Week 56

Dull and gloomy. That sums up the next few days weather. The upside to the dull weather is that it is good outdoor working weather. First job Monday is to fertilize the land that has been ploughed, so I spread the chicken compost that Efan gave us. Then I start to clear the land with the vines in as it is so overgrown with weeds and now the bottom land has been ploughed looks very sorry for itself. The crops that were on this land have broken the soil up nicely so it is so much easier to work than last year. That said it still takes all day to clear just over half of it. Meanwhile Pammi is cleaning the house and holiday let before sowing the onion sets that we bought in Popovo. As usual by 1630 we call it a day, have our showers, meal and watch a DVD.

Feeding the newly ploughed land

Starting to clear another bit of land

Tuesday pretty much follows the same pattern. Me clearing the weeds, Pammi cooking before she helps me finish clearing the weeds in the afternoon. The worst bit of the job is hauling the pulled weeds in buckets down the hill to dump them. It becomes tiring after the first one hundred trips. But we actually make really good progress and have finished the whole piece of land by the end of the day.

Sharpening the garden tools with a grinding stone helped by Maizi and Marple

Another trip with a bucket of weeds

Wednesday Pammi spends the day in the garden tidying up and then burning all the leaves and bits of wood laying around. It will be difficult to get a horse onto this land so are now looking for someone to hire a rotavator from.  I go into Ruse as I have an interview with an employment agency. The winter could be long and boring as we have done most of the work now so we thought it may be a good idea to get some paid work and fill the odd long day. My lack of Bulgarian may be a hindrance but it can only get better. We will see what happens. The interview went well and next week I will go for some skill assessments. Whilst there I get more onion sets and garlic which should all be planted now ready for an early crop in the spring. When I got back home Pammi had just finished when the van came round the village buying walnuts. We bit the bullet and sold them ourselves. We had two and a half sacks and am sure we could have been paid more for them but we were happy as it was free money, all we had to do was pick up the nuts. Transaction done we retired indoors so we had an early meal and shut out the cold for the night.

Thursday we take the day off and go for a bike ride. It is a very cold, damp and foggy morning but we wrap up warm and off we go. We ride to Opaka so that we can do the weekly shop and also have a walk around their weekly market. This week there are about double the normal amount of traders and Pammi bought a body warmer with the money from the sale of the walnuts. Shopping done we load up the bikes, stop for a banista lunch in the town square and then head home. We are now cycling weekly and are getting fitter, Pammi even manages to ride up every hill without having to walk. And there are some big hills!! As we are just coming into the village we see 5 deer strolling across the fields before trotting off into the forest. Amazing, although as usual I could not get he camera out quick enough so no photo's. We were still back fairly early so whilst Pammi prepared the evening meal I went off to get a few bits that we need for the campsite toilet which is my job for the next few days. Then as it is still light I get the mattock out and get up some old vines that are in the middle land that I could not get out last year. There are also a few tree stumps so I set fire to them before digging them out. That land is now the clearest it has ever been. The normal evening routine follows.

Make way, Pammi coming through

Foggy day but still beautiful

This farm is next to a gas station and has a wide variety of weird and wonderful birds including ostriches

Setting fire to old tree stumps

Using the mattock to get the old vines out

Friday is a beautiful day, sunny but cold. Pammi is cleaning then preparing the dough for tonights pizza as well as a delicious ribollita (stew) for our next couple of days lunches. I want to get the roof onto the campsite toilet before the snow arrives that is forecast for next week. It takes me forever to get the materials and tools up to the top land and I must have walked up and down that hill a hundred times. Once organised it then takes me a while to work out how to get the correct spacing and slope for the roof. However after the first row is straight and I am happy with it the rest go up fairly quickly. Well as quickly as they can when you are on sloping land using a homemade wooden ladder! I fell off the ladder so many times as at best only one side of the ladder was propped against anything, the other leg was in mid-air so I had to climb up only one side of the ladder to offset the balance. Luckily there was no-one to see or photograph the pantomime.

