Soviet to American Life:  A Glimpse Into Collapse

[00:00:00] Speaker A: In the Ozarks have a lot of preppers or people that think they're ready for it, whatever it might be. No amount of ammunition, no amount of food will probably help, but they'll also make you a target. There's a lot of things you just don't think about. [00:00:23] Speaker B: Your gun will not save you from the mob. [00:00:25] Speaker C: Right? [00:00:26] Speaker A: God will not save you from the mob. There's just no way to prepare yourself for what's coming. [00:00:39] Speaker D: Hey, y'all, put on your boots, grab your headphones, and let's get a little muddy. [00:00:43] Speaker C: As we build a community rooted in the love of dirt roads for the Dust or mud. [00:00:47] Speaker D: Welcome to the Dust or Mud podcast. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode number 17 of the Duster Mud podcast. Thank you for joining us. Today. We have a really super special treat. We have special guests visiting with us. We're going to have a conversation about freedom. We have Andrew and Anna Philipov, and they have a story or just well, their life experiences are just going to we're going to dive into freedom. [00:01:20] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. So, Andrew, we got this, right, I think, in our pre conversation, both of you from the Soviet Union, correct? [00:01:32] Speaker B: Yes. [00:01:34] Speaker C: But it turned into both of you from different countries? [00:01:38] Speaker B: Yes. So we were born in one country, and then we turned out to be in different countries. [00:01:48] Speaker C: Awesome. This is going to be such a great conversation. And you came to the US. You've been here for quite a while now, citizens of the United States, and we'll get through all of that. And to me, this episode, we are all going to get a huge lesson in freedom. And I'm really excited as we dive into this. [00:02:12] Speaker B: Okay? [00:02:13] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:02:13] Speaker C: All right, here we go. So tell us about what are some of your earliest memories of living in the Soviet Union? [00:02:24] Speaker B: Just the regular childhood memories. Going outside, hanging out with friends, spending summer with grandparents, going to school. [00:02:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:02:36] Speaker B: I guess my earliest memories would be taking strolls with coming back from preschool. My dad would pick me up after work, and we will be going home. Winter, it's going to be dark. He would be pointing out in the stars and teaching me English. [00:02:54] Speaker C: Oh, wow. That's cool. Why did your dad know English? [00:03:00] Speaker B: He was in the military all his life. Basically, he went into military academy when he was, like, 14 or something. [00:03:07] Speaker D: Oh, wow. [00:03:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And he was ahead of a military academy in St. Petersburg, and he was, I'm not sure, like chief or dean of the international faculty. So when he spoke English, he spoke, uh he served in Cuba for four years during the Caribbean Missile Crisis. [00:03:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:35] Speaker B: So he had some interesting guess. [00:03:38] Speaker D: I guess so. [00:03:39] Speaker A: Wow. [00:03:39] Speaker C: Andrew, how about you? [00:03:40] Speaker A: What are some of your early same just childhood stuff mom, dad, on the seashore, Baltic Sea, sunsets, things like that. Nothing really crazy. Just working, like Anna said, pretty much any kid would be hanging out with grandparents and doing something for the summer while parents are working. It would be Flaving for the mean. You're talking about gardening and taking care. [00:04:14] Speaker B: Of animals, if there were any. But you're learning all the life skills. Not everybody. There were a lot of kids who were, like, living in the city, and during summer, they would go into summer camps. Okay, but if you had a chance to go to the country, you'll be shipped off for the summer, and then you learn some valuable life skills, like how to take care of animals, how to milk a cow, how to tend to the garden. Really valuable stuff. [00:04:52] Speaker A: How you put things together, how you ranch on things, how to take things apart. Right. You may not put them back together, but hey, that's pretty much standard childhood. Most of the people back then. [00:05:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:05:08] Speaker D: So what would you say would be one of the most misunderstood things about the Soviet Union that people from the west would have? [00:05:17] Speaker B: The bears are not walking on the. [00:05:19] Speaker A: Streets, they're not drinking water, and they're not playing ball like, oh, I think it's ideological load, because when people think about communism, we're talking about something like Myanmar or some crazy coup. Bunch of people running with the AKS and red flags. [00:05:46] Speaker B: Yeah. People not marching in the streets. There was a period when that was happening during the revolution in 1917, when that all happened. Yes, of course there were people marching on the streets, running around with flags and posters and everything else, but other than that but that was not your child. [00:06:08] Speaker D: That wasn't your child. [00:06:09] Speaker A: No. [00:06:10] Speaker D: You grew up in the 80s. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Yeah, it was in the think. The ideological load went to nothing, and people were just sort of doing their thing. I mean, you get up, go to work, go to school. Yeah, in school they would teach you who linen was and who marks was. But it really wasn't that big of a load to know, this is what you have to know. This is what you have to do. I think probably by that time, a lot of people are disillusioned, so they're like, okay, whatever. [00:06:52] Speaker B: Well, another thing, I just thought about going to school, and it was still Soviet Union before the collapse and everything else. Kids never paid attention. Who is rich, who is not? We all had uniforms. We had to go to school to uniforms. And this class separation was never an issue. We were all equal. So you would never get bullied because you're from a poor family, or your family cannot afford the latest fashion clothes, or you don't have the best backpack. [00:07:30] Speaker A: Or your iPhone is not current model. So in a sense, I can't say everybody was equally poor, but they were at the same time poor. There's so many meanings to it. [00:07:44] Speaker D: Yes. [00:07:44] Speaker A: But people did not have much right by the standards that we lived back then. It was enough because you didn't know you know any better. I mean, you had your clothes, you had your food, you had your house. Really, what else do you need? Now we're just trying to keep up with the wants where back then, I was like, okay, well, it seems like you got enough. You get to go to play somewhere in a playground or go to lake, or is it one of your kid? Right, that was it. If you get to go somewhere in summer camp, that was huge. [00:08:20] Speaker C: Right. [00:08:21] Speaker A: But nobody thought about, oh, I need this phone, or I need these shoes, or I need this, I need that. [00:08:26] Speaker B: Well, and then again, as kids, you don't really never really paid attention much to it for growing ups. It was different having a washing machine. It was a big deal because in the 70s, early 80s, not every household had a washing machine. [00:08:43] Speaker D: Right. [00:08:44] Speaker A: Consumer goods were pretty much not existed. Like washing machines. I mean, that was a big TV was pretty big deal. You would have to sign up. Let's say there's an electronic store you'll go in, but you have to sign up for the line or waiting list, and that may take a month, that may take a year, depending on how many TVs they're going to produce according to the plan, manufacturing plan. [00:09:14] Speaker B: Well, because Soviet Union had a planned economy. They had a what it was called? Planned economy. [00:09:22] Speaker D: Planned economy. Okay. [00:09:23] Speaker A: So the government says we need a million TVs produced before this date, and. [00:09:31] Speaker B: We want to make sure that we produce enough so nothing is sitting out on the shelves. [00:09:39] Speaker A: And then, well, what if you need a million and 100,000? Well, you're out of luck. [00:09:45] Speaker B: You'll have to wait till next year. [00:09:46] Speaker A: You have to wait till next production year. [00:09:49] Speaker B: And it's not just TV. It was the cars, too. I remember people were waiting for like, five years to buy a car. [00:09:55] Speaker A: Wow. You can get a second hand, but then you're paying premium on a second hand. [00:10:04] Speaker B: People would get creative. I remember my dad was telling a story how one of his coworkers would put all of his relatives on this waiting list for the cars. His mother in law, father in law, uncles, aunts, and everybody who can. And once their turn comes in, he would buy that car from them, and then he would just sell it on the secondary market. [00:10:29] Speaker C: Yeah, found a way to make money out of it. [00:10:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:32] Speaker A: The Helen was not too happy about it, but I can't really say that it was illegal. It was frowned upon, I guess. [00:10:45] Speaker B: And then again, this is something that wouldn't have flyed during Stalin. Air, for example. Even like cruise shows air, it wouldn't fly. But then closer towards the end, the was a lot. [00:10:56] Speaker A: There was different. One word that we're talking about, warbachev, was Bruce Troika reconstruction, glossness, freedom of speech. But there's also another one that was deficit, which is deficit, deficit, and it was a deficit of everything, especially consumer. [00:11:14] Speaker B: Goods, toilet paper, soap, any cosmetics. I was telling you that my mother was a dentist and people would come and there was this thing, and it's countrywide, it's part of the mentality, I guess. You go to see a doctor, you have to bring a gift, a box of chocolates, a bottle of cognac or something, or French perfume or some makeup, but it was not readily available at the stores. [00:11:51] Speaker C: Wow. [00:11:51] Speaker A: That's why there is no point in bribing somebody. I mean, I can give you X amount of rubles, but what are you going to do with that, right. If you can't buy anything for them? And that was the funniest thing, because it seems like there's nothing in the stores, but everybody had something stashed somewhere. [00:12:12] Speaker B: And everybody had connections. And if you needed some good meat, you would call your friend who is working at the butchering department at the store, and then somebody use somebody always. [00:12:27] Speaker C: Right. So we teased it a little better, I did, about you grew up in the same country, but were there differences like ethnically or was there any family differences? [00:12:47] Speaker D: So whenever they I don't think we mentioned it yet that you were both born in one country, which was Soviet Union, but then you wind up in Latvia and you wind up in Russia. What were the differences? [00:13:07] Speaker B: Well, it was consistent of 15 republican. Every republic had its ethnic flavor, I guess you can say. Every ethnic city tried to keep their traditions like you're talking Armenia, Isaiah by John, Georgia. I mean, those countries have thousands of years of histories and traditions, and it was all kept and at the same time, we're all Soviet people were all equal. So difference of upbringing, too. And then every family is going to be different, too. Somebody was a little better off, somebody was a little better