People have all sorts of different hobbies and pastimes they enjoy to de-stress. But I am not quite sure about Mr Eq's latest passion.

To explain. We had the opportunity to buy our winter fuel early, and as has been said many times, it is never too early. As yet the alterations to the house have not been even thought of, never mind putting in wood burners of any description. Only that we will need one, and maybe two if we go down the no central heating route.

Anyway, he managed to order 10 cubic metres over the phone, from a recommended Bulgarian chap, cut into 30cm logs. First batch duly arrived, in metre lengths, a day early. (we had been out but not for as long as expected....lucky) After a bit of discussion over the first load, when our lovely neighbours came out (they keep an eye on us so we don't get into trouble!) there was to-ing and fro-ing between them and deliverers of heat, money was counted twice by neighbour....only half of it mind, and the lad set to work logging the lengths into manageable sizes. But that wasn't all. Neighbours insisted on helping to barrow the logs through our plot to furthest outhouse for storage, all spurred on and encouraged by the neighbours' family and elderly residents of the street. These lovely neighbours are around 70, but they put us Brits to shame with what they can physically do! The lorry broke down on the way with second batch, but there was neighbour making sure all was ok when another lorry was sent. (Seems one of the chaps was neighbour's nephew...and he wasn't going to mess with her!) Rest of the money paid and lad set to work once more.
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Mr Eq had to insist that he had done enough for one day and he would shift the rest next day. He was hoping to get going before neighbours had finished their chores next evening so that they didn't feel they needed to help. So the Famous Grouse he has had since Christmas came out and the street all had a tot. They think it is stronger than Jordan's rakia, I beg to differ. Jordan's rakia is lethal.

No chance of quietly moving the logs! Nothing gets past Venka! She had Jordan round with his wheelbarrow like a shot. We made short work of moving the logs. Venka helped load the barrows, and at the other end, I helped stack the logs. Poor Venka got stung twice by either a large wasp or hornet, but she didn't break stride. In an amazingly short time we were all sitting drinking cold beer, sort of chatting.
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So, Mr Eq being the sort of person he is started to fret about chopping the logs into usable sizes. It is some sort of oak, all different girths, from some which needs no chopping, to the size that he couldn't wrap two arms around. What to use? Where to get the chopper?

Internet, I say, I will look, despite the fact that it might take me an hour to get Google to work on the usless dongle. better to find out what is the best tool for the job, safety and all that. So I trawled several sites till I found one I could understand, with pictures, and which gave the right sort of advice for the country that is Bulgaria. Some of the tools and contraptions and fibreglass the Americans use are not really relevant out here. As to where to buy one? It's difficult having wonderful neighbours. The ideal thing would have been to ask Jordan, but we were worried he would want to bring a trusty axe over and cut the lot! We try to avoid asking anything which might mean them rushing over to get the job done. I, and often Mr Eq, just can't keep up with them, and it is difficult to see what we can possibly do in return.
Market, I said. But last time we went it was mostly clothes. We did not go far enough though, as our new acquaintances (who mentioned the wood) told us. So off we went, and lo and behold, on the next stretch of road, the first stall we came to had just what we wanted. It was not that simple of course. We needed to look at all the other stalls too. So we bought some veg and checked out the other stalls, one of which did a fine line in executioner's axes with flimsy looking handles. (Single use?) Didn't see those on the American website! So we paid our money on the first stall and took the implement home, being careful to not let lovely neighbours see, in case we had a) got it wrong, or b) they wanted to help. Mr Eq needed to get used to this new thing in his own time.
So, after all that, this is the point of the story. Mr Eq is totally absorbed with his new hobby, chopping wood. He will disappear at any time and there will be the thud..thud of iron on wood. Any time he has been missing, however hot or inconvenient it might be, he will just be doing 'a couple more', just to make sure it is not all left 'till the last minute! One of our members will know that he has done a bit before, but this is different.
There are a lot worse things he could be doing with his time.
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That's lovely, you both seem to have settled down to the BG village life and that is good. As you know by now there are lots of things to get on and do and your days can be action packed. We are the same down here in VT, but the heat is slowing us down now, the middle of the day is just too hot to attempt anything apart from sitting under the fan in our kitchen! When you came over to our house Dave was really handy with the axe, so I wouldn't think he would have any problems, albeit you have 10 cubes and that is a lot of wood to handle.

Excellent job well done but maybe you should share it more as already said I know my neighbors really enjoy helping us with anything they can and I have to say we also return by helping them in any way we can.