Hello all. We moved to Bulgaria two years ago. I see there are members from far and wide so I won't feel out of place.
We are a middle aged couple with animal keeping backgrounds who have tried to grow as much as we could in the garden of our suburban semi in North Wales. We also had three laying hens sharing the poor abused handkerchief of a garden with two dogs. For three years we tried to get hold of a local allotment which was supposed to be on a new site, but after several changes of site, problems with planning and objections from residents it was dragging on. We had been trying to sell the house and when we finally got a buyer we gave up on the allotment idea, re-homed the ladies and moved out to Bulgaria where we bought half an acre of ground with fruit and nut trees, outbuildings, a house renovated to holiday home standard and a jungle of weeds! The house had been empty for six years but luckily the neighbours (who's family once owned it) had been using most of the growing area for pumpkins to keep the weeds down a bit. When we arrived we were greeted as friends and the garden had been planted up with scores of tomatoes and peppers, okra, aubergines, courgettes and of course, the weed suppressing pumpkins. We worked hard that summer! I learned a lot about preserving food.
We wanted to have local breeds of chickens but were given five backyard pullets from an Australian frind to get us going, then bought Bulgarian Shumens thinking we could promote this rare breed to other Brits (they proved to be good breeders but the chicks were not long lived) We still have them as well as a couple of the originals and several ex-batts (15 chickens in all) and six ducks. We have had our trials in the poultry side and lost money, but are back on track. We are getting a couple of goats this month (mum and daughter) which will be interesting...and more work.
We grow and preserve a lot of our own vegetables, fruit and nuts (I am veggie) but a foray into geese for meat, last year, was not a success when my husband (meat eater) wanted me to show him what to do with the first cull, a rather nowty gander, after the deed was done. I told him he was on his own...the geese were sold apart from some for his Christmas dinner from the gander. He has since helped with the slaughter days on the neighbour's holding (steer and pigs) in return for some meat for the freezer. Meat is all home killed in the villages.
So we are two tired but happy holders, doing what we could never have done in the UK due to budget. We have an aged lab, a lab cross from the UK (both rescued) and a delinquant cat (who arrived at 3/4 weeks old, starving and gummy eyed and pronounced he was staying, despite my dislike of the species) We don't speak much of the language but try, and still have a laugh with the neighbours who are genrous, hard working and poor people, and very proud. It has been a steep learning curve and we are so glad we took the plunge to do it for as long as our ageing bodies can cope.
Anyone reach the end of the post?