Another little pet

After the epic blogginess of yesterday (which took me a long time to write, for those of you complaining about how long it took to read!) I have decided to dip in and out of writing this, like I was doing the other week, to get it done earlier.

Lovely morning again

I woke up, as per usual, before my alarm and got out of bed because my bladder made it imperative. It was an absolutely lovely day, with no fog this morning. Before doing anything, before even putting the kettle on, I had a lovely long scrubby shower and emerged feeling fresh and ready for anything. Surprisingly I was not feeling that achy or stiff from the exertions yesterday; maybe I'm not as fat and unfit as I thought. When I woke up I had some messages via whatsapp delivered to me, but then when I went to reply it wouldn't go and there was no WiFi signal for some reason. I didn't think anything of it and it was only when I got up to Room 13 that I saw that the router was off and then I noticed that there was no power at all.

Using the generator

Great, a power cut. Immediately I thought "ahh, I'll get the generator powering the freezer and fridge, at least" and went to the garage and pulled it through to the corridor off the entrance hall. I started it first time but it was running very rough and then, just as I had pulled the extension upstairs, it stalled. Nothing I could do would restart it even after I spotted that the air line had popped out between the filter and the engine; not a great design where that can happen easily. I shrugged and carried on; I had fettled with it for a bit and decided to maybe leave it a while and try again later, either that or get T (who is good with engines) to have a look when he arrived.

Main gates torn up

I had locked the main gates last night so first of all, after my brew had been made and with that in hand, I headed down to the gate to unlock it. I had been saying in the blog yesterday how the digger machine yesterday had tried to smooth down the remaining sand to make a slightly flat entrance however, with it then driving back out over it, and not smoothing, it's pretty cut up. It isn't so bad that access is stopped, though, so it'll do for now. A task for well into the future; putting a proper drive in.

Now it is battered

I noticed as I was walking past that the eager mushroom that I photographed yesterday had become bedraggled and knackered over night. Either the rain which came in the evening yesterday did this, or something has been trying to eat it. Either way, it does not look as happy and healthy as it did before.

Sassy sunbathing

As I came back inside to try and get the generator working I went upstairs and saw that Sassy was stretched out enjoying the sun which was streaming in through the windows. I just had to get a quick snap of her before she moved and she knew I was doing it as she was watching me the whole time. I returned to the generator and managed to get it running smoothly by increasing the choke slightly; I must have flooded it before maybe? Anyway, I went upstairs triumphant and found that, in the time I had been away doing things, the electric had returned. Oh well, at least I proved the point and, other than noise and fumes (which will be solved by putting it further away from Room 13) it seemed to work well.

The wall master at work

A few minutes after this the men arrived and I went down to set them on their respective tasks. T I asked to start building the stone wall around the base of the garden fence; it needs to be a bit more secure than it is due to the fact I want to keep chickens in there and they are amazing escape artists. He set to without any hesitation as it seems he is developing a bit of a passion for stone walling. He is getting pretty good at it too and Bekir and Sally have taken to calling him the Wall Master. Quite an accolade.

Starting on the front gate

The men were focused on fixing the front gate and, as it is something I need eventually I was happy to let them get on with it. After a few minutes it became clear that they did not have all the materials needed however I wasn't willing to go until after the digger arrived and then I had a visit into the main town to get huge quantities of cash out of the bank to pay for the window deposit. I suggested the T should take him if he needed to go, and that he should start on the little side gate for the neighbour if he couldn't carry on with the main gate; a slightly higher priority in my mind but not that much different. I then headed inside to continue my paid work (I am having to fit it all in today and Thursday as tomorrow is my birthday and Friday I want to go with T to an old army barracks to explore; though depending how it goes maybe we'll do that on Saturday).

Another digger

Anyway I hadn't been sat down for long when a whistle alerted me that the digger machine was arriving; and on time today. Where yesterday's machine had just been a beast, today we were expecting a hydraulic ram for blasting through the bedrock and, sure enough, this one did have the correct attachment. We had our usual brief chat, pointed out what to do (including a specific instruction to be careful of the tree) and then he set to.

First of all he was tasked with breaking up a pipe that had been found by the wall of the flat roof building and then he was to start to lower the level of the parking lot a bit to make it flat. I got the video camera out and grabbed the noise and motion as he first started on it, with Bekir in shot a couple of times as he moved the pipes out of the way.

