I understand completely.

Same way here.

It would be so good to be able to visit and have visitors to both our countries, enjoying showing them the land, the people who love the same things as we do...for me, I would want to have someone take me riding on their horses ..fine Russian bred Orlovs, ..and at night, singing songs, telling stories, hearing of each other's lives , cooking our favorite foods for each other, enjoying some fine Russian Vodka, or fine beverages here.

This must have been a while ago, there are quite a few small private planes here now, as well as flying schools.

Cows eating out of dumpsters is actually pretty "exotic" for most of Russia, but I've seen it here in the boreal zone too, simply because the soil is bogged, sandy and peaty, so there isn't much grass as such, especially early in the season, and obtaining hay is either very laborious or expensive, so in the spring, when cows are released from their barns after the long winter, they tend to hang around the village and check out dumpsters. Later in the season, they usually move away from the village, where there is fireweed and other herbs. Groups/small herds with older, more experienced cows ignore dumpsters and tend to wander farther from the village. In the communist times, cows were brought to remote northern settlements so that people who worked there (geologists, meteorologists, prospectors, doctors, etc.) could have dairy products for their children, and there was usually a state-employed herder, but now that everything has collapsed, cows in these villages are usually unsupervised, and very few people keep them anymore. Around our village, the few remaining cows spend the summer and fall in the forest, especially on burnt areas with fresh regrowth and along oxbow lakes. They also successfully defend calves against bears.



An-2's are excellent machines but they've become relatively rare, and have mostly been substituted by Mi-8 helicopters (here in the nature reserve, they are used to get to remote ranger cabins, and also to forest fires in the summer) :

What just happened to foto friday????

It is a Russian theme that has inspired good thoughts along with fotos ....

In keeping with the Russian theme, here are a few pics that I hope a Siberian can appreciate. Besides trapping and farming I am a dedicated wild mushroom and huckleberry picker.



Chanterelles, matsutakes, and hedgehogs.