Water in various guises

Since the last update our main priority has been keeping warm and safe.    Although we still have no backdoor, the oak is arriving for that this week, Tracey was determined to continue using the kitchen/diner area even though it had been accepted we could not sleep on the mezzanine this winter.   Eventually Paul 'put his foot down' and made Tracey give up spending her time in the kitchen, even with the fire on she was bundled up to keep warm.   The reasoning behind not wanting to move totally over to the main house was the lack of space to work on any significant projects, also you can't really strip old paint from furniture in areas where you are planning on sleeping, because of the fumes created.    Tracey's solution to not being able to cook, or do any useful projects was to patch her old German army jacket which has definitely seen better days.   The choice of heart and flower patches, along with replacing the buttons with more colourful ones seems out of character.

Now Paul's workshop is mainly finished and tools have been moved over from the cellar a major clean up and organisation was planned by Tracey.   It took her about 2 hours before she realised how delusional her intention to have it finished in a day, or even a week, was, but leko po leko (bit by bit) as they say around here.   It didn't help that Paul had very kindly decided to share his cold, complete with streaming nose, with Tracey so neither of us felt like doing much.

The  first snow of winter was late, arriving on 31st of December, and didn't stay around for long at all.   Not sure if it was because of the snow, or the hamper she was given xmas eve but out Baba delivered warm eggy bread mid morning - just as we were thinking about what to have for breakfast - life doesn't get much better than that.   Despite the earlier snow  Paul managed to dig up a bucket  of fartichokes which Tracey had decided to ferment, after reading, somewhere, that this removed their more unpleasant side effect (still to be tested).

A selection of ferments

Proper snow arrived on the 5th of January, and made our garden look as good as the neighbours.   Unfortunately proper snow comes with much lower temperatures so we had a few days of relying on bottled water, because of frozen pipes, we were also unable to flush the inside toilet as either macerator, or the sewage pipe, had also frozen.    Unfortunately frozen pipes proved to be one of the lessor inconveniences,   defrosting pipes can be much as we found out one evening.    During the defrost process our shower fitting split gushing water everywhere at the same time that the macerator decided to back up adding sewage to the mixture.     A bathroom floor covered in water and sewage is not something we recommend.   At least this wasn't one of the days we were also without electricity, although for such a mild winter our electric and internet have been decided intermittent.

Cracked  shower fixing

Because of the frozen pipes restricting our access to useable water - the water in the IBC's is for the animals, and that from the well unsuitable for more than crops, we were thankful of the deep snow as it meant we could fill pans with it and melt it on the pechkas (woodstoves) for washing and cooking.  Our bottled reserves were running low and were being used purely for much needed coffee fixes.  

At least we had an advantage when we decided to move to Bulgaria simply from the month we spent helpxing here and the amount of online research we'd done.   There are many expat forums out there but one we found to be most useful was expat-blog now renamed http://www.expat.com.  As well as easy access to blogs written by people already living in the country it also gave us access to a forum, jobs offers, feedback from expatriates, country guides and much more! We highly recommended it for anyone considering starting a life in a new country.   Seemingly there are more than 1.5 million members worldwide with 3.672 of them being in Bulgaria.   Unlike some of the other forums we looked at the participation rate is good and the answers are helpful and relevant.


Although we had planted garlic and red onion in the garden a few months and the main crop of white onions will be started from sets in April, edging the paths in the fodder field, Tracey decided to start some shallot, onion and leek seeds off, early January, - accepting they may not germinate due to the cold (they did germinate so now she's wondering where she can squeeze them in).

A week after the snow hit the weather was warm enough to visit town with just a t-shirt and cardigan on, unfortunately all the plans made that day came to nothing as the following day we were back to arctic conditions, sinking our spirits.     So because Tracey couldn't do as she'd planned she retreated to the kitchen producing more jars of ferments and her first loaf, from Sid the Sourdough.

