Fencing day

The forecast for today has long been for a lovely day, with rain being predicted regularly (as I've commented) for every previous day but never turning up. Typically, as I was shutting down last night, there was a really short but very heavy burst of rain and then, while I was in bed, the heavens opened and it tipped it down. I love the sound of rain while I'm sleeping, however, so it didn't disturb me other than the thought that if it was raining today the men would not be pleased with working outside, and the concrete would struggle to set.

You don't see that often; a puddle!

At some point in the early hours the rain stopped but then it started again even heavier and when the alarm went (yes, an alarm day today) at 6am it was as heavy as it had been and I had to put my rain hat on in case it kept going. There was no way I was not having the men today, even in monsoon conditions! I sat and had a brew and wondered if my ears were deceiving me that it might be stopping.

Rainbow over the hills

It was when I was on my way to get a belt for my combats that I noticed the light out the back and grabbed my camera. It had stopped raining and not only that, but was clearing dramatically to become what looks like a lovely day. I am writing this first thing in the morning, before collecting the men, to capture my thoughts most accurately by the way. Out the back of my land, over the track which the cars were racing up the other day, there was a lovely rainbow; really dark and rich coloured.

Amazing clouds towards the rising sun

Clouds clinging to the hills

A stunning two tone of cloud over my house

Looking towards the rising sun I was blown away by the sight. The clouds were so dramatic and changing so fast I snapped and snapped and got loads of pictures. These three are just the ones I liked the best after I came inside to edit them. Even when it is rainy and cloudy this country delivers some of the most stunning views I think you'll ever see.

So, with the ground softened to help with digging, I'm now off early to collect the men with my camera so I can stop and take more pictures on the way. I'll continue this later.

I've decided to come back to this early afternoon to take a break from digging (I have actually done far more than I planned today, but I'm enjoying it so I just kept going) and have a cup of tea. I may decide to not go outside again now and do some more paying work after this however I'm waiting for someone there at the moment so it doesn't feel right to start that until I can be productive.

Wide bend causes reflection of bluff

Anyway I was very glad to have set off a little early today for the men as I stopped about three or maybe even four times on the way. The first time I saw a gorgeous view up the valley towards my house with a wide bend in the river causing the ripples to still and a lovely reflection in that pool of the bluff above. I took a large number of pictures from this point also of more clouds clinging to the hillside but I'll keep them for myself.

The bridge in the distance, carrying the railway

About 100 yards further down the road I pulled over again to take almost the same picture, but this time focusing on the bridge in the distance as a counter point to the natural beauty. This landscape is so ancient that there probably isn't very much natural left as humanity has dug and shifted things around. It is so beautiful though.

Long stand of poplar trees along the river bank

My final stop was as I drove past a really long row of gorgeous yellow poplar trees; the colour was exceptionally bright in real life, though my camera hasn't really captured it that well I still want it here to show you and to remind myself of this. I really need to get down there during a sunny day and take this picture with better light.

I got to the men about five minutes before they were ready and just sat in the car and chilled; they arrived dead on time but had a friend with them who wanted a lift to town. This necessitated a swift emptying of the back seat as I was only expecting Sally back there, and when he got in he also got out a rag (like G had on Saturday) and wiped the seat down. They are very particular, some of these people.

It was not a problem giving a lift though I did get the standard question about United or City which everyone asks me all over the world, and we dropped him near my builders merchant so he could walk the short distance to the bus stop. We went into the shop to buy some cement and I also picked up a new shovel for the men. With our supplies loaded we headed back up the hill to the school.

Straight lines for the fence

I had previously measured out, and marked with place stones, the extent of the run for Rambo and I showed this to Bekir and Sally who took in the task ahead with their usual good will; I know that if some bearded weirdo asked me to dig fence post holes on this land I would not be impressed. But they are made of sterner stuff and set to. Their first task was to mark out the straight lines down which the first couple of sides would run and they did this very cleverly with string and some chunks of wood (I can tell they were whittled by Sally).

