The Story of Kamchatka

Pine Mountain

Hello again from Pine Mountain. This weeks picture is from the camera on top of mount Pinos. It is courtesy of Pine Mountain Club. It is the fourth week in March already. The days are getting longer than the nights once more. We have had several cool cloudy days this week and several warm sunny days. The winter snows seem to be behind us now. I have spent the week mending fence lines. All the flowers and trees are springing forth with new growth and making a patchwork of color on the mountain.
This week our roving travel writer Roxana has an interesting story about the volcanoes and hot springs of the Kamchatka peninsula. We also have sections on Alternative energy and health and nutrition.

Alternative Energy


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And now here is Roxana with her Kamchatka Travel Adventure

The Story of Kamchatka

We arrived in Petropavlovsk the capital and largest city of Kamchatka. It was cloudy and cool and our guide Elena was there to greet us. Kamchatka is the land of volcanoes and hot springs. There are 160 volcanoes with 29 of them active. 400,000 people live in the 470,000 square kilometer Kamchatka region. 240,000 people or over half of the people live in Petropavlovsk.

The city of Petropavlovsk is a city of monuments and memorials. There are 82 different memorials with the most famous being the memorial to the defenders of Petropavlovsk. In August 1854 during the Crimea war a British and French fleet tried to take Petropavlovsk. The British and French had 2600 men and 218 cannons The Russians had only 920 men and 67 cannons deployed in a horseshoe pattern around Avacha bay. After a month of many battles the Russians finally chased the British and French from the bay despite being out numbered 3 to 1.

How did Kamchatka come to be? There is a legend. Long ago the Raven God Kutkh was flying above the earth and became tired and decided to create a land to rest. He lifted a mountain and a slice of land from the bottom of the sea. He rested and then he decided to put plants and animals on the land. He sat on top of the mountain and watched the plants and animals multiply on the land. Kutkh then wanted to create people to talk to so he put people on the land. Then the mountain that Kutkh sat on started spitting fire and ash and became a volcano. The people were frightened and would not come near the volcano. Every time there was an eruption the people thought their God Kutkh was angry with them and they would offer sacrifices to him. Finally a great shaman named Paratun spoke to the spirit of the volcano. He went to the volcano and a great miracle no eruption. He put his hand in the water and still no eruption only the water was warm. He named the area Paratunskimi and declared it open to the people as well as the river nearby.

Our tour has left the city and proceeded down the coast to the place where the river Paratunka meets the sea. As we approached the river the breathtaking view of the snowcapped volcano Viluchinskiy greeted us.

In the river king salmon fish were spawning. The salmon use all their energy to swim upstream and spawn then they die. The brown bears and other animals then have a feast on the dying fish.

We headed inland toward the volcano. Our tour bus climbed uphill. Soon we reached the parking lot at the end of the road and have to proceed on foot. We reach the viewing platform of the volcano and took many pictures. We left the viewing platform and headed toward the hot springs where we will have dinner. We had our bathing accessories with us so that we can enjoy the hot springs. We walk up the first hill and an amazing panorama opens before us. There is a green plateau with bright violet irises, crimson rhododendrons, and many other colorful flowers and plants. Surrounding the valley are the snow capped volcanoes. We travel across the plateau admiring the views and then begin to descend into the next valley. The trail becomes steeper and steeper finally we are jumping from boulder to boulder. We look to the left and green vegetation spreads out into the valley. At the head of the valley is a tall thundering waterfall.

picture courtesy of Zemla Sannikova Travel Company

Where the water hits the pool at the bottom it splashes up and forms a rainbow of many colors. Everyone takes pictures and exclaims, “ wow !!” in amazement. Finally we head through a dense woods then across a small bridge and we are at the natural thermal pools.

picture courtesy of Zemla Sannikova Travel Company

The women go into the changing room hut to put on their bathing suits. The men just strip down to their bathing trunks and jump in. The women come out and all they see of the men are their heads as they enjoy the warm water of the hot springs. After the first pool there is a warm ozzy mud bottom then a hotter pool. The second pool is too hot to stay in so everyone jumps into the ice cold snow melt river and lets the current take them to the bridge then they climb out and then back to the hot spring and then back in the river again. We change clothes and have dinner. Finally it is time to go so we climbed the trail back to the parking lot where our tour bus is waiting to take us back to Petropavlovsk. Too soon our vacation is over and we board our airplane to head home leaving behind the land of volcanoes and hot springs.

Well that is the story of Kamchatka. I hope everyone enjoyed it.

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Evening on Pine Mountain

It is evening again on Pine Mountain. It is time to relax by the fire with this weeks sample coffee from http://www.coffeefool.com/. Tonight we are trying English Toffee. It has a buttery chocolate taste just like a liquid English Toffee candy bar. It is definitely a unique taste.
Squeekers our African grey parrot is sitting on his perch munching on peanuts. Tonight we were watching a special on bird island or Aves island. It is a bird sanctuary claimed by Venezuela. Venezuela built a coast guard station there in 1979. Squeekers enjoyed seeing all the birds even calling out to some of them. Well it is getting late and I am ready to go to bed. I put Squeekers in his cage, turn off the gas fireplace and head off to bed. Good night everyone see you next week.

