Episode 35

Building a Stage

I was asked to help build something that will upgrade the villages culture life. Of course I accepted!!!There is music festival which has a seven year tradition. The festival promotes youth and ecology and is aptly named "Reggeneracija" (Mix between Regge and Regeneration and Generation). We were lacking a stage and managed to get financing to get the building materials for a STAGE!! Yeah people, we are building a concert stage!!I hope that more people around the world will come to our festival. Cause there will be good music, good people and good energy!! And most of all you will prove that the nature is still our home!!!




















And the garden, thanks to the beautiful spring weather in November, got some newcomers. Parsley and Radishes for the second time.




We had more guests, more people who wanted to feel the life of city cowboy. Very nice and pleasant couple Vladana and Milos with a boy named Vanja. Leo was so happy to have a friend who is of his age. We had a beautiful walk in the now autumn dressed forest by the channel. The nature never stops being amazing!!!














From this episode there will be a what you missed section:

Here is one recap of the beautiful cultural event held in the village every October in thanks to God, for preventing destruction of the village in the second world war.
The event is called "Zavitni dan" and is celebrated in the church with a mass and with traditional dresses and dances.
Here is something special for Juliette.

Episode 34

Digging the Third Channel



Well, as you might have already found out, Monostor is surrounded by water and forests. Two of those waters are man made. Those are Great Channel built between 1793 and 1802 later named Franz Jozef Channel and Danube-Tisa-Danube built in 1960's through the old flow of Danube. And these days your truly City Cowboy found some sunny days to build another channel.
To cut the very long story shorter,the rain water was flowing to one corner and from there under the house. To solve that problem I had to dig a a channel under the fireplace and lead the water through the pipes to the garden.
Sounds easy, well I thought so, but I didn't plan at that time that after breaking the concrete and digging for some time I've hit something hard. Cleaning the dirt I've noticed that it is not just a single brick but it was a 50cm thick wall made of brick wall. I called my neighbor to ask him how to mix concrete (cause as a city cowboy I never did that of course), and he was amazed that there is such a thick brick wall under ground. He said that bricks were always expensive and that no one in his right mind wouldn't build anything that thick if it wasn't very important. Still we couldn't find out what was that.








Second day I got some help from the youngest member of the family. Digging a hole under the other pillar was a bit more difficult cause i had to get the decline right.
after putting all the pipes underground and testing the whole system. I left the concrete for the third day.













Well everybody told me that mixing concrete without the mixer is very hard. Well I got to work. I put the amount of all of the ingredients as i was told, and started mixing with the shovel. I found out that it was not much more tiring that mixing the pizza dough. So to all the people who want to become cooks first try mixing concrete :)

And the last day was pure and simple mental work. Shoveling sand and earth back in the dich and cleaning up the yard. And of course giving the finishing touch to the concrete and fixing some holes in the old concrete slabs.

Well that was the short story about the digging, pipe-laying and pouring concrete which i did for the first time every in my life.



As there was some time left I've sown some parsley and radishes.





As from today I'm gonna update the situation in my garden, so you can watch you favorite vegetables grow. It is all presented on the board for one of the best games ever: Agricola. That game is one of my greatest inspiration and i hope that the author won't mind me using the artwork for my presentation. You can see the little symbol of what is happening to the certain plant currently.After all this is Agricola Live!! So come and visit us and taste the organic veggies from our garden!!

At the end I mad a little treat for us. A pate with some interesting spices!!!














Oh yes and cheese will be ready soon, but that will be in some other episode....

Episode 33

Another perfect day





Today day as any other a lot of work as usual.
Finally the septic tank is finished, sun is up and after the rainy jinxed week one nice day came.
First of all I went with my bike and my son to buy some things in the village while the weather is nice.
The sun is up and we were riding along and Leo sang a song in his baby tongue.
I saw a neighbor who said he's gonna take a trailer a take the walnut leaves to the woods so I hurried up to gather them and get them ready for their journey.



I decided to use this nice weather and the excess of earth to fix some holes in the ground in which water was gathering.









But shoveling earth for 3 hours proved to be too much for a City Cowboy. Finally my hands are starting to look like a real cowboys hands and my beer belly is almost gone. Actually cause of two reasons, no company and no money for drinking beer. Actually the real reason is I have no time, after the whole day of activities.



I've noticed small plum trees. Well I need one tree in my yard so I took it and transplanted it in the yard. Hope in a couple of years we'll have plum sweets and brandy of our own.