The roof is on at last and a different door is being tried. I don't like that plastic above the door either

Friday night is pizza night

Still cooking breakfast outdoors despite the cold mornings

Saturday I am back on the toilet build. I am not happy with the door that I originally intended to use as it was a bit 'manufactured' and as everything on this build is reclaimed or left over from other jobs, I am going to use an old barn door. It goes up easily and looks so much better. Next job is to finish the side walls and put windows in. Again the longest part of the job is moving all the materials and tools up to where I need them. It takes me the full day to get just one wall done as I am using off cuts of wood from other jobs so have to search through piles of wood to find suitable timber. I am quite happy with the finished wall though. That afternoon whilst Pammi is cleaning the house two villagers come into our garden and ask if we can order a prom dress off of ebay for the grand-daughter. Our strangest request yet but we are only too happy to help and it is soon done. They go off very happy. Tonight I am allowed to cook and do us sweet and sour stir fry with rice and Pammis home-made spring rolls followed by a DVD.

One wall finished. Note the slope I have to work on!!

Sunday is lovely and sunny and warm. Only one more wall to do on the toilet but I have run out of wooden planks so have to use a combination of wood and OSB. It will be the wall that will butt against the shower room so is not a problem but looks good for now anyway. By lunchtime it is finished. Pammi has been preparing aubergine stacks for tonights meal and for the freezer. Whilst she is doing that,  Ema that we helped with the prom dress yesterday, comes round with a box of freshly made pastries as a thank-you. They are still warm and are delicious. After lunch we take a stroll around the village but it is very quiet so are back home quite quickly. The rest of the afternoon is now spent writing the blog whilst Pammi knits.

Fresh pastries were delicious

Note the curve of the beams I had to work with

OSB wall

Just needs a lick of paint now 

Next week winter is supposed to hit us with temperatures of minus 7 and some snow. 

Have a great week everyone and take care.

Week 55

A week of good and not so good..........

Monday was a sunny but cold day and M&J were leaving us to go to their next destination. Before they went though we had a nice final walk around the village and took them to see the monuments at the top of our road. It was great having them here and cannot wait to see them again next year. Once they had gone it was back to work, Pammi gardening, then making soup and finally cauliflower cheese for tonights meal. I went off to Opaka to get a new gas bottle for our outdoor cooker then wrote last weeks blog before cleaning the house. In the afternoon it became bitterly cold so we were indoors by 3pm sat by the fire. The cold and dark evenings seem so long now after the summer months. It is hunting season now so we cannot take the dogs into the woods but as winter comes we should be able to get out on more walks which will make the days seem longer. We are up to watching two DVD's a night now. Roll on spring.

Pammi digging the bottom land ready for planting

Tuesday it snows!! It was not this early last year but although it snows for most of the morning it does not settle. We decide to head off to Ruse and are now getting enough shopping to last us two months to save on petrol costs. Also we need to start stocking up on dog food just in case it is the heavy winter they are predicting. We are in Ruse really early and so are back home by lunchtime. I get on with the campsite toilet whilst Pammi makes us moussaka for tonights meal. Another evening of knitting and DVD's.

Walls of toilet starting to go up

Wednesday first thing I shoot off to get a new screwdriver as the one I have been using to put the toilet walls up has rounded off. No surprise there. But of course why have one problem when you can have two. Half way to Opaka the dashboard on the car lights up with lots of warning messages. I pull over to find a liquid pouring from under the engine. Luckily it was only water and I am only a short distance from the garage so top up with water from the local spring and limp to the garage. A water pipe has split which they do a quick repair on and get me on my way. They will fix it properly tomorrow. Once home it is back to work and luckily only an hour or so lost out of the day. It was a really hard frost this morning but is now lovely and sunny. Pammi is digging the garden having already made us squash soup for lunch and bean steaks for tonights meal. I am cementing in all the toilet uprights having made the structure as square as is possible with wonky beams, unsquare wood and land that slopes down and sideways. It is so cold by 4pm that we head indoors.

Cementing the posts in

Maizi and Marple help move materials

Pammi clearing weeds

Thursday we wake to a very hard frost, everything is glistening white. I go off to the garage to get the pipe replaced whilst Pammi makes bean burgers and prepares the pasta meal for tonight. At the garage he is so busy we have to go to a friends of his to use the inspection pit. New pipes are fitted and are soon back on the road. We are seriously considering getting a donkey and cart, it seems like a really good idea considering the car problems and we can also use it for ploughing the garden and keeping the grass cut. Something else to look into. Although the afternoon is very chilly it is bearable and so I get on with the toilet until about 5pm when it gets stupidly cold and call it a day. Pasta for tonights meal followed by DVD.