Starting to dig the first holes

Next the set to with the fence post digger however after a few minutes it was obvious that it was not going to make much progress on its own through the bedrock about 6" below the surface. Bekir disappeared and shortly afterwards returned with two huge iron bars, pointed at one end and hooked at the other; I would call them 7 foot long crowbars really. With these two tools, and the fence post digger, they were able to fashion holes big enough for the fence posts. The top part of the wall is going to have a 3 or 4" concrete base to it, as they were not able to get deep enough there, but the rest of it they have dug 18" holes for each post.

My chosen area of work

While they were exerting themselves there I returned to my flower bed and continued digging, turning and breaking up the soil. I was getting into a rhythm when I heard the farmer boy saying hello and he climbed over the fence and stood watching me for a bit before wandering off towards Bekir and Sally. I just kept digging the whole time; I'm not totally sure of this guy yet; he comes across as a bit strange and after the episode where he tried to over charge me for "tor" I think that has put me on my guard a bit.

My neighbour watching the men working

He spent ages sat next to the men however they didn't break a rhythm once that I saw (not that I was watching much; my head was down over the spade, but I know what Bekir and Sally are like) and after a while he wandered off. I am going to have to work him out; he is my neighbour and I'd rather continue a good relationship than not trust him. It's a challenge though.

Resting with my tools

All this time I had been digging and I blew straight past the limit I set myself and just kept going. It is theraputic donig something so physical, repetitive, but with such obvious progress. This picture was taken just before a break for some tea and I was sitting down and saw the artistic merits of the shot so I went for it.

Bekir and Sally on the left, a chicken on the right

I was in my morning standup at my paying job and highlighted the things I'm waiting for which was good; I am going to enjoy that work as well, so long as I can really focus on it and am not held up by waiting for other people. I went back to digging for a bit and then it was lunch time, which for me consisted of cheese and tomato butties and for Bekir and Sally something unknown but it was enjoyed in the shade of my trees.

Fence post hole

To give you an idea of the effort that they are having to put into each of these holes (and they are having to dig 18 of them for Rambo's Enclosure) this is one of the holes. they will get maybe 2 or 3" easily with the hole borer, but then they hit bedrock and they have to smash and ease the stone out of the way to make progress, alternating with the crowbars and the hole borer. This hole is done and is easily 18" deep.

Little lizard on the wall

While I was standing watching them dig I went into the brick house which is Rambo's for a look for some reason and I saw a lizard running off. I managed to get a few pictures, though most didn't come out as they move very fast. This one wasn't as colourful as the ones I couldn't photograph the other week, but it was still pretty awesome to see.

Around this time I asked Bekir to help me out with the car situation; I have found one that I like which is for sale in the main town nearby however my Bulgarian is just not good enough to ring up and ask about it; they had ignored my email from the weekend. He did a fantastic job and we are going to go and test drive it tomorrow so I may be in ownership of it sooner rather than later. My friend says she thinks it looks really ugly however (if it has five seats) it will be an ideal vehicle with space for the men, and loads of room in the boot for both building materials, and Rambo.

All the posts, in place.

At one point while I was working inside on paying work I heard voices and looked outside and realised that Bekir had brought the cups in when he helped me with the car, and now they were having a drink and had no cup; for a while I have been meaning to put one of my tin cups next to the free water permanently and this seemed like as good a time as any. While I was out there I looked over and saw that all the posts were in their holes. Already! They were just ready for concreting in place.

Cement going in

I just went out to get my washing in (lovely and dry and fresh smelling; I love being able to hang my clothes out to dry in the fresh air - better than any perfume, that fresh smell) and they are already cementing the posts; Bekir again confirmed that he wants to put a concrete base around the whole fence, which makes sense to me. We will need to get some more concrete but that could be for tomorrow; I am not sure.

Dirty floor needing swept

And so I am back to finish this blog, at the standard time, but with only a little more to write; this is a good way of doing this; I'm going to break it up again I reckon. Anyway, after the last update I decided that I needed to actually do something physically towards preparing for Rambo, having sat on my computer doing paid work for a couple of hours. The inside of the house was filthy; so covered in dust and old hay that I was not about to let him go in there without a good sweep. There was also the dirty lockers still in the corner however those will have to wait until I've got Bekir free for 2 minutes to lift them out.

