Windows to Russia

When I was a little kid, grandpa handed me a small shovel and bucket. He then pointed at the outhouse and told me to clean out the pit…

I was fascinated and scared at the same time. I had visions of monsters that lived in the bowls of an outhouse and ate all given to it. Or something like that. Never crossed my mind that we had to clean it out once in awhile. Those kind of things as a kid, just seem to be ignored and many people grow up in this world and never even think about the care of waste facilities…

I thank my family for raising me right. They might wonder about me at times, but I was taught the basics of life and those basics were on a earthy level. The earth (water and or soil) is life and life should respect that earth. From the dirt comes food, be it animal, plant and or insects. Life all comes from the earth itself…

Yesterday, I tore the seat out from inside the outhouse. The man who built it originally never put a back door to dig out the waste. I had to repair the seat anyway and took the time yesterday to reinforce the outhouse and I cleaned the pit out. Memories of being a kid washed over my mind and after a few minutes of work. I found I enjoyed myself and for the next few hours, I kept at the task. Soon I was done and realized that there are things that seem terrible in life, but things still have to get done…

For inquiring minds…. I fill a wheelbarrow twice, mounded high to the sky, with waste. Yummy…

I realized yesterday that the outhouse has about maybe two more years of usable life span and then it has to be rebuilt. Torn down and rebuilt. The next outhouse will be much bigger and the pit much deeper and lined with bricks, plus a back door to clean the pit out. You see, I am making plans as I work repairing things as to the lifespan and need to replace. Just like, this week, I will finish tearing the old chicken coop down and finish cleaning the back yard, at least enough to rebuild the back wall on the home. Thus, you have to constantly plan and prioritize…

Why do I talk about such tasteless issues?

Because, you should and must know how to deal with basics of life. We may not always have such a perfect unappreciated existence, as some of us do now. I am thankful for such a usable place to use facilities and care for it is very important…

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The monsoon rains have uncovered the roof to a tunnel section. The monastery is undermined with most likely a dozen tunnels. Some are just utility tunnels, but at least four of them are huge walk-able brick lined tunnels, that connected all the buildings together at one time. Monasteries are good about that… 😉

My issue is that now they will start to collapse, they have removed so much earth from the top of the landscape, that we will have future issues. I will watch and point it out to Father Pavel when I can…

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Last few things….The pear trees are alive and growing. They survived and it surprised me. I never gave up on them, but it still surprised me. I thought they had bit the dust…

We are uptown at our village. We have an actual set of stairs at the river. Can you believe that? WE have a solid set of stairs. It is really nice and the bridge is more solid than I have ever see here. I know why! Father Pavel is making sure his flock can get here. It is not because of us few measly villagers living here. We don’t count. But I take what I can get and one day there will be a car bridge built across this river. I see it coming…

Svetochka will be happy to see her strawberries doing good and I moved the hand wash station and made it very easy to work with. It is now solid and usable for all. That should make a happy girl when she comes to the village…

WtR

Biggest, bloodiest and or whatever Mass shooting/killing “ever” in America? Not really, but lets pretend it is for the sake of less arguments. Just think American Indian and that will focus your brain…

“Bloodiest mass murder in US history at a gay nightclub in Orlando on Sunday, federal officials said…”

It is not the headlines that I give a crap about. It was bound to happen and most likely will get worse, before it gets better. We have set our own fate and time will tell how bad it gets. I have said one day that the chickens will come home to roost…

What bothers me is the fact that America has become a simmering pot of water and a simple turn of the stove dial, will send it boiling in an instant. Too many more of these happenings, will cause explosions in violent waves, all over America…

Sad! Sad for the murdered/injured/effected, sad for the country and sad for the state of affairs of all people in America. Too much, too soon, too late, too many, too varied, too straight, too gay, too LGBT, too black, too white, too you, too me, too them, too us, too drugged, too gender correct, too politically correct, too scared, too mad, too happy, too sad, too propagandized, too gamed, too stressed, too mixed, too emotional and way-way-way too much incomprehension of what is happening right under your/mine/their nose…

What! You need you face slapped twenty times to see what is happening?

WtR

Sveta picked up a old Samsung smartphone so that I could use GPS and have a always carry camera. Well neither worked properly and since it was Symbian operating system, there was not much I could do with it. Literally junk, until I thought about installing android in it. I knew that the phone had a high quality camera and it had GPS built in. I also knew that Android could be shoehorned in if I so desired…

I took the Android 4.4.2 operating system from a Fly I4490i phone download from the internet and recompiled it. Then using a flash program made for phones. I experimented and experimented. The image the phone took, before I Androidized, it was terrible…

The camera alone was worth the effort, but I also have a working GPS in a small form factor. Battery life doubled and the phone is just 100% more usable. It is a little bit slow, but I have more time than money!

