace size and she will stack. These make great fire starters…

I have a huge barrel full of wood shavings and that is what I use to start the beginning fire and build from that. Do not need paper at all and I have some newspaper though, ready if needed. The secrete is simply to keep the wood dry…

I also have two big bottles of charcoal starter fluid. The very slow burning type and that makes a huge difference in starting wetter wood. I learned that trick from Vova. This morning as Svetochka was sleeping, I started the wood stove and the home is 20 degrees right now. Just perfect and comfy. The wind is blowing, the snow is drifting and my two buddies are sleeping soundly…

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Tidbit:

While they might have been enemies in real life, in a twist of fate, Tsar Nicholas II and the Bolshevik leader of 1917 October revolution, Vladimir Lenin, have been sharing one canvas for almost a century.

The secret double nature of the painting was discovered by pure chance during restoration works at the St. Petersburg’s Stieglitz Art and Industry Academy.

The full-length Lenin portrait was commissioned in 1924, the year Lenin died, to the Soviet artist Vladislav Izmailovich, who is believed to have been ordered to cover politically inappropriate image with Lenin. However, the artist apparently decided there’s a room for both revolutionary hero and monarch on the canvas, painting the Lenin portrait on the reverse side while at the same time masking the image of Nicholas II from inquisitive eye beneath layers of washable paint.

Read More: https://www.rt.com/news/367336-lenin-painting-reveals-tsar-nicholas/

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Svetochka remembered something that will save me in the village. Well it is important to me at least. We have a laptop at Svetaś work that she use to use as backup for her stuff. She now has a personal desktop and does not use the old laptop. It is a laptop that I used for years when I first came to Russia. It is a Dell computer and runs Windows XP. When she comes the next time, she will bring it and I will have a good mainstay computer again. I am limping this one along using 99% of the functions only in Ram. Puppy Linux is awesome and everyone should try it out at sometime in their lives. Puppy can even be install within Windows and allow you to experience Linux in a great form factor…

I completely forgot about that old laptop… 🙂

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Well gotta go. I am taking Boza and walk to the big well and turn it on. The only well that needs to be filled is ours, for the top well is half full, but since ours leaks, gotta keep at it…

Have a nice day…

WtR

http://cartcoon.deviantart.com/art/Coffee-Bear-482102298

Boza and I walked in the white and drifting snow. The wind is blowing about 20 kph and snow is dancing all around. To say the least it is cold out there right now. -15 °C (4 °F) windchill. Of course Boza has his fur coat on and I told Boza, ¨Time to get the winter coat out!¨ Other words, I have to start wearing the parka to walk him with…. Time to get acclimated to cold weather…

I wish I had a fur coat! Svetochka has a good old fur coat that she wears as she walks and she says it is perfectly warm as can be. Boza has his fur coat and he says it is warmer than he needs and I need one also. But alas, in my size a real fur coat is costing the same as if I am buying a car and that will just not do. So I use a winter parka from China and actually it does the job. It is good to about -35 and last year it kept me warm. It is big enough to allow me to have extra clothes on underneath and I have snow pants to cover my legs if need be. Soon I will have to get the snowshoes out and Boza and I will trip the lights fantastic… 🙂

Therefore, I sip my hot cup of coffee, took my pills, Svetochka & Boza are sleeping cuddled together, I am writing this post and The Tiny Russian Village is peaceful…

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Split some wood yesterday, Svetochka helped me stack it and we stacked wood inside the home for the serious winter days coming. Last night when I started the fire, I used old small sticks and once a hot coal bed was made, I put a huge log of oak on the fire and hours later the fire was still burning. The oak is wonderful and perfectly seasoned this year…

Next week will be basically sunny and only -4 to -5 all week. I will finish splitting twelve logs left from summer and stack it near the house. There is three big stacks of wood and I am ready for the big snow in. I also have a ton of old rotten wood out back that I will start breaking up to start fires with. I am stacking it next to the outhouse, that will help insulate the outhouse and make doing that business a better experience…

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Next week I will install a new thermostat in our Volga. We bought a winter thermostat and will switch between the summer thermostat and winter thermostat as needed. I use to do that when I was young in America. These are the little things that remind me of the old days in America. These are the things that make me happy. Switching a thermostat is akin to control of your life and knowing how to do such things is very important. Sometimes it seems that the more advanced we become, the more out of touch with reality we become…

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Did not make it to the Big Village yesterday and we will go today. Too much to do yesterday and therefore, today, we have to go…

IMG – From the top of Bald Mountain near our Holy Water spring area. This is heaven itself…

WtR

I woke at 3 a.m. and heard Boza stirring at the side of the bed. He is a good boy and does not bother me unless he needs something. He did not ask, but since he ate lots of good food yesterday, I know he had doggy business to do and I will not sleep anymore also. Boza and I got up and as quietly as we could we got ready and left to walk…