Much dust in the air

I got the brush and swept half the room into one pile, then went to the other half and swept that as well. There were a few bit of wire sticking up through the floor in places so I got my snips and clipped them off as low as I could, to protect his feet. I also went round the edge of the room, and the windowsills, and pulled everything I could off them onto the floor. He is going to need a kennel in there to make his bed but I will pick one of those up this week; I know where you can get them from in town.

The end of day picture

That job completed I wandered over to the flower bed and finished off the last row, putting the sod from the first spit into the last gap. I have made so much progress there today and tomorrow I reckon I will completely finish that side, and make a good start on the other.

Sally using the new trowel to remove soil

At this point I thought the day was over and pulled all my tools inside. I went to my computer to do a few more bits while I waited for Bekir and Sally to come in and change ready to leave. I was wrong. After a few minutes of waiting I grabbed my camera and went outside and sure enough they were still at it. We had agreed that a concrete base should be put around the entire fence, dug into the ground, so Rambo can't dig out. They had started the process of cutting the trench between the fence posts and, by the time it was actually finishing time, they had done nearly half of it. They just don't know when to stop (which is a good thing) and I was the one wanting the day to be over rather than them.

Looking towards the Greek mountains

And so finally it was time to pack up which was done relatively quickly including bringing in the unused bags of cement and cleaning the wheel barrow of all vestiges of the wet cement that had been in there previously. I think tomorrow is the time for me to buy another one, though, as I could have done with one today. We're going to have to go and get more cement anyway I think. We drove back to their village without any problems, though we had to slow right down just before their turnoff as there was a cop car hidden, and I mean well hidden, with a radar gun just round a corner. It is a good thing the car in front knew about it or I would have been copped. I dropped them and said "see you tomorrow" and then headed back down their Cheren Put. On the way I had clocked a couple of views that I wanted to photograph.This first one is from at the top, near their village, and is looking towards Greece and the Greek mountains in the distance. It is a fabulous view from up there and this is certain not to be the last time I'll show it to you.

Sheep on the ridge

When I turned around I saw, silhouetted  against the setting sun, sheep on the ridge. I just had to take a quick snap and wouldn't you know, it actually came out OK. I am not sure if they are Sally or Bekir's sheep, but they do belong to someone from his village. The sheep dog had been sent away by the shepherd as we arrived and was jogging through the village when I left. They are big dogs too.

Looking back past the trees in an earlier picture

The river meandering through sand banks

These two pictures were taken at the spots I had noticed earlier. Both of them required me to pull the car over and run a fair distance back along the road to the best place for the picture. I actually really appreciated the little jogs I got here as it stretched my legs and opened my lungs; I am getting far more exercise here than I was in England and it is obviously agreeing with me.

Sun setting behind my land

And so home and settling, except I had one more jog on my hands, up to the top of my land, as the sun was just settling behind some clouds towards its final descent and it was so beautiful I sped to a stop and legged it to capture it before it ended; I think I missed the best of it even still but here is a photo of what I saw.

Dinner was the rest of the large chilies, again stuffed with cheese however, because I had been so hungry after them last night, I also fried some nardenitsa and onions on the side. It was tasty and went down very well when chased with a pint of beer. As someone said, I'm drinking more here and that is true; however a beer with dinner every night isn't a bad thing I don't think.

What's happening to me daddy?

Aww this new man is nice to me

I'm going on an ADVENTURE!

And so you may think that this monster blog post is finished but no, it isn't. Why, I hear you sob? Haven't I bored you enough!? Well no; today was the day that Rambo was collected by the pet transport people and started his journey over here. Dan took a load of pictures of him being collected and here are a couple of the best; I have since spoken to Ken who is bringing him and he is very well settled apparently and there were even a couple of pictures of Rambo on a rest and stretch break looking very happy and playful.

And there I will leave it for today. Tomorrow is another day.

