🚐 Rust, Fuel, and Sheared Bolts – Life with a Buhanka

The Buhanka may be just three years old, but it carries every quirk of its Soviet design. This week I set out to change a fuel filter and ended up knee-deep in rusted bolts, snapped fittings, and a replacement pump that wouldn’t even fit.

That’s the reality of off-grid life in Russia. Even a new van fights you at every turn. Every job takes three times longer than expected, and the fix is always messier than the problem.

But that’s the point: you improvise, adapt, and overcome.

👉 Watch the video and read the full story here: offgridinrussia.com

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Revolut: revolut.me/michae0li

T-Bank: 2200700885021005

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🚐 Missing Nipples and Rusted Nuts – The Buhanka Saga Continues

Another chapter in the Buhanka story: 56 litres of fuel to drain, missing straps, and one critical part that didn’t exist — a right-angle nipple.

A day spent knee-deep in jerry cans, fuel pumps, and Russian hardware stores. Nothing simple ever stays simple out here.

👉 Watch the Hi-Rez video and read the story: offgridinrussia.com

💳 Support the project:

Revolut: revolut.me/MikeJonesRU

T-Bank: 2200700885021005

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Over the past two videos, I’ve shown the process of repairing my 2022 UAZ Buhanka myself — every step, every setback, and every small victory. It’s not strictly “off-grid life,” but I felt it was important to share. Because doing things for yourself — learning, adapting, and solving problems with your own hands — is at the heart of what living off-grid really means.

In Russia, vehicles like the Buhanka are still the backbone of rural life. There have been proposals to ban them over poor safety ratings, but those efforts never succeed. The reality of life here — the roads, the distances, the climate — demands something simple, rugged, and fixable.

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Tonight’s masterpiece: me versus Velcro.

Some sadist once decided braces needed Velcro straps — so every time you bend down, they spring loose and smack you on the back of the head. I’ve declared war on that design flaw and spent the evening sewing them the proper way.

It’s been a busy few days: a run to Moscow, wiring up the new security system, fixing the Buhanka’s exhaust, setting up routers and cameras, and finally watching the place light up at dusk with fairy lights and solar lamps. The little touches that make a rural place feel alive.

The expenses have stacked up — mower, strimmer, generator, filters, ladders — easily over a million rubles in by now. But that’s part of building a life here: steady, hands-on work, quiet evenings, and fixing what no one else will.

Sometimes it’s not about grand projects. It’s about the small victories — like sewing Velcro that doesn’t whip you in the skull.

Hi rez video and article on Substack

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What is this?!

Whilst I was installing the security cameras I discovered these markings chiseled into the wood on the top right of the front of the house.

In older houses in England, it's fairly common to find the date of construction carved somewhere in Roman numerals. So my first thought was this was 1914.

And yet, others disagree arguing Russian peasants at that time had no idea about Roman numerals.
14 in Roman numerals is usually XIV not XIIII (though a forgivable mistake for a well read peasant of the era)

What do you think?

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Now THIS is a 'Game Changer'....

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Autumn has properly set in — damp ground, falling leaves, and that familiar race to get everything ready before the first real snow.
The garden beds are mulched, the wood’s chopped, and the banya still glowing warm into the night.

Inside, grechka simmers in the slow cooker, the smell of beef and woodsmoke mixing with fresh tea — real Tetley, smalakom, of course.
It’s the kind of evening that reminds you why this life makes sense: quiet, steady, purposeful.

Every day here is a mix of tinkering, fixing, and finding small comforts that make the cold months not just bearable, but worth looking forward to.

How I Stopped Chasing Water and Started Living
Full story and Hi Rez Video on Substack.

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Success! Though I just realised I don't have a bread knife....

Koopy Koopy time!! Major upgrades happening! 🛁

THE ART OF GOOD ENOUGH

A break in the weather, a can of foam, and a few scraps of wood — just another day trying to keep the rain out.
It’s not perfect, but out here “good enough” is its own kind of victory.

Read the full story on Substack with Hi rez version.

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Crawling under the house felt like opening a time capsule — mice, rot, and the quiet work of generations trying to keep things standing. Not perfect, but honest.

Sometimes living off-grid isn’t about building new — it’s about strengthening what’s still holding on.

Full story and High Rez Video on SubStack.

Support the project:
💳 revolut.me/mikejonesru
🏦 T-Bank card: 2200700885021005
🌐 offgridinrussia.com

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Winter has arrived! 🥶

I made what could have been a lethal mistake. Please consider adding me to your prayers 🙏

Look at me now! Thank you all so much for your kind words, prayers and support 🙏❤️

Merry Christmas 🎄!!!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support 🙏

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An outbreak of "mouse fever" in Russia.

Rospotrebnadzor records a sharp increase in the incidence of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Over 10 months of 2025, more than 3,300 people were infected — this is 1.5 times more than a year ago.

-More than 80% of those infected are urban residents;
-In the Urals, the number of cases has tripled, and in a number of regions — by 2-3 times;

The reason is a warm autumn and winter: rodents are more active, and there are more contacts.

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I'm a trend setter! 😎