I thought I had caught up with the Feenstra family on their driving tour of the southeastern United States last week, but I was mistaken. It turns out that recent posts by Arend Feenstra had actually been filmed a couple of weeks earlier, as revealed in a surprise YouTube “Short” video featuring wife Anneesa yesterday.

Facing the camera, she tells us that she realizes they haven’t kept their viewers updated as regularly as usual, and that some of their videos have been delayed. She then explained — well, perhaps “explained” is overstating it — that Arend is not presently with them, and hasn’t been for two weeks.

Happily, my initial concern that he might have been taken ill or injured was proven wrong. Anneesa said that he has been “working hard,” and that she is with the younger children at a campground — though she wouldn’t disclose exactly where.

At the time of filming, they were on a nature hike. From the looks of this little guy (below), encountered along their stroll, my guess would be somewhere in Florida.

Anneesa offered one final statement, that they were looking forward to being back on their farm in Russia “very, very soon,” and that was it.

As I’ve said before, this whole trip has been somewhat mysterious. Not that the family are required to share every detail of their lives with their viewers — it would be intrusive to expect them to do so. But from the beginning, when they arrived in Russia two years ago, they have been very open, sharing their happy events and their difficulties as though they were chatting with their closest friends. And suddenly — although they have brought us along with them on this journey — there has been an obvious reluctance to discuss the how and why of it, other than the initial visit to family in Ontario.

At any rate, as I’ve said before, I’ve grown very fond of the Feenstra clan and look forward to following the next chapters in their lives. Keep those videos coming, guys.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
3/10/26