First attempt at sourdough, achieved the taste but texture need improving

We'd asked our UK friends if any of them fancied a couple of weeks holiday in Bulgaria so we could visit Tracey's dad, and some friends, in France before going over to UK to pick up a new (s/h) car and driving back.    Unfortunately work commitments meant none of them were able to help luckily a friend living in Bulgaria, who supplements her income by house sitting, was available so ideas about only one of us going were cancelled.

February, so far, has seen little achieved apart from the Lemongrass and Dragon Palm rescued from the unheated area and put into intensive care and many seeds started in front of the, main house, landing big southfacing windows.    (There were going to be more pictures but blogger doesn't seem to want to upload them, and after half an hours waiting they have been abandoned, by us)

Are Bulgarians Rich?

I don't know if it's the season but the following  story has been doing the rounds and a number of people have said it reminds them of Bulgaria and what they love about the country.   I'd like to put another slant on this perspective.

One day a very wealthy father took his son on a trip to the country for the sole purpose of showing his son how it was to be poor. They spent a few days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
After their return from the trip, the father asked his son how he liked the trip. “It was great, Dad,” the son replied. “Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked. “Oh Yeah,” said the son.
“So what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father. The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.” The boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added, “It showed me just how poor we really are.”
Too many times we forget what we have and concentrate on what we don’t have. What is one person’s worthless object is another’s prize possession. It is all based on one’s perspective.
Sometimes it takes the perspective of a child to remind us what’s important.

'Our' baba collects scrap metal all year and in autumn gets us to load our van and take her to the recycling yard where we unload and it's weighed in.   Brilliant, you might be saying, the Bulgarians recycle - No! privileged people recycle to feel good about themselves, baba recycles in order to be able to afford her winter wood.   She insists on paying us for our time and fuel despite struggling financially, we've reached an agreement which protects her pride but doesn't case her financial distress - we charge her 2 leva (slightly less than a £) on condition we do any errands we need to do whilst out (we make sure we need to do at least one).   We will receive a bottle of rakia, which she makes, and a bag of vegetables during the following week but we know she can afford this more than cash.

'Our' dyado (and Bulgarian papa)  needed a spinal operation a few years ago, at a cost of 2,200 leva (about £1000) luckily his daughter and son-in-law were in a position to pay for this operation.   Considering the state pension is 230 leva/month (£100) how many pensioners need operations, that will improve their quality of life, but go without?  Dyado has also asked us if we could take him into town, with the van, to collect some stuff he needed on more than one occasion.    When asked when, the response has been 'when I have the money' - the latest trip was for winter fuel and it took him over 2 months before he had managed to either save or get the money from his family and buy this fuel.    Dyado keeps bees and although he always offers us the money for fuel/time you can see his happiness when we tell him we need honey, rather than money, he normally gives us a bottle of his homemade rakia as well.

Yesterday a Bulgarian, in his late 20's, who we gave a few weeks work to in 2013 called in to see us and ask if we had any work for him.      Winter is  our rest and plan, future  projects, time so we were unable to offer him any work, at this time.   We were able to suggest some companies that may have vacancies but at least one of these had to be disregarded as it would be official work - to get a legitimate job with a criminal record (drink driving) is difficult but even without the record he would need to have a medical before starting work, something he can not afford.    Unemployment benefit here, just over 200 leva a month, is paid  for between 4 and 12 months depending on how long you have been in  tax-paying employment.    Because this lad has not been able to get an official job he is receiving 40 leva a month financial help from the state.

Some more of our neighbours could be perceived as financially stable.    They are in their 50s, have 2 children in the 20's who have both been put through university, and have jobs.    They also have an apartment in a nearby town, this goes back to pre-democracy days when the state wanted workers near their place of employment, and the village house, which they inherited from his parents.   They consider themselves as poor, as they have no holidays, or money in the bank - days off from work are spent tending the land at the village house.    Yes they could sell the apartment or the village house and go on a spending spree having foreign holidays but then what.   They both work, different hours, so if they sold the apartment they would need 2 vehicles to reach work, if they sold the village house their food bill would increase dramatically.