As I was filming Rambo started to get very excited indeed, barking and jumping and getting so high his paws were above the edge of the fence. I am not sure what excited him so much but he really was going nuts. After I shot this video I went over and played with him for a bit and after that he was fine and didn't act out like this again.

Getting the digger to work

This machine looked slightly less impressive as it was not a Caterpillar and just didn't have the bulk however it was ploughing through the stone with relative ease. I grabbed another photograph for you before heading back in to do get my stuff together to go to town. As I left I saw that he had begun the task of breaking up the carpark and it seemed that his bit had got stuck; he was out with a hammer and some tools working on the pneumatic attachment. This did not appear to me to be an auspicious start to the day's digging.

T and Bekir had headed off just before I left and as I got to the bottom of the hill I saw them half way across the bridge, going extremely slowly, because they were following a huge herd of sheep that were not making any attempt at all to rush.

My trip to town was a great success, collecting the money and putting in the request for the letter from the bank. I have to return tomorrow or the day after to collect it. When I walked in I saw that the friendly lady who helped me first time was not there and so I waited with a bit of trepidation; my Bulgarian may be good enough to shout at someone to stop stealing my wood, but it would not stand up to this conversation. I went to the first available lady and asked if she spoke English and another lady (who had appeared shortly after I started to wait) said "I do". It seems that they had seen me come in and knew that I needed a translator so an English speaker had come out to help. What great service is that! Anyway, I left with my money but without my cash card (which is ready for me to collect in the branch but I just forgot) and I will go back for that and the supporting documentation for the residency.

My house on the right

I went past EVN to pay my bill but the lady told me to go somewhere else but I'm not sure where so I'll just ask my friend for help. I then went to the window place and paid the deposit, seeing that they had already built some of the windows for me. They are going to come next Monday or Tuesday to do this work. While I was driving back up I stopped to snap a photograph I have been meaning to take for a while; my house but from in town. I had attempted this yesterday when I was at the builders merchant but it hadn't come out because I only had my phone camera.

I got back to find that the trip to town had been labourious for T and Bekir but they had eventually managed to find the materials. The gate was blocked with welding equipment and other stuff so I threw the keys to T and rushed inside for my morning meeting; which was totally pointless as I wasn't dialled into it so just waited in vain. Oh well.

Baby tortoise

I was sitting doing some more work when T appeared in the doorway of Room 13 saying "um I think you may want to see this". He had a tiny baby tortoise in his hand that he had spotted as he was doing the wall; it was a good thing he'd seen it as it is so small it would have just got squashed under foot, or under a rock, otherwise. I have always wanted to have a pet tortoise but I was never willing to buy one and I also was never going to pick up an adult which could have a mate and already be established somewhere so I was happy with just seeing them in their natural environment however this little fella is an early hatchling who would be in trouble from predators if he was outside. He has also not established himself so I have decided to try and raise him and keep him safe.

Sunbathing lizard

I'm saying "him" because the world is a naturally sexist place (according to some people) and I am misogynistic. I don't care. As an animal lover I immediately went looking for something to keep him in that would not be too scary; the plastic bucket he was in probably smelt nasty to him. I thought I had a shallow wooden tray in my collection of stuff from when I cleared the school but when I went looking I was first distracted by Bekir and Sally looking for some electrical parts (I wasn't sure why) and then T spotted a lizard sunning itself on a windowledge. I ran upstairs to grab my camera and put the zoom lens on so I could get some brilliant photographs. What a flurry of wildlife.

His new home

I grabbed a bucket with a load of the soil from digging the front gate out and headed upstairs where I had the boxes which had contained the amplifier; I hadn't been able to find the wooden tray but the cardboard should be OK. I filled the bottom with some soil, put a few bits of wood from my petchka pile in, and bent an A frame of material for a house. Into this home he went and after a few minutes he was exploring a bit, very slowly. Initially I put a bit of hay in for him to use as a nesting material, and cut the bottom off a beer bottle for a water bath however Bekir came in and said "no slama (no hay)" and also recommended less water so I replaced that with the top off a bottle of pasta sauce.

Electric for the welding machine

A little while later T came in to say that the generator wasn't man enough for the task of powering the welding equipment to fix the front gate and so Bekir was climbing a tree to hook a wire over the mains lines to power it that way. I gave him the camera as I was busy and he snapped a few pictures, and a video on his phone. This is just the sort of thing that means they get stuff done; there is no problem, just a solution waiting to be found. They did all the welding from this heath robinson (and yes, I did tell them this phrase) set up and there were no injuries at all.

