Fencing for Rambo

What a good nights sleep I had last night; off by about 9pm and woke up naturally at just before 7am in good time get my day started correctly.

Mist over my dell

It was a misty morning this morning, with rain in the air but not falling heavily. I was collecting the men this morning to go down to the main builders yard to order the chain link and concrete fence posts to surround the land, and provide a run for Rambo. I had a lovely quick and very hot shower, a cup of tea, and then I was off towards their village with about 25 mins til I had to collect them.

The views on the way were spectacular with the clouds moving in front of the hills across the river valley however I didn't stop to take any pictures because I didn't want to be late. As it turned out it is only 15 mins driving, even at a slow pace, to get there so I could have done. The moral of the story is always pause to take the picture, you can got a couple of miles an hour faster after if you need.

They were in their cafe and came out promptly at 8am, though a minute after I arrived a man came legging it out and jumped into his car and left; he'd obviously missed the time. After a short drive we arrived at the builders yard and it was hammering it down by this point. I am still in my sandals as I am determined to keep wearing them and I must admit at times while we walked around that yard I wished that I had made a different decision today.

In the shop attached to the builders yard

We were buying 400m of 2mm 40x40 chain link, and 32 concrete fence posts for me, and also some other items for my friend where the men were actually working today. It took some negotiating and conversation but eventually the items had been arranged and I was to expect delivery tomorrow at some point when a phone call would be made to warn me. The builders yard had a little shop attached to it with literally everything a man could want in it; from beer to scythe blades and everything in between. At least it was warm in there and I even got some free WiFi at this point.

Coffee served in a golden cup

There then followed some more walking around in the rain getting cold, a finalisation of our orders, and then we were treated to a free coffee (other of course than the huge amount we had just spent) which we drank sat up on an outside terrace while Bekir and Sally both had a smoke and chatted to a few people.

On the seat next to mine was a tiny kitten which was a bit standoffish when I first arrived. I scratched behind its ears and stroked it and pretty soon it was my best friend, forcing itself on me and demanding attention. I had a lot of fun fighting and pushing it around while the other two chatted (Sally is a big cat fan and he was most amused to watch me play with it) and then I decided to photograph it (which didn't work) so I took this video. It is Bekir and another man in the background chatting about something to do with a mayor.

Bekir getting soaked attaching the load to Thomas

After our coffee I pulled Thomas round to where the wood for my friend had been put and they set about tying it to the roof. I must admit I sat in Thomas with the heater on defrosting myself and wishing I'd put socks and shoes on.

He's got the right idea too

As I was sheltering from the worst of the elements I noticed a man with a huge toothy smile doing the same, hidden under a shelter just across from me and grinning while watching those two working to secure the lengths of wood to my roof rack. I snapped a quick picture which amused him no end. I think he was an employee of the yard who was enjoying seeing someone else have to struggle loading stuff.

The load arrived safely

Load secured it was a long and very slow drive back to my friends being really careful as the wood was longer than Thomas and I didn't want it to slip off or even worse, smash my windscreen. It took ages but we got there and as we did it got a bit nicer weather and stopped raining and brightened up slightly. I made a brew for us and we sat around chatting for a bit. After a little bit of discussion with Bekir and Sally about their work we were off to the local town.

My new rug, down in Room 13

I had a list of things to do. I want to buy some coal and a few cubic of burning wood, get some money out to pay for the fencing supplies I had ordered, get some buckets (for coal, mainly) and find some potting compost from somewhere. Our first stop was a hardware shop I hadn't been in before, next to the hotel we used to stay in when we were house hunting, and it had everything. I bought a rug and the buckets, but could have bought so much more. There was an amazing hanging seat type thing with a sun umbrella for 500lev which I loved, but I won't buy because it is a waste.

We then headed around the corner towards where we thought we had spotted a market nursery the other day when on our way to the first geocaching trip. I missed the turning first and had to go around and, even though there was a new looking white van inside the gates, they were locked and it looked shut. It was then that we spotted, all around, piles and piles of partially rotted sawdust and other excellent planting materials. I filled both my new buckets with this and my friend spotted some fir trees which had been thrown away, from the looks of it, so we also grabbed a load of them and shoved them all in the back of Thomas and then, feeling like outlaws, we drove off. I am going to head back there with some bags for the potting material and also going to get as many of the trees as possible; I love fir trees and would like to plant a load of them to make a grove, eventually.

I didn't stop to take pictures of this episode, obviously.

Our next stop was the coal yard which was just up the road but on the way my friend spotted a shop she wanted to pop into and I stood by Thomas waiting and that was when I heard it; a whistling and bubbling sound from one of the wheels. A puncture! I got close to the wheel and managed to spot it bubbling a bit; I got a small amount of mud from the side of the road and managed to stop it; this told me it was a tiny hole and would  be OK to drive on, if I went straight to get it repaired. I can only think that one of the big potholes on the way back from where we got the trees had knocked a previously inserted plug out as it definitely wasn't whistling at that stop.

We went to the coal shop, as it was just next to where we were, and I bought one bag and also decided to add more air to my leaky tire and then I was driving carefully back to the same garage I had been to twice before.

We arrived and they asked me for the locking nut thing but I had no idea where that is (and still don't; not a good thing. I had better look for it tomorrow) so the shrugged, backed Thomas up to their work area, jacked him up and proceeded to fix the puncture with the tire still attached, in about five minutes flat, and then only charged me 3 lev for the whole process. About £1.30. Amazing.

