I'm just a one man band

Hi everyone, I am so sorry for the delay in posting and thank you for recent messages from some followers enquiring if I am okay as it has been a while since I last posted.

All in all things are ticking along fine, well that is more of an understatement as much of the time it is more like speeding along, it does not seem that it has been over six months ago the day my beloved Sara died in my arms and now face the future alone albeit with her memories in my mind and her spirit by my side. I feel I like I am coming to terms without her and my loss, the weight I carry of her passing will always be there, but gradually I am building the strength to carry that weight. Some days I still stumble and trip so that the weight is heavy and other days my inner strength enables me to carry it as though it was as light as a feather, but that is the process of greiving I suppose. There are days when the slightest thing can trigger an emotionl meltdown of which there have been quite a few recently as the post will highlight and other days where I can almost feel guilty at feeling happy, yes happy which has been a long time coming. So now for the update....

First of all there will be only a few photos as sadly my computer decided to go up in smoke, literally and so before going on I had better apologise to those who also follow me on Facebook as many photos will be from posts that I had placed on there. So were to start.

The goat herd increased with the birth of two kids, sadly both billy kids. Pretty much on cue Millie gave birth to them at 6am in the morning just as I was about to feed the chickens and ducks before dealing with the goats. I had an idea that she was due to kid as the night before as she could not wait to get into her stall with Tilly. As I went out I heard her give an almighty bellow and there was the first kid, named Eric on the deck with mum cleaning him. Having kidded before (Tilly being her daughter) she knew exactly what to do . In the time that it took me to feed the poultry she then delivered the second kid Ernie all in a matter of five to ten minutes. The event was exciting, but also tinged with sadness, one that both were billies, but at least they were healthy and strong, but the thought of wishing Sara had been here to see the event and the kids. By the end of the day both kids were feeding regularly and all was calm in the stall and with Tilly taking no notice of them during the day.
In just a month they have grown at a phenemomenal rate and spend much of the play sparring with each other or getting up to miscief.

Millie and her kids on the day they were born.

Eric

Ernie

Eric and Ernie growing on and causing havoc 

One of the chicken houses as I have downsized the flock has now been converted into a seperate stall

for my billy Isaac as soon it will time for him to come into his own when he is in rut. I decided to house him in the furthest house as when he is in full rut he will be a little smelly. Already he has started urinating on his front legs and has a certain fragrance of his own. It is hoped by housing him seperate his smell will not taint the milk from the girls. During the day he is housed with the girls and given access to the enclosure which I need to divide so I can choose optimum matings times with selected herd members. I plan to get Duchess and Tilly mated at the end of September so kids will hopefully be due at the end of February and then Naya and Millie mated in February all being well. This will enable me to one, have sufficient room for seperate batches of kids and more importantly two, have a consistant supply of milk for cheese making. The Novo Nachalo Goat Cheese production is going at full tilt to the extent that I am currently buying in milk to cater for orders as Duchess is the only goat that I am milking at the moment and her yield has gone down too the extent in the next week I will stop milking her to enable her to bulk up a little before she is mated. By then Millies kids will have been weaned and I will start milking her.

Sadly a major loss occurred the other day with the sudden loss of Naya, I must admit my favourite goat. The day before she died she was playing with the kids Eric and Ernie and at feed time was following me around as normal at the end of the day wanting her feed when they are locked in. Wen in her stall she ate as normal and then started eating lucerne and checking the stall at 6am in the morning she was dead. Immediately I removed her and Ducehss from th stall and cleaned it out wilst I waited for our local vat in the village who helped deal with Millie when she had bloat to arrive to carry out an autopsy. On arrival she carried the autopsy out and confirmed she had ded of bloat!!!! This amazed me as she died so suddenly and showed no signs as Millie did. Talking to friends who also ave goats they fee that possibly the stress of the inital start of bloat caused her to have a heart attack which may seem likely as during the night I did not hear her crying out and that where she died in the stall was where she normally slept. A huge gap left in the herd as she was such a sweetheart and will sorely be missed and as a founder herd member for the Novo Nachalo herd an even bigger blow.  There is a saying 'when working with livestock you occasionally have dead stock' but with the series of event to date over the year I had a feeling what is going to happen next. The rest of the herd are fine at the moment and so now there is a need to look for a new founder Anglo Nubian to reestablish the group for the future.  

A sorely missed Naya

Enough about the goats, so what else has happened.

