January

Hello again! January was short and uneventful really. We got back in the evening of the 5th and our lovely house sitters picked us up from Chirpan and fed us a lovely dinner. They left early the next morning (which we felt a little guilty about as it was Belarusian Christmas Eve!) and we settled back in to being home.

Reunited

Happy doggy

We felt a little bit disorientated as we had expected snow, or at least a forecast of snow, but there was none to be seen. We had mentally prepared for a hunkering down and relaxing winter month and we were being robbed of it! But still, after two months of working our butts off, we thought we'd chill out for a bit anyway. And it was a bit cold for working in the garden (excuses.)

We went for walks instead

Looking back over the photos I'm wondering what we did spend our time doing! One of the days we went, with S & G, to Stara Zagora to begin the process of renewing our residency cards. S & G were on their second trip (the entire event takes a total of three separate trips over a month) which was great as they could show us exactly what to do. We even filled out the forms ourselves - how far we've come in three years. :-) Oh also, whilst in the 'residency card office' (not the official name) we met a nice man who introduced himself as he follows my blog! He is moving to a nearby village so I wanted to say hello here and remind him to send me a message so we can meet for a beer - you know who you are if you're reading!! Whilst in the city we took the opportunity to do a bit of Lidl shopping too (exciting stuff.)

With our van not in perfect working order we are a bit reluctant to drive it further than Chirpan. We needed to re-visit the 'residency card office' a few days after a first visit, so we drove to Chirpan and hopped on a mini-bus to the city. Luckily the office is right in the center of town so it was an easy journey. We walked in, signed a piece of paper and were told to come back next month. We still haven't worked out why they can't do this on the first visit, but there you go. After our five minute errand we had a couple of hours to kill before the return bus! We browsed a few charity shops and got some brunch.

Horsies in our field

It's snowing!

Only a very light sprinkle

As you can see we got a spattering of snow at some point in January and were feeling quite smug that it would be our lot for the year. No snow also meant that we could still visit the market every week and our well stocked freezer/larder has stayed well stocked. At this time of year there a few stalls selling various sized intestines and stomachs for homemade salamis and haggis (well, the Bulgarian version.) Pete has been wanting to make sausages for ages and with our new larder and not much to do now seemed the perfect time to start!

We bought a sausage stuffer - nothing fancy, just a manual one - and started off with a few pork and leeks and a few spicy ones. The intestines were quite gross to work with but also quite hilarious. We perfected the art of stuffing and the next week we advanced to salamis and made several 'chorizo'. They are still hanging in the larder now, 5 weeks today in fact. One more week to wait before we try one. There is a man in Chirpan market who we buy homemade salami from every week and we asked him if he adds any preservatives, like sodium nitrate, but he said no - his salami is 'clean'. We also asked around in town for sodium nitrate and nowhere sells it. So we went 'clean' too, hopefully we won't get botulism - we didn't get it from our mouldy sauerkraut (yet!)

Cleaning the intestines. I must say - they STANK

Stuffing

Dried over night - looking good
(We got the tying technique from YouTube!)

Nothing like a sausage sandwich for lunch!

Chorizo

Hanging over night - they have since moved to the larder and turned a lovely dark red.
You'll have to wait until next time for more photos ... cliffhanger!

And that's all for today. Thanks again for reading! I'll leave you with a photo of Pete collecting horse poo to add to our compost pile. We don't have a horse.