Sunrise to freedom the village in 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…

Almost cried when I finally made it back to heaven…


IMG_20150504_083725

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…

imagesAn 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…

Next few days…


imagesWithin 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…

Welcome to my world…


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 aboutWindows to Russia! 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…

“Welcome to my world!”

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…

Ukraine the Stooge and it is all planned…


Coffee-iconAnd 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…

Stories from Soviet Childhood: Cucumbers!


Hello,

Today we continue to read stories for kids what were written by Nikolay Nosov. These stories were published first in the magazine for children “Murzilka”. Then many of them make up the foundation of the Nosov’s first collection Rat-tat-tat (Тук-тук-тук), 1945.

CUCUMBERS
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.”
His pockets were full of cucumbers, he had cucumbers inside his shirt and a large cucumber in each hand.”Where did you get them from?” asked his mother sternly.
“The vegetable plot.”
“What vegetable plot?”
“The collective-farm plot down by the river.”

“Who allowed you to take them?”
“Nobody. I picked them-myself.”
“You stole them, you mean?”
“I didn’t steal them, I just took them. Pavlik took some, so I took some too.”

Kotka started pulling the cucumbers out of his pockets.
“Wait a minute,” said his mother. “Don’t empty your pockets yet.”
“But why?”
“Because you are going to take them back at once.”

“Oh, but I can’t take them back. They grew on the vegetable bed and I picked them. They won’t grow any more just the same.”
“Never mind, you’ll take them and put them back where you got them from.”
“I’ll throw them away.”
“No, you won’t. You didn’t plant them and take care of them, so you have no right to throw them away.”

Kotka began to cry. “There’s an old man there, a watchman. He whistled at us and we ran away.”
“Now, you see how naughty you are. Suppose he caught you?”
“He couldn’t catch us. He’s an old man.”

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” said his mother. “That old man is responsible for the cucumbers. When they find out at the farm that all those cucumbers have gone, they will blame the old man. Is that nice?”

Mother stuck the cucumbers back into Kotka’s, pockets and Kotka wept loudly and protested:
“I shan’t go. The old man has a gun. He’ll shoot me.”!
“It would serve you right if he did. I don’t want a son who steals.”

Kotka only cried the louder. “Mummy, come with me, please. It’s dark outside. I’m afraid.”
“You weren’t afraid to take the cucumbers, were you?”

Mother gave Kotka the two cucumbers which didn’t fit into his pockets and led him outside.
“If you don’t put the cucumbers back you needn’t come home.”
She went inside the house and closed the door. Kotka started off slowly down the street.

It was quite dark.

“I’ll throw them into the ditch and say I took them back,” Kotka said to himself, glancing around him. “No, I’d better not. Someone might see me, and besides, the old man will get into trouble all through me.” He went down the street, sobbing. He was very scared.
“It’s all right for Pavlik,” he thought. “He gave me his cucumbers and now he’s sitting at home safe and sound. He isn’t scared.”

He came to the end of the village and took the path over the field. There was not a soul in sight. He was so frightened he almost ran the rest of the way to the vegetable plot. When he got there he stopped outside the watchman’s hut and began to cry. The watchman heard him and came over.

“Why are you crying, little boy?”
“I’ve brought back the cucumbers, Grand-dad.”
“What cucumbers?”
“The ones me and Pavlik picked today. Mummy told me to put them back.”

“Oh, I see,” said the old watchman. “So it was you I whistled to this afternoon. You managed to pick the cucumbers after all. You little scamps!”
“Pavlik took some and I took some too. He gave me his.”

“Never mind what Pavlik does, you ought to know better than to steal from the vegetable plot. See you don’t do it again. Now give me the cucumbers and run home.”

Kotka pulled out the cucumbers and laid them on the ground.
“Is that all?” asked the old man.
“Yes.…No….not quite. All except one,” said Kotka and started crying again.
“Where is it?”
“I ate it, Grand-dad…. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”
“You ate it, did you? Well, you’re welcome to it, I’m sure.”
“But.…but, Grand-dad, won’t you get into trouble because of me?”

“So that’s what you’re worried about, is it?” laughed the old man. “No, I won’t get into trouble for one cucumber. If you hadn’t brought the others back I might have.”
Kotka said good-bye and ran off down the path. Suddenly he stopped and called back: “Grand-dad, Grand-dad!”
“What’s the trouble now?”
“Grand-dad, that cucumber I ate, will they say I stole it?”
“Now, I don’t know as to that,” said the old man. Then he added: “Very well, we’ll say you didn’t steal it.”
“But….”
“Let’s say I made you a present of it.”
“Thank you, Grand-dad. Good night.”
“Good night, son.”
Kotka raced across the field for all he was worth. He jumped over ditches and across the bridge and when he reached the village he slowed down to a walk.

He felt very happy……

 

Svet

comments always welcome

Medovukha Recipe; Cheap and made at home…


medovyha

Buy it or make it…

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…

Nice weather, good time and home safe…


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…

Breakfast and off to Old Town…


image

image

Breakfast was very good. There was plenty of food and even with a full hotel, they never let anything run out. It is a shame that this is the only meal that the hotel cafe serves, food was good…

I have watched a little bit of TV and I have to say that the Estonians are overrun with NATO propaganda and Evil Russian propaganda. It is real sad and what with the fact that I see NATO’s soldiers everywhere, it is a sad state of affairs for the people. I watched some military boys pushing Babushkas around this morning and I am going back to try to get some pictures of what they are up to…

I will post later with more images, but now I want to go walk around and see what is happening…

Oh, I am so full… 😁

Kyle