Week 27 & 28.

Thursday

 

So this week ended with some pretty miserable weather which started on Thursday afternoon and hasn't really stopped since. It's put a bit of a downer on everything - especially as we still can't get clean, but we have tried to persevere and done as much as we could! 

 

We were obviously still determined to get our cesspit finished so we were out in the cold all of Thursday filling the edges with hardcore and gravel. This took all day but looked fabulous by the end and we were really pleased with it. In the evening we had invited S & G and DW round from some beers and as we still had the big tarp out, and it wasn't raining too much, we decided to sit outside and have a bonfire. We were lucky with the rain actually and had a great evening and a good catch up!

 

 

Friday

 

Due to it raining alot (and being slightly hungover) we decided to skip the market today - the first time EVER i know!!! We actually had more than enough food in the house and used the weather as an excuse for a bit of a lie in! In the end we did go to Chirpan anyway as we needed to do some other shopping, but it was really raining and horrible and when we got home we started up the fire and just did a few bits around the house. Oh we did buy the wood our neighbour had asked for so he can start building our window, so that's good! :) I also hemmed and hung all the saris I've been wanting to put up for ages, although in the end we decided they didn't really suit the room so will change them in the future. They are still so pretty though!

 

Saturday

 

Kicking ourselves back into gear we got straight to work on building the cess pit lid this morning. After alot of deliberating we had finally decided that we would use the old concrete posts we had lying around from the garden as the base for the concrete lid. Pete had also come up with a genius way of making the man hole - we use a large plastic tub as shuttering and lay the concrete around it, and then as the man hole cover we will use the same tub to cast a huge stopper, like a big cork!! We still haven't made the cover yet but I think it's a great idea.

 

So we started the day by cutting and carrying the concrete posts over, including ones to go side ways where the man hole will be (see photo!) Pete then started wheelbarrowing in loads of sand whilst I filled the edges of te hole with hardcore. It then decided to rain alot so we put it off for a while, annoyed that the stupid weather was holding us back. Eventually the rain did stop and we decided to go for it - me on the cement mixer and Pete laying the concrete. We got off to a slow start but did eventually get in to the swing of it and managed to get the whole thing finished by the end of the day IS FINISHED!!

Thankfully the rain held off all evening and we had dinner and got cosy in the yellow room. Then just as we got comfy it decided to absolutely chuck it down!! We obviously were worried it would wash away our hard work, or at least wash the cement out and make it weaker, so we ran outside, in the heavy rain, to put a big tarp up over the vine trellis. We waited a while and then went to check it - only find it had a massive hole in and was funneling the all the rain raight in the middle of the lid!! Ahh! So we scrambled around in the rain and mud and got a new tarp set up much more efficiently, and we were happy with that so went inside a dried ourselves by the fire.  

Using old re-bar to prop up concrete posts.

Working in the rain

Ready...

DONE! :D :D

Sunday

 

We had an amazing day today! S & G had invited us over for a roast, and we had decided we would visit Dimitrovgrad  market in the morning. We were up and out the house by 8, picking up DW on the way. S & G had kindly offered us the use of their shower so we got lovely and clean in hot water and had a coffee before heading off to the market. Sadly it was another very wet day, but the market is incredible- selling everything from car tyres to dogs! There were also a few boot sale type stalls and Pete picked up a very cool waxed jacket cape thing for 5 levs. There were also loads of food stalls, which we haven't seen much of yet in BG, so we tried a few things from those - including a very delicious chocolate and cheese pancake!

Looking Autumnal

 

After a couple of hours we were all quite soggy so decided to head back to S & Gs and get the woodburner going. We had such a good day playing Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo, drinking Guinness and wine, eating a ridiculously good roast dinner and ending the evening with kareoke!!! Perfect! :D

Mario!