Well due to the continuous long spells of high temperatures being in the upper thirties constantly for the last six to eight weeks it has taken its toll on the vegetable patch.  At th moment potatoes that have now died back and are still in the ground as my neighbour decided to give me a crate full. The pepper plants are producing well, but again my neighbour provided me with a bucket full of them, so now after placing some on the barbeque and char grilling them several have been skinned and de-seeded and placed in the freezer for soups in the winter. Others have been finely sliced and then sun-dried in a box covered with aluminium foil and stored in jars again for soups. The tomatoes and cucumbers have pretty much gone over now and although plenty of produce most of the tomates were small cherry ones, not the large tomatoes which are good for making the traditional Bulgarian Shopka salad. I could have bottled them as Sara used to do, but frankly I simply do not have the time or the inclination. I know placing everything in the freezer is like putting all your eggs in one basket, but many days for me start at 4.30-5am and I do not actualy sit down for something to eat until sometimes 9pm and the meal regularly is salad or omelette or simply a sandwich for as unlike Sara who enjoyed cooking and enjoying the fruits of her labour, eating to me is a means of surviving.

The amount of weeds growing in the garden is phenomenal and thank goodness my sister and her husband were over for the week and they avidly helped clear weeds and help out with other jobs especially help construct dividing fences so that I can seperate Isaac my billy gota from the girls as required to have him mate them at appropriate times so kids are not born when the weather is still very cold.

I have managed to construct a garden pond in the garden, a thing that Sara always wanted, but sadly I never got round to where at the end of the day I sit with a beer and contemplate and try to 'chillax' before going to bed. A friend provided me with a water lilly which will come into its own next year hopefully and will attract a bit of pondlife.

The dogs Bella and Grace are fine and during the heat of the day along with the cats Charlie and Spud are flat out indoors trying to keep cool and in the evening then are regularly playing in the garden with each other.

The chicken flock is gradually reducing in numbers as many are cockerels and now that they are maturing are causing problems in the flock. Many will end up in the freezer as I have had no buyers when trying to sell them and so next year I will not be breeding them. At the moment I have a broody hen and so purchased some Seabright bantam eggs to put under her so will be interesting to see what comes of them.

Goat cheese production is still going well and at the last carboot sale sold out of a new variety Chopped Walnuts and Honey (all home produced). The bees have not produced as much hney as expected after extracting it simply due to the long periods of heat and lack of flowers for food and so in order for them to prepare for winter they have been removing honey from the upper frames were te honey would have been extracted and placing it in the brood chamber.

Crushed Walnut and Honey Goat Cheese

Now where is that honey.

So as the year draws on I would be lying if everything is good. Some days I just want to give up and not exist. The hardest part of all of it is that before Sara died I had an incentive to do what we were doing for her as well as myself and now it is very hard on occasions to maintain that incentive. I have suffered from depression before in my earlier years where I felt alone and had no self value feeling I could not go on and so realise times where it is essential for me to avoid going to such places and no matter how hard it is I have to pull myself up and go on, but from recent events as already decribed and many more that lifting myself up can be very hard at times. Along with other ongoing issues that are out of my hands there have been times when I think to myself  'why am I putting myself through this torture' for at times that is what it is, but life has to have its ups and down for one to appreciate the good. I try now to not dwell on things that are out of my control and concentrate to the positives, but when at a low even such things as the dog not wanting its food can cause me to falter along the road ahead. I have become stressed because with the amount of work that requires doing and the ever expanding list of jobs that need doing continues to grow and I think when will I get them done, but slowly, but surely I have begun to accept that I have to let things go and that next year food production will be reduced as I cannot manage the garden alone and so half of the garden will be put down to lucerne for feed for the goats. 

They say 'real men don't cry', but long hours, lack of sleep through worry of what lies ahead, limited funds, where should I go and what should I do along with missing Sara so much, crying for me is pretty much a daily event, but I question any man to say that I am not real or strong. 

Whilst my sister and her husband where here we managed to temporarily put a fence around Sara's grave. The process of constructing it was emotional to say the least and I still go up there as rgularly as possible for a coffee and 'time out'. 

So as this one man band continues on with life I also know that Sara will be with me as I struggle on through daily life for as frivalous as it may seem I have moi angel pazitel (my gaurdian angel) with me every day and know that she will be with me until the day I die. 

God Bless you Sara 

Take care guys and I am sorry for the delay in posting recent updates at Novo Nachalo Ranch.  

Adapting and changing like the season

Once again sorry for the delay, but once again not enough hours in the day seems to the ongoing situation in getting things done at Nova Nachalo Ranch.