The images above are from yesterday and of course no images of a pitch dark walk this morning. We walked an hour and Boza ate three packs of dog food. He is back eating good again. In Moscow he hardly ate,but in the Tiny Russian Village he eats good and lots. He runs constantly and does his best to see the world with his nose and ears… 🙁 but he is happy 🙂

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The laptop died (again) and I had to nigger rig the system. I am running off of Puppy Linux right now and it works good. It gets the job done. Puppy Linux is my life saver OS. When Windows fails and or some system hardware fails. I can operate completely from RAM and still function….The laptop seems to have fried part of a chip set also and that I am finding out is not uncommon with these Windows cheap computers…

The hard drive has failed, well at least failed enough that Windows refuses to function, but Puppy was able to bypass the bad sectors and function anyway. Windows sucks most of the time and if the world was not so Windows orientated with software, I would switch permanently. Can’t complain though, Sveta really likes Puppy Linux and it is so fast it is scary almost. You get use to the slow grinding over worked Windows and then get a taste of Linux and the world opens up before your eyes…

Therefore, I was not able to post yesterday, but this morning I am back in business…

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It looks like Nikolai leaves this weekend and that means just Vova, Nina and I (and of course Boza) will be in the village. Nina and Vova are mad at each other. This is normal and they always tell on each other. Like two kids fighting. You would think that two people living alone in the village would at least get along somewhat! But not to be…

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Oh man! The oak that I split is wonderful in the stove. It burns so long and hot. This is going to be much easier to keep the home warm and we were able through donations to get a infrared heater. Now this heater works fantastic. Much better than a fan blown cheap heater, I have been limping along in the past. This thing puts out some heat, when I need the extra, when the temperature drops into the -20 and below…

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Today we will go to the Big Village and finish food stocking. I need to get a better thermostat for the car and more rat poison. It was a good thing I got ready for the little devils. It is not mice so much, but field rats that I have to worry about and they must have swarmed in when we left. This is normal, but they do lots of damage. This time things were not bad and all is quiet. (Just one scratching around in the old divan right now!) Just have to get more poisoned grain to keep them under control. I also need to get birdseed (no not poisoned,) the monster birdbrains are watching me and demanding their buffet to be set up again. Lots of seed all around us in the fields, but they like their special area and are giving me the evil eye to get me back on track. Remember the movie, The Birds?

I wish rodents were not so destructive? I feel bad to kill them….but it is not just one to deal with, it is hundreds if you do not get a handle on it…

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I have to move and split more firewood. Svetochka wants to help carry the wood and of course Boza wants to straw boss…

Yes it is all good in the Tiny Russian Village. See you tomorrow…

WtR

Long hard trip down to the Tiny Russian Village…

Snowed, rained, sleeted and cold cold cold. But we made it and drove all the way to the Tiny Russian Village with no issues to speak of. Just nerve wracking for this bear. I have said many times, “Russians suck at driving!”

Father Pavel was at the village and he looks to be trying to figure out how he can live in the Tiny Russian Village year around. He was so glad to see us and was happy that this American is back for the winter. This makes just four of us all winter. Vova, Nina, Nikolai and I are all that is left. I would be happy to have Father Pavel all winter also. He has issues for a home to live in. The church which is a home converted to a church, can not by their rules, be used to stay in. The bell tower is not ready yet and another home they have, has too many issues. He knows that if he lived here, his flock would be up and down the mountain all the time and bring life back to this Tiny Russian Village…

Svetochka and I will spend several days in the Big Village and we have to do banking issues, gather more winter supplies and just look around and see what is happening. Time moves slowly in the villages of Russia. While time moves fast in Moscow and things change like the wind. The villages resist change like a willow tree in a storm. It is nice and makes the villages the place to be…

We also need to get hold of our mechanic in the Big Village, the one who installed our engine, he has to finish up a few small issues and check the car over again. Sammy the Volga did fantastic coming down and is such a pleasure to drive. She may be a Volga, old and cantankerous, but she is reliable and fun to drive. I can honestly say, “I have owned dozens of cars, from expensive to cheap and the Volga’s we have owned are the best cars I have ever driven!”

We have had two Volga’s since I have been to Russia. A model 2410 called Nelly and the one we have now a model 310221 called Sammy…

Going to make this short today. Still have to work on the laptop. Some reason the Windows OS simply broke while it set waiting for me to come back. It was turned off and when turned back on, no worky againy…

So I have reinstalled Windows 7 and having to get everything set back up again. I have two back up drives and everything was there waiting to reinstall. Not sure what happened, but Windows would not start and it was unable to fix itself, with the startup repair. I am going to have to figure this out. I do not want to have that happen again. Therefore, that is why I make backups and such…

Yes, it is nice to be back in the Tiny Russian Village… More tomorrow…

WtR