Preparing for a -20° Winter - Life in a Rural Bulgarian Village 

Oh thank you so much! Bless you - do you live over here also?

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime Light Be on You! The SunRises in Bulgaria, the SunSets in America. Thank you! 🌈❤️🌻

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Yes - it’s been five years since we experienced it quite so cold 💜

Oh thank you so much! Are you Bulgarian?

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime No, I am Maltese will be traveling to Bulgaria to complete a purchase of a house far away from civilization.

Wow! That sounds amazing! We two considered this - but decided on the village in the end for various reasons. Whereabouts are you planning to go - south, North, Central? There are some beautiful homes here at amazing prices! 😃

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime Our agent found a great property in Vratsa, We will try to be self sufficient as possible that's one of our main goal. The Gods will always provide.

That sounds amazing! We too try to be a self-sufficient as possible. It is hard work! We have had rabbits and chickens - but that didn’t work out with the dogs! But we grow a lot of our own vegetables, fruit, and we also grow and preserve our own tea . We make her own wine and other alcoholic beverages 🍷 we find out there is a lot of local wisdom on offer regarding how they have done things here traditionally for many years. You are Close to Romania - that’s a great place to visit also💜

Hi there! Thank you for your kind comments. Our home did freeze the first year we moved here! We couldn’t use the water for about three weeks! We had to move into a hotel 🤣 We know insulate the outdoor water supply, the indoor pipes, and we even get up in the night time sometimes to run the water if it’s really cold. We also try and keep the house as warm as possible. 😃💜

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime why not using electrical heated lint and creating that around the critical plumbing ? So when the temp exceeds a certain treshhold then the heat kicks in automatically. It will freese never again. If you sleep through it then you are to late. Water is stable by 4 degrees Celsius. Above and beyond that it increase in volume. And burst plumbing maybe. Those lints are very cheap. And can give a welcome peace of mind. I used them and they work great.

Wow! We’ve never heard of this - I wonder if we can buy it over here?

Oh that’s lovely! My five dogs are all Street dogs we have rescued - are your street dogs?

Loewie (Parson Jack R) tool 14 years ago, since he is in Bulgaria he think he is 2 years old again 😜 Major Tom is a stray from 5 y. from Romania, and another is still in Belgium also a stray from Romania, Lisa. If I ever get outside the city, will take some strays from here.

@@tynjobs3761 wonderful! There are so many here - hence we have ended up with 5 dogs and 4 cats 😊

Waw you are very knowledgeable! We do have a coal stove in one of our rooms that sounds more like it. You fill one bucket with the coal on the top and it will burn all night - I’ve not seen anything like it in England. And yes, you are quite right the wood stove does burn a lot of wood!😊

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime yeah, i know the design. That is a wood eater. A very low rendament. Look at stoves that have a Woodbox function. It has a stainless steel double layered wall against thd inner outside of the wood / cole stove. The air needed for burning passes first through that double layered wall. Heating the air up around 450 degrees Celsius. Nestor , Efel uses that principe. When filled properly it can burn for two days without refilling. I managed to do three days. I did put wood in it again and it burned away again. But you can not cook on such stoves. For cooking i also would use another old brand of stove. Not the cheap Romenian design. In England they made the perfect cooking woodstoves. And durable. But Esse is also quite good. Those Romanian Magnum stoves are bad. The burner needs replacing after a few years. Because it will break and bend. The topplate has no dillitation points. If you want to use a lot of energy then you need such a stove. Such a Nestor or Efel stove can also burn beautifully on coles. For two days when filled correctly. And man. They become hot. The heat radiates through the glas for several meters. I would rather use the energy that i would save for growing my own food in summer. With a proper decent cv woodstove you could also bring heat to a glas house for growing food earlier and later on in the year. And so shorten the time of winter by two months. At the countryside in the Netherlands build my own home. A large farm house. Almost totally off the grid. That would be even more duable in Bulgary. Due to the resources still there. Build four woodstoves myself. Nothing out there was good enough. Next year i am starting with a woodstove that will generate electricity. Like a steamengine. Actually a steamturbine. That will be my third build. With a condensor for liquifying the pressurerised steam again. It is illegal because it is against the law. Theoretically it could explode. The condensor also becomes the heatexhanger for bringing hot water to the 5000 liter boiler and radiators. Also to the floor heating. In summer i use the floor heating to cool my home. Water from 18 meter below is 6 degrees Celsius. Bringing that up. Pumping that through a large heatexchanger. That will bring the temp of the floor down. But you have to keeo Delta T is low as possible. Otherwise you will get condensation on the floor. The floor will get wet. Very wet. Have you ever looked at Central Boiler ? You can place it outside. Building up a good cole-bed. With a few big logs on top of that. It slowly burn for a week. Some models have enough juice to heat several homes at once. If your neighbour is not futher away then 150 meter you can use one together. Also work together for the wood. I must admit that having 6 stoves in my home is a bit overkill and absurd. But i love fire. 😇

@@keesverhagen9227 well, this is all fascinating! I didn’t know any of this! But as you say, it’s difficult to get good products, although things are improving. When we first came here, we couldn’t even find tools that didn’t bend when we used them! Things I’ve got a lot better. Thank you so much for telling me all this.