off, better educated. [00:13:51] Speaker C: Right. [00:13:54] Speaker B: But overall, in between people, I never saw any hostility toward different nationalities. It all started after the fall. [00:14:07] Speaker C: Got it. [00:14:08] Speaker B: After the fall of the Soviet Union. [00:14:10] Speaker A: Okay, we're pretty much the same way. I mean, there's really not that big of a difference between I mean, we have relatives in St. Petersburg, and we did go to Russia a couple times, and it's not like I couldn't tell that big of a difference between where we were versus again, depending on where you go, it's a huge country. I mean, huge. And everybody you ask them might have. [00:14:36] Speaker B: Different answers there, but in Baltic states like Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, they were considered the face of the Soviet Union. So basically to go there, it was almost going to a different country. [00:14:49] Speaker A: Okay, well, it was. [00:14:54] Speaker B: A little more European. [00:14:55] Speaker A: European. [00:14:58] Speaker B: What happened was more tourist historical influences. Okay, you looking at Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. I mean, that's how Paris looked in the 14 hundreds such a neat city. Yeah. [00:15:11] Speaker D: Oh, wow. [00:15:12] Speaker A: Well survived World War II without being Majorly bombed. So it's one of those in the Baltic states, one of the better cities to go to as far as just the architecture. You actually feel the old city, thousand year old walls and catacombs and such a good experience going there. But with the Russian empire, before the USSR, it was just part of empire. There was no countries like Latvia or Armenia or Georgia and Lenin's thing, Marxist thing was every nation has a right to self determination. As a matter of know, with all the stuff we've got going on now between Israel and Palestine. Well, in Russia now, back then in the Soviet Union, there was actually Jewish autonomy. They just said, Soviet government said, okay, we're going to have this plot of land and it's going to be Jewish autonomy with Latvia. I mean, some of those borders were kind of drawn depending on where the World War I stopped, and there are so many things going on there. But the key was every nation supposed to have a right of self determination. So every nation basically said, okay, we're going to carve out piece of empire, and they created countries and someone existed for a long time, someone were new, and then those were joined back together in the USSR. [00:16:54] Speaker B: And I'm sorry. And about self determination, too, like going back to the Soviet Union schools they all studied, know, Russian was the official language, but then in the republics, all the kids also studied their national language. Like in Ukraine, they had Ukrainian language. In Latvia. They studied Latvian. In Armenia. They studied Armenian, Georgia, georgian. Yeah. [00:17:17] Speaker A: Now one would look at it and I hear, well, Latvian language was banned during years of sor, and it's like, it doesn't make sense. I mean, I remember Gosh, my birth certificate was in two languages, really. The stores, the storefronts were always in two languages, so I'm not sure where that's coming from. But that's how people kids are being brought up now that they were so oppressed and they couldn't speak their language. I mean, there was Latvian schools and there was Russian schools. It just depends on and a lot of times Latvian families would prefer to have their own school versus having Russians to go Latvian school as well, just because languages most of the time Latvians will pick up Russian a lot easier than Russians that pick up Latvian, just language differences. So you put a couple of Russian kids in Latvian class and all of a sudden whole class speaks Russian. They will try and avoid that, but it's just the way it was. So I can't really say there was a lot of ethical tensions, I'm sure. Again, there was things here and well. [00:18:29] Speaker B: I have relatives in Ukraine, I had relatives in Georgia, and I always remember talking to relatives. And they all studied their own language, they studied their literature in their own language. [00:18:45] Speaker C: Got it. So let's go to the 80s. Going into the late 80s, as things are starting to decline, how bad did it get? [00:18:55] Speaker D: So this would be under Gorbachev, right? [00:18:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:57] Speaker D: Okay. [00:18:59] Speaker B: Very bad and very quickly. [00:19:01] Speaker A: Really? [00:19:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:05] Speaker C: Was there any lead up to it or I know we talked about Parastroica and glassnal. Were those what led up to things getting bad? Were they getting bad already? How did the progression happen? [00:19:22] Speaker A: There were several things that were happening economically. Part of it was Gorbachev enacted dry mean the state had monopoly on alcohol sales. Now, when you think about it, not a big deal, but it's a huge amount of taxes and profits for the state. So that went out the door. Then several wars, like in Afghanistan, that was a huge drain on the budget as well. So there's a combination of all those little things and sound big, sound little, but the economy was sputtering, and then the oil prices dropped. I think it was like down to $5 a barrel at some point because where USSR was one of the big exporters of oil, so things started sputtering, and at the same time, store shelves went bare, so you couldn't buy your everyday stuff, and all of a sudden your Rugle or currency. [00:20:34] Speaker D: What caused the shortage in goods? [00:20:38] Speaker A: Combination of panic buying. [00:20:40] Speaker D: Okay. [00:20:45] Speaker A: I think that was the biggest thing. [00:20:48] Speaker C: Did they see something on the horizon, do you think? [00:20:52] Speaker A: Well, you got to understand that Russian history is war trying to rebuild. War trying to rebuild. Every time the winds blow from a different direction, people just go into let's buy it out mode. [00:21:10] Speaker B: It's probably like on a genetic level, go into the survival mode. [00:21:15] Speaker D: Right. [00:21:15] Speaker A: You just got this fifth stance where it's like, okay, matches. People buy out matches. Sugar, salt, buckwheat. Buckwheat kind of like rice here. And so people start stashing stuff, and all of a sudden, again, it's planned economy. [00:21:32] Speaker D: Okay. [00:21:32] Speaker A: It's not like you can go and say, well, give us five more tons of meat on the next run. No, because your collective farm is supposed to manufacture X amount of goods in this amount of time, you're not going to get more stuff out of them because that's what they supposed to do. And then in the next five years, when they're going to have a next plan, it may change. But in the meantime, if you bought everything out. [00:22:07] Speaker C: That'S just it. [00:22:08] Speaker A: That's just it. I mean, you're not going to get anything out of anywhere just because that's what was planned. One thing that happened with Gorbachev was he went to this model that was kind of a hybrid, and there were some cops that were starting, so he had farmers that were starting. There were cops. Problem with that was usually their prices would be three, four, five times higher than the state price of the store. So you have two pieces of meat and one bubble. The other one is five for a kilo. Well, people couldn't really afford the expensive stuff because everybody's salaries are still the same. [00:22:55] Speaker C: Right. [00:22:55] Speaker B: They were starting to introduce market economy in the private sector, and yet most of the government stuff were still on that planned economy. [00:23:06] Speaker D: So you've got combative economy, weird mix. Weird mix going on. [00:23:11] Speaker A: Exactly. You're working for a state most of the time. I mean, majority 99% of people, whether it's factory, whatever, but you're still working for the government one way or the. [00:23:23] Speaker D: Other, no matter what you were doing. [00:23:25] Speaker A: No matter what. [00:23:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Because all the factories, all the production basically belonged to the government. [00:23:31] Speaker A: So your salary is still the same, whatever was set based on your profession and the level of proficiency, so you're not going to make more. And then all of a sudden the price of stuff disappeared and then the prices went up five times. You can still buy this, but then you don't really make that money. It's not like you can kick it up a notch and make some extra inflation. [00:23:57] Speaker C: But Anna, your dad was a military officer, your mom was a dentist. You all must have been well off then. [00:24:04] Speaker A: No? [00:24:06] Speaker B: Well, I can't say we were poor, we were middle class, if you can say that. But we're not rich by any means. So just one of their childhood memories too. The payday parents would just sit down at the kitchen table with there was no checks or any electronic currency back then. So your wages were given to you in hard cash and they would just be sitting there separating the piles. This is to pay for the utilities. This is to pay off this debt. This is to pay that friend who we borrowed money from. Okay. This money will allocate for food. [00:24:49] Speaker D: And this is interesting because in this country, a dentist and a military officer would get paid pretty well. You would be especially with both. That would be a quite nice salary. So if the white we would call it white collar here. Right. And if white collar workers were not getting the, I don't know, I guess the salary we would expect, who was getting it? Who was more well off. [00:25:17] Speaker A: Blue collar. Blue collar, absolutely. I mean, if you're a blue collar, you're actually making decent money. [00:25:24] Speaker D: Why? [00:25:24] Speaker A: But that's how the economy was set up. I mean, there's really not a lot of rhyme or reason there because the state said so. [00:25:31] Speaker B: Factory worker. In a lot of cases, the factory worker would make more money than university professor. [00:25:39] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [00:25:40] Speaker D: Because they brought a skill in manufacturing to the table. [00:25:46] Speaker B: And the best paying jobs were for people to go work up north on the oil rigs, gas rigs, gold mines. [00:26:00] Speaker D: Yeah, resources, harvesting resources. [00:26:04] Speaker B: A lot of people would go up north to work on the oil rigs. They work there for six months and then come back home for six months and just live like kings. [00:26:16] Speaker D: Wow. [00:26:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Those are the people that could afford cars, inflation and exactly. Cars and vacations. But again, most of vacations, though, when you think about it, it would be state sponsored. State sponsored. So if you're a blue collar worker, a couple of things going to happen to you. You probably will be hospitalized for about a week, two weeks for a full medical, everything. [00:26:46] Speaker B: I mean, they will do your X rays. They make sure you don't have TB, your lungs in good health, you're good to go. Blood test for any mineral deficiencies. [00:27:00] Speaker A: After that, you'll probably be sent somewhere south, depending on where you at. [00:27:06] Speaker B: Well, yeah. Say you're working on the factory. You're lifting a lot of heavy stuff, so your back is probably not in the best of shape. So they'll send you to a special. They were called Sanatoriums that would specialize in treatment of back problems. And there you'll have three meals a day. They'll do