As I have already said I have realised things have to change in order for me to continue living here and yes there may need to more changes in the future on the legal side for me now that the UK has decided to leave the European Union, but I will deal with that when the time arrives. It is pointless worrying things that are out of my control and governmental decisions as to future plans for the UK and how it affects me are currently and wasting time worrying about what the future holds as there is more than enough to worry about now trying to get varying jobs done whilst I change and adapt to my new life without Sara.

Well much of the garden produce has been frozen, ranging from peas, broad beans, and 10kg of beetroot cooked and diced in preparation for making chutney when I get chance. Sadly many of the tomatoes have been affected by blight due to heavy rain and then high temperatures causing humidity which has caused the blight. I had dug up some of the potatoes only for my neighbour (bless her) to give me getting on for 20kg of potatoes so the rest of my potatoes I am leaving in the ground and digging up as and when I need them. The biggest problem I have at the moment is finding the time to not only pick produce but also cook and preserve it as most meals consist of salads or omelettes from the glut of eggs that I am having at the moment and due to the high temperatures we are currently having in Bulgaria. As my neighbours tomatoes have failed I have said to them they can have my excess as I will not have the time to cook the/preserve them and it is a way that I can replay them for their continuous support they have given me over the last few months.  

The pool provides a welcome relief when I have been busy working to cool off briefly before working again. My neighbours and her friend are regularly calling round for an evening meal as they are concerned I am working too hard and long into the evening and continually say "Dave slab" which after checking Google translate mean Dave thin. I have told them I am eating and am not losing excessive amounts of weight, but no matter how much explaining they still want to feed me up. If only more neighbours around the world was like them maybe there would not be so much hostility in the world. Ultimately I see them as my Bulgarian mother and father and they which I feel as a privilege they see me as their son.

There has been much thought and decisions to be made which has resulted in many changes in the livestock over recent weeks. I have found that breeding pure bred poultry and ducks is not economically viable and when there is no income coming in other than what I can produce, cost effectiveness is a priority in making decisions. The cost of rearing poultry to the stage that they are large enough outweighs the money that is recouped and actually I lose money in producing them. Yes the hens and ducks lay eggs, but I can only eat so many omelettes a day and again keeping the hens for selling eggs is not cost effective as the cost of the feed would outweigh and money recouped in selling the eggs. When Sara was alive and she was cooking she could use them up in making many of her delicious meals, but due to time limitations I cannot spend hours in the kitchen making attempting to make them. Unlike many who appreciate food I sadly see it as a means to an end, eat to survive and so cooking is not a priority for me.Any surplus eggs I currently have go to my neighbours who in payment every so often hands me "eggy bread" for m y breakfast so at least they are being used.

The ever expanding menagerie

Young Light Sussex flock

The trio of Indian Runners I will be keeping as they are good natural pest control in the garden without demolishing it.

The last three ducklings reserved and ready to go.

So at a time when at last I have managed to achieve a reasonable success rate in hatching Indian Runner ducks after reducing the incubator temperature and increasing the humidity in comparison to chicken eggs, I now am no longer going to breed them. I have found also that after initial orders that people then decide they no longer want them which is not so much of a problem with the ducks which were sold unsexed, but with the Light Sussex chickens has become a slight problem. Holding onto them until they are sexable now I have a large flock of young roosters which at the moment there is no fighting going on as the top rooster ' Storming Norman' is pretty laid back, and so I will grow them on and then finally they will go to the freezer as even at a low price no-one wants to buy them. At least I know I will have organic, no mass produced chicken for Christmas. Some may be horrified that I would kill my own birds that I have raised from day one, but at least they have had a good life, free range integrated with other hens living a 'normal life' and ultimately that is part of the process of self sufficiency. Sara hated that part of self sufficiency, but is it fair to keep them once they are in a situation where fighting, resulting in stress to the birds and then their condition deteriorates so resulting in the risk of them becoming more prone to illness, simply no and if the market is not there and they are not cost effective realistically I have to reduce the amount of breeding. I intend to still keep a couple of ducks and hens for my own purposes for eggs and to possibly hatch and rear some chicks for my own needs or 'on order' in that they are sold at a week old.  So sadly, but realistically many of the ducks have now been sold with just a trio of this years birds remaining and one of the incubators I have also sold which will cover the cost of lucerne that I have had delivered and now is safely stored in the barn, more on that scenario later.

