Diggin' in the dark

It's Monday (21/11), and since we've now got a vehicle we can 'legally' use it's time to start moving around a bit.  A trip to Karnobat (KB) was the order of the day, market day, and it was refreshing to wander around and to pick up a few long awaited bits to keep the 'vision' moving forward.

One of the more important purchases was a tree ..... no ordinary tree ....... it was an Apple tree, the first addition to our intended orchard and an important source of flavour for our planned new arrivals in the spring - The piggies!!  It was dusk when we arrived home but there's no time like the present.  The tree was planted with due ceremony, root irrigation bottle (pending drip irrigation - another project) and a good dose of well rotted manure, compliments of Cherkovo Ranch, bordered by bricks and well mulched with straw to keep the area weed free - Job done!

I'm under no illusion that it [the new tree] will take some time to fruit but then, our 'piggy' experience and expertise will also take time to grow and flourish.  Happily we have 'experts' on hand in the form of our lovely neighbours and our friend, a local vet.  Amazon will be helping too!

The pigsty is well on its way to completion after an unintentional but interesting day of construction on Saturday (19/11), but you can see more about that here, and the final instalment here (when I've done it :)

Project - Happy Pigs!! (Pt 1)

Saturday the 19th of November 2011 was a warmish sunny day, much like many Autumn days in the lovely friendly village of Cherkovo ..... then the whirlwind hit ...... Penko our fantastic neighbour is in the village for a few days and, despite not being required until Spring 2012, it is vital that the 'new' pigsty is built this weekend.

Fred Karno's army gathered, 

let the project commence!

A chance discussion with Penko (left with specs) over numerous glasses of rakia (Ракия - local moonshine) accompanied by much salad, concluded with my fabulous neighbour offering the use of his (former) pigsty ....... it just needed to be re-built, an unintentional hood-winking methinks.

Penko spent the previous day, with his son, clearing years of collected 'useful things' ranging from wooden pallets, 56 gal oil drums and washing machine parts to allow construction to begin.  Nasko (above in red) and I spent a little time at the wood yard bartering for timber.  Work started at around 9.30, there's only one 8 in my day these days, and the battle of will's commenced.  

I wanted my way, Penko his and all Nasko could say was "you two a pain in the a*!%" and "there's too many bosses" .... I got my way and we had a pretty successful day all in all.  The main peers were concreted in for strength, reclaimed thick floor boards formed the walls and new timber extended the existing joists.  A gate, also reclaimed, installed in the side to aid mucking out and to help direct our free range pigs to the front of the house and the village 'green'.  

All in all a satisfying first day of construction, and as dusk fell the only work remaining was the need for a little roof felt, a few tiles, a bit of brick laying to finish the wall, a little welding to 'fill' the gaps in the metal gate and to clear the decks of debris .... all to be saved for another day, and one boss!!

Day 2 to follow ........................

Real Beer Battered Mackerel & Chips!!

This ain't mine but you get the gist :)

Just to kick-off the blog proper and after a busy day working on the 'estate' (I'll tell you about that in a bit) we thought we'd celebrate with a 'special' dinner, beer battered mackerel fillet and chips - all home-made!

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has been bumping on about alternatives to cod for a while now, and since 'nice' white fish is pretty hard to track down in Bulgaria I decided to have a go at filleting fresh Mackerel and making beer batter using 'local' dark beer (тъмна бира), Kamenitza.  The chips, from our spuds, were deep fried the traditional way - Job done!

Verdict - pretty fishy and one fillet is enough but YUMMMMM!!!!  You should try it.  Leave a comment and I'll send you my method.

The 1st Tyre Keyhole Bed in hand

Compost Bin
(all reclaimed timber)

The 'estate' is looking pretty tidy now after repeatedly having to repair the tiller to keep it going.

The strawberry tyre keyhole beds are taking shape, a project I'll post later, the first of two keyhole beds is in the process of being built yet another project I'll post later.

The compost bin is filling up nicely and we should be able to reap the reward next year.

Leaf Mould Basket
(the net from the old chx coop)

The leaf mould basket is filling up too .... not really surprising after the winds we've had, and plans for a small worm farm are in the offing, to be detailed later.  The Mk1 Methane Generator wasn't tested properly but Mk2 is in the design stages as I write ..... we will have free cooking gas .... trust me!

Main crop Garlic & Onion Bed

The main crop garlic and onions are planted and mulched ready to overwinter, and now it's time to consider what we will plant next year.  I intend to pad this out by having a 'Gardening Year' post which, with Jackie's photo at the beginning of each month, I will set out our gardening plans for the period.

All this while I continue to refurbish the previous 'refurbishment' of our house, install an inside stairway, manage the flow of rainwater away from the house and progressively re-build the summer kitchen, all little projects I may put up here for the record at some point.