special treatments for you. They'll look at your case specifically and will prescribe the PE physical therapy that you need to do special exercises. [00:27:47] Speaker A: You have digestive problems. They'll send you to a place that will specialize in digestive issues, and they'll work out menu just for you. And it's funny, my mom actually, a couple of years ago, she stayed. Some of them are still functioning as a private enterprise now, but people that used to go there when they were young, they paying book of money just to go there. Nothing really changed there. It's still the same decor, still the same rooms. Probably same was just it was just interesting to see that still sort of goes on. [00:28:27] Speaker C: Wow. [00:28:28] Speaker D: So Gorbachev and the Berlin Wall and Ronald Reagan and the know, tear down this. Tear down this. For us, that was a huge thing. Yay. [00:28:45] Speaker B: Non event. [00:28:46] Speaker D: What? Non event. [00:28:49] Speaker A: Saw it on TV. He was like, yeah, whatever. Wasn't that big of a deal. [00:28:55] Speaker C: Wow. Okay. Where were you when the Soviet Union collapsed? [00:29:01] Speaker B: I was actually in Siberia with my grandma. [00:29:04] Speaker C: Oh, wow. [00:29:06] Speaker D: Okay. How did you find out? [00:29:09] Speaker B: Through the news on the actually, as I remember, we were getting ready for a birthday party, and we were making a cake while watching a TV, and then you see all this news coming through, and we just didn't know what to make out of it. Yeah, I remember the growing ups were being in the state of shock, like, okay, what's going to happen now? What's happening? What's going on? Nobody knew everything because again, media was still controlled, and the bits and pieces you would get through the news were not really making much sense. [00:29:44] Speaker C: Wow. Where were you? [00:29:47] Speaker A: That was summer break. Like, right at the end, I was getting ready to go back to schools because September 1 is beginning of the year, and it was the same thing. Everybody's in the state of confusion. Well, picture something like Texas, Colorado, florida and say, a couple more states, their governors get together and design piece of paper that says US. Doesn't no longer exist. And you're like, how does that supposed to mean? It just doesn't make any sense. But in reality, I think the society was at that point where they were ready to go their separate ways. Didn't really work out all that well for a lot of people. But what was done was done. I mean, there's still arguments whether or not they had any kind of legitimacy, where it was literally Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. They got together and they signed this thing going, are we going to dissolve USSR? And Kazakhstan was ahead of USSR. I think Almatit was the capital for a little bit, and Armenia was still parts of it after Russia already left it. [00:31:07] Speaker C: Wow. [00:31:07] Speaker A: So it was weird times. There were a lot of confusion. And then economically, too, like, you work in a factory that's part of supply chain. You say you're making wheel that's supposed to go to this factory that makes cars. Well, now this factory is in a different country. And just the basic things of how do you regulate everything? Who's paying you? There is just so many things that all of a sudden people never thought about and they came into play. [00:31:42] Speaker B: Part of it could be too, is that with Gorbachev and the glossness imperial stroke thing, it opened the doors for Western culture to come in. [00:31:57] Speaker D: Okay. [00:31:58] Speaker B: Because before with the Iron Curtain, there were little bits and pieces. People will know about the Western society, but not as much. And then all of a sudden, this gate opens, and then Soviet Union is flooded with the movies, with the magazines, and people looking at it like, wow, that's how they really know. [00:32:22] Speaker C: So you think that led up to. [00:32:24] Speaker B: Some of the yeah, well, because people think, look at those people, how the Santa Barbara soap opera was the big know. And then people would watch it, and they're like, oh, my God, this is how they live in America. How come we're not living like that? And it was building the social tensions, too. [00:32:44] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. [00:32:45] Speaker A: All you have to do is overthrow the government, and you get a nice car and have naked girls running around a mansion somewhere in the ocean shore. Yeah, that was kind of a perception of Western culture and style. Soviet Union was boring in a lot of ways. [00:33:05] Speaker D: Okay, how? [00:33:06] Speaker A: Well, you get three types of cars. That's what you get. [00:33:09] Speaker D: Three. [00:33:10] Speaker A: You get an apartment, while there's probably more, but some military, and let's just say three major brands. The clothing, because they make 5 million shoes of this design. [00:33:25] Speaker D: Everyone wears the same kind of shoe, that design. [00:33:27] Speaker B: So you're going to get this or. [00:33:30] Speaker A: That, five different varieties of the store. That's all you get for next five years till the plan economy changes, and then they get the designs in and then they do update. And then you might get different color shoe, the same stuff. [00:33:48] Speaker D: So you don't get to be original. [00:33:51] Speaker A: No, everybody had the same stuff. That's why nobody was fighting over it. Just because the same stuff. So that was a huge part of it. A lot of people, though, that women I mean, everybody can saw everybody can put together a dress in a couple of days, probably. [00:34:12] Speaker B: And the thing was knitting, sewing. [00:34:16] Speaker A: All right, well, that was to be original. [00:34:19] Speaker D: You can make your own because you. [00:34:20] Speaker A: Can make your own. [00:34:21] Speaker B: Well, we had two or three magazines in Soviet Union for women, and everybody would prescribe to them because subscribe to them, because every magazine will have like a little section on the cooking. That's how women will get their recipes. And then there will be a section on fashion or how to knit this sweater or how to make the dress well. [00:34:47] Speaker A: Wow. [00:34:48] Speaker C: So you mentioned things were starting to get bad as building up to the collapse. Did it get worse or what happened then? Okay, it was crazy at first, and we didn't know what to think of it. Then what did things get really bad practically overnight. [00:35:13] Speaker B: It's like you go to the store, you buy loaf of bread for like one ruble, and then you wake up next morning and it's 1200 rubles. And then people lost all of their savings. Whatever they had, they just turned into paper money. Everything disappeared. A lot of factories closed down or a lot of them kept going. People were producing it. But then the heads will come out and say, hey, guys, we did not get any money from the government. We cannot pay you. So a lot of people kept working for like six months with no pay. And all of a sudden I have a friend, her mom worked at the factory that was making computer monitors. And then they said, we can't pay you. We didn't get any money from the government to pay you. So here's six computer monitors for you in lieu of the back wages. Do whatever you want. [00:36:15] Speaker C: Wow. [00:36:16] Speaker A: There's one thing which of two? Then there's another word called conversion. That's when a lot of military plants were converted to civilian needs. And the idea was to boost the civilian production. So that's where you get those titanium shovels. And people that used to put together rockets, now they make toys. It was funny at times and sad at the same time. [00:36:43] Speaker D: So people got hungry. [00:36:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:46] Speaker D: So if there's no food on the shelves, where did the production where'd the food come from then? [00:36:53] Speaker A: Dachsha. [00:36:55] Speaker D: Dacha? [00:36:56] Speaker A: Dacha. [00:36:57] Speaker D: Okay. What does dacha mean? And describe it. [00:37:02] Speaker A: Victory Garden. [00:37:03] Speaker D: Oh, okay. [00:37:04] Speaker A: In the Body had a plot of land. Again, when you look at Russian history, it's always just country gets destroyed, rebuild, destroyed, rebuild. And people so used to relying them on themselves. I think self reliance was a huge part of. It even now. I mean, everybody's still doing the same thing. You can tell fat years from lean years. If you drive down and Dutch is usually there would be cops. So you would have, depending on regulations, a certain amount of land was a small summer house. Again, depending on regulations, there was certain standards, how big it can be. Some were tiny things. So you can just store shovels on, like a little shed, some more of a decent size summer cottage. [00:37:58] Speaker D: And that would be where the land is located? [00:38:01] Speaker A: Yeah, they'll be on the land. And if you drive through those cops and everybody's planting grass, then it's fat years. [00:38:11] Speaker D: Okay. [00:38:11] Speaker A: Everybody is digging the dirt and planting vegetables and bushes. [00:38:16] Speaker D: So what would be the average size that, say, a family of four would have to grow food on? [00:38:20] Speaker A: The standard was and everyone was issued. [00:38:24] Speaker D: This was it an issued thing from the government? [00:38:26] Speaker B: Or did you have to purchase you could issue it. You could apply for you can buy it. [00:38:30] Speaker A: You could buy it. So standard size was 600, which is basically 600. So you take that almost 600 yards. Multiply that was it by nine. No, you get your square feet, but basically 600 yards. [00:38:55] Speaker B: Square yards, yeah. [00:38:58] Speaker A: That would feed a family of four. [00:39:04] Speaker B: If you get creative, it can be two families. [00:39:08] Speaker A: A lot of people would ransom land, and that's actually a viable thing. Even nowadays, people always worried about food shortage and things. If you have somebody like a farmer nearby and you can rent a small plot of land, it's amazing what you can do and the things you can grow on it. But we had the Dutcha and we had a couple more plots of land where we would plant potatoes. Plant potatoes? [00:39:39] Speaker B: Cabbages, maybe. [00:39:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So get your basic vegetables and canning done, and all you got to do is hunt for the proteins. And that can be there is always a farmers market and those things always farmers market always existed. It was just more expensive than the stores. And again, you kind of gauge it with your income. [00:40:05] Speaker B: But same thing happening right now. You can get stuff at the store. You can get it or the farmers market. It's going to be more expensive. But the quality is of no comparison. [00:40:15] Speaker A: Right when the system broke down and farmers markets are probably the only place where you can actually get stuff, people were still growing things. And I had a buddy, they had like a good 100 acres where they just planted potatoes. [00:40:34] Speaker D: Oh, wow. [00:40:35] Speaker A: And they were killing it. He had an old rusted out Mercedes van, and you can see through that thing, but they were holding sacks of potatoes, about 50 kilo per sack. And that was the normal thing. Like in the fall, people go and buy two sacks of potatoes, 50 kilos of honey, bought 100 kilos of potatoes. They'll last you for a few months. That was cheap. [00:41:04] Speaker B: We'll get you through the winter. [00:41:05] Speaker A: That will get you through the winter. That will get you the cold months. [00:41:09] Speaker