How often do you leave the house to take time off from hustle and bustle of everyday life? Some people go to a local park, but our protagonist, blogger Anton Gnetko has retreated to an isolated farm in Luninets District. In search of a new meaning in life, he bought an old house and has built a chapel for locals.
This story is about the man who tries to make his life and those around him better while expecting no gains for himself.
‘What the eye fears, the hands do’
Anton Gnetko has lived his whole life in the city: he graduated from school, then from university, and chose a job that he liked. He ran his YouTube channel about hunting and fishing. The idea of moving off grid came quite unexpectedly about five years ago.
Anton had no sooner returned to the city than he received a call: "The house is yours!" He immediately paid the landlady a deposit and began to work on the house. First thing he cleared up the grounds: the undergrowth was so thick that it was difficult to approach the house.
“It was a bit difficult at first. I had never hammered a nail into a wall in my life, so I had to learn everything. I often turned to my neighbor carpenter for advice, he always helped me out," Anton said and added that a lot of work was put into the house. “The building is from the 1940s. Back then, they used flour to paste wallpaper so mice had eaten it. The window frames were old; the house did not keep the warmth in. The stove was not good so I had to repair it. Then I did some work on the facade. I didn't want to change anything inside: the logs were good; I just treated them with an impregnating agent. There was a chest left over by the previous owner. It was in perfect condition and I use it for dishes. I hung a rack for plates, forks and other kitchen utensils... Step by step I tidied my farm up. What the eye fears, the hands do.
“Even when I have to stay in the city overnight, in the morning I hurry back to the farm, back to peace and quiet where I can be alone with myself and my thoughts. Here I breathe more freely and get tremendous pleasure from any work. The only thing I dislike is taking care of the garden. My girlfriend helps me out. Gardening is her thing,” Anton said with a smile and added that he does not overload his girlfriend with work. “But I see that she enjoys the rural life, just like me.”
'Roe deer take walks across the land plot. Wolves often drop by in winter'
Anton Gnetko has gradually settled down to a life on his farm. The house acquired a habitable look, with a lawn of lush green grass at the doorstep. Anton decided to buy five sheep first to try his hand in breeding.
“I am not yet a guru in this business, but I had to assist lambing already,” Anton said. “Now I have 15 sheep on my farm. The bigger male is of the Edilbaev breed, the rest are Romanov. Their sheepskin is considered the world’s best in terms of quality. There is no special difficulty in care, except that shearing is not easy. They eat hay, vegetables, grain, mixed fodder. They have different characters. This ram, for example, is dangerous. It is better not to turn your back on him, as it might attack. He is 70kg heavy. Others are quite soft-tempered.”
With the forest nearby, it is visually difficult to say how much land Anton Gnetko owns. He said that according to the documents, he owns 25 hectares. He tries to keep order both on his farm and beyond its borders.
A flock of sheep are leisurely grazing nearby. Hens are clucking in the hen house announcing a newly laid egg. Well-fed piglets are hiding from the heat in the barn. The owner's best friend, a dog named Ike, is guarding the grounds. According to Anton, nature here is both beautiful and dangerous, so it is better to watch out.
“Wild animals have never raided the farm much. Although someone stole a chicken without leaving a trace. I am already accustomed to seeing grass snakes but I sometimes encounter an adder on the way. Roe deer take walks across the land plot. Wolves often drop by in winter. I can hear them howling outside the windows. You should fear humans more than wild animals.”
As we keep talking, we approached a magnificent oak tree, which looks like it is 300 years old at least. We noticed large stumps from above. People in the Polesie area used to keep bees in them in the past.
“An old half-ruined stump was lying under the oak tree. I thought I should fix it and place it on the tree. Bees moved in in summer. They still live inside. They have lived there for four years I guess. The bees keep it in order: they seal all the cracks, coat the walls with bee glue, make the entrance into the hive as narrow as possible in order to save their home from precipitation and cold. People say with good reason: the harder bees work to seal their home, the colder the winter will be,” Anton said knowingly. “I brought a frame hive here, too. Bees moved into it a couple of months later. The honey varieties differ of course. The one from the stump is way tastier.”