Leek and Potato soup with goats cheese

Friday is a beautiful sunny day and we are having a rest day of sorts. We are up early to go to Popovo fruit market, post some Christmas gifts (the post is not the best), pay our mobile phone bill and wander round the main market. First we go to the local bakers in Popovo that we have recently discovered and have banista for breakfast with coffee from one of the street vending machines. The coffee is really strong but does wake you up with a huge kick. We sit in the sun in the local park and have breakfast watching the world go by. Then off to do our bits and pieces before stopping in Opaka for our normal weekly shop. We sit in the garden with a nice cold beer, then a stroll around the village , Pammi cleans the house and I cut some wood before retiring indoors when the temperature drops. The upside of the cold weather is the stunning star show every night as the skies are so clear. Tonight we have bean burgers with homemade coleslaw in rolls fresh from the bakery. Gorgeous.

Making the coleslaw

Huge bean burgers

Saturday we are off on a cycle ride. After breakfast which we are able to have in the sun in the courtyard, I check over the bikes whilst Pammi gets a picnic ready. Then TH arrives. As usual we are making our wine all wrong, we should get a rotavator for our land not dig it and our new trees need moving from the position that he recommended last year. We agree and off he goes. The sun is so warm now, a massive change from earlier this week. We cycle to the monastery at Krepcha but keep going through the lanes as it is so beautiful, weather and scenery wise. We stop and have our picnic in a field by a stream opposite a bee farm. The locals go by in their carts drawn by horses and filled with hay for their animals. It is so idyllic. We have to turn around as we have no fixed destination and could keep going forever but we have to also cycle home and we are not that fit. When we get home Pammi prepares the evening meal of vegetable cottage pie whilst I pop off to get some eggs. On the way I see Borko and Ani and arrange for them to drop in for coffee next week, we need help with getting our land rotavated and also selling our walnuts. I am sure we will get ripped off if we try to sell them ourselves. The local gypsy's come round the village every week to buy them and typically none of our Bulgarian friends are around at that time to sell them for us. Home again we lock out the cold and settle down to our meal then a DVD.

Picnic

Honey farm

Our picnic spot

Local horse and cart

A beautiful day

Sunday morning is beautiful and sunny. We have a cooked breakfast of mushroom, eggs, homemade baked beans, homemade rostis and toast with honey from the farm just round the corner. Pammi is gardening today after her meditation whilst I get on with the toilet, putting more wood on the walls and getting ready to erect the door. Late morning Efan comes round to ask if we want him to plough our land. Do we!! Pammi has been digging it by fork and it is back breaking. It will save a weeks work. So later that afternoon he brings his horse and plough round. He even lets me have a go and it is not as easy as it looks but an hour later is it ploughed. Happy days. He even refuses to let us pay him as we gave him our hay a few weeks ago. It is late afternoon now so he wants to get his horse bedded down for the night so will not stay for a beer and the top land will have to be ploughed another day. Getting a donkey is seeming like a better idea every day. We could use it for ploughing too......... We tidy up the tools and clear up for the day before heading indoors for me to write the blog, Pammi is knitting then it will be jacket potatoes cooked in the woodburner for our meal. 

Efans horse keeps our grass down

Efan starts ploughing

He even lets me have a go. It is not easy

Baba B watches us

Pammi plants onion sets and garlic

Next week is forecast to be cold but dry. Pammi can now get on with the painting that needs doing outside and hopefully I will get the toilet finished. But we all know that will change........

Have a great week everyone. Take care.

Week 54

.......... and the tyre saga continues.........

