Video from Eastern Europe review

 

I usually don't start off with the "negatives" of a video but will make an exception for this one.

If you ever feel compelled to post a video to social media, don't make your 15 year-old granddaughter the star. Don't include businesses with their phone-number on the buildings in the background. Don't take footage of unique memorials* that nerds can track down to exact GPS location.

Another thing about this channel is my perception that the grandmother (76 years-old) is profoundly unhealthy. Maybe readers who specialize in geriatric patients can tell me I am wrong, but she looks like she suffers from water-retention issues (congestive heart failure/kidney failure/high blood pressure/obesity) and might have a couple more years left on her clock...maybe.

Finally, the dog. The girl seems to be a recent addition to the farm. Perhaps she was in a city getting bombed or was closer to the front. She brought her dog with her, probably for emotional support. An elderly, morbidly-obese Chihuahua is not a great fit for a farm-dog in a snowy environment.

On to the good stuff

The farm equipment works around the islands with the trees.

In this video the young woman and the grandmother collect walnuts and chestnuts from local trees. Presumably, a third person is running the camera, perhaps the young woman's mother.

In Michigan, this would be happening about October 1. 

What I like about this video is that in the US we take great pains to NOT plant "messy" trees like fruit trees and nut trees. They are seen as a liability in terms of labor required to clean-up and the potential for litigation due to slips-and-falls and the potential for attracting stinging insects. That is the attitude of a wealthy country.

In a poor country, every item in the farm-yard is expected to contribute to the family economy.

As an aside, "economy", "ecology" and "ecosystem" share the same Greek root-word, "Oikos" (οἶκος) which means "home". The term "Home economics" is redundant.

Depending on the species, trees can be sources of:

• Food
• Protein (nuts)
• Fats (nuts)
• Carbohydrates (fruit trees, sap/syrup)
• Edible leaves (mulberry, linden)
• Bee forage (linden, fruit trees) 
• Material for smoking/preserving foods (twigs, bark, husks from nuts)
• Shelter from the wind
• Shelter from sun
• Shelter from wintertime, nighttime low temperatures 
• Fencing/hedging/thorny barriers 
• Privacy
• Cordage (bast from linden, mulberry, withes from willow)
• Construction materials, low-value (poles, stakes)
• Construction materials, high-value (timber, lumber)
• Construction materials, very high value (tools/weapons)
• Emergency forage for domestic animals 
• Fix nitrogen
• Deep roots can mine water that is deeply underground 
• Fuel
• Property markers
• Attract game (if you want a crop of nuts you WILL be harvesting squirrels...lots and lots of squirrels)
• Medicinal
• Tar, gum, turpentine/spirits (birch, spruce, pine and other softwoods)

This list kind of list is never complete. I listed the uses in roughly in the order of the "value" to a near-subsistence Oikos. Obviously, the order will vary depending on local circumstances.

If I compare the typical species found in a suburban, Michigan yard against the list of potential benefits:

• Honey Locust (Pollen for bees. Shade. A few sticks for fires. Might fix nitrogen)
• Blue Spruce (Fire hazard. Short life. Gum, windbreak)
• Chanticleer Flowering Pear (attracts bees in spring and birds in the winter. Sticks to burn).
• Prairiefire Crabapple (same as Chanticleer)

Nuts

What is most intriguing about this video is that they collect the nuts to sell in town. That is, the nuts are a cash crop.

Later in the video, the young woman cracks walnuts for a dessert. If you look closely you will see that she is cracking the "seconds", that is, the nuts with the stained shells. They sold the bright "#1s" and kept the "#2" for personal use. That makes sense since the buyer was probably paying four times as much per kilo for the #1s.

The young woman is very practical. She uses the money from selling the nuts to purchase a pair of winter boots and to buy a pole and line for fishing.

Transportation

The family relies very heavily on a repurposed roto-tiller as a source of traction. That seems silly to me as a guy who thinks it is trivial to move 80 pounds of cargo in a wheelbarrow. Key point, I am a guy and the two characters in this video are not.

This is not a very efficient or stable means of transportation but it is a case of working with what you have. I suspect that the "tractor" is newly purchased, perhaps with funds from the Youtube channel.

The motor on the unit is identified as a "Bizon 170F". The internet seems to think that is a 211cc, 7hp gasoline engine manufactured in China.

 

*I originally thought this was from the Ukraine but now think it is from Russia or Belarus. There is a very short sequence where a bust of Lenin is visible in a small, roadside park and there is a War Memorial park with static displays of a T-34 and a MiG-21.

Random fact: At one time, if you had $200k USD and the proper permissions you could purchase your very own, private MiG-21