Today’s very special guest comes to us all the way from Bulgaria. I’m very happy to have my guest for a new Boots on the Ground. You know, I’m always moved and honored by our client’s and viewers’ willingness to share personal experiences because that helps you relate better to what’s happening today. So I really wanted to talk to you because it seems that the news that people hear in different parts of the world is all different depending upon where you live. I think that we need to hear from our global community to see the truth of what’s really happening to the normal population.
TRANSCRIPT FROM VIDEO:
Lynette Zang (00:00):
Today’s very special guest comes to us all the way from Bulgaria. I’m very happy to have my guest for a new boots on the ground. And, you know, frankly, I’m always moved and honored by our clients and viewers willingness to share personal experiences because that helps you relate better to what’s happening today. So I really wanted to talk to you because it seems that the news that people hear in different parts of the world is all different depending upon where you live. And frankly, I think that we need to hear from our global community to see the truth of what’s really happening to the normal population.
Citizen from Bulgaria (01:05):
Oh, and I heard you mention this week, you said something about a hydroelectric at the bug out? Oh my gosh!
Lynette Zang (01:13):
We’re gonna be building, oh yeah. We’re, you know, I’ve got enough land and I’ve got enough access to really experiment up there. And I’ve got Angus who knows how to do all this stuff. And so that is a very easy, inexpensive way to generate some electricity and the place that we’re gonna do it. We’re going, we have to dig down a little bit more, but we’re, it’s about a 10 foot deep pond. That’s kind of already there. And so we’ve got, and then even beyond the 10 foot, we’ve got a very steep incline. So it’s easy to do the hydroelectric there pretty easily.
Citizen from Bulgaria (01:55):
Oh man. You’re…that’s beautiful.
Lynette Zang (01:58):
But then my nine year old grandson pulled up this video on creating hydroelectric by having the water spin around kind of like in a centrifugal kind of thing. So if you don’t have that, so we’ll do. A couple different ways if you don’t have the terrain.
Citizen from Bulgaria (02:23):
I never heard of such a thing. So anyway, oh, the other thing is today, the solar array just arrived. So it’s like been a crazy day over here. We haven’t installed yet. The guys are gonna start installing it on good on Thursday. So next time I’ll be using own power right now, I’ve got Starlink set up. Thank you very much for the suggestion. It’s expensive, but I’m like, you know what? Let’s let’s make the investment and when you’re in the boonies, you gotta have, you gotta have it. So yeah,
Lynette Zang (02:48):
Exactly. And, and, you know, well we think when you’re in the boonies, you gotta have it. But the reality is, is we are living in very precarious times. And so I think everybody needs to be as self-sufficient and independent, wherever it is. Yeah. That you’re gonna make your last stand, whether that’s in the middle of the city or it’s, you know, in the boonies, is there anything that keeps you awake at night?
Citizen from Bulgaria (03:14):
What has me concerned is, is the wellbeing for other people also generally in, you know, but for me, what keeps me up at night is speed. Trying to get these things done as quickly as possible. But also the days are getting shorter. We had a cold snap now and you know, everything I’m hearing about coming out of Western Germany is just Western Europe is just frightening and UK mm-hmm, <affirmative>, it’s frightening. I mean, some of this, I wonder, you know, the, okay, so let me give you some numbers that I just got, I think it was Bob Moriarty is reporting that you know, the Swiss are saying, if you go freeze Fahrenheit, 3000 euros, I mean, these people are crazy. German electric bills yeah. Have gone up by eight times. And when we say that the German electric bills have already gone up eight times, what they normally are that’s seven times what people are paying in the U.S. So yeah, France is up 10X, 10X on their electricity bills. And here’s the crazy part Lynette, the government is subsidizing all this. And the same thing that’s is I guess, is going on in the UK. They’re they’re saying, you know, the government will subsidize more money printing,
Lynette Zang (04:41):
Well,
Citizen from Bulgaria (04:42):
More money printing
Lynette Zang (04:43):
And who ultimately pays the subsidies. It’s the taxpayers, right. Government generates money through your taxes. Then that’s what people…I think there’s always a disconnect. Well, the government’s gonna do this, or the government’s gonna do that. Well, it’s the government’s spending your taxpayer money. Taxes have to go up. They have to. And well, do you think, well, that is clearly why the German government has nationalized three of their utilities.
