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.