Monday morning we are up bright and early as Pammi wants to decorate the living room. It is soon cleared, plastic sheeting down and Pammi is painting away. It is a bright sunny morning so I quickly give the new stair rail a coat of preservative in the hope it dries before the forecast rain arrives this afternoon. That done I head off to the garage so that they can have back their spare wheel and get mine repaired. If only it was that simple. When they tried to put my spare wheel back onto my car they could not get the bolts to fit so head off to the tyre garage to buy new bolts. Three journeys back and forth later to get the right size bolts it transpires that the spare wheel in my car is not the right size wheel and there are no bolts that will fit the wheel / car combo. No problem they say and half an hour later all the bolts have been cut and remodelled so that they fit properly. I am told that it is perfectly safe now and can be driven at normal speeds. I am not so sure, but at least it is only for emergency use. So off I go to the tyre repair garage to get my punctured tyre replaced. He is too busy to repair it today so I must come back tomorrow. I am not convinced he can mend it but lets see tomorrow. When I get home Pammi has finished painting and the rain has started which stops me working on the campsite which I had planned to do, so an early finish for us today.

The campsite gate-sign 

Tuesday is very warm in the morning and it looks like it is going to be a beautiful day. Pammi is still in painting mode so gives the log barrel, her craft box and the new stair rails another coat of paint. Off I go again to the tyre garage. When I get there he is just putting the tyre on the rim and as he inflates it a large hole is blown out the side of the tyre. Definitely a new tyre needed then, which means a new pair. Great. He will have to order them so I must come back tomorrow. Back home I make a start on the campsite, felling a tree that is in the way of where the toilet will be. I have still not had the chainsaw repaired from last week so fell it using a bow saw and axe which was not a problem as the tree was old and rotten. The area now clear I was able to start digging the holes for the uprights to go into. The earth was so hard and it took over an hour to dig just one, one metre deep hole. It was a beautiful day but as you looked across the valley you could see fog rolling in and within minutes we were enveloped in fog followed by very heavy rain. It was late afternoon by now so we called it a day again. Pammi had made leek and potato gratin for our meal tonight which we had before setting the fire and settling in for the night. That evening we had a big thunderstorm and the rain continued most of the night.

Painting the log barrel

2nd coat on the stair rail

Old tree felled to make way for the camp toilet

Fog rolling in. Ten minutes earlier it was glorious sunshine

Wednesday Pammi is painting the kitchen (always the way, paint one room and the next looks drab and dirty). Whilst she is doing that I go off to get the new tyres fitted. Two new tyres later and a couple of hundred leva poorer I head off to Ruse to get a new jack and wheel nut lever as well as a few bits and pieces I need for the campsite toilet. On the way I get stopped by the Police, twice. Once for an ID check and once for a winter car check. It must be my angelic face that makes them want to keep stopping me. Still, no problems and am on my way in minutes. It was a successful shopping trip and I got everything I wanted for once. By now the rain is torrential and it is a cold miserable day. As I travel home my incredibly good karma surfaces once again (I think I must have been a saint or just an incredibly good human in a previous life) and I get the opportunity to try out the new jack and tools in the heaviest rain possible. I have another puncture. Pull over in the layby, hi viz on, warning triangle out. This is a very dangerous road and I do not want to be on the side of the road long here. In seconds I am soaked to the skin but at least I have nice new tools so this wheel change should be easy. A guy who is a tyre fitter pulls over and asks if I need any help but I think I will be OK so off he goes. The wheel brace gets the first of the wheel nuts off easily but on the last nut the wheel brace head rounds off and will not budge the nut at all. arrgggggh. The garages all use air guns now to tighten the nuts and the cheap Chinese tools are just not up to the job of loosening them. I resolve to buy the best tools I can lay my hands on in future. I stand in the pouring rain wondering how the hell I can get the last nut off and stare forlornly at every car that passes in the hope they will take pity on me and stop. Ten minutes later the tyre repair guy comes back in the opposite direction and stops again. This is incredibly nice of him and with the proper tool the nut is soon off. He gives me his business card and tells me no matter where I am if I need help to ring him and he will help. Amazing. My new trolley jack works perfectly and the wheel is changed in minutes. Absolutely drenched I head home slowly, not just because of the wrong wheel I am now using again but the roads are flooded and full of debris. If I had another puncture I would be in real trouble. Warm, dry clothes and a hot meal in front of a roaring fire soon makes the world a better place. The rain and storms continue all evening and we have the usual powercut for a short while, but I am just glad to be home.

