Windows to Russia

Memories, nature, humans, karma and all existence are like the bridge and so is everyday life. Things get washed away but with a little patience, effort, and pure luck they can be rebuilt and or mended. Our bridges on the river at the village, are all like life at its best and this morning that cup of coffee is really good and perfect…

Every year the walk bridges get washed away by the spring rains. They resort to building simple wood bridges now, for in the past after trying concrete supported bridges and various cable supported bridges; they all wash away and are a huge waste of money. So now a simple walk bridge is built every year and it seems to be the best compromise with the flow of life around these here parts. It just makes it hard to get to the stores and that is part of life…

http://windowstorussia.com/new-bridge-in-the-russian-village.html

The most important things are very simple in life. The bridge is not exceptional and is not strong, but it is essential for life to progress. That is why at first I kept wondering why they would not build a super strong bridge to withstand the ravages of time?

They did build these bridges, but all that remains of such bridges is memories and a few concrete supports. That pretty well sums up life in a nutshell and to keep the flow going, sometimes simpler and temporary is the best. For when the village does not need the bridges to be functional, Mother Nature washes them away and she will do that whether they are super bridges or not. For this is an untamed river and nothing is sacred to this river as she roars in spring…

That makes me think about life and how it is and how it should be. We sometimes pressure life to much and all the while doing it, we should be embracing said life and mending, molding and sharpening such life. Life is precious and we should treat it as such. That seems to make sense to me, but we seem to have forgotten about such simple thoughts…

So as Sveta took the picture of the washed away bridge, I look at it and realize that it just looks correct for the moment we are here in the village. For within a few weeks, the local government will rebuild the bridge to the markets and once again we can walk and ride bikes to get necessitates of life. Then the many summer villagers will start flocking to stay in the little village called Sunrise to Freedom…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Life in the village is simple and good. Water is gathered from what Russians call wells, but I call it a cistern. A well is always with water naturally and a cistern has to be kept full of water by an outside source, such as a well. A cistern is what we have and on top of the hill is a Soviet era well. The infrastructure use to be very nice and they had running water to many homes, but as many things in life, when population drops, so does the money available for repairs. Thus we now have to dip our water with buckets from as we call it our well…

We also have two natural, year around running springs. These springs are the life blood of the original monastery and springs like this village has is why you build a village in the first place. Water source is very important. When the village was developed during Soviet times, it was made into a school for the deaf and blind. Actually two schools were next to each other and made from the old female monastery that was originally here. The village also had a regular school for the village kids, its own store for supplies, a blacksmith shop and many other businesses. All in all it looks as if at one time several hundred people lived in this village…

The schools brought steam heat, oil for fuel and a whole bunch of infrastructure that helped the village to grow. So for many years this village was an important landmark for disabled kids. It is just in the last few years that the Orthodox church has been able to acquire all it s land back. Therefore, that is why the church is rebuilding the monastery…

Monastery here… — The village here…

For now I am getting acclimated to the village and in a few weeks will start all my projects. It is cold and wet still, but I am seriously contemplating staying all winter this year and that means serious work has to be done, for winters are very harsh in Russia. Boza and I have to stock plenty of food and firewood to allow us to get by, for once the snow sets in, we will not be traveling very far except on foot…

That means of course, that I would post articles from the village all winter as long as there was power available and internet. I think internet is the most stable item due to being by sim card and through Megafon and with my ability to post from a tablet, I have ways of charging said tablet, even with the power down. So I guess I would post with no issues… 🙂

I am going to find a good hurricane kerosene lantern and then Boza and I are set for the winter with necessities other than food and firewood…

This morning Boza and I took a long walk around the whole village and we found that the fish lake was full and stocked with fish. the men were out in the boat feeding the fish and the water was roiling with hungry fish vying for the food. That surprised me, for we are a month earlier than normal and the lakes are already fully stocked. One month ahead of normal. This is going to be  two crop season! What a fish farm this has become…