To me it was astounding at how it went from such a cloudy image to a very clear image. It answers a question about life. Software makes a difference…

I know that the images are of different things, but I took few images with the old, that I have very little to compare with. You can see the difference…

By the way, I am a computer – Android nut by hobby. Not very good, just a NUT!

WtR

Clothesline…

I put the poles one meter deep and supported with a brace driven at an angle over two feet each into the ground, then nailed to the main post. That way I was able to get some tension on the lines, without pulling the poles over. The sandy soil takes extra work to get things to stay upright sometimes and I know that the wet clothes get heavy at times…

So this morning, I built an old fashion style clothesline. I will pick up some standard clothesline rope, but for now, I have put my regular rope as the clotheslines. This is something that has needed to be done and gets all the clothes out of the main walkway…

That is what I did this morning and now to rest for a few hours…

Have a nice day…

WtR

Just photos all in a day in the Tiny Russian Village…

This hedgehog we found has such a bad attitude, that it had to be a girl! 😉 Not really, but I will call her Henrietta anyway. Boza found her at the side of the road and she was in a bad mood. She hissed, called us names and told me to tell Mr. Hedgehog up the hill, that she did not care for his advances and she wants to be left alone… Mr. Hedgehog…

So we passed the word on and Mr. Hedgehog shed one tear and went looking for another girl…

Today we received the wood to fix the back wall of the village home. Cost 3000 rubles delivered. That is about $46 dollars and someone sent a donation today for $50. Talk about answering a orison and a need. I had to have the wood and Boza and I decided to not eat for a few weeks to get the money from the budget, Well; not eat as much. Then bang, here came the exact money to pay for the wood. Talk about answering a orison and a need…

Did I tell you that I love peonies?

Our bench for babushkas as they walk to the monastery is becoming a good thing. They use it every time they come up…

The T-rose is doing great and I suspect that next year it will bloom. It is rooting now and getting new growth and I must figure out the best way to protect it from the harsh winters here. Did I say I love roses…

The caterpillar looks like a common Western Tent caterpillar in America. But who knows? Not sure!

The fish are being fed four times a day now and getting big…

Just things I love and take pictures of as Boza and I walk or work…

WtR

“Daimler AG is a German multinational automotive corporation. Daimler AG is headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.” Plans to localize production of Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Russia, skirts the issue of never ending sanctions. The plant will be built at the Esipovo Industrial Park in the Moscow region. The new plant will assemble E-Class, S-Class, A-Class model sedans as well as ML and GL models. The company intends to produce 25,000 cars annually. Specifically for the Russian market. Mercedes-Benz can not afford to lose that market. Thus, the Russian Trade Ministry has agreed that German automaker Daimler AG can begin the assembly of Mercedes-Benz vehicles in the Moscow region, according to Deputy Director of Transportation Vsevolod Babushkin…

“The plan has been approved by the ministry and is currently awaiting the green light from the regional authorities,” said Babushkin to the Rambler News Service…

This is the kind of things I have talked about in the past. Russia expects car companies who want to sell cars in Russia to locate themselves in Russia (due to sanction games by the west.) If you do not want to put your technology where your mouth is, then find another market. In the case of the Mercedes market in Russia, Russians love those Mercedes… 😉

You see lots of Fords in Russia! Why? Because they build them here…. Things like this are happening all over Russia. This is just Daimler’s way of telling the US and EU what they can do with their illegal sanctions…

WtR

When in a Tiny Russian Village, the comforts are what you make of it. If you are lazy and ignore all around you. Life gets rough and you have no one but yourself to blame. You let your fence collapse, that is your fault. You allow your house to fall apart, that is your fault. Anything can be fixed, stuff and parts are all around. A collapsed home that no one has lived in for many years is a treasure trove of parts. A piece of steel laying on the ground, after being dug up by the bulldozer, is a repair piece for the car. It is what you make of it, that is life…

Therefore, while I get comments about how stupid it is to live in squalor, I actually live in grandeur!

I have said before, “It is the little things that count!”

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The above said, now I must slow down…

Today, I must stop and smell the coffee! I realized last night that I have been driving myself to hard. Once again, I find myself driven. I do it to myself and no one else is to blame. That is what pushed me to become a corporate big wig and what almost killed me. Why I even feel guilty enough to write about it. I have to write this and realize that I have pushed too hard…

I still feel guilty and am self-driven to work harder. I never have enough time to get done what I have to do. In my world of corporations, tomorrow was always too late and too far away. Tomorrow was money lost and time was expensive…

Here in the Tiny Russian Village, I am learning, life not lived is lost and time is perfect tomorrow…..

It is called, “Balance!”

Can you say, “If I die tomorrow, I would be happy with my life?”