 

Monday

 

I have no photos from today - as far as I remember it was another horrible rainy day and we had to go to Chirpan again to get all the plumbing bits and the plasterboard to start work in the bathroom. We were going to actually start working but it was so wet we couldn't even carry the plasterboard in! In the afternoon we bought the washing machine inside as we had had a scare that it was broken (luckily it was only the extension cable but it made us think with all this rain it would be much better off inside.) This wasn't actually as easy as it sounds as we had to knock a hole through a wall and plumb in a new water pipe to the up stairs hall way. This was the easy part though, we then had to actually carry the thing up the stairs which we did just as the rain got really hard. This was a horrible experience and I nearly fell off the side but we did get it up and inside without dropping it or it breaking. THEN we had to actually plumb it in, which kept leaking because we have lost our grips and couldn't tighten it enough - but we HAD to do it because otherwise we couldn't turn on the water to the house! In the end we got it all sorted, but we did completely soak the floor and the water started dripping through downstairs. Bad day!!! We just want this rain to stoppppp!!!

Washing machine is finally inside.

By the way - we got our massive freezer inside too with help from D. Here it is still in the package and covered in stuff!

 

Tuesday

 

So a couple of days ago our neighbour (Hristo - the one doing the window) had come over with a note, written in English, asking us if we could give him a lift to the still in Spasovo. Remember when we were there a while ago and he was fermenting all that fruit and it had the dead rat in it?! Well now was the time to take it to the still to have it boiled and distilled and made into Rakia. We of course agreed so woke up at 5.30am so as to be ready for him to pick us up at 6.30. In the end it was slightly delayed at we ended up going there just before 8 o'clock. The place was a tiny little cottage with about 6 huge, really old, copper stills inside and full of men who were sitting and drinking beerm waiting for their Rakia! It was so ancient and cool! We helped Hristo pour his 500 liters of fermented fruit into the stills and then waited as he started the fire underneath (you have to bring your own wood and everything.) The guy who appeared to be running it was really nice and was telling us (in Bulgarian mind you) how everything worked! We have heard that the traditition is to sit and wait for your Rakia and then start drinking it the moment it is ready, and Hristo did invite us to stay with him, but we sadly had work to be getting on with so left him to it - maybe next year when we will be making our own!

Van loaded up.

Outside the still.

Hristo starting his fire

 

After another quick stop in Chirpan (don't know how we buy so much stuff) we headed home, and after getting the slow cooker going, we started work. Having finished the cess pit (oh - the lid in fine by the way!) we are now putting all of our efforts in to the bathroom. Before we could start any plasterboarding though there were still a few things to sort out like the drainage for the sink and levelling the shower pipes. We also had to put noggins in all along the stud wall and for our towel rails and sink pedestal etc. We were hoping to get this all done and start plasterboarding, but as usual everything took alot longer than expected and we only managed to get all the pipes and noggins sorted. At least we are ready now for plaster boarding!!

Making sure the shower is level

And making it solid!

Noggin the half ped!!

 

In the evening we collected more walnuts as we had neglected them for a few days. We also went upstairs and weighed all our bags - turns out we have nearly 100 kilos of walnuts! We could sell them fairly soon but we have heard if you wait until next spring/summer the price should double, so we think we will wait it out. In English money they are not worth very much at all (maybe 200 pounds if we are lucky!) but that is enough to cover our bills for the year, so that is pretty sweet! :)

 

Wednesday

 

The owners of the garden we work at down the road are coming to their house for a holiday next week, so it was time to go down there and get it all looking lovely for them. The big trees needed pruning and it needed a big weeding and pruning of the plants as well. We decided to actually go for the entire day and get it all done in one go, so we could get back and concentrate on our own stuff again! It was quite a nice day though - the sun even poked out breifly - and we stopped for coffee and lunch at the shop and chatted with the shop lady. We finished at about 5 and on the way home saw the biggest bug ever - after looking on the internet we found out it is called a giant water bug and watched a video of one EATING A SNAKE! Bloody hell!!

Before

After

Before

After

Lunching

Terrifying giant water bug. 

 

In the evening Pete put the new chain on the chainsaw and I roasted a load of peppers in the woodburner, ready to preserve in oil. Hristo also came over to give us a bottle of Rakia (he had got 50 litres of Rakia from his 500 litres of fermented fruit) and he also took the wood for the window and gave us a list, in Bulgarian, of all other bits we needed to buy for him - like hinges and handles and stuff!