So does the fact that Bulgarian villagers have a lifestyle that those who come from the west aspire to make them rich?    Minimum wage here is 420 leva (less than £200), a month.    Even without the examples above what choice does that amount of money give you?     Yes Paul and I moved here with the stated intent of 'out peasanting the peasants'  however good we get at animal husbandry, crop growing/preservation, making do & mending we will NEVER reach that goal because we have choice.   We love the community spirit, we love the freedom, we love the simplicity of our lives but we do not for one moment forget that our Bulgarians friends and neighbours think we are mad for walking away from the creature comforts and opportunities available in the west.

In summary I would argue that Bulgarians are NOT rich, yes they have a lifestyle many of us admire, and aspire to, BUT those of us who moved here to live a simpler life had CHOICE.

The ability to choose is what makes people rich.

Food, glorious food

This food heavy blog starts off badly with Paul suffering after we had pan fried bass, we knew he had an allergy to shellfish but now don't know if it has extended to all seafood, or if his portion of fish was iffy.   He was fed antihistamines and went to sleep it off, with Tracey checking on him every so often.    His recovery was rapid judging by the sifting of sand (to remove debris), followed by his limewashing the workshop walls and then installing a consumer unit all before Tracey woke up.

Sand drying on top, cheesecake baking in the oven

Dedicated workshop.outbuildings consumer unit

We'd decided to cull 40% of the rabbits before winter really arrives for a few reasons: a) we had no spare cages for next years litters; b) we wanted some rabbit meat and c) the rabbits are the most time consuming animals to clean, feed and water so less rabbits means less time in sub-zero temperatures (which still haven't arrived at time of writing).   Thanks to a friend we located natural sausage skins, going for pig intestine rather than the thicker cow because of rabbits more delicate taste.    The killing and skinning throw up an unpleasant experience when one of the rabbits started screaming (in fear) as it was taken from Rabbit Ritz to the kill zone.    Not something either of us had heard before or want to hear again, so in future the rabbits will be killed no more than 2 a time, even though they don't see the others die, or be skinned, they must sense it after a certain number.   Tracey had been playing with various ideas for rabbit sausages for a few weeks but because a friend had requested a rabbit, and came to watch the kill, she narrowed the list down to 4 varieties, although her notebooks do contain the other ideas so no doubt  more variations will appear on next years menus.

We ran out of sausage skins, so burgers became an option

Not just any sausages, properly linked sausages

Whether it was sausage 'designing' or some other random thought is unknown but Tracey decided that one evening the meal was going to be Scotch Eggs but made with eggs that had been preserved over the summer.   The rabbit sausage meat wasn't used for this recipe and possibly that was a good move as we got to enjoy the experience without having to evaluate too many new flavours.  We (Tracey) will be preserving many more eggs next year and her version of Scotch Eggs will be a regular feature of meals.

It was also the last Formula 1 race of the season so Tracey decided to experiment with some double ginger cookies, using ginger that had been previously preserved in syrup.    According to Paul that's a recipe that doesn't need any tweaking, although the (vast) number he ate did give him indigestion.

Double ginger cookies

Scotch Eggs and mac cheese for dinner

We'd been asked a few months previously if we would go, in the van, with Bati (term of respect) Illiya to collect 'some fuel' for his pechka, we knew it wasn't wood as we'd already checked he had a healthy amount to see him through.  It turned out he wanted 600 kg of coal, as this burns slower than wood and he doesn't need to keep feeding the fire overnight.   He may have got slightly more than he paid for as Tracey 'forgot' she was in the empty van when  it was on the weighbridge, and she decided to walk back to the weighbridge so she could have a smoke, arriving back after the van and coal had been weighed.   Even though we took the opportunity to pick up some galvanised steel whilst in town that didn't stop us having to join Illiya in a rakia, mind you we don't think he expected the pair of us to unload the van and put all the sacks of coal into  his coal store - there is an advantage in not being able to understand fully the neighbours.

