With all that has been happening in the world lately, I’m afraid I have neglected to keep current with the Feenstra family, formerly of Saskatchewan, Canada, and now living on their very own farm (more or less theirs) in the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia.

If you’ve been following them, or just my reports on them, you know that Arend and Anneesa Feenstra moved, with eight of their nine children (the eldest son stayed behind with other family members), about a year and a half ago to seek prosperity and freedom from “wokeness” in Vladimir Putin’s promised land.

And they seem to be doing quite well . . . with considerable help from the regional authorities, who found their large, personable family to be perfect purveyors of Putin’s pronatalist propaganda. In addition to the back-breaking labor of creating a working farm from scratch, they are constantly producing videos and documentaries of life in Russia, attending meetings, and occasionally traveling to events in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, to Moscow, and once even to Tbilisi, Georgia.

In the time they have lived on their new farm, they have built a large home and are working tirelessly on a number of other structures: a barn for their livestock, a large workshop, a schoolroom for the home-schooled children, a root cellar . . . and even a guest house.

They have vegetable gardens, and incubators for their egg business . . . because, make no mistake, this farm is also a going business concern, as was their former property in Canada. This is how they make their living, and they know what they’re doing.

Lately, though, it seems they’ve had a couple of setbacks. First, wife Anneesa was experiencing severe leg pain, requiring a trip to the city for tests and treatment. According to Arend, they called on a Saturday for an appointment, and were seen on that Monday. Once again, he raved about the excellent medical care — an ultrasound showed tendinitis and some sort of “spurs” — and compared it to Canada, where he said you could wait 8-10 months for treatment. He suggested, quite seriously, that if you want good medical care, you should “come to Russia.”

I’m glad they’re happy . . . but I think I’ll pass on that offer.

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Anneesa’s leg, according to the doctors, will be fine. But the next problem didn’t have such a happy ending. They had set chicken coops outdoors, and one or more foxes went on a rampage overnight, killing 40-50 of their birds. They once had a similar issue in Canada, but Arend said that he used to solve that problem by shooting the offending fox — something that is obviously not going to happen in Russia, where guns are verboten.

And the final piece of bad news was that the government grant for which he had applied in order to start building his herd of cows didn’t come through. Still, Arend’s faith is strong, and he thanked God and the government for allowing him to participate in the grant program, which only had 16 awards available for “lots” of applicants.

It’s always wise to stay on the good side of the people in charge.

*. *. *

But there was also good news. In the process of helping a lady who works for them (they have an employee!) move into her new home, they were introduced to a friend of hers who had two female calves for sale. They were able to agree on a fair price, and the calves — named Alyona and Marta — are now safely settled in their brand-new barn, next door to the litter of young pigs that Arend kept petting while referring to them as “bacon.”

*. *. *

So things are bustling on the Feenstra homestead, as always. Arend teaches the boys the fine points of construction, the girls help Anneesa with the household chores, and everyone participates in tending the animals and the gardens. Between all of the hard labor that goes into running a successful farm, and their daily movie-making, not a minute is wasted . . . to which I have just one thing to say:

“Better them than me!”

I’m exhausted just writing about them!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/3/25