No chainsawing was done after this beer by the way!

Rakia!!

Roasting peppers

 

Thursday

 

M & D are also working on the house where we do the gardening and have been converting a small outbuilding, which needs to be ready for the owners arrival next week. They are feeling the pressure as they have been very busy and had asked us to help them today with making the flat packed kitchen. Happy to help we went down there in the morning and had another day working down the road. Although the instructions were quite unhelpful and in Bulgarian we did managed to finish 8 of the 9 units - and only stopped there as the last one had some of the vital connectors missing!

Dog with a bone

Amazing yellow tree!

 

We finished up there around 4 and as it was a nice evening we took Lucy for a walk up into the forest, whilst doing a bit of mushroom hunting. The old pine forest is perfect for mushrooms, and we have been told that there are many up there, but sadly we didn't find any edible ones this time. We think we might be too late as people out here know what they're doing when it comes to foraging and will know the good time and locations! Oh well, maybe next time.

Purple flowers everywhere

 

Friday

 

It was market day again and we did go this week! The produce has all moved on to root veg - amazing bright pink turnips and massive squashes. Oh yeah and our super market is closing down, so the shelves are emptying and soon we will have nowhere normal to shop!!

 

We were in Chirpan early and got home by lunch time, ready to crack on with the plasterboarding. And this we did. We started with sides, including cutting all the holes for shower and toilet pipes perfectly, and then used wood to build our 'in shower shelf'! We ended the day having finished and foamed the whole shower end and think it is looking pretty good.

In the evening we went down to Izvorovo bar for a few beers with S & G and DW. We sat outside and all the Bulgarians thought we were mad, but we were wrapped up and had a really fun evening. Pete had got the taste from our girt from Hristo so was drinking Rakia all evening. Not surprisingly this didn't work out very well the next morning!

 

Saturday

 

We had a bit of a lie in, due to the Rakia, but did manage to force ourselves up and carry on working in the bathroom. We managed to do all the rest of the plasterboarding on the walls (except one bit we can't put up because we still need our radiator wired in by D.) We even built the side of our airing cupboard and our shelves that will be by the sink. It is starting to look like a real room now! :D

Cupboard end and shelf built

And all covered (with little inside shelf!)

Sink fittings are ready

 

We were going to carry on going and start work on the ceiling, but we annoyingly ran out of plasterboard screws so decided to stop. We did go outside and chainsaw a big pile of wood, ready to burn over winter.

 

Sunday

 

Back in the bathroom today and we've moved on to the more serious stuff - actually plumbing. It took all morning to get our pipes connected, with isolation valves and all that, to the cold water feed and to the boiler. They use plastic pipes that you basically melt together with this machine, which is quite easy until you have to connect it in to a tiny corner with a load of other pipes around. But we got it looking really neat and we even tested it and there are no leaks! Yay! At about lunch time we nipped into Chirpan again to get more screws and then came home and carried straight on with finishing the plumbing and plasterboarding the ceiling. We had one last connection to fit for the toilet which we did, but then were slightly worried it hadn't worked properly so decided to test it, and while we were at it we would test the shower. We put a stopper on the toilet connector to make sure it didn't leak and then went to screw on our shower - and we found one of the pipes was at a very slight wrong angle. Oh no. We did manged to get it on though and tested it anyway, only to find water spray out everywhere! Getting quite worried that we'd have to take down the wall and start again we took it off, applyed the tape you're meant to use around the connection and tightened it very hard with grips. This time it didn't leak - THANK GOD - and nor did the toilet so we were happy. Phew.

All connected to the boiler :)

That pipe is a hole in the ceiling for the vent

 

It was getting late by now but we cut a hole in the ceiling for the vent and managed to get one piece of plasterboard up on the ceiling before we'd had enough and finished for the day. This evening we have taken Lucy for a walk, had a yummy chili for dinner and I've written this blog sitting by the fire.

Thanks for reading again!! Dovejdanay :D xxx