B: Some pickles and some sauerkraut. [00:41:11] Speaker D: You're set. [00:41:13] Speaker A: There you go. [00:41:14] Speaker C: Wow. [00:41:14] Speaker A: So good. [00:41:15] Speaker D: So good. [00:41:16] Speaker A: Throw some bacon to the mix. That'll be nice. [00:41:18] Speaker B: That's right. Now we see the value of the food, and it actually, nutritionally is good for you. But then the Soviet Union was falling apart, and then McDonald's came in and oh, my God, that's hamburgers and French fries and Coke. [00:41:35] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:41:36] Speaker A: It's kind of funny how we go full circle, right? [00:41:40] Speaker C: So what led then to your decision to come to the United States? [00:41:45] Speaker B: Oh, that's an interesting story. So I started working as an interpreter when I was 14 with some American missionaries. I spoke English, not as well back then. I was still learning, but still enough. And the funny thing is, back then, in a week, I would make more money than my teacher at school would make in a month. [00:42:13] Speaker C: Oh, wow. [00:42:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Got some friends at 14. At 14, yes. And then I was getting ready after school. I was getting ready to go into the police academy. High Police academy, it was called. And at the time, it was the best law education you can get in the country. And then plus you go and well, you get a stipend from the military school. So basically you earn wages while you learning. Learning, yeah. And it was one of the best stipends at the time, too. And things didn't work out. I had some knee issues, so I didn't pass the medical test. And friends of mine just fill out an application for me to come here and go to college. [00:43:09] Speaker C: Cool. [00:43:10] Speaker D: So you came to the United States to go to college? [00:43:12] Speaker B: Yes, I graduated from college, and I had some relatives in Colorado. [00:43:15] Speaker D: How old? Teen. [00:43:17] Speaker B: I was 1616. Yes. [00:43:19] Speaker D: Going to college in California? [00:43:22] Speaker B: Yes, I graduated when I was 18. [00:43:24] Speaker D: From college? [00:43:25] Speaker B: Yes. [00:43:26] Speaker C: Nice. Wow. How about you, Andrew? [00:43:29] Speaker A: Well, I went to international Law college, and we're studying EU regulations, UN. Regulations, all kinds of things for the summer. I figured I'll just get me a summer job. And that was at the dawn of the Internet. Found this website. Summer Jobs online or something like that. And just out of the blue, there was this one posting in defines Iowa people are trying to find on the map. And when now. And I wrote a guy a quick email going, hey, I'm interested in shoveling concrete for summer. Would you take me on? He goes, sure, come on over. And that was it. [00:44:18] Speaker C: Wow. [00:44:18] Speaker A: So next thing you know, I'm in Chicago with $50 in my pocket and map and trying to figure out where it defines Iowa is. That was an interesting experience. But I did make it to little town called Boondocks. [00:44:33] Speaker D: Literally. [00:44:34] Speaker A: Literally Boondocks. And trying to make it to the motel where crew is staying again, no car. Everywhere you go in Europe is public transportation. [00:44:48] Speaker D: This is pretty much a road crew, construction kind of concrete situation, right? [00:44:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, they just traveled the. [00:44:54] Speaker D: State, got it, stayed in the hotels, working at the interstates and stuff. [00:44:58] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:44:58] Speaker D: Got you. And you're how old at this point? [00:45:01] Speaker A: 18. [00:45:02] Speaker D: So you're 18, you fly to another country, you have no idea where you're. [00:45:08] Speaker C: Going, and not much money. [00:45:11] Speaker D: And not much money. [00:45:12] Speaker A: No, I think that was the worst. Now, looking back at it, whatever. [00:45:16] Speaker D: Yeah, I would do it again with more money. [00:45:21] Speaker A: Well, I don't know about that. It'll be horrifying. [00:45:27] Speaker B: You don't think about it, you just. [00:45:30] Speaker A: Kind of do it. But now when you're looking back at it, going, oh, my God. So I checked into a motel trying to get something to eat, and there's a McDonald's about 2 miles away, just kind of down, cornfield away, and here I am, just walking down, grab me. I think back then, number one is like either 298 or John. And on the way back, there's a big construction truck just flying by, hits the brakes, backs up. Are you Andrew? Yeah. Come on in. That's how I met my boss and friend, Roberto. And how do you know? He goes, well, we don't walk down the highways around here. I figure it was you. [00:46:20] Speaker D: You are out of place. [00:46:23] Speaker A: Yeah, that's how I started. I mean, next day I was literally on the road shoveling concrete. [00:46:28] Speaker C: Wow. So are there any parts of American culture or life here that you found really surprising? [00:46:38] Speaker B: Like with paying for something? Culture shock store. That was a culture shock. You go in, you buy something, whatever, say it's $100, you come to the register, and it's 110 or 111, depending on what the tax rate is. [00:46:53] Speaker D: Sales tax. [00:46:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Because back home, there is definitely taxes on everything you buy, but it's already configured in the price. So whatever you see, that's what you're going to pay. [00:47:04] Speaker C: Right. [00:47:05] Speaker B: So here it's a little different. [00:47:09] Speaker C: We understand that that happened to us when we went to England. Except opposite. [00:47:13] Speaker D: It was opposite, right. [00:47:15] Speaker C: The price was just the price. [00:47:17] Speaker D: Yeah. Or 100 pounds. It was 100 pounds. The end. There was nothing. All the VAT was already on it. [00:47:25] Speaker B: Yes. It's already calculated in. [00:47:27] Speaker D: Yeah, which is very smart of them to do that because it's 17%. And so when you're paying 17% at that time in 2005, 617 percent tax, and you go up and it's 100 pounds and they add 17%, that's going to hurt. Go ahead, nothing to see here. [00:47:51] Speaker C: How about you, Andrew? [00:47:55] Speaker A: Just the way people go about their business, I mean, that was mean stores. I don't think it was really that much at that time. It wasn't that big of a difference. Just because Latvia at that, even so. [00:48:13] Speaker B: Like, even Russia at that know, if you go to the store, you don't get the shock of the overabundance of everything in there, because by that time, Russia was pretty well stocked. [00:48:24] Speaker D: Okay? [00:48:24] Speaker A: But let's say we'll be stopping for a break, and Bertie goes, okay, let's go get something to eat. No, go to whatever. Dairy Queen. I'm like, you just covered in concrete. You dirty and smell like diesel fuel. Like, well, are we supposed to change? Take a shower? He just looks at Dairy Queen. [00:48:46] Speaker D: Dairy Queen. No, we're not taking a shower before we go get hamburger. [00:48:55] Speaker A: People don't care what other people think of. [00:49:01] Speaker D: Here. [00:49:01] Speaker A: Here at least most of the people that I ran into, whatever. Okay? You see people in PJs on Walmart. I was rolling the other day. We're in the gas station. There's this guy in, like, a beanie, the Pooh PJs at 08:00 in the morning on three cans of Monster Energy just rolling out of there, and he's got a little hood thing, and he's probably about 40 years old or so. We're like, okay. [00:49:28] Speaker D: We all wonder what's wrong with him. [00:49:30] Speaker B: Yeah. In Russia, for a woman to run to the store to get, like, bread and milk no, she has to put her makeup on, wear good clothes, make sure to put on high. [00:49:42] Speaker D: How you present yourself. [00:49:44] Speaker B: It is changed now. It's much laid back now still, though. [00:49:49] Speaker A: I mean, you'll be hard pressed to see somebody I mean, people go hungry. [00:49:53] Speaker D: I think it was that way here, like, in the 60s, it was that way where you didn't go out in public without watching the old getting done. [00:50:01] Speaker A: Like, fifty s. Sixty s. It started to break down in 70 some. But I love those old footage, because when you put together, let's say, USSR in the there's some differences. I mean, you can see the cars, but the way that people go about their business is so close, okay. Versus then it just started changing was the culture changes and everything else. [00:50:26] Speaker B: Right? Well, I remember talking to one of my friends. She lived here for probably good, ten years, and then she went back to visit her family, and then she comes back and she's like, oh, my God, they dress so well. And then you see all these girls wearing Labu Ten shoes, Jimmy Choos with nice purses with Versace clothes on. I'm like, but think about it this way. That's probably that whole outfit. Who knows how long she was saving for it? And that's the only thing she has. [00:51:01] Speaker D: That's it. [00:51:01] Speaker B: Yeah. And then you look at your closet, and you don't know where to put things. [00:51:06] Speaker D: Anything else? [00:51:07] Speaker A: Speaking of cultural shock now, going back there, you have reverse cultural shock because now you don't really care. But they were they still care. We were in Riga and the capital of Latvia, okay? And there's a little town outside of its resort town called Seashore. And my cousins got a house there. [00:51:30] Speaker B: And we had kind of, like, Hamptons. [00:51:33] Speaker D: Okay. The Hamptons. Okay. [00:51:35] Speaker A: And they're like, okay, they throw you key from Toyota because nobody drives Toyota. You're supposed to carry yourself. You got to have a Beamer at least. I don't care. [00:51:48] Speaker B: Bentley's, we've seen there. [00:51:50] Speaker A: It's crazy, but besides the point. So you roll into a car wash. I mean, we're getting ready to fly back. Like, I'll just get the car washed while I get the car washed, and it was about 20 minutes before they closed. So I literally have, like, a Bentley, some Beamer, some Jaguar, all those nice $100,000 plus cars, and here I am, the little yoda. The guy walks over to me, goes, we're closed. Like, what are you talking about? Goes, we're closed? Well, there's people behind me. No, just pull out. We closed. So as I pull out, everybody else on the nice car just pulls forward like, son of a gun, they didn't. [00:52:32] Speaker D: Want to wash your car. [00:52:33] Speaker A: No, they didn't want to wash your know, you don't care. But they still do in their own way. So it's different. It's definitely haves and have nots now, which is that's a bit of a culture shock, too, when we're talking know in America, it's not really in your face. I mean, you see rich people, you see poor people, but nobody's really in your I mean, maybe pop stars and things that you see on TV. They want to present it that way. But on the street, you can meet a millionaire you will never know. A billionaire. You would never know, right. Versus over there, everybody's got to show you. It's a bit of a reverse cultural shock. [00:53:17] Speaker B: Hmm. [00:53:19] Speaker D: So you guys met in Colorado. You both wound up in Colorado. You settled in Colorado, built or have run businesses for the past, what, 25 years. 