Windows to Russia

The Big Village is the same as a county seat town in America. It houses many governmental buildings and departments for the local government. Most of the time, if you need to get business done, Сараях is the place you have to go and get it done. This village has a two big grocery stores and a dozen small ones. About 9000 people live here and today, I got the pleasure of being held up in traffic twice. Once for the roads being repaved in town and another time to wait to chat with a local police and once he realized who I was, he said, “Get, Go Fishing!” (In English!)

I smiled and waved goodbye, for he has stopped me out at the Fish Village area, when they look for drunk drivers. He knows all my paper work is in good shape and it is a perk living in such a close community, everyone knows each other…

I took a few pictures of some windows and a couple of images of the main street in the Big Village. It was about 8:30 a.m. and with school out, it is much less busy than a month ago. Though as I was leaving today, the town had woke up and was packed. The town is just on a later time frame with school out for the summer…

So that is it today and since I am feeling kinda terrible to say the least, I am going to lay down, before I start working on the roof of the mudroom again. Though the weather is perfect, cool, dry and breezy and I should be feeling great. I will give it an hour or so and then try to get it in gear…

If not, then there is zaftra, it is what all Russians say when they delay something…

Life in Russia is zaftra (завтра,) means tomorrow…

See you zaftra…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

At 4 a.m. I got up and Boza stayed in bed even this morning. It was foggy and dreary down in the valley, but on top the hill where we were, it was sunbeams cutting through the fog and the neighbor Nickali had just walked out of his house to greet the day. Then I hollered “Dobrey Utra” and he smiled like a sun beam and waved as he took a deep breath of air and stretched out the kinks in his body. I went inside and kicked Boza out from under the bed. Then grabbed the camera and we went walking. Before breakfast, coffee and or even waking up the brain…

The image above is what we walked into and the image below is an hour later and I started to take spiderweb images as the sun burned off the fog in the valley…

I tried to get the field of spiderwebs in an image,but all I got were shiny spots in the grass. So I settled on a web shot I did. I like it and enlarge it to see thousands of tiny dew drops…

Now, I fed Boza and he is sleeping again under the bed and I am leaving for town. I have to fill the car with benzine, buy four cases of Boza’s dog food, get some basic groceries, buy another new brush cutting blade (that is three so far,) and last but not least; I am going to buy four sasiskas for me to munch on… (Yummy)

I also am going to look at a bicycle, probably not buy, due to money restraints, but wish is free. Then I am going to look at a small camera to replace the old Kodak we have. Though I would rather get a battery for the camera I have (if able to find) and maybe I need to search for that instead. I like the old Kodak and it takes great pictures…

A bicycle would be great and then I would use it to ride to another village nearby and get groceries there. Save me lots of money and be better for my health. I walk enough, but walking to get groceries may set me over the edge of too much, for I would have to leave Boza home during those walks. Too many village dogs to cause issues and then I still have to walk Boza the same even though I walked kilometers extra. A bike would make it much easier on my old war wounded legs and that is important…

But dreams are dreams and right now I have to get ready to go. I have a priority to get to the fuel station and get the car filled or I will walk plenty after I run out… 🙂

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

This is a huge bird, I hope to get a picture one day of a raven flying with the eagle. It is over twice as big as the ravens are and it is fun to watch as the eagles and ravens fly “loop de loop” sometimes. It is what makes life beautiful…

I take literally a hundred shots at a time and get maybe one decent photo and that is subjective to opinion in most cases. Therefore, it is a good photo to me and thus I post it. When you work as hard as I am to get a decent shot of a particular bird (Golden Eagle or Russian Steppe Eagle,) you take what you can get. This is papa, momma (who is much browner in color and bigger) took a fish back to the nest and I did not see her again. Papa hung around and teased me for awhile, as he always does. Momma Eagle is a down to business and back to feed the kids. Last years brood? The female is gone, but the male has taken residence on the opposite side of the lake. I am sure he is looking for a girlfriend, if you know of any send them this way…