Sorting out the architect... again

What a busy day; I'm late starting this blog so you may be lucky and get a shorter update. I'll not promise anything though.

Really low cloud for the morning

The day dawned quite cold and grey; cold enough that I put jeans and my fleece on first thing. I was up early(ish) as this morning Lubo the Architect (or rather, non-architect) was due at 9am and I needed time to wake up and prepare myself mentally for how I would handle this. I also got an hour or so of paid work done which I need to keep doing to keep up with the weekly hours.

A donkey having a scratch on the table tennis table

The previous time I had shouted at him and I don't like doing this generally so I was going to take a different tack today. While I was waiting and drinking coffee and eating a VERY nice bacon (with the new, slightly more like bacon, not bacon substitute I found) and lettuce butty for breakfast, I noticed that the donkey had come back and paid me a visit and was cropping the grass by the outside table tennis table. I grabbed the camera and snapped a picture and at that point Lubo walked through the gate.

He was looking very chastened and I brought him upstairs and sat him down and gave him the choice of walking away now (and paying back my deposit) with no hard feelings or carrying on and either doing what he is supposed to, or facing being taken for the penalty in the contract. We went through a lot of things which I am not going to go into detail but the upshot of it all was him offering me a discount as an apology (I told him we would review that when he had finished the whole job) and saying that he did want to do it and would do it and apologising.

At one point quite early in the conversation my lady appeared with two cups of the milk and sugar which was unfortunate timing as I was just in the middle of explaining why I was so upset with him and he was saying sorry. She is going to have to get used to the fact that my door will not always be open, once I have a door, and I think I may need to have a door bell which I can deactivate easily.

After finishing all our conversations, setting a firm date in the diary for when he will have everything ready for sending off to Sofia for my PuP (bearing in mind that he is already outside of the time limit for completing the whole project, as by the signed contract) we went to the Obshtina to file the roof plans and also the plans for the fence. This was accomplished quite simply, though we did have to wait for the lady to get to her office (the head architect wasn't there, but her new assistant helped us) and Lubo also got some of the documents which are needed for the PuP while we were there. Why he didn't just do this initially I am not sure.

As I was paying the fee for the filing the mayor of my village came in and I was a bit surprised to hear my name shouted across the room; but that is a lovely thing that he saw me and wanted to greet me and wave. He seems a good man and it was great timing as Lubo was able to quickly explain again the plans for the next few days and he was happy with them.

So I parted with Lubo, with an appointment already made for next Monday and a promise that he will ring or text should there be any issues at all with his progress. He headed for more offices in the Obshtina to collect more paperwork and I started the other chores I had set myself. First of all I went to the mobile phone shop and was able to purchase 15lev of credit for my phone. I then headed into the main town and went past Bila and Lidl, picking up items from both and finding that Lidl is cheaper, but Bila has a better selection, and finally back into my local town to my normal building supplies to get a piece of wood to use as the top section for my blind.

I attempted to describe 2.3m of 50mm doweling and at first then nearly gave me two, 3m lengths of water pipe. I stopped them before they could cut and said "dervo! dervo!" which is wood, and they smiled and sent me round to the builders yard at the back where the man grabbed a pack of roofing timber (1" x 0.5") and I just shrugged and said "OK". It was only 10lev for the lot, and I will need LOADS for the roof so it isn't a bad thing.

This was brought home by putting the back window down and sliding it through, though it hung out of the side too far for me to get through the narrow part of the bridge. I just stopped, moved it to the roof bars, drove over the bridge, and then put it back through the window. Simple.

And so I was home and  I had hot mustard sauce to go with my hotdogs so this was my lunch; I had not been able to find any hotdog rolls anywhere so I just fried the onions and made hotdog sandwiches. They were very tasty indeed.

Starting the burn

I spent a fair bit of time doing paid work around lunch time and then the lure of the sun (no rain today, despite reassurances from AccuWeather that it would definitely be raining in the afternoon) which had come out while I was shopping dragged me from my desk and out to do a few things. First of all I burned the rubbish which had started to pile up again, particularly with the packing materials from the freezer boxes I had bought today.