News Reel

Well there are two more things I want you all to know.

First I want to thank all people who voted for the name of my shovel.
Her name is now officially Radovanka. She is well and works every day in the garden and on building a new septic tank. Often builders use it and say that it is a good shovel. As I heard one Bosnian chef say : "You know, we Bosnian enjoy to watching while other people work". Well currently I feel sometimes that way. :)

Second: People, friends, Romans, be so kind and leave your comments after reading.Just a few words so that we know you've been here. If you have a bit more time write how you feel, or some advice like Dalibor. It means so much to us to read how people feel about our blog. At least click on the short comments below the blog (you can get all the options by right-clicking on it, and selecting "This frame>" and "Show only this frame").
Thank you very much for reading the Diary and supporting us in our efforts! It means so muchto us, especially now under this steel late autumn sky.

Episode 32

What you've missed?

Well going back a few days our bad luck streak continued, one of my teeth broke. For it to be a real Mr. Jinx it broke Saturday evening, and for you who do not know we have a dentist who is only in the village on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So I took a few sips of Walnut Brandy (iodine+ alcohol+anesthetic+courage) dipped my fingers in it and got the tooth shards out. But the rest of the day I was out of action.

Home Made Pasta

So! Today I missed my appointment at the dentist today, and I decided to do something creative. It's been a long time sice I ate "Flekice s Kupusom". That is an old dish prefered by poor, since you need just some flower an egg or two and cabbage. It is simple pasta with cabbage and black pepper. Simple yet so tasty. As my Lidija says: "Sweet Simplicity".
That dish I learned from my grandma, who was an orphan and lived with her grandparents as a serving girl. She was a maestro in the kitchen!!Especially with pasta and cakes. Today working the pasta reminded me of my childhood and grandma. I remembered a lot of things from when I was just a little boy helping her in the kitchen. And now almost a quarter of a century later my son and I are doing the same. She would be so proud to see that I remember all of that after all of these years. Actually at one moment tears came to my eyes.

Yeah and another thing Leo started eating plastic frogs. Well it seems that he's gonna be a chef like his father if not even better!!!



If you want to taste "Flekice s Kupusom" or some other traditional dish or maybe Plastic Forgs :) come and visit us!!! Just write to citycboy@gmail.com

episode 31

In the previous episodes

Our guests from Poland went away and so did the good weather. Winter and late autumn took over. One of the brave people from Belgrade still came here. Djordje and we had a good time though. Catching the last rays of sun and feeling the bite of winter he felt how it is to be a city cowboy.
And so the next guest came. His name was Jinx!!

Shit happenes

Well for a long time we had no guests. Not even sun. and then the guest came. Jinx was his name.
First Cowgirl's hard disk and the whole computer failed and then a few days after my computer failed with all of our data on it.
And then the big one came! Our septic tank caved in. Actually first we thought it is just full but when we ordered the guy to clean it up, he just came and said there is nothing he can do and that we need a new one.

Then I tried for three days to get in touch with the guy who builds septic tanks. And finally managed to get in touch. Finally my neighbor Steva met him in the woods and told him that we need his services. And the builder came (actually he looks like Sean Connery's double and does a diametrically opposite job) and saw the situation. He said that it is a though ground to work on and that he'll need to dig to the depth of 3,4 meters to get to the sand that is required for the proper drainage.

And so they started working and I bought working material. It cost a pretty penny having our current budget in mind.

And so the Jinx continued to visit us still. Rain and snow was falling every second day. When the end was in sight well guess who came... Yeah our good friend Jinx we were missing a couple of bricks to finish so I had to take bricks out of the old septic tank(that is the closest you can literally get to being in shit up to your neck). And finally the new tank was functional at last.
Hey, we need a lid on the hole but yes you guessed it rain is falling so the concrete can't set so we are on hold till the rain stops.





If anybody in the city (honorable exception to the sewage workers) complains about the working conditions again I'll just call him for a few days on building septic tanks here with us here. Will go back with a smile on his face....

But still all in a days work of Nedjo, Atila and yours truly and stinky City Cboy!!

News Reel

Manure happens

Well first of all I have to apologize to my faithful readers for not writing for so long, but there are two reasons.

1. So many things happened here more bad than good. But when at night I come to the computer I'm too tired to exist.
2. A catastrophe happened: my hard disc died with all the photos and all the data on it just when i started to backup it.

So there will be a hole between the episodes unfortunately :(
But I'll try to write more often , promise .