Bekir welding

T managed to get this amazing photograph as well, which was pretty impressive as he couldn't look at the welding equipment (obviously) and was just shooting pretty much blind. The mask that Bekir is holding is actually made of cardboard; it doesn't seem right but it works.

A master at work

All this time T had been cracking on with the wall and had built up quite a head of steam; he is more than half way around and I have arranged for him to work here on Friday maybe to complete this task so I can get the chickens in before my visitor arrives in nine days time.

Hugelkultur being done

I was outside for an hour or so making a start to the Hugelkultur by removing sidelimbs from the large trees we had piled up, and placing them into the trench. I did a fair bit, and then went and got some of the well rotted old fence posts that were still piled up in this corner from when we started the new fence, and threw them on as well. It's going to take a few days at this rate but there is no particular rush to get it done. I may well plant something in it when it's done, maybe strawberries at one end, and tomatoes at the other and a small fruit tree or two, but it's an experiment at the end of the day. I'll find out how much wood I use and then decide if I'll start the second bank or not this year.

Side gate and catch

The men finished the front gate and then almost sprinted over to the side near my little neighbour to get that gate done as well. It is amazing to me just how much they can get done in such a short amount of time and I now have a gate with a hand-fashioned hook to hold it shut, so my little lady can bring me gifts without having to go all the way around.

He's hiding or sleeping

I am now finishing this blog off as I have to go to the neighbours because I found out it is the Special One's birthday today so I'm going over for rakia and salad (I think) I'll find out later. I won't publish this just yet as I hope to get some pictures this time (now I am actually forewarned of the invite) and will report back on here. The baby tortoise has made himself a little hole in the soil and is hiding; I hope he is healthy but there's not much I can do either way apart from provide him what he needs, keep him warm, and hope.

Back later

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Me and the birthday boy with our rakia

Well that was very interesting. As I walked over at about the time I arranged the family were upstairs and shouting at me out of the window; I don't think they were really ready for me as I they sat me on one of their (really hard) beds and then proceeded to get a slap up meal ready for me in dribs and drabs. When the rakia had been served I waited for the little lady and then got her to take a picture of me and the Special One just about to have our first drink of the home made spirit. It was actually really REALLY nice and I say that from the first taste, not the last ;)

Ayran; the bits floating add to it, honest

I wasn't only served rakia but also ayran and this was a really REALLY nice example of it; not too sour with a lovely hint of warmth to it. I drank three glasses as well as finishing my one glass of Rakia. I was a little confused about when or what to eat as they kept putting food in front of me, but not eating themselves, or at least very sparingly. Usmivka Mush came in the room a few times and danced to the music on the TV (no video as I didn't want to be rude) and the little lady was in and out as well. I gleaned that we were expecting the kmet to make an appearance and after this I felt even more unusual about eating without them; perhaps I had committed some dreadful faux pas by starting on the olives as I had done. They were so good.

At one point Little Lady came in with a big jar of green olives from Turkey and gave them to me as a gift so they are now sat on my desk and I am looking forward to trying them. We also had some lovely cured boar which had been shot by the Special One's brother and cured by the kmet; everything here is so much closer to nature. After a little while the kmet turned up and his smattering of English helped a bit as the Special One got more and more slurred with his words. I think I have agreed to teach each other our respective languages (which is good) and I'm pretty sure they are going to come over for whisky tomorrow for MY birthday.

Earlier the conversation had turned to live chickens and the Little Lady was insistent that I should buy all ten of the live chickens they had however after thought I realised that they would be too young; at one point Usmivka brought one in and it peeped at me and I almost gave in. I think it's better to buy older chickens so I get some benefit from them this year before I leave for the winter.

Finally for this extension to my blog I give you my kmet using the cigarette maker which I think was a gift for the Special One. The music in the background is Turkish music and this is what we were listening to (and some of us were dancing to) all evening.

It was a really nice thing to be invited into his home for his birthday, that he wanted to share it with me, and also to have such a good conversation with the kmet (who said they were good people in this village and so was I, which was very flattering). One other last thing; I had left Rambo running around the garden when I went over, to guard it and also get a bit of a run. When I came back to the side gate I found him stood outside! I have no idea how he got out, but thankfully he was stood right there or I could have panicked on not finding him inside the fence. I now really REALLY need to work out if that route he took is passable in both directions. That's something for another day though.