My digging target for the day

Next I gathered together my spade, pick axe, outside brush and fork and took the wheelbarrow to the side of the path I have just cleared; I was going to start digging over the flower beds there. My first task was to recover the edging slabs which had been knocked over and grown over at some point in the last decade or so. This wasn't a long task but it did help me decide how far I was going to dig today.

The first row dug over and second just started

I chose to do the classic single spit turning over method. First of all I dug out a spit deep and set that soil aside. Then I went along the row, digging a spit x spit of the soil and upending into the previous hole then breaking it apart with the spade. In this way I keep the nutrients from the grass and other weeds in the soil, but hopefully retard their growth so they are easy to pick out once I plant the wanted plants in there.

While I was doing this I was picking up bits of plastic and other burnable rubbish and walking round the back to dump it into the still smouldering fire. There is such a huge job on here to clear the land; the glass and stones that are scattered everywhere are alone enough to stop me thinking of having a lawn mower of any kind, and I am just trying to steadily clear by doing it a little bit at a time.

All the digging done for the day

After not very long, as I got more used to my technique and improved my efficiency, I had dug over all the area that I had chosen to do for today. It was a great feeling to look down and see this freshly dug soil ready for some roses next week once the fence is up. I think I will spend an hour or so every day digging this over the next week and in this way it will all be done for next week.

I had collected a few more bits for the compost so this was emptied on and then it was inside and back to my desk to keep at the day job. I have managed about five hours today which is really good as it puts me ahead of my requirement for the week and means I can focus a bit on helping the men from tomorrow as we do the fence.

The top bar going in

Towards the end of the day, as I was waiting for someone to get back to me at the office in England, I decided I'd quickly hang the blind. Quickly; yeah, I should have guessed. It started off OK with me sliding the 1" x 0.5" timber through the large fold and cutting it to size really quickly; it was actually an almost perfect fit.

Bamboo sliding in easily

I then also put the garden bamboo through the smaller folds (where the blind would fold when it was pulled up) and they fit great as well; I had to chop about 6" off the end of each one so it didn't hang over too much but they did the job admirably.

It was when I came to string the pull ups that I got into strife. First of all I set about doing this with garden string however after I had tied it all into place and offered it up to the window (a mission in its own right) I found that the loops had gaps and the twine kept slipping through them. So I untied it all and got the remains of the nylon rope I used for my washing line and cut these to size. These worked much better and I got as far as hooking the blind temporarily on the window before realising that, because this was much thicker, the hoops were now too small. So I went and got some bigger ones from my store and these worked great.

I have pulled it slightly higher than this

I now had to try and hang the thing and a couple of attempts at doing so failed before I found a length of chain I had lying around (from making something else very badly at an old house; what a shameful memory that table is!) and attached this to the top bar. The blind is now in place however it doesn't really want to return after it has been pulled up (you have to pull it down and it is quite difficult to reach) so I'm just going to leave it as it is for now. It will do the job and I am actually really quite happy with how it looks.

Cheese stuffed peppers; gorgeous

I settled down to do a bit more work and then realised the time; I hadn't even started to think about food but it was already nearing 7pm. I had bought some reduced large chillies from one of the shops today with the idea of roasting them however as I was starting to think about this I decided to stuff them with seranai cheese as well. A little drizzle of oil and some salt and pepper and they were ready for cooking and in the oven. I saved all the seeds and am going to plant some of them tomorrow. They were only in for about 20 minutes and then they were ready and wow they were so tasty. I wolfed them down but was still hungry so now, as I type this, I am waiting for a load of tiny pizzas (and they are TINY) to cook to fill the hole.

So it has been another good successful day, and tomorrow promises to be the same as the men are here to start working on the fence. I'm not sure but I think I may have arranged for Usmivka Mush to come and help as well and that would be a really good thing; the more involved the faster it'll occur.

Standard Sunday; just an international race going past my land

The day today dawned cloudy, cold enough that I am in jeans today and was wearing my fleece first thing. It has since developed into a lovely day and the threatened rain has not appeared. My first task, as always, was to have a cup of tea which was much required as I had managed to lie in until nearly 9am which was good going for me.

