Countryside Holiday Homes - A Dream Undone

The idea of a holiday home in the Bulgarian countryside paints this lovely picture of living in a beautiful unspoilt part of the world with an abundance of nature around. Wake and get real, it is a major headache for many who fall into this trap of 'The Garden of Eden' waiting for them.

It's not so bad in towns and cities without gardens, perhaps just a yard, but in the villages and rural areas, it can be a nightmare with the land that comes with the property. Nature being nature takes over is left to run free and invade the land turning into a jungle and breaching the property with their wedge affect roots, lifting cement based foundations with ease. The vermin and insect community take residence there and eat their way into every nook and granny. Ants actually enjoy picking up a grain of mortar and storing it elsewhere, so even if you think you property is sealed, think again, eventually, a maze of tunnels will give access to more insects and vermin if left unattended.

My brother has a house in Bulgaria some 15 kilometres from Yambol City, right next to the River Tundzha. To be quite honest you couldn't get a better setting. It is a dream house in a dream position and bought and renovated at a dream price. It is only used for maybe two or three weeks a year.

It is left for up to 6 months without anyone living there and the problems with this are dream shattering and soul destroying. We went there recently to find that apart from all the overgrowth in the one acre of land that surrounds the place, the pathway had been decimated with couch grass roots, a massive outbuilding have collapsed and was in rubble, nicely kept flower beds where shrubs had needed pruning in the autumn were ruined. Quite a few vines had toppled down during the winter; some will no longer produce grapes.

In the house the rats had got into the kitchen and had eaten away at the fridge door, the food and utility cupboards had been breached with big dropping and electric plugs and plastic gnawed everywhere. To the side of the house, a big crack had appeared where a small leak had been left unattended, which had frozen and defrosted. To get the electric connected again you needed to pay a fee on top of the last bill and this would take three days to get switched back on. So when he arrives there would be no electric for that amount of time. Luckily this year we had insulated the water mains garden shaft and drained the system to prevent bust pipes, this is what happened last year and the year before so we knew. The list of problems goes on.

Many holiday homeowners have exactly the same problem and maintenance and a weekly check on the house is essential to keep in check of the problems of absent owners. The biggest problem is finding someone to do this without taking on specialist expatriate companies and paying extortionate prices. Local Bulgarians can usually take care of security in the villages, they are around all the time, but the foreign styled garden and modern house maintenance is a major hurdle and headache for all.

We were away from our village home for six months the year before last, but we knew all the problems that are involved with being away and we made sure our time away was in the winter when the growth in the garden is minimal. When we got back everything was in order. We had our neighbours to pay our electric and water bills throughout so no need pay and wait to reconnect. We even put the Lada car battery on a trickle charge on a sunny windowsill with a solar charger - It was fully charged when we got back.

These problems with countryside residences are not restricted to Bulgaria of course, anywhere where nature can take hold is a headache.

Bulgarian Women Sweepers

It is a fascination in Bulgaria that I see most women having a passion about sweeping. This seems to be a National pastime in Bulgaria for the female species. No men are aloud in that domain and woe be told any man Bulgarian or otherwise that tries it, I’ve been there.

Every day first thing in the morning the Bulgarian household sweeper (the female species) is there early in the morning before the heat gets up, doing the business. It happens everywhere, in the garden, the yard the public street and in the house. A familiar sound that wakes me up every morning is the sound of women brushing and sweeping everything in sight.

I feel sorry for the ants. Every day they leave little mounds of earth or concrete in the yard from their underground nests and every day the concrete and earth is swept back into the hole they had dug. They never give up though the next morning the same routine takes place; neither ant nor Bulgarian women ever surrender form the battle of mounds.

Sweeping is a very proud activity for Bulgarian women, their pride is maintaining a clean environment for the household and especially for the men who would not doubt complain if the home wasn’t swept, or would they? I don’t think there has been and instance where they have had to complain; the women are brought up on this chore and don’t think twice about it. Even the new generation Bulgarian women still has this compulsion to sweep. I see it everywhere I go and in every home I visit.

As the summer turns into autumn the activities outside gets more frantic with the fall of leaves and what a fall as there are so many trees in Bulgaria. They make a return to sweeping at least three times a day during the height of the fall.

The sale of hand sweeping brushes is in good hands, as they are used regularly and have to be placed at least once a year. Many of course are made within the Bulgarian homes from twigs from bushes; these are excellent for sweeping leaves as I found out when one was presented to me from my Bulgarian neighbour when on the farm in Skalitsa.

When we go the farmhouse at the weekends, the first thing Galia does is dust and sweep the house out then sweep the big yard, only then after the sweeping chores is anyone else allowed to go into the house. This is to me a revelation after experiencing the habits of many non-Bulgarian women with reference to house hygiene, there is no comparison. This was another major factor that make life here so good, people that care about cleanliness of the home, something I just worked on alone before.

This compulsion to sweep is a strange phenomenon even though seeing it day in day out women sweeping the street. You know a few moments later the area just swept will be again covered in concrete dust, leaves and other flyable litter as the wind picks these up and places them there. But, they will return in this undying effort to keep the areas in and around their homes spick and span.

I take my hat off and bow to all Bulgarian sweeping women in this instance.






http://365bulgarianadventures.com
http://therakiasite.com
http://doshforu.com