Well as we all know it is at this time of year that most of the work gets done. What have you been doing and how have others reacted to your work.

In my tale all I did was buy 6 Cart loads of 'Tor' which has been spread far and wide. Tor is a mix of soil and Cows droppings sometimes horses droppings. The boss has said thats the last time you do that it stinks. :Angel1:All I said was lucky it was not in summer then it would have really smelt [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Any more tales of woe!!

You can’t beat that good old country small.

John

come on, be honest. who puts oil/fat down the kitchen sink, ok the greasy frying pan [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] we are all guilty of this act, my advice is dont do it. over 4 years i have done this and paid the price. the cesspit cannot handle it, the fat does solidify and blocks the cesspit and on rising seals the cesspit and waterproofs it so it does not work. i had to have the pit emptyied and send a man down the pit to remove solidified fat and clean the walls of the cesspit. yuk. you cannot begin to imagine just how much fat we put down the kitchen sink, i now have made a corner in the garden to put fat/oil in to prevent it entering the cesspit. dont do it, it is such a big messy job when it goes wrong. for the past 2 years no further problems. i would not have believed it, but i do now.

Glad you sorted that one out Star. The other thing to watch is the water from the pasta that also goes into a gel like substance and can block the sink - you have to run the cold water in the sink as you drain the pasta, his dilutes the stick gue.

starlite wrote:

come on, be honest. who puts oil/fat down the kitchen sink, ok the greasy frying pan [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] we are all guilty of this act, my advice is dont do it. over 4 years i have done this and paid the price. the cesspit cannot handle it, the fat does solidify and blocks the cesspit and on rising seals the cesspit and waterproofs it so it does not work. i had to have the pit emptyied and send a man down the pit to remove solidified fat and clean the walls of the cesspit. yuk. you cannot begin to imagine just how much fat we put down the kitchen sink, i now have made a corner in the garden to put fat/oil in to prevent it entering the cesspit. dont do it, it is such a big messy job when it goes wrong. for the past 2 years no further problems. i would not have believed it, but i do now.

Sounds awful starlite we have made a seperate soakaway for the kitchen sink and another for the washing machine. Nevertheless, as you say we don't put fat down the sink, unfortunately as you found out it is asking for trouble. We have also insulated the soil pipe to the cess pit and are crossing fingers that all will be well this Winter. This is our first Winter here and we are crossing everything in the hope that the work we carried out in the Summer was sufficient for the Bulgarian Winter climate.

In our case its more what my Hero does that counts. He is outside daily in all weathers. He always finds something to do. He is usually to be found in the wood shed stacking and sorting before wheelbarrowing the wood to the lean-to outside the house and bringing in basketfulls into the house as we begin to use more wood everyday. He has also finished making the path from our gate to the house more accessible for me now I'm getting a bit more doddery. He has lifted huge slabs of beautiful old stone from nearby derelict land and made a very attractive Bulgarian style path.

He has done extra insulating of our house, again Bulgarian style' by putting plastic sheeting over windows outside and in the roof in the event of a few drips. I refuse to re-roof our beautiful original tiles because there is absolutely no need. On our dog walking we observe the Bulgarian ways of dealing with these kind of problems which cost little money. Similarly they cope with leaky guttering and all sorts of problems that really don't require a major costly re-think. He has also used old traditional mats that came with the house to make draught excluders up the stairway. When I returned from my UK break it all looked so pretty that it didn't seem as utilitarian as it really is.

My Hero built an old shed for our hens, who are still laying eggs for us, out of all the old bits and pieces left by our builders years ago and which were stored in the barn. This is quite adequate for our few hens and this too, has had plastic over any cracks and he has 'built' a very simple lean-to/windbreak for them now their hideaways in the bushes has disappeared.

Similarly, he has wind-proofed the dogs kennel and used an old woven carpet as a doorway draught excluder. The dog originally pulled this down not understanding its purpose but she's got the hang of it now and enters and exits as the weather allows. She knows this is her home as we have ours.

Today he disappeared off up the village with his wheelbarrow and returned with sackfuls of winter feed for our chickens. This was donated from one of my Hero's old friends at a much cheaper price than the bags from the shop. We seem to be part of the local co-operative now.

There are so many little jobs that he is doing now winter is approaching and which will do its best to break us, so I can be all cosy and toasty using my creativity cooking his meals but spending more time writing on this forum and not forgetting that he has also rotovated the tor into the garden and planted some winter lettuce donated by our neighbour.