Citizen from Bulgaria (05:17):
I think this is the end of the European union. I think the energy stuff is really gonna take it apart. The union is barely holding on, like I mentioned, Eastern Europe generally doesn’t want anything to do with these guys Southern Europe as well. That’s why I like Yanis Varoufakis he walked out as the Greek finance minister. He, they told him here’s the game. You’re gonna play with the Germans and we’re all gonna get to eat. And he said, no thanks I’m not your guy. And he walked out. So, and they just got some other clown to go deal with the German banks. Right? And they did a deal. So, you know, to some degree, our neighboring countries, specifically Greece what’s gonna happen? They are not in the same position that we are in, in terms of debt, national debt.`
Citizen from Bulgaria (06:10):
And how bad is it gonna get there? Cause we rely on them. You know, we go there as tourists once in a while, but we get a lot of our fruit, oranges and all lot of fruit from there. But I’m very worried about the European union. Yeah. Increasingly worried about what’s going on in Ukraine. I don’t see anybody talking about peace. I don’t see. I see a lot of reports, credible reports of, you know, Boris Johnson having mixed a peace deal. And you know, I just see more weapons being poured in poured, in poured, in poured in, I see the Russians ratcheting up, you know, they’re threats essentially. They’re cutting off the gas. I just don’t see that going in a good direction. It’s very close to here. And you know, people are, more and more refugees are coming. The people here are starting to get a little bit crazy with all the refugees flowing in. We’re getting a lot of illegal migration right now. So it’s you know, you know where to put people who subsidizes these people and what are the ramifications of all these subsidies? You know, free money, free money, free money. We had we were very lucky where we are, we almost became flooded, but we had 200 houses underwater, very close to our, our home here. From a large rainstorm, basically one of these 800 year rains. And you know, you can see <laugh> people are quite angry with these subsidies, you know, millions and tens of millions of subsidies for Ukrainian refugees who deserve help and need help. Again, these are young children and older grandmothers, primarily it’s the young and the, they need the help. They got nowhere to go. They got no money to eat or they burnt through the money, whatever money they have. But you know, there’s lots of money for them, but there’s no money for these 200 homes. They literally gave them 300. I think it was 300 Lev the other day. My, I don’t know if I can’t believe it. I think it was this morning on the news. They gave them 300 Lev, which is the equivalent of $155
Lynette Zang (08:44):
For, that’s supposed to…
Citizen from Bulgaria (08:47):
That’s offset to offset their yeah. Their no more home, no more home. Home is gone. It was, you know, completely up to the roof and water. Many of these are made, the walls are made of clay. So literally gone and you know, that’s what worries me is governments. Don’t not taking care of their people and civil unrest.
Lynette Zang (09:08):
Is that rising?
Citizen from Bulgaria (09:12):
Not here, but I, just, you know, in some of these larger European, I feel safe in Eastern Europe. I really do. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> there’s not a lot of civil unrest here because we don’t seem to be experiencing, we are experiencing the inflation, the gasoline prices are way down. They are back to just above the pre COVID levels. Wow. Of about, of about $5 and 80 cents a gallon mm-hmm <affirmative>. And that, and by the way, that’s slow here.
Lynette Zang (09:44):
That is low.
Citizen from Bulgaria (09:45):
We were paying about $6 and 70 cents a gallon. Greece, we took a trip to Greece. Greece was paying, we were paying $13 a gallon in Greece a couple months ago. Wow. If you can even imagine that, but people here and again, by the way, when I say the gas here right now is $5 and 80 cents, that’s a low number, very low number because of the surge in the dollars strength. So when I’m doing this conversion, the dollar, as you’ve been explaining to people, right, the strength of the dollar is able to buy more Lev or more Euro. So, but I’m still very worried about just people in general, civil unrest. I feel safer in a small village as you do in your bug out, but it’s true.
