No Outside Toilet - Doesn't Feel Right

One of my favourite places in the village farmhouse is my outside toilet. I’ve done a few articles on the use of this facility and the advantages of outside toilets over using the inside toilet. I have a major soft spot for my outdoor roofed hole in the ground.

Last month there were a few earthquakes and disaster for my outside toilet. A massive crack opened up on one of the walls. This was looked at and presented no problem at the time, but as each week went by it got worse, no time or money to repair this it was left thinking it would be okay.

A couple of weeks ago I got a call from my neighbour. He told me that my outside toilet wall had collapsed and it was only the doorframe keeping the roof intact. This was a worry and when I got there at the weekend the worry was just reasoning. The whole wall has crumbled and the small building was structurally unsafe, it had to be demolished for safety reasons. I was quite devastated and had a slight uneasiness knowing that there wouldn’t be an outside toilet at the farmhouse. It’s a bit like having part of the your soul going missing. And thoughts about how it could be rebuilt without cost were ringing in my head.

It was a painful operation last weekend dismantling the outhouse brick by brick. All the bricks that where whole were saved and the rubble was physically transported by wheelbarrow to the dumping ground at the top of the hill. This took over half a day to complete and all that was left was a few broken fragments of brick and mortar dust where many used to squat.

It was a sad day, but I know if ever a spare bit of time and cash for cement I will have another built, it just doesn’t feel right not having one there, I can honestly say this is on the top of my want list. Simple pleasures!

Water Returns - Then The Ice Strikes

Hurrah, we have our mains water back after seven days. It suddenly came back to life at 7:00 in the evening after settling down and resigning ourselves for another night of inconvenience. To be quite honest we were so used to the routine of economising with water we could have gone on indefinitely without mains water.

There was a big cheer from us all as the initial muddy water spurted from the tap in our one and only heated livingroom/diningroom/kitchen/bedroom combined space. There were little dances and jigs as the toilet was flushed in celebration. Another reason for a party this evening, well it would have been if Galia weren’t still being treated for her illness and hospital operation.

It is really quite a turn around as I am more than used to being without water and electric on many extended occasions in the village so this wasn’t such a hardship for me at all. But in Yambol City, to be without water for so long was unprecedented to Bulgarian townies in recent times. This was looked on as a big problem by all the Bulgarian household except me, but then like I said, I am hardened to this from village life and secondly I am entirely grateful for being part of this family now and certainly won’t complain, even if I had reason to from the lack of water.

So, water now in the town house and today I went to Skalitsa village to check up on the farmhouse there. I had not been there for two weeks and the severity of the sub-zero temperatures left me thinking there would be a problem there.

I arrived and as I suspected everything was frozen. The water in the toilet cistern was jammed with ice and accompanied with a solid block of ice in the basin. There was no water coming in or out it was rock solid. Looks like back to the outside toilet again, that never fails, it was like visiting a long lost friend.

The electric immersion boiler in the bathroom was also frozen; it couldn’t be heated up until it had thawed out. There was no water coming in or out it was rock solid. Switched on the little electric convector heater I had from a previous village life here and left it full on in the bathroom for a couple of hours.

Switching attention to the kitchen, I have a 30-litre barrel full of water this is kept by the side of the sink to use when we get cut off with mains water. The whole 30 litres was a block of ice, (pictured) solid right the way through and no water in the kitchen of course. It was out of the frying pan and into the fire, no water at all here. The well had water in it but the standing water in the plastic piping had effectively iced up blocking the route for the well water. No chance of that defrosting for at least another day or so as it was still bitterly cold here today at least another 3-4 C lower than Yambol.

No panic, I was in the village now, no rush to do anything this weekend as I gathered wood for the wood burner. At least the wood burner never fails I thought. I was right. Five hours later after roasting a few rooms from the travelling heat from the wood burner backed up by the heater in the bathroom there was now movement. By 7 o’clock this evening everything is running very smoothly on the water front, I can even have a shower before I go to bed.

I was in my element today, I just love the whole day solving problems, dealing with nature that had taken hold of the farmhouse, using the outside toilet, gathering and chopping up wood, even having time to go for a jog on this very bright, sunny, but very cold day. This was the main reason I came to Bulgaria to get back to basics and experience what real down to earth life is all about. The stresses of modern living just doesn’t exist here in Skalitsa on the farm. The second picture is of the scene from Skalitsa I took today, it's there because I liked it.

I am due back to Yambol tomorrow to tend to Galia who is certainly under the weather in more ways than one. Hopefully we can return here to give here a bit of convalescence next weekend.