Away from the kitchen and back in the workshop Paul was unhappy that the floor was uneven, and although Tracey had been arguing it wasn't a priority the floor has now been leveled, which even Tracey will admit makes sense when putting woodworking machinery on it.    The machinery is slowly leaving the cellar and moving into the workshop which is now equipped with both mains and solar lighting, mains power, a wood burner and a well organised tool board.   Now I bet you are all wondering what the first thing Paul made in his workshop of vast dimensions ... was it a back door to replace the heavy rug currently being used, was it a shoe rack, that Tracey has been asking for since year zero?   Yep it was a shoe rack BUT not for Tracey rather for our neighbours daughter, who in Paul's opinion also has far too many shoes.  teehee 

Shoe rack for Sisi

A well organised tool board, the bench is a work in progree

It has also been decided that as Ruby is happy flying on her own, and Jim isn't visiting this summer We are going to see Tracey's father, and some friends, in France rather than visit the UK    Our outward flight has been booked which is a bit of a gamble as we still haven't got a definite house-sitter organised.   There is a possibility of a flying visit to the UK as the Audi is past it's best and Paul's brother is going to see if he can locate one for us.    This is a much  better option than buying one here as we know it will have been properly checked and nothing 'hidden' from us, although there is quite a nice one for sale, by a Bulgarian, nearby which we may check out.   In addition to the Audi being past it's best before date the starter motor of the van decided to pack up mid December, until we manage to replace, or repair,  it the van is only being used to go places where we can leave the engine running, or park on a hill.

Recently 2 of our neighbours needed help with some trees, so we gave ourselves the day off from pottering here and went round with chainsaw and enthusiasm. We expected it to be a couple of hours but 7 hours later we'd removed a 40(ish) year old walnut  from the building it was growing around and some major limbs off 5 other trees. in exchange we received 2 metres of the 40 year old walnut, about a metre of younger walnut, a bottle of rakia and a jar of honey. We now just need to wait 2 years or so for the wood to dry (hopefully without splitting) and then Paul can turn it into things of useful beauty.   We do need to go back and cut the wood into log sized pieces for dyado, but we ran out off fuel and he's in no rush for the wood.   When we got home Tracey rustled up a quick meal and Paul decided he was going to make a banana & ginger parkin, as one does after a days tree felling.

You can see, near Pauls feet, where the tree is growing around the roof

Notice Bulgarian Health & Safety - no ropes, no safety gear and he's using a chainsaw up there

This was the walnut and the roof it was growing round

This tree just needed some limbs removing

Home to cake making, and precision cutting

One of the trunk pieces we got as payment

Planks, from the other piece of trunk had to be cut on site, because of their weight

Potential woodworking wood NOT for burning

This was the damage the roof had caused to the tree

As mentioned earlier we had decided to turn some of our rabbits into sausages and burgers, it's a pity we hadn't decided to downsize on the poultry as well.  A local is currently in Germany, visiting family, and rather than ask family or friends in the village to look after his dog he just kicked it out on the street letting it fend for itself.   As we have no crops growing at the moment the animals have been free ranging in the garden mainly, sometimes visiting the fodder field unfortunately the dog became aware of this and we lost 2 chickens and 2 ducks.  Tracey upset a number of animal lovers, when she asked for advise regarding the official procedure for dealing with strays, a lot of animals lovers seemed to think we should not 'deal' with the dog, but restrict our birds to a smaller more secure area.  A very good blog was written in response to the unpleasantness that the situation caused, you can read it at:  https://livinginbulgaria.eu/is-it-time-to-stop-and-listen-to-people-before-judging/    As a result of the bird losses for the first time since moving to Bulgaria we have had to buy eggs. 

Tracey had asked a friend who was due to slaughter one of their pigs if she could buy a couple of pieces of back fat so we (she)  could make some Salo and Paprikaspeck.  When we went to collect it wasn't just the couple of pieces of back fat we were expecting, as the pig owners still had plenty of lard from last years kill they had given (yep they wouldn't take any money for it) us all the fat from the pig.   Currently we have about 20 200g coffee jars of lard, and 4 boxes of back fat in assorted cures.    In addition there are 3 bags of 'scracthings' in the freezer (lightly salted, sweet chilli and ginger), 4 bags of fat cubed for the poultry, once the temperatures drop, and 14 fat balls for them as well.