25 years. Okay. Now you're in Missouri, which we're so glad about your experiences within coming from the Soviet Union under a planned economy, how did that influence how you ran your businesses and your entrepreneurship, seeking that out in this country? [00:54:00] Speaker A: Well, first of all, it gives you motivation because, again, in a planned economy and your income is also planned, so. [00:54:10] Speaker B: It don't matter how hard you cannot jump higher than the roof. [00:54:13] Speaker A: Yeah. You cannot jump higher than what the set limit is. And here you go. Okay, well, if I have one job, I can do this. What if I have two jobs? Then I can have twice as much. So it's definitely part of it's consumerism part of it is just the opportunities out there. I mean, we bought our first house. We're 232-322-2223. And as just working regular jobs, and we're working two jobs. [00:54:47] Speaker D: So is that something that would but it's a motivation happen over there at 22 years old? [00:54:52] Speaker A: No, I mean, you can't just have a regular job and buy a house. No, you just can't afford it. So here that was definitely a motivation factor just coming from place where you can't really accept it, no matter how hard you work just don't matter. [00:55:10] Speaker B: Well, and then again, about the Soviet, it's different in Russia now, but like during Soviet Union, you can't just go and buy real estate. It was issued to you by the government. [00:55:24] Speaker D: Okay, keep going. I'm interested. Okay. [00:55:31] Speaker A: You had a right for X amount of living space. And I think it went from 95 sqft in. [00:55:44] Speaker D: 95 person was the right living space that you had that they. [00:55:52] Speaker A: Would issue you homelessness, Soviet style. You take a bunch of homeless people and then you go to a house next door and you go you have. [00:56:01] Speaker B: Way too many rooms in your house. [00:56:04] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:56:04] Speaker A: How many rooms do you have? All right, there you go. So now you have all these people living in your house based whether you. [00:56:13] Speaker D: Want them to or not. [00:56:14] Speaker B: Yes. [00:56:14] Speaker A: Well, and your house is nationalized, so it doesn't really matter. [00:56:17] Speaker D: Your house is nationalized, you don't own. [00:56:20] Speaker A: It anyways, so you don't really have a say. [00:56:22] Speaker B: So you have four or five, sometimes up to 17 families living under one roof with one communal bathroom, with one communal kitchen. [00:56:32] Speaker D: And what does it cost? [00:56:34] Speaker A: Close to nothing. [00:56:37] Speaker B: Yeah, it was very cheap. [00:56:40] Speaker D: Okay. [00:56:41] Speaker B: And then again, that's going back to the waiting list. People get on the waiting list to get their own apartment and that usually would be done through work. Some people waited for 20 years to move out of the communal living situation into their private apartment. [00:57:01] Speaker C: So having that as a foundation, then the idea that you can work hard and buy something for yourself was huge. You just jump on it. [00:57:10] Speaker B: And then again, the way people lived, it was different too. Here, kind of like you 18, parents give you your set of luggage, good luck, or you move to college or something. [00:57:26] Speaker A: Not anymore. [00:57:29] Speaker D: Maybe in the 80s. [00:57:30] Speaker B: Well, when we got here was still the way ninety s. That was kind of the yeah, kids could still afford to move an apartment, even with roommates. [00:57:41] Speaker D: Off you go. [00:57:42] Speaker A: Well, kind of funny how again, we just go full circle to where kids could not afford to move out of the parents house and now we're back. [00:57:48] Speaker B: To the same yeah. Well, in the Soviet Union it would be generational thing, multiple generation living under the same roof. Sometimes you had not bedroom, two, three room flat, as they were called. And then you would have grandparents, parents and kids living there. Six, sometimes eight people. [00:58:16] Speaker A: And there was a construction boom right after World War II and pretty much through the 80s, really. But there were plans for concrete panel homes. Let's say there was 20 different variations of apartments. So you would build 20 different variation apartments throughout the country. The homes all look the same blocks and blocks and blocks. They all look the same. There's different variations on the inside, but let's say there's only 20 different varieties, so there'll be 20 different square footages give or take, based on, hypothetically, the amount of people they're going to be living there. So your manufacturing or let's say furniture makers, whatever they make will be based on the measurements for those apartments. So the furniture fits. Everything was tied phenomenal well. Everything was tied together. That's what I'm saying. When it collapsed. [00:59:26] Speaker D: Now what? [00:59:26] Speaker A: Everything just went well. [00:59:28] Speaker B: My parents got the apartment that they were living at through my dad's work, and it was right before I was born. So they gave them two room flats based on three people. So as soon as I was born, my dad got on the waiting list to improve the living conditions to get a bigger apartment, and they waited for 16 years. [00:59:57] Speaker D: Wow. [00:59:58] Speaker B: And then Soviet Union fell apart, so they never got it. And so there was four of us living in the two room apartment. [01:00:05] Speaker C: Wow. [01:00:05] Speaker A: And it's not a two bedroom living room. Big kitchen. No, I mean the kitchen. We talk about kitchen. It's probably half of this room. Well, a good 5ft by ten ish okay. That would have to accommodate a table, cabinets and everything else. [01:00:27] Speaker B: That'd be six to nine square yards we're talking about. [01:00:30] Speaker A: And then the entryway you can kind of squeeze in and hang your clothes. And then it'll be two rooms that are bedrooms. They're not family room, living room situations. It's just bedrooms. [01:00:43] Speaker B: Personal room was almost an unattainable dream for every Soviet child. [01:00:52] Speaker D: Your own room. [01:00:54] Speaker B: If you were a single child, sometimes you had to share with your grandparents or if it were pretty much whole siblings were sharing the same room. [01:01:04] Speaker D: Sure. [01:01:06] Speaker B: And then you start watching the movies and like, oh, my God, look at those houses. Those kids have their own personal rooms. [01:01:19] Speaker A: You just go and overthrow the government and it's going to look so good. [01:01:24] Speaker B: And then you watch Home Alone and that mansion. [01:01:28] Speaker D: Oh, right. [01:01:30] Speaker A: You're wondering how much they paid a mortgage. But yeah. [01:01:33] Speaker D: Anyway, we were watching Home Alone and it was thinking the same thing. [01:01:39] Speaker B: We did not have an understanding that people were living in single wide trailers live that way. [01:01:46] Speaker D: Right. [01:01:46] Speaker B: But nobody explained that part. [01:01:48] Speaker D: Right. They were like living in double wides. [01:01:51] Speaker A: Well, although I say the double wide and people kind of look at it as like double wide. A lot of those concrete boxes, I'll take double wide anytime of the day. [01:02:05] Speaker D: Yeah, I could see that. [01:02:07] Speaker B: Well, and then again, a lot of we're talking about we came from big cities, but then you go further into the country, smaller towns. Living conditions there were horrific because they would take pre revolution homes that were all falling apart, and they'll just stuff it with as many people they can see. [01:02:28] Speaker D: I was thinking in my mind that the country was going the people living out in the country would have had a cottage or smaller house, but more like an American farmhouse. I guess in my mind, is what I had. Some did. Okay. [01:02:40] Speaker B: Some did. [01:02:42] Speaker A: The problem with that was if you are in the country, you're probably working for a collective farm. And not only that, but if you're a collective farm, they would take your passport away and you couldn't travel. So you couldn't even leave collective farm. If you go to nearest city, you probably could, but you cannot venture far out of it. You wouldn't even have your passport. [01:03:09] Speaker D: So do a little bit of a lesson for people watching and listening. Collectivism and a collective farm, because many people, I guess in our country, it would be similar to a sharecropper during in a sense, but even more extreme. [01:03:31] Speaker A: Even more extreme. [01:03:32] Speaker D: Okay, so collectivism. [01:03:34] Speaker B: So basically the government took over the land. In the Soviet Union, there was no private ownership per se. So you did not own your land. And so a lot of farmers who had some land who worked prior to their revolution, it was all taken away, was all taken away from them. Probably like, well, late 20s, early 30s, they started it. [01:04:08] Speaker A: There was so many different things. So at first the cities were going hungry and farmers would not deliver to the cities because the money was worthless. Everybody's on strike, everybody's protesting, nobody's manufacturing anything. [01:04:24] Speaker D: This is in early 19. [01:04:25] Speaker A: That's early 1918. [01:04:28] Speaker D: 1918. Okay. [01:04:29] Speaker B: Everybody was striving toward world revolution and. [01:04:33] Speaker A: Emancipation and everybody and poor people in Germany while your kids are starving. Yeah, I mean, it was crazy times. But the cities were going hungry. [01:04:45] Speaker D: Okay. [01:04:46] Speaker A: And the government had to feed the workers. The blue collar had to be fed. So they go in the country. Well, nobody would deliver anything because why? I mean, that money is not going to do any good if you go to the city and can't buy anything. You can't buy anything manufactured. So people are just hoarding food. So they ended up employing army starting products, verska, which would be they would give you a set amount of grain that you're supposed to collect and send you out in the fields. So that led to confiscation of most of the food. [01:05:21] Speaker D: So the government just confiscated it? Yeah, they just came to the farms. [01:05:26] Speaker A: Exactly. Took what they needed and took whatever. [01:05:29] Speaker B: Or whatever wanted and then some whatever they can find. [01:05:33] Speaker D: Okay, so the government gets involved, they come in, they start taking the food from the people and the farmers from the farmers. Okay. [01:05:45] Speaker A: And then send it to the city. [01:05:46] Speaker D: Okay. [01:05:47] Speaker B: And then there it will go to distribution centers and will be equally distributed. [01:05:53] Speaker D: At that point, had they taken the ownership of the land? [01:05:57] Speaker A: No, at that point there were still some. Again, the slogans were land to peasants, factory to workers. So in theory it was supposed to be like one large cop where everybody's happy slaving away and getting given to your abilities and getting to your necessities, something like that. Okay. But the country was going, country was starting because the flu was removed, and. [01:06:30] Speaker B: Then the family, because for several years, nobody planted anything. [01:06:34] Speaker A: Well, and people stopped planting. I mean, what's the point in planting when you're going to get it confiscated? And whatever the seed stock was there got eaten. So now you have no seed stock, you have nothing. So the crop wow. Just to give you an idea, in 1920, only 18% of cropland was actually planted. So you'd look in a drop of 82%, 82%. And that's why we're talking about famine in Ukraine. But it was not just Ukraine. I mean, it was pretty much everywhere in the country. [01:07:19] Speaker D: So did they start forcing at that point? Okay, so farmers just don't want to right. We can't get anything