I hope for two more young’ums this year… 🙂

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Sometimes when walking around and looking at nature, you come across very interesting things happening. In the case of this video, I have no ability to understand how these birds are able to even function. Animals posses amazing skills in various ways. I many times feel that we humans are lacking in even the most basic abilities compared to the rest of the animal kingdom. Makes me wonder who really is superior, for when I open a pack of dog food and in two seconds, Boza comes running across the yard 50 meters away sniffing the air and I have to hold the pack to my nose to even smell it; Who is superior?

You could stand all day and watch these birds and never will they smash into each other. Makes you wonder how we humans even populated the earth? Must of had help from someone or something?

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Boza and I took a two hour walk and here is what we discovered on that walk…

I found it interesting that the guy at the fish shack was fishing in the pond for his breakfast. This was about 6 a.m and he is the worker that stays 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as guard. I never see him leave. He eats fish and what ever the fish farm supplies him. He is dedicated, I have to admit that…

Yesterday, Volva my buddy in the village, was upset at the fish guys. He offered a rabbit in exchange for some fish. Now understand that when they turned him down, he was upset. For he raises rabbits to eat and in his eyes they are the finest rabbits on earth. To turn down rabbit is a sin… 🙂

Needless to say, Volva was raving like a raven, about stupid guys at the lake…

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The lake was calm this morning and the image of the reflection of the bird is so cool. I am also glad to see that they are digging out the original foundation for the brick wall that surrounded the monastery. It is hard to say what they will build to replace that wall and we will have to wait to see. I also am glad to see the bridge has been rebuilt; but hey, don’t you just love the twist in the thing. It is so neat and really it is solid. The twist gives it a modern look, very artistic…

Gotta go, have lots to do and I feel better. My blood sugar level was off the scale this morning, I mean seriously off, like error range on the tester. I feel better now and need to get some things done around the home…

Be back later to try to put in video I made of swallows and their nests…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The big lake at the Fish Village has revamped the beach area. They are and have gone fancy. It is a busy beach, when it gets hot, but as you see right now it is empty. That is because it is 15 degrees Celsius right now and that is just too cold for most people. It is one thing to swim in the winter and 30 below zero and getting right back out, but to play all day on a beach at this temperature is not going to cut it…

Next; I am getting better with the camera…

Fishing fishing fishing, dive dive dive and he got one…

Oh and here is another type of window in the village, not pretty but different than most here…

That is all today. I am burning lots of tree saplings that I have cut down and I have to keep an eye on that. Boza is outside and sleeping under a tree and that is a good idea. I think I will join him as I watch the fire burn…

Have a nice day…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Last night I was blessed to find two images on the inside wall of a village home owned by my village buddy, Vova…

Here they are, I took a quick shot with my camera and am going to ask if I can take them down from the wall, to get a better shot of them. One step at a time, is what I say…

I feel like it is Christmas and I got one of the best presents. This is really a find for me and now I have another record of the old church and bell tower. I have maybe 10,000 pictures of this village since I started to come here and it really is important to me to discover all the secretes about this village. There is a calling by the old souls and I have discovered and brought forth little tidbits of information, one chunk of data at a time…

As you can see there is even the classrooms attached to the bell tower from the school days in the image. Look at the white windowed section on the left of the first photo. But the church is a prized possession of an image, that church is fantastic and must have been an incredible thing to see on top of this hill we live on. It was huge and would have been a very impressive place to have experienced…

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Oh and below is a picture of my buddy and his prize rabbit. The rabbit is so white, it washes out in the image, but you can see that she is one big damn rabbit…

I had to put this next one in to end the post, since we now have a yard full of “Song Thrushes” flying everywhere…