Lard at various stages of setting

Sweet chilli on the left, lightly salted on the right

poultry's winter treats

As well as making goodies for us Tracey has also been adapting traditional English xmas recipes to incorporate local products, as gifts for baba & dyado.   So christmas eve we delivered trays containing walnut shortbread, filo mince pies, cinnamon & orange cupcakes and apricot & walnut cookie truffles ... our rakia collection has expanded as a result of this.   Bati Illiya also got a jar of lard included in his package, well he is our Bulgarian papa afterall.

Random jars of homey fermented pomegranate

Walnut Shortbread

Dark Chocolate Truffles

Milk Chocolate Truffles

We had to test one of each

Cinnamon/orange

Add caption

Tracey admires those who can produce food that looks like the mass produced version

Random cookies

We approach the end of 2015 reasonably satisfied with what we have achieved this year (we can always do more/better) and both suffering with winter sniffles, probably as a result of the mild weather.   Next year we will probably more actively encourage helpers from both https://www.workaway.info/644195941216-en.html   and  http://www.helpx.net/host.asp?hostid=16306&network=3 as in the past the really good ones have tended to arrive just as we need an injection of enthusiasm.   It's all well and good living 'the good life' but building, growing and livestock doesn't give you a break and the volunteers with their fresh ideas and smiley faces benefit us more than a couple of days away would.

Wishing you and yours all the best for 2016. Whatever the year brings you remember to love, laugh and be happy.

Pre-winter update

Due to not concentrating Tracey shrunk a mohair cardigan that her gran made her over 30 years ago.   After her initial upset ideas for repurposing  were considered, so far some has been made into terlitsi and a hotwater bottle cover (with rest put in material pile)

After hearing from  a French guy  in Macedonia with no place to move onto, we agreed he could come as a helper.   Unfortunately he was a lot better on paper than in person, didn't like making decisions, had no opinions on anything and showed no interest, apart from when he asked why something had been done a particular way long after the job was completed and our thought process had moved on to other things.  A couple of days after he arrived we heard of a couple of Bulgarian guys who were hitching to a nearby music festival and stranded about 10km away, so Paul went to collect them so they would be dry and fed (it was raining heavily).   Luckily I'd made a big batch of veggie curry that night which was consumed with vigour, in exchange we had an evening of stimulating conversation - mixture of Bulgarian and English.   Both the lads spoke good English but were happy for us to practise our Bulgarian on them, although they were surprised we were taking the effort to learn it.

The gates were completed and  installation took two visits as the customers orchard and piglet field needed the gate posts concreting in, and allowed to cure.   Paul still isn't totally happy with the finished article,  but then again as an engineer  building rustic was always going to be frustrating for him.    Payment for the gates paid for the animals winter fodder which we needed to buy in as our fodder field failed terribly, with not being ploughed.   It was a wonderful sight seeing them being ploughed this year.  

Paul came to bed a while after me one night, got in and promptly leapt out shouting at me to put the light on.   Something had 'stung' him and he was concerned it was a wasp (yes I react to their stings as well)  luckily it was just a praying mantis so trip downstairs to get the camera was needed, he stayed in the bedroom for a while before unfortunately getting caught in a spiders web (possibly Sybil's).

Sybil the Spider

Percy the Praying Mantis

We have obtained a  lot of extra vegetables, honey and rakia, from the assorted neighbours, over the past couple of months in exchange for Paul planing wood to size for them.   We never realised how popular having a planer/thicknesser would make us.   We also had our pumpkin and cabbage mountain added to when Paul repaired a neighbours roof, a job he wasn't happy doing as they wanted a cheap (materials wise) job doing rather than a proper repair.     It doesn't bear thinking about what we'll be inundated with when they realise Paul now has his mig welder here.   We love it really, the sense of community spirit and being able to help your neighbours is what life is about.   With these vegetables given to us 'in payment' and what Tracey grew the jars of preserves is not only an impressive quantity but also the variety is wider than in past years, we eat much better than we we ever did in the UK.    Because our grapes are not seedless they are not great for cooking with or dehydrating but Tracey finally found a use for them - grape juice, after which she dried the pulp (pomace) and ground it for flour, not something she will be repeating unless VERY bored.