'The village has never had a church'
Anton often comes up with new ideas. He decided to redesign an old shed to make it a bathhouse with a cozy recreation room. The front side of the building now resembles a museum of rural life. Ancient spinning wheels, jars, lamps, and other rural implements – some of them were donated by friends and acquaintances, some were gifted by locals.
This person turned out to be a builder from Minsk. He offered Anton his free help. Anton needed only to pay for the materials. As a result, the roof was ready a day and a half later.
"He worked completely free of charge. It is very honorable. The village was in need of the chapel. It has already been completed and consecrated. Mostly old people live here," Anton said. "In general, many people lent a hand. A friend helped me make the entrance door to the chapel for little money. Now I look at this chapel and wonder how only five men did such great, important work. No one took money for their work.
'I'm not a celebrity, I don't sign autographs'
Anton Gnetko blogs about village life on his YouTube channel, thanks to which he became famous not only in Belarus, but also far abroad. He already has 344,000 subscribers. The videos get half a million and more views.
There are a lot of videos on his channel about walks in the forest, fishing, picking mushrooms and berries. Anton says he enjoys cooking most of all.
"It's hard to name one favorite dish. Probably, like all men, I am a fan of meat. I cook lamb, pork, beef and poultry best of all. I share recipes and different ways of cooking on my channel. So watch, take notes and put likes!" Anton said.
Anton dreams of turning his farm into a real family homestead where his future large and close-knit family will live.
This story is about the man who tries to make his life and those around him better while expecting no gains for himself.
Anton Gnetko has lived his whole life in the city: he graduated from school, then from university, and chose a job that he liked. He ran his YouTube channel about hunting and fishing. The idea of moving off grid came quite unexpectedly about five years ago.
“The world was chaotic. I just wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, to peace and quiet. I was lucky to find this place in the heart of the Belarusian Polesie,” Anton smiled noting that he didn't look for anything specific. “A friend told me that there was a nice house at the edge of a forest, which had been empty for 15 years. I came and looked at it and literally fell in love with the place. I found out that the 80-year-old owner lives nearby with her son. I went to see her and I honestly said: "I'm ready to buy your house right now for this amount of money, not more. Here is my phone number, think about it and call me back".
Anton had no sooner returned to the city than he received a call: "The house is yours!" He immediately paid the landlady a deposit and began to work on the house. First thing he cleared up the grounds: the undergrowth was so thick that it was difficult to approach the house.
“It was a bit difficult at first. I had never hammered a nail into a wall in my life, so I had to learn everything. I often turned to my neighbor carpenter for advice, he always helped me out," Anton said and added that a lot of work was put into the house. “The building is from the 1940s. Back then, they used flour to paste wallpaper so mice had eaten it. The window frames were old; the house did not keep the warmth in. The stove was not good so I had to repair it. Then I did some work on the facade. I didn't want to change anything inside: the logs were good; I just treated them with an impregnating agent. There was a chest left over by the previous owner. It was in perfect condition and I use it for dishes. I hung a rack for plates, forks and other kitchen utensils... Step by step I tidied my farm up. What the eye fears, the hands do.
Anton said that a lot still needs to be done. He adds that he is happy living close to nature and has no plans to return to the city.
“Even when I have to stay in the city overnight, in the morning I hurry back to the farm, back to peace and quiet where I can be alone with myself and my thoughts. Here I breathe more freely and get tremendous pleasure from any work. The only thing I dislike is taking care of the garden. My girlfriend helps me out. Gardening is her thing,” Anton said with a smile and added that he does not overload his girlfriend with work. “But I see that she enjoys the rural life, just like me.”
'Roe deer take walks across the land plot. Wolves often drop by in winter'
Anton Gnetko has gradually settled down to a life on his farm. The house acquired a habitable look, with a lawn of lush green grass at the doorstep. Anton decided to buy five sheep first to try his hand in breeding.
“I am not yet a guru in this business, but I had to assist lambing already,” Anton said. “Now I have 15 sheep on my farm. The bigger male is of the Edilbaev breed, the rest are Romanov. Their sheepskin is considered the world’s best in terms of quality. There is no special difficulty in care, except that shearing is not easy. They eat hay, vegetables, grain, mixed fodder. They have different characters. This ram, for example, is dangerous. It is better not to turn your back on him, as it might attack. He is 70kg heavy. Others are quite soft-tempered.”