out of it. [01:07:28] Speaker B: So, yeah, let's organize them and make them plant. [01:07:32] Speaker A: So the country went and they had to buy the seed stock because everything was depleted. And of course, nobody would take the money. Everybody wanted something solved, like gold. [01:07:45] Speaker D: Right. [01:07:46] Speaker A: So that's why all the gold disappeared from the churches. And they were pulling gold leaf off the churches and everything else, because everything smelled it. And then most of it was actually sent to the United States. [01:07:57] Speaker B: Yep. The museum were depleted of whatever they. [01:08:01] Speaker A: Could sell in exchange for grain and seed stock. And then everybody was hoarded into collective farms, given the seeds, taking their passports away, going you go at or or well, there's all sorts of possibilities. None of them are good. And you had a plan. You're supposed to provide X amount of this far, and there'll be dude in charge who will be watching over you. But again, if you don't fulfill the plan, you're not going to live long just the way it is. [01:08:41] Speaker C: It was about this time, I think, that you have a story. [01:08:47] Speaker B: Yes. So my great grandparents were farmers, and then at that time, they were called kulaks, not gulag as in the camp, the concentration camps. But you know, the farmer that has a little extra or a little more than the average person. So in their case, they had a cow and a couple of chickens. So they were better extra. Yeah. So they were better off than most. And they had their house, they had a nice plot of land, so. [01:09:31] Speaker A: They. [01:09:31] Speaker B: Had some visitors who came in to take whatever they can, and my grandfather was one of them. They refused to give away their cow because that's what was feeding their family. And they were shot and everything was confiscated. [01:09:48] Speaker C: Wow. [01:09:50] Speaker B: And then he ended up marrying my grandma so he can take over the land and the house. [01:09:59] Speaker C: Wow. [01:10:00] Speaker D: That's grief. [01:10:01] Speaker B: And that's all I know. The family never talked about it. Grandma never really talked about it much. I know just little bits and pieces I learned from my mom or from some of my aunts and uncles, but not much. And then again, we knew about it, but it was never brought up. Nobody dwelt on it. It was just move on. Yeah, it happened. We know about it, let's move on. And then again, I never met my grandfather. I never met my grandfather on Mom's side. And she didn't really have a good relationship with him either because he divorced my grandma after the 8th child was born because Grandma was very religious and he said that that didn't help him to move up with his political career. [01:11:03] Speaker C: Wow. [01:11:05] Speaker D: And all of that entire story is based on food shortage. [01:11:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:11:12] Speaker B: And then you look at the Soviet Union in general between World War I revolution, world War II, Stalin's repressions, every family was affected in one way or no. [01:11:29] Speaker A: People really did talk much about it. Just because everybody had the same story. [01:11:33] Speaker D: Right. [01:11:34] Speaker A: Or similar. Again, some of this stuff, you didn't want to bring it up just because you never know who you're talking to. [01:11:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Like his grandfather spent years in Stalin's camps. [01:11:56] Speaker A: We still don't know why. [01:11:57] Speaker C: Wow. Really? [01:11:59] Speaker A: Well, there was a story, but what's true? Well, one of the things we're going to try and do is maybe go back to archives and see if we can pull something out. We tried once before and basically said there was no records of them, which well, there's got to be something somewhere. [01:12:20] Speaker D: Right. [01:12:20] Speaker A: Although a lot of them game between the wars and everything else, a lot of things got destroyed the way it is. [01:12:25] Speaker D: Right. [01:12:26] Speaker A: But yeah. Well, again, it was the food. As soon as the cities stop producing, the country is going to start saving up and kind of go back into their hole because what good is the city going to do anybody? [01:12:49] Speaker C: You guys fairly recently have bought your own farm. It's been a couple of years and made a move now out of Colorado onto your property, building your own homestead. Yeah. [01:13:10] Speaker A: Exciting. [01:13:11] Speaker D: Are there signs of the times here that you've been living here for nearly 30 years? Are there some signs or signals that. [01:13:20] Speaker C: Have led you to you said that you made the comment that it's almost in their DNA now, is how you said it, that they just have a sense conscious yes. And they would go into a mode. [01:13:37] Speaker D: Are you in a mode? [01:13:38] Speaker A: I think so. I mean, we kind of laugh at it, but at the same time serious. Yeah. Especially after this whole COVID thing started. You see the society collapsing just like that. I mean, people shooting each other with a roll of toilet paper and things escalate fast. [01:14:03] Speaker B: You see the varieties are disappearing at the store. Even like you would come in, you had endless amount of whatever bread, cereals, deli meats, and now you see that it's getting smaller. [01:14:22] Speaker A: Things are no longer available now. We got a long way to go. [01:14:25] Speaker B: USSR, but inflation is one of them. [01:14:30] Speaker A: You got inflation that's going through the roof. You got. A court system that is really questionable now. People stop having faith in the government and that's all the government is. It's a faith based system. [01:14:42] Speaker B: Just like religion, collapse of education, faith. [01:14:45] Speaker A: In the government, it's going to keep going once you lose that faith. And when you watch TV, you can see the riots on the streets and they say, oh, well, it's heated, but mostly peaceful protest. Okay, fine, it's not what I see. So I'm just going to make my own conclusion. When you look at judicial system where people getting prosecuted or held in jail for no apparent reason and no sentencing being done, we have political prisoners now for people going in for the memes. [01:15:23] Speaker B: Oh, when you have there's two types. [01:15:25] Speaker A: Of people in Gulag, ones that are telling jokes and the other ones who are listening or laughing at. [01:15:34] Speaker B: Like when you look at you, I'm sure you heard of certain cases when you realize that something's wrong with it, when the villain becomes the victim and the hero becomes the villain, somebody who tries to help all of a sudden is villainized. [01:15:54] Speaker A: You see people being basically demoralized. I mean, we're talking about no matter how hard you work, you're not going to get anywhere in USSR. I mean, arguably, but we still start seeing the same stuff here, especially with the youngsters, with the inflation, everything else, where no matter how hard they work, they can't afford a house, they can barely afford a vehicle, they can provide themselves with the basic necessities, but it's nothing to what it was. I remember it right and that was just late 90s where I work a day and my rent is covered. Not a day, my gas for a month is covered. And then you're just walking around this 18 year old, 19 year old with wads of cash going, what should I do now? And that's just working construction job. So we definitely see a lot of those tensions. And again, people I think the social contract is just being dissolved right in front of our eyes. People don't have faith in the government, no matter who's in the government. I don't think we're going to agree anytime soon on the things that we've seen. [01:17:11] Speaker B: And there's other signs like the fall of morals. [01:17:16] Speaker D: The. [01:17:19] Speaker B: Fall of a family unit, I guess, because it's not so. [01:17:23] Speaker D: Is that something you saw also in USSR? [01:17:26] Speaker A: Declining old libertarian movements and liberal ideas of progressivism, progressivism of 1918, communal wives and things of that nature. [01:17:47] Speaker B: After that, when Stalin took over, even. [01:17:52] Speaker A: Before that, I think it was fairly conservative society. I mean, the family was centerpiece of. [01:18:01] Speaker B: Family unit was what everything was structured around. [01:18:05] Speaker A: Yeah, everything was structured on family. [01:18:09] Speaker D: And faith. Was there faith before prior to revolution? [01:18:14] Speaker A: Prior to revolution. [01:18:15] Speaker D: Okay, so we break down the family, we break down the faith. [01:18:20] Speaker B: Food supplies, education and military education, military food supply collapse. [01:18:29] Speaker D: That's kind of how it went being. [01:18:31] Speaker A: Devalued debt currency was devalued currency. [01:18:35] Speaker D: Out of debt, out of debt, out of control. [01:18:39] Speaker B: Okay, so the signs are there. [01:18:41] Speaker A: Signs are there. [01:18:43] Speaker C: You mentioned education. You've chosen to home school. Can you talk a little bit about that? [01:18:47] Speaker A: Well, with COVID we were forced to take the kids home, start doing some form of homeschooling, just the way the school system, at least in our county, was operating. So we had to spend a certain amount going online. And once we start paying attention to what's going on, that was a head scratcher. And for us, being living in the United States, this country, say what you will, but we're based on Judeo Christian values. Yes, and I think the schools stop teaching the values, whether it's patriotism, whether it's religion. And I understand the separation of religion and state and everything else, but we have a freedom of religion, but does not necessarily mean that freedom from religion and the moral compass is no longer there. And we don't go to church every Sunday, but the same time, we want to see the moral compass in our kids. I mean, how do you tell them right from wrong? They don't know it right. Where's your compass? How do you know that? How do you build your system of values where there is no values? There's just things that the kids when you're talking to kids that are in school now, it's so funny how you see this clip mentality of here's your parents, here's the real kid, and here's. [01:20:26] Speaker B: A school, and then the sexualization of kids, too, when this whole transgender idea being shoved down the throat of kindergartners. I mean, they don't know. Today he's Johnny, tomorrow he wants to be Thomas the Train. They don't have the concept of what they're being fed. [01:20:49] Speaker D: Right? [01:20:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And then you have parents that are, yeah, my kid is this and that, and non binary kids don't even have understanding of what it is. [01:20:58] Speaker D: Right. [01:21:00] Speaker B: And then in the meantime, they cannot read, they cannot write, they cannot spell, they don't know history. [01:21:09] Speaker A: We just need to get back to the basics if we want to save the country. But I'm not even sure if it's possible. I mean, I'm looking at it like I said, I see the USSR, I see everybody pulling their own way, and nobody can agree on anything. [01:21:24] Speaker D: So you guys did become citizens of the United States. So this is your problem. [01:21:33] Speaker B: Perspective. We can see the parallels exactly. [01:21:37] Speaker D: But you belong here now, in your heart. [01:21:41] Speaker A: Yeah. This is home. Yeah. Although every time, every once in a while, we're joking about it. Like, the Euro mountains look real good right now. Our next