Farming is hard work. And building a farm from scratch, in a strange country where you don’t know the customs, the laws, or even the language, seems to me to be an impossible task.

Yet the Feenstras have been doing it for nearly two years now, and with a surprising level of success. It hasn’t been easy; but with a family of eight children (though a couple are still too young to help with the work), a bottomless supply of faith, and a good bit of outside help, Arend and Anneesa Feenstra are making it happen.

And somehow — amidst all of the vegetable growing, animal tending, construction, equipment maintenance, canning, cooking, sewing, scrubbing, and the daily recording and broadcasting of every joyous facet of Russian farm life for Putin’s propaganda machine — they occasionally manage to squeeze in a bit of rest and relaxation.

Recently, they were invited to participate in a “fair” at nearby Nizhny Novgorod — bigger and more extensive than the local markets they’ve attended closer to home. Arend Feenstra did a good bit of filming as he strolled through the grounds, but held back on his usual narration this time, so I’ll have to let the screen shots do the talking for him.

As you can see, the fair was primarily another market opportunity for the local farmers and crafters. The fairgrounds did not appear to have permanent stands; the vendors came well prepared for what turned out to be a somewhat rainy day, and set up their own weather-protected venues.

While not a momentous occasion for the Feenstras, the video did offer a first-hand view of life off the farm in rural Russia: simple, family-oriented, somewhat primitive from a 21st-century viewpoint, and focused on the basic necessities of life. But it was an opportunity to socialize, and to rest from the daily grind of farm work.

*. *. *

In another video back at home, we were given a glimpse of a gathering of friends in the big Feenstra kitchen, which included their new tenant farmers, Justin and Anita Pulley and their four children; another emigre family; and some Russian friends.

With musical entertainment provided by Justin and Anita, this might have been a get-together in any country in the world . . . a confirmation of my belief that people are basically the same everywhere: decent, honest, hard-working, caring individuals who bear no ill will toward anyone.

It’s the governments that are the problem.

And why the decent, honest, hard-working, caring Feenstras chose to live under Putin’s repressive, autocratic government — simply to escape the “wokeness” of their native Canada — is something I have yet to understand.

It seems to me they’ve traded one perceived “evil” for a proven one. And it is their children who will have to live with that choice.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/9/25