New start in Bulgaria

[Post New]posted Today 11:48:27 AM Quote Edit Report post to moderator

I recently bought a property in a tiny village in Bulgaria, less than 100 people, mostly old folk. The villages are dying out here due to the young folk moving to the cities and coast to work, make money, buy tvs etc. Well that has cleared the way for people like me to buy up lovely houses, needing a bit of work (I just fitted a wetroom and new flooring). The house was furnished with old but clean stuff, is built of stone base with adobe brick walls, all rendered outside, plastered inside, two bedrooms, and lots of other rooms, goat shed, pig shed, chicken shed and half acre of walled garden- all for less than 5ooo euros! The garden is flat and south facing, has it's own well and deep, dark clayey soil in need of some tlc. I'm going to start collecting leaf litter and empty the old animal sheds from the surrounding empty properties to incorporate it into the soil, after I have finished scything down the weeds, a daunting task. I can get a local man to plow it all under then, thereby improving the soil.
I have twenty rows of potatoes in, tomatoes, peppers, cabbages and salad growing and five 'three sisters' beds, plus a hugelkutur bed I am trying. I've also got some ex battery hens which are improving day by day and are laying already.
The summers are long and warm here, the winters short with some snow. Most of the surrounding land is taken up with huge fields of corn, sunflowers, rapeseed but the locals left in the villages here are very poor and still grow most of their food in their gardens and keep fowl, a pig or goat and live a healthy lifestyle, with added local firewater called rakia made from their own grapes (which most houses have too. There are also established fruit trees in most gardens.
More permies should think about moving to this place as it is a goldmine for self sufficient living, property, transport, materials and labour are extremely cheap here ( a man plowing my land for two days is around 60 leva) and the opportunity for building any type of building is great as the planning regs are so lax. Old houses can be bought here to 'do up' for less than a second hand car in the UK.
Any way, keep up the good work.
Regards, Adam

hau, Adam, sounds like you made a really sweet score there in Bulgaria.
The village sounds a lot like Koriyata, very nice little village with lots of woods around it, I spent a few days there a long time ago and really enjoyed it.