Not a-bloody-gain

Pammi, Maizi and Marple collecting walnuts

Shelling more walnuts. The nutshells make great firelighters

Thursday morning the rain has stopped and the sun is out although it is fairly cool. Pammi puts the kitchen back to normal now she has finished decorating before making a lovely squash soup for lunch. As has been the story every day this week I head off to the tyre garage, give him the wrecked tyre, which is clearly irreparable as there are four huge gashes in the sidewall, and will return again tomorrow so that he can fit another new pair of tyres and relieve us of yet another couple of hundred leva. The rest of the day is spent repairing the woodstore roof which has started to leak again in all this heavy rain, then digging holes for the toilet uprights. At least the rain has made the soil a lot easier to dig now and I soon have three of the uprights in. Late afternoon Baba B pops in to look at our wine for us. Two of the barrels get an 'I'd drink it if I had to' look and the third gets a 'that is almost good' look after being tasted. Baba B is an expert so that is a compliment and we are so lucky that all these people come to help and guide us.

Making squash soup

The uprights are oak beams from when the barn was taken down

Friday we are back to heavy rain. Our plan was to get the tyres fitted then have a rest day in Popovo at the market and chilling out. No chance in this weather. We head off though to get the tyres fitted which are soon done. Please let that be an end to the tyre saga for this year. We start to head home just as the sun comes out and the sky turns blue. We do a u-turn and head for the market. It turns into a gloriously sunny day. We even managed to find an old, solid steel wheel nut wrench at the second-hand market which looks like it should last forever. No doubt we will find out soon enough knowing my luck. After a nice wander around the town we go home and the weather is now so nice we are able to sit out in the garden with a nice cold beer for the rest of the afternoon. As is usual now the temperature drops rapidly about 4pm so after a short stroll around the village we head indoors for Pammi to knit and me prepare tonights food. It is an easy meal tonight of squash wedges with banista. A nice end to our lazy day.

Looking over the village

The Turkish church in our village

Saturday the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day. Today Mark and Jules arrive to stay for a few days so we clean up the outdoor areas, double check their accommodation is ready for them and rake the piles of leaves that are all over the garden. They arrive early afternoon. After coffee in the courtyard then a walk around the village and a bit of a rest, we all head off to Opaka for a meal. We had a great evening followed by wine and chatting whilst all sat around the woodburner (although it soon became too hot and had to open the door and window!!) Great company and a great night.

Sunday we head off to Ruse for the day. We visit a few villages on the way as M&J are considering which region they want to move to here. By the time we get to Ruse the wind is really getting strong and it is getting bitterly cold. As it transpires there was a hurricane in the Ruse region with wind speeds of around 120km/h. It was horrendously cold and windy, at times really really difficult to even stand. But we still managed to go out for a lovely meal, have a tour of the city, the parks and then walk along the Danube which had to be cut short when the wind became unbearable. On the way home we picked up some food and wine for that evening. We also popped into Borko's house to see him and Ani which was lovely. The woodburner was lit when we got home and we had a great evening chatting, eating and having the odd glass of vino. M&J are a lovely couple and we had a great time. We cannot wait for them to visit again but tomorrow they leave to explore another region.

Tonight there was a Supermoon which unfortunately was mostly obscured by a cloudy night

That was short and sweet this week. Looking forward to a puncture free week.

Take care all.

Week 53

This has been a full week ........ and then some.........

Monday morning we wake to a very chilly morning but it soon warms up and is a beautiful sunny day. I prepared all the parts of the gates for the campsite last week so after drilling the last remaining holes and wrecking all the new drill bits in the process, it does not take long to construct them. Then for the fun part, digging down a metre through sandstone and old tree roots to set the hinge posts in place. Using a mattock and crow bar I eventually get the required depth but it was hard work. Next job is to mix the concrete and haul it up bucket by bucket which is no fun, at least it will keep me fit. Post in place, it will be left overnight to harden before hanging the gate. Pammi meanwhile has been busy doing the daily chores then starts digging over the lower vegetable patch and clearing it of all the weeds which is a major job. By the end of the day she has cleared about five square meters, a job well done. It is getting dark by six thirty now so we stop about five and have a drink at the top of our land looking out over the village. Most of the leaves have gone off the trees now so it is a totally different view than the one we have had all year. It seems strange to be able to see other houses again. Time then for a shower and cauliflower cheese for our meal, one of my favourites, with crusty bread. It is quite cold this evening so we light the fire but only use one log as it soon warms the house before we settle down and watch a DVD.

