Arshan of the Sayan Mountains

Section 1-----Pine Mountain News

Hello again from Pine Mountain. It has been another lazy week at the ranch but it has had it's moments.Pete the mule escaped again while his stall was being cleaned. I guess the gate was not latched quite right.He ran out in the field and jumped a 4 foot fence.The horse trailer was still attached to the truck so John was able to chase him down the road and bring him back with out too much trouble.

It was very windy on Tuesday and our wind turbines were able to reach maximum output. Most of this power output went to the grid through our 2 way power meter.It has been fairly windy most of the month so we should be getting a check from the power company this month instead of a bill.

The women are keeping the garden growing well in the greenhouse. We have fresh vegetables every day. Squeeker's peanuts are finally ready to harvest. We will have to send them to him at the Desert Outpost.

Well enough about the ranch. Now it is time for our poem of the week in Section 2. Then after that Roxana returns with a story about a resort village called Arshan in the Sayan mountains.


Section 2-----Poem of the Week





Blank.Faced Biz Men
written in fall 2006 by Emily D Stine


I tiptoe on the conscience of the corporate exec

My footsteps make ripples, branching down to the cortex
& fade & are forgotten before remembered

I hop from button 2 button on the calculator of a crooked accountant.
tabulating, losing my footing in insatiable quotas & erratic tides of ethics.

BRACING myself for the CRASH into pools of blank.faced business.men
Black.tied to the throat suffocating in INTEGRITY
Blindly thrashing for anything buoyant to hold unto.

I believe the term is "told you so" written 3 years before the CRASH &
subsequent depression of America



Section 3-----Arshan of the Sayan Mountains

by Roxana


We are in Arshan settlement. The resort settlement is in the foothills of East Sayan mountains in the territory of the republic Buryatiya.It has amazed me this atmosphere of calmness and pacification and the nature of the settlement.





The cosy small wooden houses hiding in the pines and the mountain river Kyngarga which has spread the streamlets through all the settlement.
It is like a huge grid of webs which very quietly overcame the fences and in a natural kind of way proceeded directly to the sites. The local residents especially do not want to place barriers in the way of a natural channel of a stream.

Having left things in the guest house, we have gone to study the settlement. Why is this a resort?
Because in it there are springs with hot and cold mineral water, and a special
microclimate.





On the one hand, it is surrounded by the hills of the East Sayan mountains which
have general name Tunkinsie Golci. On the other hand there is the famous Tunkinskaya valley with numerous lakes.



We descended to the beautiful falls in natural park of the settlement
where we were accompanied everywhere with fibers which unexpectedly jumped out from
under legs and pleased us with their nice attractive faces.

We tried water from several different sources which are considered not only medicinal, but also
sacred. These are sold at the the local market with souvenirs and medical grasses which grow in
great variety in the mountains. We were hungry so we tried the famous Buryat poses and big pelmeni, a foot long pastry filled with salted cheese or mutton.
Very tasty!

The next day we rose early and looked through the light fog to see the curling smoke of
sleeping settlement and the first beams of the sun shine on the mountain Arshan. It was like a touch of love. This fantastic hardened giant protects the peaceful life of the settlement.
We had breakfast and then began to climb up the mountain.



We crossed the Kyngarga channel slowly gaining height. We were on a forest footpath, on an abrupt slope, climbing over big stones to cross the river. Sometimes we crossed the stream on huge fallen trees and other times we waded through the cold raging waters.




We decided to stop for lunch at the head of the river. We shrugged our backpacks off our shoulders and felt the pleasant release of the weight from our bodies.
We took a plunge in the cold water. When we climbed out and prepared for our first marching soup on the fire and had lunch.

We laid down on the stones heated from the sun on bank of the
river to rest. The smoke of a fire, noise of the river, shoulders without a backpack and a full
stomach. Pleasure!

We continued our climb up the mountain and reached the top. We were amazed by the view from the top. We retraced our journey down the mountain then packed our things and began our long journey home.

Section 4 ------Pine Mountain Evening

It is evening once more at the Pine Mountain ranch. We have just finished dinner and are relaxing in the family room by the fireplace. We have the fireplace going and are relaxing with the sample coffee of the week from http://www.coffeefool.com. Tonight our coffee is Chocolate Mint. This is an American roast coffee with the taste of a chocolate mint added. It goes just right by a warm fire with a plate of freshly baked sugar cookies. We add a dollup of whip cream for an even more dessert like taste.

Tonight we are watching a science fiction movie about an asteroid heading toward earth and a team of oil well drillers that are drilling and placing nuclear bombs on it to split it and keep it from hitting the earth. Well our movie and coffee are finished now and it is time for bed. Good night all see you next week.

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