The first contestant I saw, coming up the track

The tasks I had set myself today were to clean out Sassy's cage (following her allergy scare) and put the wheels on the bottom, and move 16 of the fence posts over to where Rambo's run was. I'd had my shower and was sitting eating my breakfast, actually I think I had just finished it, when I heard the sound of engines really loud. Now every now and then I can hear a sports bike going caning it down the new road and initially I just thought it was someone drag racing or something however the sound went on and on and suddenly it twigged. The cross country 4x4 race we had caught a glimpse of yesterday was somewhere near.

Another jeep

Getting a wave from the driver

I grabbed my camera and, really excited, ran through my land and out the back and down the bank to the track I drive up to my village and, sure enough, as I got half way down a jeep came hammering it up the track and past in a cloud of dust. The race wasn't just near; as I looked it turned into my village and then went on and through and out the other side - the race was actually going THROUGH my village.

And still waving as he goes right past me

I particularly liked this sticker

There followed about half an hour or so of me being very excited and photographing every car which drove past, getting a wave from a fair few of them, and at one point even getting involved by pointing the direction a car should take when it reached the turn for my village.

Two buggies stopped at the bottom of the rise

They came roaring past, the driver waving as I cheered

I took a lot of pictures but these ones are the best. I eventually stopped and climbed back up to my house and as I did a couple of quad bikes went past but they were too far away to really photograph. For the rest of the morning I could hear the sound of the engines as they raced along roads on both sides of the valley behind me. This was a brilliant thing and I admit readily that I was laughing out loud to myself as they drove past in their shower of stones and dust. What an exciting way to start the day.

Wheels on the bottom of the cage

Anyway, all the while being tempted to rush out and try and see more of the cars (I only thought of videoing after they had all gone past my house, sadly; what a shame) I set to cleaning out Sassy and putting the recovered wheels (post application of WD40 the bolts were all nicely loose) on the bottom of her cage so I can get my trolley back in general use. It did not take me that long in the end, though I did drill one incorrect hole due to not being careful enough with my checking, and the cage is now in her room having been wheeled in there and the trolley is mine again.

The new planting area

One of the first things I did here was to put some tables in what will be my living room and call them my potting area however I have really not been going in there (it is just out of my walking route) and so I decided to tidy up the landing a bit and move everything out there; I already have those pots with the trees in located there so I was half way to that as my growing zone anyway. I now will be able to walk past and water everything without having to remember, which is a good thing for me.

New seeds in better soil

The seeds I had planted in my normal soil had not grown at all (no surprise, I hadn't really watered them) and the soil was rubbish as previously observed so I took the bucket and the seed tray outside and emptied them. If I get some random chili plants growing I'll be very pleased but I don't expect it. I refilled the bucket with the compost soil I have been digging out of the steps and went and made immediate use of planting zone putting more Crossley Specials and Birdseye Chili seeds in, and also deciding to plant some Bell Pepper seeds I had got from one I was using to cook with back in England. These are now sat on the table on the landing and I will be keeping a close eye on them; the soil is at least much more nutritious and well draining.

Leaves starting to flourish on the Tea Trees

The next task was to get on with finishing off the entrance stairs. I had managed to find another bucket by taking the tools I had been given the other week from the house clearance out of the bucket they were in, and one of the previously filled buckets had been reduced to provide potting compost for my planting area so I took both of these down in the wheelbarrow and set to. First of all I took a few minutes to look around the garden and snapped this picture of my Tea Trees as they are really putting leaves out a lot now; they were totally bare when I arrived and only the first shoots a week or so ago; things really do change remarkably quickly in the spring here.

The entrance stairs

I filled both of the buckets right to the top and had to go and split one full bucket between all the others and come back and I half filled it again however I have now completed my task of digging out the entrance stairs and gate and saving as much of the good soil down there as I could. There are piles of stones on the retaining wall (most of them having fallen out of it) and there is a large job to be done to mend or replace these stairs however they will do for now. My next task around this area is to clear and prepare the flower beds on either side of the path; I want roses and some other low flowering shrubs here. I have had it suggested that I should have some climbing flowers growing in an arch however I love to look from side to side from this path and I don't want to limit that opportunity really.