Well that is enough for today. I have to get Sveta up and out of bed. She has paperwork to get done in the village and I have some items to buy for repair of the home. If the day is good, I will BBQ this afternoon and that reminds me of grilling carp in the summer. Now that sounds really good…

Grilled Carp…

Have a nice day and come back tomorrow for the new story of the village…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Up at 6 AM and out walking the village this morning with Boza. Sveta always sleeps in until noon when we come to the village and in fact that brings up a conversation that I had last summer with the men living in the village; their wives always sleep late and the men get up with sunrise. I am no different and I really think that it is called peace time for the guys. A sleeping woman is a quiet woman and therefore we drink our coffee and watch the sun come up in peace… 🙂

The image is of the village house as we found it after all the work last summer and inside it was perfect. So the village home is a good start to the first photo of the village area. If the home is good, then all else will follow as being even better…

An interesting thing has happened the last few years and we have found that ladybugs bless us ever year with a new hatching of young’ums and the village home is full of ladybugs at the start of the spring time: I was taught that…

Ladybugs are seen often by many in the world as the messenger of promise and love, the ladybug reconnects us with the true joy of living. Since fear and joy can not co-exist, we then should have no choice but to release our fears and return to promise and love; this is the main message that a Ladybug tells us as they teach us how to restore our trust and faith in the great spirit. When the ladybug appears, it is telling us to get out of our own way, spiritually and physically, then allow the great spirit to enter into our lives…

The ladybugs are running all over the village home and I smiled this morning as I watched them sneak away from around the windows this morning in the sunshine. For they leave without doing any harm and with blessings they will be back next spring also…

I feel better already and Sveta literally came to life and you could see the effect on the place on her. She beamed again as she smiled and the energy she absorbed really made her feel good. As I said, she is now recharging her batteries and sleeping, sleeping and sleeping…

Today we will go to the big village and buy tons of groceries and supplies. There is a new supermarket in the big village and I want to check that out. It looks great. Now our big village has several very large supermarkets. That should tell you about the economy in Russia. It is growing…

We stopped at a Magnet Supermarket before driving out to the boonies and the prices were all much cheaper than in Moscow. I was surprised and very happy; prices cheaper than Moscow? And that is within the small villages in the country side. Understand for clarification, when I say Big Village, I mean a village that has several thousand people as compared to our village of only about 5 people right now. So our big village is still a small village…

I really did have tears in my eyes last night as I stood in our field behind our house. The air was fresh, the ponds are full and ready for fish, the monastery had lots of work done to it and everything was just perfect. Then the icing on the cake was using our well water and making the perfect cup of coffee…

Boza at my feet, as I sat in my easy chair, Sveta sleeping, the birds singing, internet working, ladybugs crawling, and peace prevailing over the Russian Village…

Nothing more is needed and nothing more is expected…

Have a nice day, for I sure will…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Within the next two days, we are going to the village. It is May Holidays in Russia, so Sveta has a week off and she will spend that time in the Russian Village (with Boza and I,) that beautiful Russian village! Then I will stay the summer in the village and work on the garden, house and yard. Time to plant beets and turnips and or rutabagas?Actually a carrot or two will find its way also…

Sveta will get back to Moscow in time for the big parade on the V-Day on May 9th, 2015. I hope her and her mother get to go. Since I am not a social person (and I admit it,) I prefer the peace and calm in the village and Boza will be there with me as we walk around the forests and fields, checking on all the new spring foliage growth; plus writing in the blog and dealing with the internet businesses we have…

Boza and I might just spend the winter at the village also? I think it would be good for him and I…

Therefore, today I will finish packing Sammy the Volga with all out goodies and I will take almost all my clothes this year. Last year I was not ready and did not take enough clothing. It made it hard to act at times. Got to have my hiking boots and mud boots, for simple things as that make or break a days excursion…

