Hi from Chester

[tosca]

Hi, I am a keen veggie grower, filling every inch of space in the garden with edibles, netting the veggie patch against three beautiful hens. We had our house on the market for three years, fed up of waiting for the new village allotments in North Wales to get going (local resistance) but when several offers fell through we gave up and got the chickens. Six months later the house sold so we had to rehome our girls and have moved into rented accommodation with the dogs, and are now looking to buy our own piece of land. Our options are to buy land in this country and rent a house, while working in less stressful jobs just to pay the bills, and growing our own food and fodder for goats and chickens, or to move abroad where we can buy a small holding with house and barns and still have capital over to live until we become more self sufficient and pensions kick in. The latter is favourite at the moment.

In March we are going over to beautiful Bulgaria for an intense tour of properties for sale in the Veliko Tornovo region, and have made contact with ex-pats who have guided us in which areas to avoid and which are good. We would want to integrate with the local community and are not looking for a "Little Britain" ex-pat community.

Wherever we go we will be having chickens for eggs and meat (For OH, I am a near veggie) loads of fruit and veg, goats, eventually, and are exploring solar power. If in Bulgaria we will also have a well, for the garden and animals.

I have been practicing drying foods with an electric dehydrator, though OH is determined to build an outdoor one if we move to BG, and make all my own chutneys and jam. Next to try is bottling and cheese making. All very interesting to a foodie like me, and exciting.

This is me.

[Maykal]

Sounds like a grand plan and the best of luck!

I'm slowly looking to do something similar here in neighbouring Romania, in Transylvania, where I have a country house with all the barns, pens, outbuildings, wells, brick bread oven, and so on. As my time is split between there and the capital at the moment, I can't keep any animals, but this spring I hope to plant out some veg. I also have lots of grape vines, plums, pears, redcurrants and raspberries. The neighbours are great and often have good advice about how to sort things out in the garden and house as pretty much everyone in the village is a self-sufficient smallholder. They often drop off some goodies for me when I'm there too - wine, cheese, meat, fruit, etc and one neighbour always pops over to give me a hand if he sees me struggling with something (like trying to operate a scythe ;) )

If it's anything like here, I'm sure you'll love it in Bulgaria if you decide to take the plunge - just make sure you make a start on learning the language soon cos it looks pretty tricky to me!

[Milims]

Hi there and welcome. Apart from here Chester is one of my favourite places!

[MuddyWitch]

Welcome to ISH

MW

[tosca]

Thanks for the welcome. Things are moving at a good pace now and we are going on our week with estate agents in Bugaria in a month, all arranged.

Meanwhile, I am missing my first growing season in decades...and I hate it! I will have to get some seeds that I can plant into pots, just to keep myself from going mad!