After weeks of watching the Feenstras building the little guest house on their farm in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, preparing for the arrival of unnamed visitors, the so-called big reveal came yesterday . . . only it was something of an anti-climax after all the build-up.

Toward the end of another of Arend Feenstra’s laborious workdays, we were told that guests had indeed moved in. But it wasn’t until breakfast the next morning that they actually made an appearance, and were shown being welcomed by their host family in the kitchen of the main house, where the long table was set for what appeared to me to be a small army. But when you’re already a family of ten, what’s another six people?

The new arrivals were the Pulley family, consisting of an attractive young couple and four small children. But that’s all we know so far.

There was no information as to where they came from, other than a later comment by Arend that they had arrived “from Altai, Russia, via Australia,” and were there to “work for” the Feenstras while building their own new lives in Nizhny Novgorod.

(My guess is that Arend had it backwards, and that they had actually arrived from Australia via Altai; but we’ll have to await clarification of that.)

We were not told anything more about their backgrounds . . . Are they Australian? Perhaps Canadian? American? I thought I heard them greet each other in English, but the words they exchanged were off-mike and unclear. They were never actually introduced to the viewing audience, though Arend Feenstra did say, at the very end of the video, that they would be arranging an interview at which the Pulleys would explain their motivation for moving to a muddy farm in Nizhny Novgorod and their hopes for the future.

Whatever their origins, it appears that the Pulleys are another of Vladimir Putin’s new wave of young, multi-child immigrant families; and the Feenstras — ever anxious to serve their adopted country — have been selected to help them assimilate . . . all in view of the ever-present cameras, of course. In return, the Feenstras receive the benefit of two extra pairs of hands to help with the never-ending work on their growing farm.

And speaking of growing, at the beginning of the video we learned that there were more new arrivals expected, though they’re now a couple of weeks behind schedule: some cows and sheep for the nearly-completed, big red barn.

The Feenstra Farm may still be awash in mud, but it is obviously prospering . . . which goes to show what can be accomplished with a lot of hard work, the right contacts, and a willingness to live under — and proselytize for — an autocratic, tyrannical regime.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/19/25