I can…

WtR

After several emails and a comment or two. I decided to verify that I have the weather station still and I use it daily. I am working on figuring out how to install a widget that allows me to have the stats on the blog, but as I am not that swift with coding. It takes time to get stuff done…

I know have a large data base of temperatures and other weather related facts. In fact the memory on the control panel is getting full and in a few days, I will need to reset the panel. That is okay, for all data is stored on the computer and it updates regularly…

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More e-mails: Yes, I still drink coffee and yes, I do not mention it as much. But….If you notice the blog still has a header with a coffee cup and even Coffee Thoughts big as day. Thus, coffee is very important and an important drink to read the blog with… 🙂

People get so worried about things like that! I guess I have to weigh and measure better what is important or not. Therefore, read anyway and grab a cup of coffee and or tea, preferably hot and delicious. Cold will do if that is your thing…

I sippa a cuppa as I write this…

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Well it looks like predicting who will run for president in America was really easy and all the hoopla was for the pony show, to appease the kiddies. Hillary and Trump as we all should have known, are running against each other and since I know that Hillary is just one of the gang and will continue the path of destruction that has been implemented and firmly rooted now. As far as Trump is concerned…

If Trump is for real; Then he will grab Sanders as Vice President material and tear the system a new ***hole…

Is he for real? You will soon know, but I suspect he is all part of the plan to get Hillary as president. I really hope that I am very very wrong about this. But there has been too much song and dance going on in politics and if Trump is seriously wanting the job! He will sweep the election with Sanders as a VP. Otherwise it will be another 50/50 election with half the country pissed at the other half of the country. 50/50 the political norm for diversionary tactics of the masses…

Trump was Plan B you know? Jeb Bush was Plan A and that failed miserably. The country could not stomach another Bush, but instead we are staring at another Clinton. So what the hell is the difference? Nothing…

Trump / Sanders – imagine the blowout and utter destruction of the two party system if that happened. Sounds good to me, but we will never see such a good thing happen. It is all a Pony Show for the kiddies… 😉

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Well gotta go! I am going to go to the Big Village today. I have to get a thermostat for the car and other stuff. This is a small grocery run and mainly for parts to get some things done around the village home. I got to figure out how to reset the distributor better on the Volga and finding someone to adjust the valves is hard to do. I am gearing up to doing it myself. I still have reservations about doing that kind of work. The Volga is not what I grew up with. Now a Chevy, Ford or Chrysler. Got it made if from the old days. Seems that the Volga is from the old days and I just need to get it done…

WtR

Yesterday it got to a high of about 7 degrees. We were lucky that it got that high…

The day was very windy, rainy and the wind came out of the north, stocking caps, heavy coats, long underwear and gloves were necessary. Boza of course had his fur coat on, so he was fine as is. Lucky dog…

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But today already it is just as cold, and a small dog came up the hill with his mommy (a grouchy unknown babushka) and he was sporting the latest in June cold weather wear. He had a leopard fur coat, a tiny green hat and pink booties on. He came prepared to look at the monastery in style. Wish I had a camera to get a picture of that… 😉

Today is more of the same weather as yesterday and right now it is raining, windy and Mr. Sunshine is on vacation at the Bahamas. Wish he would come back for a few days and say hi!

But! Coffee with milk, a sweatshirt and boots on. Makes it comfortable and Boza just ate four packs of dog food after our freezing walk. I slept in later than normal, I woke at 3 a.m. and looked at the world outside, then decided that I needed another two hours of sleep and went back to bed. What could I do? Go out in a leopard fur coat, a tiny green hat and pink booties? Well that might have worked, but I do not have such a wonderful assembly. Therefore, I slept, walked Boza later, sipping coffee and writing this post, after the world warmed up a few degrees…

Leopard fur coat, a tiny green hat and pink booties! Now that is style… LOL…

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I was a taxi driver yesterday. I took the neighbors to Rybkhoz (The fish Village,) then I took Vova to Rybkhoz also. It is pension time and everyone is buying goodies for the house to eat. I did not mind and it gives me a chance to see what is going on with the Fish Farm. The lakes are almost all filled and it looks to be a bumper crop again this year. They did a bunch of work on the lakes and have filled them all to the brim…

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Well….I got to thin the plants in the garden. Cold and no fun, but gotta do it…

If I just had a “Leopard fur coat, a tiny green hat and pink booties!” I could be warm, in style and the talk of the village as I weed and thin the garden… Maybe Boza would like the same?

WtR

Mowed the yard yesterday and started to thin the garden. I had a huge wonderful salad. It had spinach, turnip greens, rutabaga greens, carrot greens, onion greens, garlic greens and beet greens. Then I used garlic salad dressing and ate the best salad I have had in a longtime…

So I took some pictures of the garden and of course we have one of Boza waiting at the gate to go for a walk. When he stands there like that patiently, it is a good sign to take him out. He does not like to do his doggy stuff in our yard and we must walk to let him do such things. He really is a good dog. I take him for shorter walks now that he was sick, but we walk six or seven times a day instead. It works for me and him and we enjoy the walks…

Have a nice day…

WtR