Vietnam Vacation part 2

Pine Mountain

Hello again from Pine Mountain. It is the first of March already and winter is about two thirds over. The sun has been out this week and the winter snow has started to melt. Both our wind turbines continue to spin producing all the power we need with some left over. Those of you that have just joined us, up here on Pine Mountain we produce our own power with five different systems. Regular power from the power company can be intermittant especially in the winter time when snow and ice storms and avalanches take down the power lines. We started 20 years ago back when fuel was cheap with a 10 K diesel generator. When fuel prices started to climb we supplemented that with twenty 130 watt solar panels a charge controller and a battery bank. Next we installed a 4 bladed pelton water turbine in the dam of our pond which produces a steady 2600 watts of power. We bought the water turbine from http://www.absak.com/ they specialize in water, wind, and solar power. The solar panels work fine but they only produce their maximum wattage for a couple hours around noon when the sun is out. We have lots of power hungry devices up here on the ranch so next we installed a horizontal 10 K wind turbine on an 80 foot tower from http://www.bergey.com/. It is windy up here on Pine Mountain so our wind turbine is almost always producing power. It starts producing power at about 8 mph winds and is up to 1 K watts at 10 mph winds. Full power of 10 K watts is acheived at 30 mph. Most of the time our wind average is 17 to 18 mph so our wind turbine normally produces about 5 K watts. Finally we just installed a vertical 10 K wind turbine from http://www.pacwind.net/. This wind turbine starts running at only 6 mph wind and is up to maximum power of 10 k watts at 25 mph. finally we have enough power without running our expensive diesel generator. If you are interested in supplementing your power a good place to start is with a book that is known as the alternative power bible available at http://deserthab.offgrid07.hop.clickbank.net/ Well enough about power.

Vietnam Vacation part 2

Last week Roxana began her vacation in Vietnam. This week we have part 2.

Basket Boats

The next town on our visit to Vietnam was Phan Thiet on the gulf of Mui Ne. This town was just like it appeared in the travel brochure. Long soft sandy beaches and warm seas with a temperature of 27 to 28 degrees Centigrade which is 81 degrees Fahrenheit.
The hotels were inexpensive with good service. The local population met you with smiles and served low priced meals that had an incredible abundance and variety of tasty foods.

The night life in Phan Thiet was almost non existent The restaurants large and small are only open until 9 to 10 PM . There are no clubs or any place to go at night so everyone goes to bed early. Phan Thiet is a resort town that opened in 1998 and has still not been built up. Phan Thiet is not a disco or noisy party town but a quiet place where surfers, surf riders and windsurfers gather. We too wanted to drive a surf board with a parachute but the cost was too much for instruction and equipment rental. It takes seven 2 hour lessons before they will rent you a board and parachute. Each 2 hour session is $85 then equipment rental is $15 to $20 per hour. Therefore we admired the parachute surfers from the beach.
When the morning tide goes out there is a long stretch of beach exposed that glistens with beached butterfly cockleshells. We watched the Vietnamese people pull in their fishing nets loaded with the early morning catch. Some had round boats with baskets. The little kids were helping their parents and running around collecting cockleshells. The morning sun was warm and tender and not hot and harsh like it was at noon and early afternoon. The gulf of Mui Ne is not the nicest tropical water in the world. The storm currents stir up the sand and the water turns from blue to a brownish green color. Coconuts and other things that have washed off of boats and the shore float past. The best part of the water is that it is warm and you can surf for hours with out getting cold. We stayed in Phan Thiet for several weeks and made two side excursions. One trip was to Tacu mountain to the pagoda of the lying Buddha. The mountain is 500 meters in height. There are more than a thousand steps to reach the pagoda. The lying Buddha is 50 meters long made of concrete. The views from the mountain are spectacular and the sound of running water and song birds along the way keep everyone relaxed.
Our second side trip was to the sand dunes and red canyon and finally lotus lake. We traveled by motorbikes which rent for $4 to $5 per day.
The Vietnamese kitchen is a full delight. Especially the seafood. Freshly caught they lay in ice at the entrances of the restaurants. You choose what you like, fish, a tiger shrimp, lobster, crab, etc. put it in a basket then it goes to the kitchen to be cooked or it is grilled at your table. There are many good Vietnamese soups. They are made with rice noodles and seafood. I particularly liked the vegetables and the shrimp wrapped in rice paper with a garnish of boiled rice and string beans or cauliflower or even a boiled mango. It seems as if the Vietnamese boil almost everything and fry very little. The soups are served with soy and sweet and sour sauces and finished with a fresh French baguette. Vietnamese coffee is called white coffee. A spoonful of milk is put in the bottom of the cup then steaming water is poured through a sieve of coffee grounds. It is very tasty and very strong.
We went to Halong city on the island of Katba. Katba is the largest of a thousand islands in the gulf. Most of the islands are uninhabited. Some are stony and others are jungle covered. Some of the islands have huge caves and grottos. The island of Katba has dense well kept jungle and is about 300 square kilometers. The jungles are rich with animals, monkeys, leopards, snakes and birds. The town is very picturesque and consists of parks, theatres, souvenir shops, even an oceanarium. Boats go daily to the island and they sell world famous pearls for a cheap price. The pearls grow in the cockleshells. Finally our Vietnam vacation comes to a close and we head home to the snow and cold weather of winter.

Inexpensive Travel

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Pine Mountain Evening

Well it has been another long day at the ranch. I have just finished my evening meal of baked winter squash, sausage, and apple sauce. I am having apple pie for desert and washing it down with this weeks coffee choice of the week from http://www.coffeefool.com/ caribbean hazelnut. This is a delightful little coffee that makes you want to relax on a tropical island in the carribean. Instead of a tropical island I am relaxing in my recliner by a warm fire in the fireplace. Squeekers my African grey parrot is on his perch by the fire munching away on peanuts and chattering away mostly to himself. I am reading a book on computer shortcuts. Finally the fire burns down. I close the grate put squeekers in his cage and head off to bed. Good night from Pine Mountain. See all of you next week.