With the forest nearby, it is visually difficult to say how much land Anton Gnetko owns. He said that according to the documents, he owns 25 hectares. He tries to keep order both on his farm and beyond its borders.
A flock of sheep are leisurely grazing nearby. Hens are clucking in the hen house announcing a newly laid egg. Well-fed piglets are hiding from the heat in the barn. The owner's best friend, a dog named Ike, is guarding the grounds. According to Anton, nature here is both beautiful and dangerous, so it is better to watch out.
“Wild animals have never raided the farm much. Although someone stole a chicken without leaving a trace. I am already accustomed to seeing grass snakes but I sometimes encounter an adder on the way. Roe deer take walks across the land plot. Wolves often drop by in winter. I can hear them howling outside the windows. You should fear humans more than wild animals.”
As we keep talking, we approached a magnificent oak tree, which looks like it is 300 years old at least. We noticed large stumps from above. People in the Polesie area used to keep bees in them in the past.
“An old half-ruined stump was lying under the oak tree. I thought I should fix it and place it on the tree. Bees moved in in summer. They still live inside. They have lived there for four years I guess. The bees keep it in order: they seal all the cracks, coat the walls with bee glue, make the entrance into the hive as narrow as possible in order to save their home from precipitation and cold. People say with good reason: the harder bees work to seal their home, the colder the winter will be,” Anton said knowingly. “I brought a frame hive here, too. Bees moved into it a couple of months later. The honey varieties differ of course. The one from the stump is way tastier.”
'The village has never had a church'
Anton often comes up with new ideas. He decided to redesign an old shed to make it a bathhouse with a cozy recreation room. The front side of the building now resembles a museum of rural life. Ancient spinning wheels, jars, lamps, and other rural implements – some of them were donated by friends and acquaintances, some were gifted by locals.
Anton intends to implement several ideas in the house, too. For instance, he intends to finish the second floor. But later. For now he is busy building a chapel that the village has never had.
“I thought about it for nearly two years. When I got money to spare, I found out how much a log house would cost. I asked the local residents for help. After I received a positive answer, I went to the head of the municipal authority. I said the village had never had a church, allow me to build a chapel. A land plot for the building was allocated some time later,” he recalled. “I ran into an interesting situation with the purchase of the log house: an unknown person asked me what the roofing material would be. I didn’t even think about it then. I had other tasks to attend to.”
This person turned out to be a builder from Minsk. He offered Anton his free help. Anton needed only to pay for the materials. As a result, the roof was ready a day and a half later.
"He worked completely free of charge. It is very honorable. The village was in need of the chapel. It has already been completed and consecrated. Mostly old people live here," Anton said. "In general, many people lent a hand. A friend helped me make the entrance door to the chapel for little money. Now I look at this chapel and wonder how only five men did such great, important work. No one took money for their work.
'I'm not a celebrity, I don't sign autographs'
Anton Gnetko blogs about village life on his YouTube channel, thanks to which he became famous not only in Belarus, but also far abroad. He already has 344,000 subscribers. The videos get half a million and more views.
"I started a blog literally from the first day of buying a farm. I show that you can do everything with your own hands. Even if you do not know how to do anything, you learn quickly. I showed how I cut down the overgrowth meter by meter to make a road to the house, how I arranged it," he said. “At first I didn't take videos very often, once a week or a week and a half. But when I noticed that people liked my videos, I started taking them on a regular basis. Now people even recognize me in stores and ask for an autograph. I refuse, because I don't consider myself a celebrity. I just do what I like.
There are a lot of videos on his channel about walks in the forest, fishing, picking mushrooms and berries. Anton says he enjoys cooking most of all.
"It's hard to name one favorite dish. Probably, like all men, I am a fan of meat. I cook lamb, pork, beef and poultry best of all. I share recipes and different ways of cooking on my channel. So watch, take notes and put likes!" Anton said.
Anton dreams of turning his farm into a real family homestead where his future large and close-knit family will live.
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