My Buddy has baby ducks, baby chicks, baby pigeons, baby rabbits and baby everything, but Buddy does not have personally any babies. “Thank God,” he says. Oh and yes, all his babies are from breeding right here on his little farm. He has one happy little nest for a farm and with that he eats good all year around…

Have a nice day, for we sure will…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Well Mother Nature tested my roof I repaired yesterday and last night. It stormed to beat the band and if it survived what we had last night it will survive most anything that we have for weather around here. Boza and I even went out in the middle of the storm and got into the outhouse, closed the door and with a flashlight, I checked for leaks. Not a drop of water dripped inside, well except where it was forced through the cracks in between the wall boards, but I do not count that…

It got down to around 10 degrees last night and right now it is 15 degrees Celsius at about 10:00 a.m. and an extra cup of coffee is in order for today. I just love this summer weather… 🙂

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Starting today, I am going to fix the roof on our mudroom as I call it. The back part leaks terrible and I have just enough old roof panels with a roll of tar paper, to try to fix that roof also. It has to be, for the back side of the mudroom is unusable for normal storage, it is just too wet…

That project will start today and may take me a week or so. I will not get in a hurry, for my heart just gets upset with me and then I lose days of work anyway from getting sick. It is a reality that I have to live with and I am trying to my best to adjust to that reality. It is not easy, for I spent my life, getting things done and getting them done now…

Update: I added an image and decided to stop for the day. The old panels are a different style, but I was able to make them seal together good enough. I was also able to get a self tapping screw into each panel at least once if not twice. I am stopping because I refuse to end up spending two days in bed for no other reason, than my stupidity. I could finish the roof today, but I actually got half of the roof that needs to be done, done. I feel good and will drink some kvas, then go try to get some pictures of the elusive eagle that taunts me, when I do not have a camera. You should have seen how close he was as I worked on the roof, it was as if I could hear him laugh at me, as he knew I did not have a camera… 😉

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The lake has been being filled non stop for three days now. They are checking the fish this morning to see how they are doing and still pumping water into the lake as I write this. It is at the highest level that I have ever seen it and it looks like they will keep filling it. I am just watching and learning, for that is what we should all do. They are the experts on fish farming and I try to understand what they do, when they do it, by studying what they do…

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It is strange this year in the village, only half the people who were here last year at this time are here now. It is June and summer is very short in Russia, thus; Where are the people? Last year they were everywhere…

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I am hoping that the truck with supplies shows up today, (I counted 10 total people at the truck today with supplies, thus I am able to ignore the big village this weekend and the black bread that I got off the truck is just plain delicious and still warm. Oh My! I ran home and layered some real butter on it and said, “Oh My!” ) for I am in no mood to travel to town this weekend and I need some basic supplies. I will know by noon and maybe I will snap a few pictures of the truck, but it seems I have to do some serious thinking about a camera. My big camera is fantastic, but it is just that, BIG! I have nothing else that does the job anymore as a small camera. The old Kodak of Sveta’s has lost its battery completely and therefore, I need a camera that fits into my pocket. The camera on my cell phone just sucks and while it is the toughest waterproof phone I have ever had, it takes terrible pictures. Got to do something, for my tablet has a great camera, but kinda hard to carry around…

Thinking time…

Have a nice day…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

No options, for it might as well not have a roof at this point. Tar paper just does not last, yet we try to apply it and hope 10 years later it still holds. Just will not happen, so a cup of coffee, short post and off to work. This is the first of two roofing jobs I have to do, actually three total in the future, but the last one will be with tar paper… 🙂

In my mind, tar paper was the first all purpose substance of grand illusions. It was cheap, plentiful and easy to use, to stop lots of home issues. Then it was replaced not by same form of usage, but by popularity, the famous duct tape. Well I still think that tar paper is king, but I admit that I have used duct tape for many things in this world, just as I have tar paper. If you have tar paper and duct tape, I think that you can repair just about anything…. yes anything…

I have two rolls of tar paper, and two rolls of duct tape, so I am good to go for future calamities…

