Week 12

Winter has well and truly arrived. Snow has continued to fall heavily and we awoke to a temperature of minus 19. Coupled with no electricity today could be interesting! We contact Borko to let him know there is no electricity so they cannot work, despite 25cms of snow we know he will try to get here. So the day is spent with Pamela making curtains and me clearing snow off the flat roofs. The snow lays as fast as I can clear it but I am not sure whether the garage roof will support all the weight of the snow. It takes me the entire day to clear the snow. Pamela has finished writing her training programmes now for her Reiki students so I proof read them for her. She has worked so hard on them and they are very comprehensive. That evening we are back to watching Only Fools and Horses but Pamela has started to call me a plonker so maybe time to stop watching them!!

Getting deeper

My ancient homemade snow plough

The local farmer snowploughs our lane

Slightly chilly start to the day

Tuesday and the electricity is back on. There are villages that have not had electricity for days so we count ourselves lucky. Borko and the guys battle through 50cms of snow all the way from Ruse to carry on the work here. Crazy. Even some of the main roads have been closed and the village roads we think are even too dangerous to walk the dogs on. Another day of clearing snow for me as it is still snowing heavily. I clear our neighbours paths for them but hope that that does not encourage them to brave walking out their houses as I would hate to see them injured as the ice is treacherous.

Borko and the guys are nearly finished on the ground floor. Just a few finishing touches to do so I spend the next couple of days erecting furniture in the bedroom, a bookcase in the hallway and cleaning grout from the tiles in the bathroom. Pamela has finished nearly all the curtains for up and downstairs so just bed throws and a few cushions left to make.

Good work Pammy

Thursday's drama (there has to be at least one a week, but this week we have two) is that we have no water. A very cold trip to the spring to fill water bottles then for cooking and flushing the loo. When I get back we discover that strangely we have hot water but not cold. So the guys end up removing the new tiles in the bathroom as they think the pipes may have frozen despite all the insulation. It has been on average minus 16 for over a week now so maybe they have frozen. Luckily they remove only four tiles before discovering a ball of ice is blocking a pipe. The rest of the pipework is running freely. Strange. But the investigation work could have been so much more damaging so we are relieved and we are so lucky to even have running water. Many houses and villages have none.

Amazingly life seems to function as normal in the village despite the ice and snow. The village shop is still getting daily deliveries of bread and the local bus is running. There are fewer people around but considering how icy it is underfoot that is understandable. The temperatures although not getting above minus 7 every day do not feel that cold. It is a dry cold with no wind and glorious sunshine most days. You can walk around with only a few layers on once the sun is out. My feet on the other hand are suffering badly as you are constantly in ankle deep snow and now my boots have split. We must invest in some snow boots when we next go to Ruse.

Monica came to visit us on Friday and we all went to her family house in  the countryside. It is adorable. A real chocolate box cottage and the views are stunning.

Monica's hideaway

Monica & Pamela

On Saturday Borko brought Ani to our house. The guys have a few bits to do downstairs but decide to make a start on what will be the holistic barn. Within a couple of hours the ceiling if emptied of all the items that have been stored there. We find a number of oak barrels that will make great tables and a few items that we can use for storage and gardening. As usual there are boxes of clothes, sacks and sacks of corn husks (they are used as fire lighters here) but nowhere near the amount of debris that was found in the house. Within the next 24 hours the ceiling is removed, a new wooden floor installed in the upper barn ready for being concreted to make a tranquil lounge area eventually, the upper parts of the walls have been insulated and made ready for plasterboarding and the floor level is being dug out. Unbelievable.

Ani knocking icicles off the grapevine

Now that's an icicle

Victor and Borko starting to clear out the holistic barn

Ceiling down, makeshift woodburner in place

Sunday morning we wake to temperatures of minus 20 although we later find out that a local village had minus 28. Even Ruse recorded its lowest temperature for 10 years. Despite how ridiculously cold it is Borko and the team still turn up for work. They have installed a small woodburner in the barn with a makeshift chimney stuck out the window. It is still freezing in there though.

Now that's cold

New floor going down on the upper part of the barn

Happy Borko!!

Keeping warm

The temperatures are forecast to rise in the coming week but that may bring more snow. Hopefully downstairs will be totally finished this week and we can move in. We also plan to get our resident permits as the car insurance is due this month. And the rate Borko and the guys are working they will have finished most of the barn!! So much achieved and this is only our 12th week here.......