As with the poultry the goat herd has changed in recent days/ After last months successful sale of the first goat cheese that I had made and that my neighbour even gave the cheese the 'thumbs up' even though Venka was reticent about tasting it as she does not like the smell of goat cheese I now intend to concentrate in making cheese. Sara and I were going to make it in time, but due to limited milk supply we had not got to the stage in experimenting and making large amounts of it let alone sell it to cover the costs of keeping the goats and providing a small income to pay for basics.

Nova Nachalo garlic and chive goat cheese 

(Yes I need to change the label it is not not goats cheese - I was never any good at English grammar)

So with my limited DIY skills and a little help from friends in laying concrete foundations I have now constructed an additional goat shed in which Milly and Tilly are now housed and the original stall Duchess and Naya. Adding a roof has giving me a place where I can store a lilted supply of fodder for when access to the barn at the other side of the garden is restricted due to bad weather in the winter and will keep the heat in for the goats  during the winter.

Goat shed  - No. 2 

(Well it should be No. 1 on Kozi Lane the way houses are numbered in streets as it is the first in the row) 

Millie and Tilly happily settled into their new house

After buying the Anglo Nubians Duchess and Naya I had planned to get them artificially inseminated with Nubian semen that a company about an hour away imports and then inseminates them for you, but after initial contact and no reply, I decided to go another route. Part of the problem with my limited Bulgarian vocabulary it is frequent with such enquiries that no responses as received, but that is part of the process in obtaining good stock and possibly why many do not try. Admittedly with a little help from an English friend who speaks very good Bulgarian where he made the initial telephone enquiry, Thursday of this week off I drove a couple of hours away and returned with a young billy Anglo Nubian in the back of the X-trail.  How chuffed was I in that not only did I find the place but I also conversed in Bulgarian with the sellers father and friend as the seller was at work and was having a good laugh about various scenarios which are a little riske to discuss here. I assume the father did not have much to do with the goats for as we walked amongst a good thirty goats he would get any that are sitting down to get up a he peered between there back legs to confirm what sex they were. Anyone with any goat experience will now it is not hard to know a billy even before he is sexually mature and from the smell of them when they are in rut and so after further limited 'chunnering' due to the language barrier, Isaac as he has been named was loaded into the back of the car and transported home. He was put int the back stall in the old house before the girls came home from their daily walk with the goatherd, but in the night decided to introduce himself with Duchess and Naya by jumping over the dividing gate and some part of the night with them.

Last thing I wanted was a chain smoking billy goat

 Checking out the pen on his day of arrival before the girls come home.

First day with the girls - why bother fighting there is plenty of food to go round.

I intend once the poultry flock has been reduced further to move the ducks and chickens to the house where the chicks were reared and alter the old hen house next to the other goats houses into a holding stall for Isaac, one so that he is isolated from the girls at night especially when he is in rut to hopefully prevent unwanted pregnancies (potentially Naya for this year), but we all know what raging hormones can do, but also so that at the height of the winter all goats can be easily accessible during inclement weather.

So as the goat herd gradually increases so subsequently does the cost of sending them out with the village goats and sheep each day. I know that my fees give the village goatherder some income, but as with them I need to also look after my finances and assets of which my goats now are. The Anglo Nubians were expensive, but produce superior quality milk in comparison to the hybrid breeds in the village and less milk produces more cheese due to the high butterfat content and the Anglo Nubian milk does not have that distinctive 'goaty' smell that some goats milk has. It is not that I do not trust the goat herder, but I feel that in order for me to make this new venture in my aim to self sufficiency work I need to manage them myself. After discussions with goat keeping friends I feel I can take the goats out myself in the morning for a good four- five hours foraging in the surrounding 'common land' and then work the garden in the afternoon. I feel that will be manageable as next year I will not be growing so many tomatoes and the like and part of it I will put down to growing lucerne for the goats. Many Bulgarians feel that British ex-pats are 'bogat (rich) which in comparison to them most are, but many have UK pensions in which they are able to live a comfortable lifestyle out here, but I am not in that position at the  moment and will not be for ten years and so every penny, or being in Bulgaria every stotinki counts and so I feel it is best and more cost effective that I become the pastir (shepherd) for my own goats.This being the case I think there may a few tales to tell in the future of my goatherding experiences as they do have a blinkered attitude on occasions "I want, I run"!!!lol