They were still REALLY hard to move

My final large task of the day was to move 16 of the concrete fence posts from by the main building where they had been delivered to and over to near where Rambo's run will be. These posts are really quite heavy so I put the newly liberated trolley to good use and pulled three at a time (with the final one being carried by hand) until the correct number were laid out ready. It could be that the task of fencing is started tomorrow, if the men become available, but I think I am really expecting it to begin on Tuesday.

A woodworking bench and lockers to be moved

There were some items still in Rambo's House which I needed to move out, as well as some which will need more than one person to shift - the lockers namely, so while I was in the vicinity I decided to shift them into one of the empty classrooms in the long green building. I am not totally sure what the thing I moved is but it looks like a wood work bench very similar to that which the artisan was using yesterday. I have stored it for now but it is something to be renovated and put to use again I think.

Padlock on

I have been noticing that the final, non-padlocked, door to the green building has sometimes been open, and sometimes been tied shut; this means someone has been going in there and while I am not that bothered by that, it is time to start making it really clear that this is now private property. For this reason (and it is a symbolic thing really as none of the windows have glass in them so you can easily climb in and out) I put the final padlock in place today.

Ornate BBQ skewers

When I emptied the tools out of the bucket earlier I discovered some cool things that I had forgotten; a load of BBQ skewers with fancy handles. They are really rusted and need some work to bring them back to life so today I have soaked them in soapy water and tonight I will spray them on one side with WD40 (the wonder stuff) and leave them over night and turn and repeat tomorrow. I may need to get some wire brush to polish them up but I reckon they will look AMAZING when they are done.

The vat of Ayran

After this I sat down and started the first of the hours for this week for my paying job. It was actually really nice to change speed a bit, having worked up quite a sweat moving the heavy fence posts (and the woodworking bench wasn't light) and I think it will turn out to be a really good mix of 16 hours a week computer work and getting the physical exercise with the building work. While I was sat doing this my little lady neighbour came in (I must have left the door un-latched) and left me another vat of Ayran; I do like it but I think I will only drink a portion of this before it goes off as it is a morning drink for me; I prefer my beer for dinner.

Sauteing in butter

Talking of dinner I have something rather lovely cooking at the moment, inspired by a very helpful person, as I was complaining because I'd decided to have hot dogs tonight, but I have no mustard and no hot dog buns. The much better idea of sauteing potatoes, hot dogs, mushrooms and onions in butter, and then finishing them off with tomato sliced over the top in the oven, was suggested and has been carried out. As I type this I am really hungry and it is smelling divine.

Huge tomato

The tomatoes here are really quite huge, though, the same as most of the other veg. It is amazing what you can get when you don't throw things away for not being quite symmetrical enough. I think a lot of the produce you see in the shops around here comes from quite locally and that is also a good thing.

About to be put in the oven

So as I say I have got to the oven stage of this impromptu dish and I will report back in a bit to this blog on just how it tastes. I have just been treated to the sight of the herder allowing the cattle to come onto my land and then he having to run in and chase them out again. I am a little concerned that the farmers below (of whom he is one) are not quite ready to accept me into the village; the attitude towards the manure being the main concern. I do hope they get used to me and accept me soon.

I had someone viewing Pierre today and they said they liked him but they didn't buy him on the spot; I really do hope he sells soon as I want him to be used and loved like he deserves. He started first time, pretty much, and there was even juice in the leisure battery so he did show himself off to his best. Here's hoping that they come back and buy him, or if not then I'll relist (again) on eBay and hopefully sell him there. Talking about vehicles I have heard nothing from the cars I emailed about from the website here however the chap at the garage said to phone and not email; I will be asking Bekir (I doubt Lubo will be in the mood for helping me out at all tomorrow) to do this.

Really tasty :)

As expected, my dinner is lovely so I'm just gonna put this here and publish this, then get back to eating it. Thanks for the recipe suggestion again :)