View over the village is changing now the leaves are falling

Fence post hole being dug

You can just see this little mouse who was rolling a walnut into his nest

Tuesday is another beautiful day. We are so lucky to have this good weather when we need to do outdoor jobs. It takes only a couple of minutes to hang the first gate of the day. Whilst I dig out the fence post holes for the campsite main entrance gate Pammi paints the gate that has just been hung. The weather is so warm the paint dries in no time, so Pammi can get a couple of coats on before we call it a day late afternoon. Tonight Pammi has made bean steaks that we are having with mash and veg. The steaks were a massive success and she even made enough to freeze one for another time.

First coat of paint goes on

Main gate from woodland into the campsite

Gate from campsite into vineyard, just the signs to make now

Wednesday is really cold first thing but soon becomes a lovely autumnal day, chilly but sunny. We have walnut trees that overhang the back of our house and the leaves and walnuts are clogging up the guttering so that is my job this morning clearing those. It does not take too long but the volume of leaves in the dog area is unbelievable and it takes a few hours to rake them all up before having a huge bonfire to get rid of them all. Pammi is in the courtyard preparing a vegetable stew for tonight when Moni and Zo pop in. They are in the village photographing another house that is for sale. Moni mentions that she also needs to prep another house for sale in the next village. I volunteer to help as she only has a couple of days to get it on the market. So off Moni, Zo and I go to look at it. Wow. It is a stunning house but the gardens have not been tended for four years so I have a lot of work to do if I am going to get this done in two days. I get straight to work but surprise surprise my chainsaw chain breaks. It is only a week or so old. Typical. So I pack everything up, pick Pammi up from home where she has been busy digging the vegetable plot again, and we both head off to Popovo. It is late when we get there but luckily the store is still open and he soon fits me a new chain. Back home we have the veg stew Pammi made and after watching a DVD had an early night. Pammi has volunteered to come and clean the house, then help me in the garden tomorrow. If only she knew what she had let herself in for.......

Maizi is so fixated on her ball she ignores the leaf on her head

Clearing the roof of leaves and walnuts

Another huge bonfire

Pammi has started to dig over the vegetable garden

Thursday the alarm goes off at 0600. We have an awful lot to do and want an early start. We load up everything we think we need and after a quick breakfast get going. It is a stunning day, hot and sunny. Between us we make really good progress but by five o'clock are exhausted so call it a day. We cannot be bothered with making a meal so nip off to Opaka to pick up some potato wedges and banista which we eat watching a film before crashing out. It has been a long day.

Hot weather returns and so do the lizards

Friday the alarm goes off early again. Pammi is staying at home, cleaning and preparing a chickpea cottage pie for tonights meal whilst I go off to finish the gardening at the other house. It takes forever clearing all the debris from the garden but the end result was worth it. What I thought would take only a few hours ended up taking all day and I managed to break another chainsaw chain. This must be different stock (probably made by the drill manufacturing company!!) as I have never broken chains before but do not have the time to go to Popovo again so finish cutting down the trees with a bow saw. It was really satisfying to see the end result and despite the aches, pains and cut head was a fun few days. A few glasses of well earned wine with our chickpea cottage pie finished off the day. Incidentally Pammi put Dijon mustard in the mash which was gorgeous and well worth doing.

Before the clearance started

A good couple of days work, but it was worth it. Someone will get a stunning home