I am taking every tool that I own and all my electronics and such. Even if I stay only six months, that is a long time and I need all my tools of the trade. As easy as it is carted down to the village, it can be carted back to Moscow… 🙂

* * * * * * * * * *

I will be posting about the village and mainly just the village. That is why the upper section of the blog is devoted to articles about the village. If I had my druthers, I would live full-time in the village and never leave, but alas; life does not allow such happenings and they are just wanting thinking within my personal desires. Hopefully those desires will become reality and I will someday be able to spend the rest of my days in the village here in Russia. I also have a goal to work at the Fish Village in the farm ponds and I will be trying to perfect my Russian to allow that to happen. I think that they could use a native English speaker…

* * * * * * * * * *

I am almost besides myself trying to be patient and wait to get to the village. I miss it so much that it almost hurts; last year I healed almost completely and I realize that this is from the village that is a monastery. I am even thinking of doing like many do in the area around the village and drinking only Holy Water from the special springs in the forest. We have several springs of fresh water that are blessed by the Orthodox church and many people use this water for their source of liquid and they swear by it as being beneficial…

Regardless of right or wrong, if it makes me feel better; then it will so be…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I have an interesting quote: “Welcome to my world!”

Sip a cup of coffee and absorb the story that I posted in Feb. 3, 2009. I found it buried and lost in an archive on someone’s website. I guess when they rip off content it helps at times… 🙂

George Steele, 49, was a veteran of 8,000 parachute jumps and the pair were the last of about 10 skydivers to jump out of the plane. Daniel Pharr, a man diving with and being trained by Steele, enjoyed a minute of free fall as the cold air rushed by…

“He (Steele) pulled the chute,” Pharr said. “It got super quiet. It’s eerily quiet up there…

I made the comment to him: “It’s surprising how quiet it is.”

And he’s like: “Welcome to my world!”

A few seconds passed, and Pharr asked his instructor another question…

This time, Steele didn’t answer…

Pharr repeated his question…

No answer…

It seems that Steele had died of a heart attack while in free fall training someone to parachute. He died quietly , peacefully and seemingly in no pain. He was in his world…

Give credit to Daniel Pharr: He kept his head about him and kept it from being a double death…

I doubt we all will go to the pearly gates doing what we love more than anything else in the world…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

And it all started with Windows to Russia several years ago. The links below are from the past and Windows to Russia has suffered from being blocked by Ukraine several times. If I wrote something that was just too much truth about Ukraine, they blocked the site…

http://windowstorussia.com/ukraine-is-blocking-windows-to-russia-on-a-permanent-basis-tuesday-august-16-2011.html

http://windowstorussia.com/interesting-happenings-in-kiev-ukraine.html

http://windowstorussia.com/windows-to-russia-is-back-online-in-ukraine.html

http://windowstorussia.com/gosh-darn-blocked-then-golly-gee-willikers-unblocked.html

http://windowstorussia.com/answering-e-mails-on-site-blocked-and-a-cup-of-coffee.html

http://windowstorussia.com/coffee-and-blocked.html

This is nothing new for Windows to Russia and the western countries do it all the time. I have finally given up caring about if they block me or not and I just post and go on about my business. The same with comments, post and go on. You can only worry about being called a commie $#% so many times and you can only make yourself sick worrying about if a country blocks you for telling the truth and I tell the truth a whole bunch on this site. Just the truth you do not want to hear. For sock monkey truth is for the birds…

At the time I was blocked years ago, I discovered that Ukraine was being used as a testing ground by America for blocking software for the internet. This came to me from the horses mouth and that same horse is how I got Windows to Russia finally back online with Ukraine and several other test countries. I use to work 24 hours a day to keep Windows to Russia online and now I just allow the world to treat me like dirt and it seems to make the world happy… 🙂

I guess you need _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ a cup of coffee!