Some none Bulgarian friends were going up to Ruse (builders merchants, lunch and homeware/giftshop) and invited us along.  We don't see the other two couples as often as we possibly should.  T'was a nice day for all concerned Paul got to indulge his tool fix habit and Tracey picked up some pretty fripperies for the house.    It's always nice to spend a relaxed day but still achieve something, however minor.

Tracey kills house plants so is being brave this year and as well as splitting and transplanting herbs in the garden she has potted some up for inside the house over winter, as well as some of the hot chilli plants.    We don't have a lot of confidence on any of them being alive in spring but they do have a chance with being edibles.


The goats, which we got in April, weren't proving to be a great success.  Yes they were amusing, they were friendly - too much at times following us every where like dogs, but trying to build and entertain goats was possibly too much for us.     We protected the trunks of the fruit trees we didn't want killing but in September we found a fence between the compound and garden broken resulting in loads of stolen green tomatoes, other tomato plants with snapped stems, raspberries 'pruned' and Krava had lost her collar again (we still haven't found it).  Fence got repaired and we kind of accepted it as part of having goats and then the little darlings found out they could open the kitchen door, they also developed a liking for cement bags ripping them open, spilling contents everywhere.   Eventually discussions were had about selling or freezing (after killing) so Tracey put an advert in one of the livestock groups and the goats went to their new home the following day.    We had the goats 7 months, we sold them for more than we bought them for, Paul had always wanted goats but now we know we will stick with the smaller animals until closer to completing the building works and when we obtain more big animals they will be sheep.

It was mentioned earlier that we needed to buy in winter food for the animals this year and Illiya, our elderly BG neighbour located a source and offered to come with us to ensure we got charged locals price.   In exchange he needed to do a few errands on route, that suits us fine - all part of the barter system.    If only life were that simple!   The errands were numerous and spread out, possibly Illiya felt he got the better deal because although Tracey had bread, meat and rakia for when we got back  Illiya refused ours putting his meat, bread and vodka on our table.  Tracey really needs to learn how to look like she's drinking without consuming alcohol, 2 glasses and she needed a pochifka (rest, aka nap).   Our method of grain collection seemed to fascinate the Bulgarians - normally you take shovels and bags, filling the bags yourselves, they are then weighed and you pay.   The only time the staff normally get involved is with the weighing and paying but if instead of shovels you take buckets, to scope into the grain mountain, the staff are intrigued and want to have a go at this 'weird' method - we did get nods of approval so it may become a more widespread practice.    We unfortunately  had a bit of an 'issue' with our gypsy neighbour who seems to have lost the saw she borrowed last year, she came round asking if Paul would go and chop wood for her (no idea where hubby is), she would pay for the chainsaw fuel.    Normally this would not have caused an issue but Paul was in the middle of a job that couldn't be left, so Tracey suggested she return in a couple of hours when Paul may be finished.  2 days later she returned, again at an inconvenient time, and was very put out that she was offering to pay cash but we wouldn't go and do it immediately.   We think  she expressed her unhappiness to our local Baba who seems to have explained things to her as everything is now back to normal.   We also had an interesting discussion at the door with another Bulgarian who had snapped his cars fan belt and seemed most surprised we didn't have the means to repair it, or a spare just sitting around.

