The Forest Hut: A Life in Harmony with Nature

          Dear friends, meet my friend Valeriy and his "forest hut," located on his 1.5-hectare Kins estate within the Kins settlement of Vedrussia in southern Russia.

          Now, before you start picturing a cozy little cottage with a porch and a rocking chair, let me manage your expectations. The interior is a compact 4 square meters—just enough space for a small sleeping platform and not much else. The hut itself is built from a mixture of clay and straw, and for many years, Valeriy has been using it as his bedroom during the winter months (from December to February). For the rest of the year—roughly eight months, given southern Russia's generous climate—he sleeps outdoors under various trees on his property, such as oak, apple, and pear. His favorite? An oak and an apple tree, apparently. When it rains, he simply throws a polyethylene tarp over his sleeping spot. No fuss, no five-star hotel reviews.

          The hut is heated by a small wood-burning stove built into the base of the platform, which is stoked from the outside against the back wall. A canopy extends over the hut and the adjacent area, serving not only as protection from the rain but also as an open-air, wind-swept kitchen. For cooking, Valeriy uses a two-burner stove that runs on bottled gas—though he doesn't need to cook very often, as the main staples of his diet are mushrooms, vegetables, and dried fruits grown on his estate.

          In the warmer months, that same sleeping platform does double duty as a drying rack for the fruit harvested on his land. And when he does feel like a hot meal, he has a small shelter attached to the strawbale structure, where an electric hotplate awaits. There, he occasionally boils potatoes or mushrooms foraged on his property. It's not exactly haute cuisine, but it gets the job done.

          Valeriy's diet is strictly vegetarian. His plot is abundant with wild-growing fruit trees—apples, pears, plums, walnuts, and quince. He has also planted peaches, raspberries, blackberries, and other berries. Most of the harvest is dried in special ovens and sustains him throughout the year. He even keeps a few log hives for bees, carved out from the inside to mimic their natural living conditions as closely as possible, and produces a small amount of honey for his own consumption.

          But don't let all this forest-dwelling fool you—Valeriy hasn't cut himself off from society. His source of income is a grand project: he has established a nursery garden on his Kins estate, cultivating seedlings from seeds of various coniferous plants (cedars, pines, junipers, etc.) from all over the world for sale. At present, he offers potential buyers around 100 different species of conifers, of various ages, grown on his land over the past six years.

          So there you have it: a man who sleeps under oak trees, dries his apples on his bed, and runs an international conifer business from a 4-square-meter straw hut. Some might call it eccentric. Valeriy would probably just call it Tuesday.

          For more info about Russian Kin's settlements please  check this page: https://ecominded.net/russian-family-homesteads