village is about 600 miles away. Watch all those travel shows. [01:21:58] Speaker D: It's called the Ozarks in the United States. [01:22:00] Speaker A: My family, I mean, got a line of old believers, and they were kind of scattered all over the empire back in the 17 hundreds and a lot of them are in Siberia, still live. [01:22:11] Speaker B: In the villages that are very isolated. They have no roads leading to them. [01:22:20] Speaker A: It's not quite Amish way of living. [01:22:24] Speaker B: But you can compare it to compare. [01:22:26] Speaker D: It to and that's the way they choose to live and where they choose to live of their own choosing at this point, they don't want to have. [01:22:33] Speaker A: Anything to do with the government. They don't want to have anything to do with anything. [01:22:37] Speaker B: They're self reliant. [01:22:38] Speaker A: They're self reliant. Just leave us alone. They don't want to serve in the army. They want to participate in wars. They just want to be left alone. And every once in a while, looking at it, I mean, there's TV just talking about the draft. Well, little one, she doesn't know. Dad, are you going to get drafted? No, I'm too old for that. But you think about it, she is. Twelve. And Afghan war was what, how long did it take? Almost 20 years. [01:23:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:23:11] Speaker A: We have generations that grew up with that. It's amazing. And you kind of start worrying about your kids, we're whatever, but there's just a lot of uncertainty. [01:23:27] Speaker D: So how do you describe freedom? What is it to you? [01:23:37] Speaker A: I'll say it's 100 acres of freedom. [01:23:40] Speaker D: 100 acres. [01:23:41] Speaker A: Just being able to produce for yourself, to provide for yourself. I mean, we're lucky. We don't have a lot of regulations. [01:23:50] Speaker D: Hardly any. [01:23:51] Speaker A: Hardly any. So that is wonderful, having good neighbors. I mean, that goes such a long way. [01:24:00] Speaker D: It does. [01:24:02] Speaker A: So it's a combination of all those things, mostly not having a government watching over you. And it doesn't mean that you're doing anything wrong. It's just that, again, pretty much most of the country is so regulated and over regulated. Well, you're supposed to have your barn this color. [01:24:22] Speaker B: You cannot have chicken. [01:24:23] Speaker A: We have so many people coming from different states. And one of our neighbors, he's kind of a local prankster, and he's driving by a house, and there's a guy who just bought a house, and he's sitting there with a sprinkler, watering the grass in Missouri. Well, drove by, just kind of you look, turned around, went back, and there's a good name. What? You was watering the grass? Well, why would you do that? Because I can. [01:24:53] Speaker D: Oh, wow. [01:24:53] Speaker A: And turned up was a guy from California who bought a house, and his definition of freedom was to turn on the sprinkler and let it run and just sit there on the porch and watch it run. Wow. I mean, that's how little we need to define freedom. And everybody's got their own story. But there's so many people that are coming to the Ozarks that have their freedom story, and it's those little things. It's not something monumental out there. It's just a little thing. [01:25:30] Speaker D: Yeah, you're right. It is the little things and some of the big ones. [01:25:35] Speaker B: Yeah. But then the little things, they keep building. Yes. They keep adding up. [01:25:40] Speaker D: They do. I know. They have for us, too, things that we didn't even realize. Some of the things you go, wait, yeah, that as you're experiencing no building codes. Oh, well, that's interesting. I had no idea there were no building codes here. But wow, that makes a lot of sense. And I feel the freedom in that, like, oh, my God, we can actually build this house on our timeline the way we want to without all of the regulations. [01:26:19] Speaker A: How much will that do for your personal life and just your sanity? [01:26:25] Speaker D: So much. [01:26:26] Speaker A: Exactly. That's the little thing. I mean, they all talked about the abstract thing that's in the book somewhere. You don't have to go to Federalist Papers in order to figure it out. [01:26:35] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm interested in you discussed that when the Soviet Union collapsed, it happened quickly, not a whole lot of lead up. Are you prepared for that now? Is it something that you think about, given all of the stuff that we've talked about and some that we haven't, but do you think, wow, this could happen again? [01:27:04] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. I think it's pretty much a certainty. [01:27:07] Speaker C: Will happen in the United States. [01:27:11] Speaker A: I think so. Well, simple things. How are we going to deal with national debt? I mean, keep printing. Keep printing is nothing but devaluing your money. So now, whatever savings you have whatever savings I have, I mean, we're going to be in a situation where it's going to be, you were saving for a car, now you can buy a loaf of bread. And that's where we're going back to the education system, where between literacy rates and we're talking about 54% are the low six below 6th grade. So that goes how can people understand complex concepts? I mean, you'd see people on TV going, well, if you can print X amount amount of money right now, why don't you just print the money and give it to everybody, call it good. And you're talking about politicians being serious about it. We're just going to print $2 trillion and give it to disadvantaged people. Well, that's great. How is that going to work? But we see a lot of that, and that's the kind of people that's going to get that's already in the government, and that's the decisions that they make. I mean, I'm sure you probably see it in the military at some point. You see it in the local governments. You see it everywhere. It's incompetence. So education, we have incompetence, and people that are incompetent are running the show. Eventually, I think it's a certain something's going to happen. Are you prepared for it? No. [01:28:39] Speaker B: In Colorado, for example, you look at the local politicians and their solution to every problem is we're going to raise the taxes. Well, and then you look, for example, in our county, most of the local government officials, they come with nonprofit backgrounds, so they really have no idea how things run, how the businesses work. All they know is, yeah, take the money and spend it. So their solution to everything is let's raise the property taxes, tax and spend. [01:29:15] Speaker D: Tax and spend. [01:29:16] Speaker A: The thing that humors me, though, is I'm sure you see it around too. And the Ozarks have a lot of little cold preppers or people that think they're ready for it, whatever it might be. No amount of ammunition, no amount of food will probably help, but they will also make you a target. There's a lot of things you just don't think about. [01:29:44] Speaker B: Your gun will not save you from the mob, right? [01:29:46] Speaker A: Gun will not save you from the mob. There's just no way to prepare yourself for what's coming. You can try to eat certain things, ease the pain by having equipment like a tractor. You can plow land because eventually, even if it's one tractor between all the neighbors, you can make things work. There are certain things you can do, but nobody's going to be prepared for their savings being wiped out, their food being confiscated, or their house being part of the homeless solution problem solution. And we're already seeing it. I mean, we're seeing in California where they say, well, if it's an empty house, we're just going to let those people stay in there. [01:30:39] Speaker D: It belongs to somebody. [01:30:41] Speaker A: Well, they don't care. I mean, squatters rise and everything else. Yeah, people do it. So we see all those signs that are out there. I just don't think that anybody can be 100% prepared prepared. And most people have no idea what. [01:30:56] Speaker D: Many people listening to this might think, well, it's really doomsday or you're doomer. But the reason that you guys perspective is so valuable in our time right now is that you have seen it, you have witnessed it, felt it, lived through it, and are able to look through a completely different lens than the rest of us and able to provide that perspective to, hey, guys, it ain't good. [01:31:28] Speaker A: I think people biggest mistake people make is they go, well, I got 10,000 rounds of ammunition, a pile of food, come get me. What you want to do is you want to network. You want to create a community to where, hey, you know what, I can ask my neighbor to do certain things. I can barter with my neighbor. The things networking is way better than locking yourself up in a bunker. [01:31:56] Speaker D: You're going to run out of amber. [01:31:58] Speaker A: Community, that's going to get hungry. We're going to go get the bunker. [01:32:03] Speaker D: Right? [01:32:05] Speaker A: Who knows? [01:32:10] Speaker C: You've lived it, you experienced it, the country collapsed. We've talked about your thought for the future here. Where's your hope? Where's your what's? What's the upside? Like, you get up every day and you're hopeful. Where's that coming from? What are you seeing? [01:32:41] Speaker B: I don't think we really look at it that much. We get up and first thought of a day, who's going to go let the chickens out and feed the dogs. You just look at what you need to do to be self reliant and don't depend on the government. [01:33:04] Speaker C: I look at you and you give me hope. Because to me, especially having served for 25 years this nation, the idea of a potential collapse is very dark, it's very heavy. And for you, with everything that you've seen to say, it's looking imminent. That's very heavy to me. But you lived it, you lived through it, and now you're here on the tail and you're happy and you're smiling and you have a family and you have 100 acres of freedom. And so to me, just you being who you are, it gives me hope. That is amazing. I think your story is amazing. And you guys being able to share it, for me is huge amount of hope. [01:34:11] Speaker B: Well, and then if you look through history, every collapse gives birth to something else. I mean, there's empires that collapsed and then it gave birth to something else. The world, it kept going, evolved into something different. [01:34:28] Speaker C: That perspective, though, we don't have it. I can tell you. Shelley and I don't have that perspective. That is something that you're bringing that is unique, that I would say the majority of at least our generation, we don't have that. It feels devastating, the idea of a nation collapse, right? [01:34:55] Speaker D: Like the world is coming to an end. [01:34:57] Speaker A: Yeah, but I mean, there's this idea of national divorce that's been out there for many years, so it's not something that's new. I mean, I think a lot of people seeing the signs, whether or not it's going to come fruition, who knows? But you also see a younger generation, the kids that are being home schooled, that are just different breed, and that gives you hope. They're tough, they're resilient, they're smart. I always just put a big old smile on my face. There's this girl that was like three years old, dragging it. We were cleaning up after this event and she's dragging the chair, stumbling, falling, and I'm expecting to catch her, she's going to cry. She gets up, grabs the chair that's bigger than her and she just keeps dragging it. That's the girl. She's going to be resilient. And just that ability to overcome, you see a lot of it, especially