Although Tracey would have liked parts of the house finishing before starting the barn rebuild nearly half the barn had been designated as Paul's new workshop which would be necessary if he were to build a stable door (replacement for the burnt backdoor - currently a heavy blanket) and other items necessary to get our home finished.    So breeze blocks were purchased to build the east wall - this wall will be between the animal part of the barn and the workshop, breeze block will be a more effective fire break than a timber wall (Yes Tracey is still paranoid)  We were progressing slowly and then Miki & Laura arrived from Barcelona, wow did their enthusiasm move that job along.    It also helped that neither of them had a problem with heights, so were able to be more help to Paul than Tracey, who will now go up ladders but is in tears after the 3rd rung.   This couple have joined the small bunch of helpers we are pleased entered our lives, NOT for the physical help they provide (we appreciate that from all helpers) but their personalities are such they bring a new lease of life to projects (rebuilding our home) that survive long after they leave.     We are not just rebuilding it for us but also for them, not literally but helpers like this show so much faith, in us, and admiration for what we have achieved we can't give up, however tired we sometimes feel.    Although now the temperatures have dropped Tracey has discovered her hip (dislocated summer 2014) is still causing her pain and restricting the weights she can lift/carry, so no doubt work will slow down considerably for the next few months.    The barn/workshop is now at the stage where electrics are going in and whilst the tools need mains, or an excessive amount of batteries, the lighting will be supplied by LEDs, mainly for their quality of light but they have the added benefit that we can solar power them.

3rd October 2015

8th October 2015

13th October 2015

17th October 2015

18th October 2015

4th Novemeber 2015 (South side of roof still waiting for us to locate tiles)

21st November 2015, Paul not happy about tiles being a different colour but we can possibly sort that at a later date

Unfortunately we couldn't keep Miki and Laura but while they were here the workshop roof started being tiled, we had to wait a month before it could be finished as we had problems locating reclaimed tiles.   Those we got weren't exactly the same but close enough to give us a leak free workshop roof, and far enough away to give Paul some more grey hairs.

Some of our winter clothes have come down from the attic and while up there Tracey decided to bring down some pictures for the kitchen/diner walls, there is a rumour she's going to turn into a girly girl.   We also got round to ordering double glazed units for the east wall windows, that weren't in the original plans, but we loved the light that came through before we got round to boarding them up so decided more windows.    Because of their none standard shape we expected to have to wait a week or so, but no we were told they would be ready for collection the following day.

Many more to come down from attic

Each pane roughly 20cm by 100cm 

We have  obtained a  cooking pechka for the extension, and although that means Tracey has a comfortable temperature for her cooking and other potterings, the lack of a back door, and corridor ceiling/floor, means we are sleeping in the main house again this winter, rather than the above kitchen/diner mezzanine which will be our normal bedroom.    On a positive note the giraffe wall is acting as a fantastic heat sink, if we have the pechka kicking out loads of heat, or on for more than a few hours in the evening, it's still got some warmth in it the following morning.



We also had a friend who lives a few hours away come visit with her son.   Because we have local friends who originate from the same country Tracey invited them and another couple to join us for dinner.   It wasn't her finest meal but, nobody died and, the company was more important than the food.     She did refuse to tell them the ingredients of the cake (green tomato) until they had tried it, probably just as well, as all said they would have been reluctant to taste when in fact it was a nice cake.

Before the decision to get rid of the goats was made Tracey had started digging trenches, so she could use some of the old beams to fence off the garden.    This action was triggered by the fun the animals are having with open access to all areas of the property, not just the compound.    Even though the goats are not here anymore the fencing will continue as the birds can also be destructive, especially with newly planted seedlings.    The plan is to have protected areas that will only be accessible to livestock when no crops are planted but the areas between these areas will be available for free ranging livestock.   Unfortunately, rain has stopped play, with these projects although we may be able to complete before snows arrive, and if not they will be finished before planting commences.  Talking of crops we had an unexpected crop of oyster mushrooms growing on wood we have stockpiled in previous years.    Another decision Tracey made, regarding the gardens was to weed and cover (mainly old lino) areas she is unsure what is happening with.   Helping Paul, with building works, and managing to stay on top of the demands made by the garden has proven difficult and whilst this may not be an ideal solution it prevents her getting disheartened by a mass of weeds.

You can also tell it's approaching winter as Tracey has switched from preserving to baking, although we seem to be getting a number of vegetarian burgers made for the freezer.  Burgers are a nice way to store vegetables for winter usage, as not only can they be the main part of the meal but they also go well with meat - much to Paul's delight.

No pictures of cakes and biscuits because Paul eats them too soon.