Saturday back to our own work. Pammi today is doing her normal chores then paints an old wooden box that she found for a craft box before she gives the gates another coat of paint. I am going to make a stair rail and repair the steps that lead up to the vineyard. First stop then is Opaka where I buy the couple of bits of wood I'll need, most of the wood will be off cuts that I have laying around but the handrail needs to be one continuous piece. I have constructed these before so it takes no time to put it together. One of the steps had broken into two but the pieces were large so I drilled and bolted them back together which actually worked quite well. Amazingly no tools malfunctioned or broke. This was one of those 'good days'. As I was working on the handrail TH arrived. He had not been round for a while as everyone has been so busy harvesting, preserving and getting everything ready for winter. He had decided that we should cover the new vine stems with soil to protect them from the snow so off we went. He cut the shoots down whilst I covered them. It did not take too long and as we finished Moni and Zo turned up with a client they were showing some properties to. TH stopped for a chat for a while then left as did Moni and Zo soon after. As they left Efan called me to come up to his house. He wanted to give us some nectarine and peach tree cuttings but as we don't know where we would want them yet he settled on giving us onion sets and seeds. We sat in the sun looking out over the village for a while before he resumed ploughing his land with his horse. Saturday night is pizza night! So before it got too chilly, and as it is so messy, we made our pizza's in the courtyard before heading indoors for the evening. My pizza as usual was spicy and Pammi made some stunning garlic bread too with maybe just a bulb or two too much some would say!!

Stair-rail going up

Repaired but will need concreting at some stage

''don't  like this gate between us and our ball eh Marple??''

Home-made pizza 

Sunday is bright and sunny. Pammi puts the onion sets in the kitchen garden whilst I give the car a thorough spring clean. For some reason both extension leads are not working so not knowing anything at all about electrics and vowing never to try to mend anything electric, I took them apart. Both connections on both ends of both leads had wires that had come away from the terminals. It was a simple case of stripping back the wires and making proper connections. Both now work perfectly but I still do not like electrical work. So now I can cut my hair in the garden which is so much easier to clear up than doing it in the house, so that is my next job. Next I finalize the shopping list for the materials we need for the campsite toilet block. By now it is early afternoon and we decide to head off to Ruse to get the bits we need so that tomorrow we can have a full day doing jobs at home. Sounded like a good idea anyway. In Ruse we could not get the materials we needed and the alternatives to my planned construction were prohibitively expensive. Back to the drawing board then. We called it a day and headed home. There are lots of heavy tractors and lorries about due to the logging and harvesting taking place which inevitably take a toll on the roads and the pot holes are getting worse and worse. Sure enough whilst avoiding one hole I clipped another and it ripped a gash in the side of my tyre. We are only just outside the village but on the bend of a very steep hill. We had practice at this last year so are prepared and know the drill. Out with the warning triangle and high viz vest. Get the foam tyre inflate and seal canister out. One empty can later it has had no effect other than to seal the hole. No problem, out with the compressor. After ten minutes the battery on it runs flat. Great. No problem I will change the wheel. Out with the new jack I bought for just such an emergency. Except that it is a centimeter too tall to fit under the jacking point. This is getting funny now. So a call to Keith to see if he has a jack. Result. He does and he will bring it to us. Out with the new wheel nut bar to loosen the nuts. No chance, the nut socket rips open in seconds. Getting funnier. So Keith kindly agrees to take me to the garage in Opaka to get a tool to get the wheel nuts off. It is six o'clock on a Sunday evening and the garage is closed but the owner lives next door so comes out of his house to lend me the tools I need. Top man. Back to the car. Loosening the second wheel nut the socket on his tool splits. This is really too funny. Back with Keith to Opaka to see if they have another tool. The owner and son both decide to come out to help me. They load their tools into their car and off we go. Where else would this happen at six thirty on a Sunday night. Amazing people. Back at our car they have the wheel nuts off in minutes. Then they try to put the spare wheel on but the wheel nuts are too long as my wheels are alloys and the spare is a steel wheel. This is becoming hysterically funny. Off the garage guy goes back to Opaka to pick up some more bolts. At least it is not raining nor too cold yet. Half hour later he is back with another wheel and bolts. The bolts still do not fit but with some washers he makes it as tight and as safe as it can be. Travel no faster than 30kmph he says as the wheel wobbles a bit! I don't care, at least we can get home now. And after all he has done for us he only charges 8GBP. Awesome. So we go to set off and the car battery is flat having had the hazards going for hours. Hysterically funny now!!!! Bump start later we are safely back home, some six hours after 'popping' into Ruse we flop down in front of a DVD and eat junk food. It has been one hell of a day.

Getting the onions in

This brings back memories

After that crazy week lets see what the new one brings. Mark and Jules who follow the blog are coming to stay with us next week which is so exciting, happy days for all we hope.

Take care all.