Lovely chicken and tatties, not so nice dessert

Because of the puncture there were a few jobs we hadn't done in the main town, including my main food shop, but I can do that another time. Now we were in the town we went for some lunch at a cafe my friend frequents and had chicken and potatoes in a lovely sauce, followed by something sweet but not very nice for dessert; well I like to try things.

After eating we went to the shop below and I bought three loaves of a bread, a couple of nardenitsa, some onions, tomatoes and mushrooms, and a couple of frozen chicken thighs and it came to just under £5. What a bargain! That should feed me for three days I reckon, and the bread will last a couple of weeks as I have frozen two of the loaves. Our last job was to go to the wood yard however neither of the ones we went to had anyone to serve us so I am still without good wood, and am sat here with more waste wood from upstairs burning in the petchka.

The small sapling, planted and staked

And so to drop my friend off, offload her purchases and found trees, and collect a kindly donated half bag of kindling for my fire, and back to my house. I was feeling like resting however first of all I decided that I would plant both the trees out front near my little grove of walnut trees, where I could care for them as I want to have a table and chairs there for summer external eating. I may even put my BBQ there when I make it. Anyway, that's getting ahead of myself. I gathered my tools together and dug a hole first for the littler of the two saplings. First I put some hay from what will be my kitchen in the bottom of the hole and watered it, then some of the potting mulch and then I carefully placed the root system on this and surrounded with more of the compost. I then watered this well and finally pushed down the original soil over the top and attached the sapling to a bamboo stake. I really hope this little plant survives though, with it being a couple of weeks until I can fence my land, I am sure the goats will take advantage and eat it. I'll not be happy if they do.

And the larger one, not staked

I repeated the process, with a bigger hole, for the larger sapling and this felt much more secure so I haven't not staked it yet. I have since found something I can use to do this so I will probably go and tie it tomorrow morning.

I really REALLY like this picture

As I was coming up and down stairs getting stuff I saw Sassy hopping around on the landing; once again I had left her door open, it must have been this morning when I fed here! I managed to catch her and put her back in but I really do need to pay attention to this as I have cables around and she could easily destroy one of them very easily. She is now happily in her cage again and tomorrow I am going to wheel her through to her run room while I am around to keep an eye on her so she can get more exercise.

My bucket full of coal

For my last task of the day I took one of the (now emptied of compost) metal buckets over to the outhouse with all the coal in it, and spent a few minutes sifting through the mound in there, filling it with fairly sizable chunks really quite quickly. I'm glad I bought the sack of coal just in case I run out but frankly it can just sit and dry out in the store room while I burn all the reserves I can find in this outhouse. What a cracking resource to have.

Unexpected delivery

And so I settled down at my desk to relax, have a beer, maybe start writing this blog and suddenly I heard an engine and then a tooting and I went downstairs and the people from the building merchant (including the toothy smiley one) had arrived with a tipper truck full to the top with chain link fence, and underneath all that, the fence posts.

Unloading the fence posts

Working together myself and the toothy one carried all the rolls of fencing inside the house while the other two unloaded it from the wagon and then it came time to unload the posts. Now these are pretty long and made of steel reinforced concrete so they are not light. The solution to getting them out the back of the truck was simple; they put the tipper up until the whole load slid and rested between the back of the truck and the ground. Once again it was me and the smiley one who did all the lifting, while the other two stood and watched and asked me questions (including "where is my woman?") to satisfy their curiosity about the person who would buy a huge school to make it into a house!

400m of chain link fence in a room

They left after I paid them most of the money; I can only get so much out a day from the cash points and I wasn't expecting them til tomorrow but they were perfectly fine with me saying "I'll pay the rest tomorrow" and they drove off, tooting and waving and after having said "we can help you with ALL the materials for this place!" with dollar (or lev) signs in their eyes. I was left looking at a room now full of rolls of chain link fencing. 400m is a LOT of chain link fence!

After this I really was at the end of my strenuous working for the day so I have been sat at my desk, writing this blog and then getting the petchka burning (it isn't as hot as yesterday, but that is good as I was roasting!) and I have used some of the coals to keep it at a low ebb, every now and then adding some wood to give a burst of heat. I do definitely need to get some better wood which will last more than 10-15 mins even for a big chunk, but I suppose it can wait until Sunday.

Really tasty dinner

Dinner tonight was Nardenitsa fried with garlic, onions and mushrooms and with half a HUGE tomato on the side on slightly old bread brought to life with liberal lashings of mayonnaise. It went down very well, particularly as it was again accompanied by a pint of Ariana.

For some reason the dog which normally wakes me up in the morning is currently barking its little head off and I must admit to being a little concerned for my neighbours; it never normally barks at this time and it is really going for it; I hope they are OK and secondly I hope it shuts up before I head to bed; I don't really want to have to try to ignore that while attempting to find my happy place.

I'll sign this off now and catch you all again tomorrow.

EDIT......

So apologies to those who read this quickly.

Bodged the tripod high enough

I was just adding a few more logs to the fire and when I opened the hatch to drop them in I was so impressed with the glowing coals I decided I had to get a picture of them. This was not as simple as at first thought because the tripod I have was too wide at the base to sit on anything but the table which has the gas hob on it, to make the camera high enough to look down inside the petchka. What a mission.

The result

But I hope you agree it was worth it. I just love fire and the fact that this is keeping me so toasty warm while outside it is so freezing and cold just makes everything even better.

The stars looking towards the back of my property

The stars tonight are outstanding though and (even though I can't get a picture yet; the camera enabled telescope has to go high on the list of priorities I think) I just love standing and looking at them.

This was a 30 second exposure

Now I really am signing this blog off.