Bella and Grace are totally besotted with each other to the extent that although Bella has been spayed she even lets Bella try to suckle on occasions although she has no milk and most times during the day the two of them are fast asleep on the sofa. Surprisingly although Grace can be a 'little madam' and yap at them the cats Charlie and Spud seem pretty cool with her as well having seen them both come up to her and greet her in typical cat fashion without belting her, They do put her in her place when the need arises and stop her with a quick cuff with claws retracted. As her name suggested she is Bella and my saving grace and the two of them chasing each other through the tomatoes or up the rows of carrots. Every time I see Bella with a stick in her mouth waiting for Grace to run after her and when she does Bella then runs away for her to chase her it cannot but put a smile on my face.
Sadly the Grace is at her chewing stage the tall now flowering Vibernum bodnariensis that Sara had grown from seed in January is regularly being pruned by her. I must admit it amazes me how hardy they are after seeing my sister when she came over in April after they had just been transplanted in the garden she was going to hoe them out and now this yet they still keep going!!!!lol
  

Time for a nap and totally besotted with each other 

And the two of them always seem to find the wrong time to get under my feet.  

(Well in this instance I was making my supper so food was in the equation).

The bee colony is working overtime collecting nectar not only from the flowers in the garden but also from the surrounding fields full of sunflowers and luckily a friend of mine lent me a couple of supers to provide more space for the bees to store honey so potentially expecting a bumper crop of honey this year. The newly created colony I made is growing well, but am not expecting to harvest honey from them this year as checking them many of the frames in their super are not yet filled with honey, but there is a definite queen on there and many eggs being laid.

All this potential honey 

Sunflowers as far as the eye can see.

In preparation for the winter wood has been delivered barrowed round the garden and then stacked and then this weekend I went with a couple of Bulgarian men who work for a friend as they had managed to source good quality lucerne for me as initially my neighbour and I were going to rent two decares of land from the farmer on which there is lucerne and her son-in-law was going to cut and bale it for us, but due to the regular bouts of rain that we have recently had the farmer was no longer going to rent land this year as he needed the lucerne himself. Normally they get three to four cuts a year and they have only just done the first cut now so is unlikely that the full amount of cutting will be achieved hence his reasons for no longer renting land this year. Anyway after delivery of a hundred large good quality bales along with the remainder of last years hay the barn is now packed to capacity and should see the goats through the winter.

Sadly during the stacking I not only clouted my head once, not twice, but three times as doorways seem to be designed for hobbits and being six foot one the need to remember to duck must be considered. well it must be an age thing as I didn't and subsequently suffered for it. The neighbour saw the injuries and said "dom rakia" (house rakia) so round I went thinking I was going to get a drink, no her and her friend Marika gently bathed the wounds with neat rakia. Oh well good drink gone to waste!!!!lol They regularly kept asking "Dave boli" (Dave hurt or ache) o I think they were anting to know I was OK and not dizzy or concussed. Sadly it now means I cannot shave my head for a week or so, oh well Sara would approve on that one.

 Maybe I need to buy myself a hard hat.

Finally the garden is getting a little overgrown with weeds as I cannot find enough time to keep them under control, but hey ho as long as I can get and maintain the veggies that is the main thing. I'll make the excuse that the weeds keep the ground from drying out too much!!!lol I know next year there is no way I am growing the amount I have this year as I do not have time to preserve it and far too much has been grown for just one person. Many cucumbers have gone too far to eat so are given to the animals and beetroot. garlic, red onions, peas, broad beans have been harvested. I have left to the potatoes in the ground as my neighbour has provided me with a huge bucket of them so need to use those before I use of of mine. Rather than waffle too much here are a few photos.

 The raspberries are just beginning to produce fruit. Autumn fruiting variety, hacked to the ground at the end of the year and new growth up to five feet high that bears fruit in the same season.

 Sadly not butternut squash, but will do for winter soups.

 Some of the decent tomatoes,

 Freshly harvested red onions ready for cleaning and storing.

 Peppers

 Cucumbers

 Sweetcorn which has grown really well even after being flattened
to the ground in the storms a few weeks back

 A solitary red cabbage

Figs

 Grapes, sadly like every ones they have been affected by the rain and then the humidity.

My one and only peach but at least the ree has not suffered with leaf curl this year. 

 Canna Lilly

Canna Lilly bed

Sunflowers

Nicotiana border - all self seeded

 Day Lilly

 Day Lilly

 Echinacea

 Another flush of roses.

 Vibernum bodnariensis

Dahlias

 Dahlia

Dahlia

Echinops

Monarda (Bee balm)

  

 

So all in all things are good here and the end of each day I sit in the garden that is heavily laden with the scent of the honeysuckle and nicotiana and with a well deserved beer in hand look up to the sky above and search for the first star of he night and say God bless you my darling Sara, I love you.