Citizen from Bulgaria (10:33):
I, and I feel safer in a place where the cold season is shorter in Southern Europe generally. And we are able to grow our own food and we are growing our own food where we have, we have rabbits, we have chickens mm-hmm <affirmative>. So I have a couple of geese who was given as a birthday gift last year. So you know, we are moving into self-sufficient mode increasingly, but I’m just worried about what are the ramifications of the European union falling apart? What are the things that we do enjoy.
Lynette Zang (11:07):
You know, that’s gonna be huge, but you know, honestly history would tell us that was an absolutely failed experiment to begin with because you cannot take all of those different economies and peg them together. It just doesn’t, it never has. And, you know, magically, I’m pretty sure this time is not different. So yeah.
Citizen from Bulgaria (11:33):
I mean, imagine if you’re in America and I know most of people who are listening are probably in America. Imagine if we got in a big fight with with Mexico. I don’t, I mean, just in terms of food, I mean, we, America relies on Mexico, like, yeah, true. I don’t have the stats, but we really rely on Mexico for food. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> so could we go without Mexico? Probably, and survive? I don’t even know if we could survive, but a lot of the really nice things that we get in the winter, like I’m from Chicago and I was living in Maryland for a couple of years. And I mean, you know, when you’re in the Midwest or the Northeast and it’s wintertime and you’re getting whatever you want. Right. I mean, imagine if you don’t have all that, right. Because that’s sort of what goes on, goes on in Europe is I think what’s gonna happen is people are just gonna start taking, like, you know, the, I’m not hearing anything about the Dutch farmers anymore, which makes me very nervous, but what, you know, the protests and all that, but what happens when people start saying, you know what?
Citizen from Bulgaria (12:40):
We’re like, Russia, we’re gonna just keep, we’re gonna keep our own. We’re
Lynette Zang (12:43):
Gonna keep it. That’s already happening.
Citizen from Bulgaria (12:44):
Stop our, our, our own commodities. Right. So I think that’s the direction where people are gonna, where Europe is gonna go. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and I wouldn’t doubt that, you know, other countries follow, I mean, Asia, I think to some, a large degree and the BRICS nations.
Lynette Zang (13:00):
Exactly.
Citizen from Bulgaria (13:00):
They’re just gonna do their own thing and they’re already doing it. I’m not the expert to speak on that. You know, you’re closer to that. And maybe some of the other people I’ve mentioned.
Lynette Zang (13:14):
Yeah.
Citizen from Bulgaria (13:14):
Can speak more to that, but
Lynette Zang (13:16):
You’re right though. That’s already happening where they’re going. Mmm. India’s like, man, no, we’re not going to export anymore rice. We need it for our people.
Citizen from Bulgaria (13:25):
Right, right. Good example. Exactly. Exactly. I heard that as well. And I’m like, oh man, because we’re in the region.
Lynette Zang (13:32):
Exactly.
Citizen from Bulgaria (13:33):
Now we happen to grow a bunch of rice. I can’t, you know, I noticed it when I was probably here. Yeah. Seven, eight years ago. I noticed I’m like, I mean, just in the grocery store, shopping around, I’m like, there’s like four or five brands of Bulgar rice. I’m like, what is this? And then I would drive along one of the main, we have one main east, west highway for the whole country and I’m looking, I’m like, this looks like rice patties. So every time I turn around, there’s some, you know, some, we really produce a lot of stuff that you wouldn’t necessarily assume that we would produce in Eastern Europe. And I think that’s because I don’t know, there’s just a, you know.
Lynette Zang (14:14):
Your location right. And I, and I, yeah,
Citizen from Bulgaria (14:16):
Well, we can grow it right. That the location is, if you can grow it, then you will.