Now back to the outhouse. Tar paper will not do, I have to take the whole roof off and rebuild part of it. Has to be done, for if you have ever had water dripping on you in ten places while doing the call of nature. Then you understand the importance of re-roofing the outhouse…

Okay that said, now one more cup of coffee and off to work I go…

I will toss a picture in of the mess I make at the end of the day…

Update; I used an old roofing material that is very common in Russia. It is a fiber pressed stuff that is kinda brittle, but very waterproof and does the job well. Little guys can walk on it, but big guys like me will crack it all to pieces. I just put a slanted to the front layer of the material across the top and since I could not hardly nail due to structure damage if I do. I improvised with wire, bricks and screws. I gave it an overhang to the front of over a foot and a half, that should help nicely in bad weather…

Have a nice day…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

At 2:56 a.m. I sat up in bed. It was light out and Mr. Nightingale was singing for all he is worth. Then Song Thrush was at the front gate and she was singing to her babies all over the yard and I decided that nature said it was time to get up. So Boza and I got up and went for a walk. After a cup of coffee…

Now I am on my second cup of coffee and writing a post on this wonderful day. I want to get working, but I have to respect the neighbors and sleeping time frames. But that does not matter, what matters is that Boza and I watched a beautiful sunrise come up around 3:30 a.m. At that time it was about 12 degrees Celsius and the beams of sunlight felt really good on my face. Then at that moment, well at many moments that I live in the village, it all came together, “The meaning of life…”

My dad had tried to find the meaning of life, my grandfather, my grandmother, many friends, many teachers and many other people I knew tried to understand what life was suppose to be about and why are things the way they are? They all tried to find meaning of life in material items and many other ways, but never did they stop and embrace nature and or Mother Earth. Oh they tried to bend the earth to their wishes, but never did it occur to everyone I knew, that life’s answers are right in front of our faces and they are present at all times. Even when things are at their very worst, life has pleasures and lessons, even as you lay in bomb crater bleeding to death if no help arrives, there is something that life is trying to teach you, even as you lay dying…

I know, I remember a beetle once, struggling to carry a morsel of food for him and his family, he worked endlessly and finally crested the top of the crater and disappeared, but not until he left me with the realization, that no one is going to do it for you, you must do it for yourself. I knew that if I just laid there waiting to be saved, no one would save me and like the beetle, struggling to get food home. I struggled to get home myself. I became my own medic, for he would never come to me, until it was too late. I applied sulfur to the wound, I wrapped the wound and I crawled, like the beetle taking a chunk of food home that was way to heavy and big, but hey you do what you have to do…

I never thought I would die. It never crossed my mind, then or even years later with six heart attacks. I never thought that I would die. It just never was an issue and no matter how terrible things became, I never thought I would die from wounds or issues that should have killed me. There has been two dozen times in my life, that I should have died. Should have, but never did, for some reason…

Life is what you make it! Not what others/governments/friends/family/anyone or anything try to make it for you. Life is what you make it…

We are all human, we are all born from the earth, we have all the internal instincts that we need to embrace life, nature and earth with proper respect. We have a planet big enough for everyone to live, grow, develop, survive, and or use intellectualism to a higher platform. Life is a combination of all factors. You have to gather all aspects of your surroundings such as God, nature, earth, space, and a million other stimuli that entails our surroundings everyday…

So this morning as the sunbeams struck my face and a bunch of noisy ravens cawed at me to go away from their tree. I realized what life is about! It is very simple and easy. It presents itself to us everyday and we chose to ignore it or not. I found life in a sunbeam this morning. It flowed along and in slow motion, I watched it drift toward me and enveloped my face in its embrace. It felt good, warm and energizing and the cawing of the ravens was beautiful music to accompany that sunbeam…

Life is all in your own head and it starts with you, for you can not have life, until you live yourself – kKEETON…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…