Years ago I posted about the future of Ukraine and guess what? Exactly what was brought up in the post has happened…

Leading party says Soros prepares “Libyan scenario” for Ukraine:

Ukraine’s leading political party has said that the international financier George Soros has been preparing a “Lybian scenario” for the country.

The head of the Party of Regions parliamentary faction Aleksandr Yefremov said in a televised comment on Wednesday that he had information that George Soros had allocated funds for the overthrow of the Ukrainian political authorities.

“I even have information that Soros has allocated certain funds in order to prepare a certain group of young men here in Ukraine who could launch any existing projects based on the North Africa examples,” Yefremov said. He also added that he hoped that the Ukrainian people will be wise enough not to follow such provocations.

Now that was _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ good coffee!

Have a good day, for I will…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Once Pavlik took Kotka fishing with him (Pavlik and Kotka – names of the boys). But they had no luck that day: the fish simply wouldn’t bite, so they went home. On the way, they climbed over the fence into the collective-farm vegetable garden and filled their pockets with cucumbers. The watchman saw them and blew his whistle, but they ran away. Pavlik was afraid he would get into trouble for picking vegetables from the collective-farm plot, so he gave all his cucumbers to Kotka.Kotka came running home all excited. “Mummy, see what a lot of cucumbers I’ve brought you.”

Svet

comments always welcome

Mead? Not sure, some say it is and some say it is not! Cheap? Yes and it can be quick and dirty, or slow and pure! Made at home? Why yes it is and can be, though it can be bought off the shelf in the store and less hassle, but not as satisfying…

I know you think that Russians drink nothing but Vodka? Sorry Charlie, Vodka is not as popular in Russia as it is in America and Russians have an affinity for making their own drinks, be it called by me; as Moonshine. But this drink is made in various forms in many different ways and basically it is just plain good…

It is the way to use that extra honey for a roaring good Saturday night, when winter is deep and you feel like partying…

Lets make Medovukha…

Ingredients:

500g sugar
250g honey
Yeast and hops
1 tsp citric acid
water to 4.5 liters

Using 1 campden tablet? at bottling point, if desired, to tame those wild yeasts. Fermented all the way out this would be about 5.5%, add more honey and the sky is the limit…

Preparation:

Mix the ingredients and put the mixture in jars and keep then open for 48 hours. It is advisable to cover the bottle with a cloth to protect from flying critters, crawling critters and dust. You should be able to see that fermentation has started. If the weather is cool it might take a longer amount of time, find a warmer spot. After that you need to strain the beverage through a cheese cloth or whatever you have. Clean cloth please, then bottle everything and cork and put in the fridge…

Usually it takes 2-3 months to make the first drink. As result you will get a foamy drink similar to bubbly champagne but cloudy, especially when you stir up the dredges at the bottom. If you keep it for 3-6 months, it won’t be so fizzy, but still good and or better…

Do some experimentation and after trial and error, you will discover the perfect technique and Saturday nights will never be boring again…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Just some images for you to see from my trip. One thing I found new for me was the tombstones, just read the image with the print and it will tell you what it is about. I went inside and looked over the history on display. It was interesting to me…

That is the train that I came home in and it is the exact train that I came to Tallinn on. They have one run a day from Tallinn to Moscow and Moscow to Tallinn, everyday! The Tallinn side of the train trip is empty, but the Russian side is packed. Not many Russians go to Estonia and vice a verse these days…

I also snapped a quick pic of a market that I found and it was so fun. They had tons of old Soviet stuff and you could buy anything from a delicious apple to a screw driver made in the Soviet Union…

All and all it was a good trip and I enjoyed myself. There was a few issues and I have not decided whether I will talk about them or not. I am getting tired of talking about what you need to be thinking about and as I talk the world just gets worse by the minute. Maybe if I shut up the world will change?

Dunno…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Posting from a park bench with free city WiFi…

Now that is cool and great…

Not hard to make me happy…

Kyle