Lynette Zang (14:21):
Exactly. And I, and I can tell you, one of the things that I’ve personally been practicing with is and sometimes successfully so I’ve done this enough to know that I can do it, and that is eating with the seasons. So just eating yes. What I’m growing at that moment and a little tip is, you know, of course in Arizona, well, where I am in Arizona anyway, Phoenix, you know, we have a 12-month grow season. So when I would plant my trees, my fruit trees, I always made sure that there was something that was going to be harvesting every single month. Okay. So yeah, when I’m done with the right now, I’m doing pink. I have pink lemons. Kaffir limes and I have Curry berries, so, and melon. So that’s a nice variety. I can live with that.
Citizen from Bulgaria (15:24):
This is something it’s funny that you mentioned when I came here 20, the last 20 years I’ve been coming here and then living here. And one of the things I’ve fallen in love with it was annoying at first was not being able to get stuff at, you know, and only being able to get stuff during a certain season. And then I started to the more and more I came and then I started to live here and I’m like, it’s kind of cool. It’s kind of cool to not always be able to walk in the store and have fresh blueberries. It’s kind of cool to only have blueberries for a few months. Right. And I mean, you’re always gonna have, you’re always gonna have carrots and lettuce and stuff like that.
Lynette Zang (16:05):
In Arizona. You don’t always have lettuce.
Citizen from Bulgaria (16:06):
That’s true.
Lynette Zang (16:09):
It’s too hot.
Citizen from Bulgaria (16:11):
Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, well, my point is in north America, if you go to the grocery store, you can have whatever you want. There is no seasonal. I don’t think, would you agree? There’s no, no seasonal produce really.
Lynette Zang (16:23):
I would totally agree with that. And I remember growing up, you know, we had iceberg lettuce, we had oranges. I mean, we had carrots right. All the time. There was very limited things that you could get. And then we had a kitchen garden. So we had corn and things like that at different times of the year. We’ve been very spoiled. Like you indicated all over where they just ship all of this food so that you can have avocados whenever you want them and cauliflower whenever you want that. It’s nice
Citizen from Bulgaria (16:58):
It’s wonderful.
Lynette Zang (16:59):
It’s convenient. But
Citizen from Bulgaria (17:03):
It’s like, it’s not the natural. It doesn’t seem to me to be the natural human existence. And I didn’t mind like I learned a little bit about milk one day and what I learned was not, it’s not good for you for some very specific reasons. It has this particular protein. That’s not good for you after the age of three and all this. And I thought I could never give up milk. And then all of a sudden I tried and I said, well, I gave up milk now. I don’t give up my ice cream. And I eat a lot of cheese cause I’m in Europe, so I eat cheese. But you know, I just cut back a little bit. So it’s like, you think that some things you couldn’t do, but in reality, even at an older age, you can do it and you might even like it.
Citizen from Bulgaria (17:43):
So <laugh> maybe strawberries are seasonal, right. Lynette in America. I think you could say that strawberries are seasonal, but you know, I can tell you that the season is much longer in America for, so by the time, you know, it’s strawberry season here, you’re ready cause you’ve done six months without strawberries. <Laugh>.
Lynette Zang (18:01):
Right, that’s true
Citizen from Bulgaria (18:01):
And so, you know, it’s kind of like, well I’m exaggerating, maybe you’ve done four months without strawberries, but it is kind of cool to have seasons where like right now as Walnut season, when is it Walnut season in north America? Unless you’re living in the boonies and you pick your own walnuts. Right.
Lynette Zang (18:20):
Right. Actually now I have black walnuts up north and we just did a harvest. So actually now.
Citizen from Bulgaria (18:29):
But you’re, but you’re an exception. You’re an, you know, you’re doing this stuff, but yeah, it’s cool. It’s cool. It’s nice. Right. To have a harvest of your own walnuts. Right?
Lynette Zang (18:37):
It is very cool. And it’s a lot more nutritious. But I think people need to be aware of this it really is about preparation and it really is about security,
Citizen from Bulgaria (18:48):
But it’s also kind of, you know, bearing your head in the sand. Isn’t gonna make it go away. That’s why I love what you do. And I appreciate what you do cause you’re like, get your head outta the sand. People pay attention to this.