in the kids that are homeschooled, the ones that are brought on the farm, they know the value of work, they know the value of food, they know the basics of it. So, I mean, definitely that gives me hope. I mean, just seeing the younger generation and you know, they're going to be able to overcome that kid that's giving dragging the chair, she's going to be resilient, she's going to do it. And watching Anastasia growing and I mean, gosh, she is my best help on the farm. Whether we're setting the teaposts, whether it's doing the chores, you guys know that too, when you're watching the kids work, and now they know the value of it. Sure. They know where the food comes from. And once you understand the value of things, that's your moral compass, and that's how you quantify, and that's how you network. That's how you meet people. That's the whole system of values that you create around just the hard work. A lot of people nowadays, I think they're missing it, but you see the resurgence of homesteading, of people leaving the cities and people starting new. [01:37:16] Speaker D: Well, you mentioned that we've got people coming here from all over the place. It seems they're wanting to do something else with their families. They're wanting to pull them opt out of the systems that we have been programmed to be in. Right. And they're opting out of it. For instance, homesteading. Do you have any advice specifically for people who are headed towards wanting to homestead? Because there are a lot of people saying, I want to go be more self reliant. I want to go start my own homestead, and I'm going to start growing my own food. And I have a lot of plans. [01:37:58] Speaker B: Be realistic. Be realistic with what you can do. Be realistic about the finances. [01:38:11] Speaker D: Meaning it's not all free? [01:38:15] Speaker A: No, not at all. [01:38:18] Speaker D: It is not free food that you. [01:38:20] Speaker A: Grew yourself free food, and you don't even count your hours that you put in, and it's still not free food. [01:38:28] Speaker B: And nobody's paying you overtime. [01:38:31] Speaker A: Well, first of all, you got to figure out why you're doing this, okay? I mean, what is it? If you're trying to grow clean food, great. If you're trying to bond as a family, awesome. [01:38:46] Speaker B: One of the surviving things and how it helped survive through the fall of Soviet Union is bartering and moonshining. You make some moonshine. Well, because Gorbachev basically destroys you're talking. [01:39:03] Speaker A: About ethanol fuel right now, right? [01:39:05] Speaker B: Sure. [01:39:06] Speaker A: So you're making ethanol fuel to fuel the tractor, and then your tractor gets to plow your land. [01:39:12] Speaker B: Yeah. You have a plot of land. You need to plant potatoes, but you need to plow it first. If you do it with a shovel yourself, you're going to be doing it for months. But you know how you have some ethanol and you go to your neighbor who has a tractor and say, hey, I give you this. Can you plow my field? [01:39:31] Speaker A: He converts ethanol into gas and keeps. But seriously, you got to be realistic and just set your goals. You cannot look at you're feeding your chickens, and you spend X amount of food on food, and you got X amount of eggs, and it doesn't equate. It will never equate. I mean, you cannot quantify your farm production unless you're a mega farm where your chickens are all in the cage being tilted up and down, depending on their needs. Those eggs might be mighty expensive eggs, but they're good. [01:40:10] Speaker D: They're very good, and they're good for you. And you can't eat people get chicken feet. [01:40:14] Speaker A: People get discouraged because they expect it to be a business, and it's not. So, like my budy said, well, you got yourself a very expensive hobby. In a sense, it is. But the way I see it, I mean, it's going back to the freedom. I mean, I'm looking at those pigs running through the woods going, yeah. [01:40:39] Speaker D: And the fact that you don't rely on the grocery store for every bite of food that your family eats, well. [01:40:48] Speaker B: Then the quality is just you cannot compare it. [01:40:51] Speaker A: No, but agree. Be tired. Be ready to be tired. Be ready to have breakdowns and meltdowns and equipment breakdowns. And I mean, there are some people that are asking for help because they're trying to get out of here and they spent all their resources on trying to make it and never made it. And their truck broke down, so they can't even get out of here. There are stories like that, but on the other hand, you hear stories about people there's like couples, three kids living out in the Tan, building their own cabin was the wood they harvested on their own acreage. [01:41:29] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:41:31] Speaker C: Freedom. [01:41:32] Speaker D: Freedom. [01:41:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:41:33] Speaker D: Everybody's seeking that, whatever that means to them. [01:41:36] Speaker A: Exactly. So just be realistic. Set up small goals, little victories. I mean, if you can do that, then you're going to have something big. But don't just plan on being done in six months with all your infrastructure and be realistic about your sweat equity. [01:42:00] Speaker D: And it's a way of life, and it's long, it's a marathon. [01:42:04] Speaker B: It is. [01:42:05] Speaker A: It's not a sprint, for sure. [01:42:07] Speaker B: Yeah. And then you got to learn how to prioritize. And your family time is a priority, too. You have to make sure you spend time with each other. You have to spend time with your kids. It's very important. The chicken coop can wait, but your kid will grow up before you know it. [01:42:30] Speaker D: Yeah, I think that's they do grow up and leave. [01:42:34] Speaker A: That's the biggest thing of running the businesses and working doubles and doing all that. There's one thing you cannot buy, is time. And your kids will grow up and they'll be gone and you'd be sitting there going, well, was it really worth it? I think that's part of the style that brought us here to where we closed down one business and we sort of let go of the other as far as just not being as hands on and just let somebody else manage it. We have people in place. Let's just let it go, see what happens. Bless us having the right people in the right places. But that was hard. But you get to see kids growing up. I mean, I have not seen Anastasia for the first three, four years, probably just because we're running this laundry plant and we're doing this and we're doing all those projects and it feels good to provide, but then the trade off. Do you really want this late model car. Do you really need this big old house? Or are you being better off driving an older Clunker and living in a smaller house and hanging out with your kids and tending to animals and going on a hike on your own property? Yeah, so things like that. [01:43:58] Speaker D: We agree. [01:43:59] Speaker A: It's being freedom, you don't have the customers waiting on you. I mean, yeah, you have your customers waiting. Yeah, you do. But you know what I mean. [01:44:12] Speaker D: Yes. [01:44:13] Speaker A: They can always address the customer service complaint line. Exactly. If they complain too much, they're going to end up in a soup. That's just the way it is. It's definitely different. I think mentally, if you're prepared, you're going to be a much better spot than just trying to hit the deadlines and worrying about supply chains and things breaking down. I mean, I still have to deal with some of that, but it's huge not to have it every day. [01:44:50] Speaker B: Another piece of advice would be probably get books, real books, hard copies, not the electronic versions of it. [01:45:01] Speaker D: Yeah. As resources. Make yourself a library. [01:45:05] Speaker B: Make yourself a library. Just because internet is not always reliable. [01:45:13] Speaker D: Not when you're in the country. [01:45:15] Speaker B: No, not here. We are 21st century America, and, yeah, you cannot sometimes call anybody or you cannot find information on the internet because it's just not working. And then when you have a medical emergency with your livestock, what are you going to do? You can't find that YouTube video, how to fix your chicken leg. [01:45:44] Speaker A: And unfortunately, a lot of YouTube videos lately been useless and a lot of information. I don't know if you guys maybe it's just me, but when you're trying to look something that is relating to homesteading, growing things, there's just a bunch of mumbo jumbo that's absolutely useless and. [01:46:02] Speaker B: You end up wasting hours trying to find one little piece of information. [01:46:06] Speaker A: Right, so now we're kind of catching ourselves going back to the book, just because it seems like the information that you're getting off the web now is just either irrelevant or people are filtered out. [01:46:21] Speaker B: Yeah, it's just made for clickbaits, I guess. [01:46:25] Speaker A: I think there's just a lot of garbage out there that you're wasting a lot of time looking through it. [01:46:32] Speaker D: Sure. [01:46:33] Speaker B: And then get your kids off the devices, too. Well, you can't do it an hour, day and time, but limit it. [01:46:47] Speaker D: Try to get them outside the best. [01:46:49] Speaker B: Get them outside and get them to. [01:46:51] Speaker D: Read and get them off. Get them involved in whatever is going on on your homestead. Pull them in, let them. One thing that we do is, even if it isn't, when kids are doing things, it's often not going to be exactly the way that we would do it, but let them do it. [01:47:11] Speaker A: Let them. [01:47:11] Speaker B: But then again, even do it their way. Fancy project with your kid might lead to physics lesson. Oh, right, history lesson. [01:47:23] Speaker D: Yes, that's right. [01:47:26] Speaker A: A lot of times when you setting your ways and kids are doing it differently, I would at least attempt to explain why I'm doing it this way. Because they get discouraged. [01:47:41] Speaker D: Yes, they do. [01:47:42] Speaker A: And you're just like, sometimes you go. [01:47:44] Speaker D: I can't do it right. [01:47:45] Speaker A: I can just do it myself way faster than you just being. But if you explain them why they can be your best helpers out there oh, yeah. And that helps them think through it and learn. Yeah. You spend time with them. It can be history lesson or any lesson lesson. You just talk to kids and while you got time. And when you're working together, you got time. You're making it. [01:48:15] Speaker B: And the time is priceless. [01:48:16] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. Speaking of time, well, guys, this has been awesome. [01:48:21] Speaker D: It's been amazing. [01:48:22] Speaker C: Really fun. [01:48:24] Speaker B: It's been a pleasure. [01:48:25] Speaker D: Yeah. Thank you so much. [01:48:27] Speaker B: And then again, we just scratched the surface. A lot of the subjects that we talk about, you have to dive so deep into them to even get a little bit of understanding of what was really happening. And again, what we were saying, it's just our perspective. It's how we saw it. And again, we saw it being kids. [01:48:50] Speaker D: Sure. Yeah, sure. [01:48:54] Speaker C: But as I said, you do have a perspective, and your willingness to share that is amazing. And we really appreciate it. So thank you. Thanks for your time. This has been awesome. Thanks for your openness. [01:49:07] Speaker D: Yeah, this has been great. [01:49:09] Speaker C: It's been really cool. So thank you. [01:49:11] Speaker D: All right, well, this has been awesome, and thank you guys again. And until next week. Bye, y'all. Bye.