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Alright! Today the Global Homestead Collective proudly presents a special post all about...

@bobydimitrov and @bghandmade!

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🎈🎉🎈🎉🎈🎉🎈🎉🎈🎉🎈🎉🎈🎉🎈

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A Bit of Backstory

We'd like to share with the readers that we currently live in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. In a nearby village we acquired a plot a few years back and started creating our new garden and orchard. Before that, we gardened in the gardens of relatives, usually on a season by season basis, so nothing permanent could be planned and executed. In our new garden we're aiming for a much more permanent design, relying on permaculture principles.
In the meantime we had a house built on our village plot and that's to be our future (and only) home, when it's finished.
~Bobby and Gery

Thanks guys! Now on to the interview...you won't be disappointed!

1.) Would you consider yourself more of a hunter or a gatherer?

B: I have never hunted, so definitely a gatherer.
G: What about fishing? Is that hunting? We have fished a lot, but gathered a lot more. So maybe we're both?
B: Right, more like horticultural gatherers with the occasion fish thrown in!

2.) What song best describes your work ethic?

B: Well I certainly would like to think all the songs of Formidable Vegetable Sound System have inspired us and made us more conscious in all of our daily life and ethics, not just the work part.
G: You're thinking too complicated. With two ex toddlers around, my work song is Old McDonald had a farm. And now I want a cow!

3.) What has inspired you the most to live a self-reliant life?

B: We're not still sell reliant and I'm not sure we will ever be. But our main motivation were the kids, absolutely. Losing connect with nature and the way food grows is not an option for us!
G: I don't want to be self reliant! What about the next door lady giving us goose eggs in exchange of a bucket of slugs? What about the old timer down the road that let us use his leftover wooden materials for a jar of our honey? It's good to be able to rely on someone, this human connection is so much missing in a "modern" society!

4.) You've been given an elephant. You can't give it away or sell it. What would you do with the elephant?

B: Whoa, an elephant. First of all I'd be very very worried. An elephant would have a massive problem in our -20C winters. Next, I'd be needing that cash from question 5, so I can move the elephant to the southern Greece or somewhere warmer. Now, if it was a special kind of cold hardy elephant...
G: Can we train it to pick the fruit of the taller trees or shake the walnut trees? That would be great!

5.) If you were to walk outside right now and find 1 million dollars what would you do with it?

B: Provided I don't get the elephant from the previous question, that would leave enough to finish our house quicker. After that we can quit work and devote our full time to developing the communal plot we're trying to turn into a food forest with a few families. Around here life is cheap and this much cash can last you a lifetime. But I suspect we'll be profitable in a few years from our mixed gardens and grazing animals...
G: OK please stop daydreaming, you will not find a million dollars and if you did their owner would come looking for them. With guns!

6.) What's your ideal climate and terrain?

B: That's a hard one. Subtropical and tropical systems are super productive and living in such environment saves on tons of expenses and energy. But the insects and disease pressure is great, compared to our cold continental climate. As for terrain, if given a choice I'd get a low to medium steep hill in the lowlands.
G: There's no ideal climate. People thrive in all climates and terrains. I really like to just make do. And we have been blessed with a very nice location for our garden and house!

7.) What was the last gift you gave someone?

B: We're not very big on gifts in our social circle and not counting the kids I haven't been buying many gifts in the last few years. A few exceptions are an Austrian scythe, a Brazilian machete and a French folding knife. All gifted to Gery on various occasions.
G: Well we don't buy much stuff for giving, but I feel it's better to give something you've made yourself. We regularly gift plants in pots, seeds, jars of canned produce from our garden.

8.) If you were able to pick one member of the GHSC to work on a project, who would it be?

B: I'd probably pick you guys! Stacie D and the Yeti! You have so much experience and amazing character and determination. Also we work great with other couples and what's more we'll be getting two for one!

9.) How long have you been on Steemit?

B: I joined in late 2017 and Gery in January 2018, mainly because I pestered her for 3 months.
G: grumbling

10.) How did you hear about Steemit?

B: I can't remember how and where exactly I found out about Steemit... But one of things that attracted me was this: I was doing some permaculture related searches one week and repeatedly stumbled across articles on Steemit, posted by different people. So I looked into it. Then came the Homestead rescue episode featuring Wren and Ini from @mountainjewel. I thought - wow budding tv star homesteaders are using this platform to great effect! And that was that.

11.) With price of Steem being so low, what keeps you coming back?

B: As you know, my Steem presence has been on a hold for quite some time now. And it's not about the price so much. These days I keep coming back mainly to follow some of the people that inspire me and share interesting stuff. Steemit has a long way to go yet before it decides what's going to be and settled on a format. Would it be a personal blog platform ala WordPress but with "paid likes", would it be an Instagram, would it be Wikipedia type service, etc. I'm patiently waiting for the outcome. In the meantime Gery is trying to post regularly via Partico, as it has a simple, usable interface and it successfully conjures the Instagram spirit that she seems to enjoy more than the longer form I prefer.

12.) Who has been the most inspirational for you on this platform?

B: That's a tough one! In the early days, definitely @mountainjewel, @theferalone, @soulturtle, @my-permaculture and others from the original HSO crowd I'm sure I'm missing right now. Also my Steemit mentor, @pennsif - he helped me with advice and direction many times and has always been available to bounce ideas around or to simply chat. In recent times, you guys as creators of GHSC as well as @sagescrub for creating the co-op.

13.) Can we find your work on any other platforms?

We have a small site about our handmade paper. It's in Bulgarian language, but at least the photos are universal :) The address is bghandmade.com and we also have now a co-op shop (insert link here).

We also had a big handmade paper Flickr gallery but the recent changes in their rules forced us to remove it and post a selection of the photos on our site. Some of those I'm sure Gery will post in Steemit as well as we're proud of our past projects.

14.) Have you had to make any sacrifices to get where you are today?

B: I'd rather say "yes" as a knee-jerk reaction but if I have to stop down and think... I'll probably come to the conclusion we haven't really sacrificed that much. Not going to the mall, not having a TV, not buying a new car, going camping instead of to a luxury hotel, not going to a fancy restaurant and instead having guests for a home cooked meal - those "sacrifices" we make daily. As we result we had to sacrifice some of our social connections and move to a new social circle, but I feel it's for the best.
G: Hmm, time is the biggest sacrifice we both make. Rarely leaving a "vacant" minute a day, doing our best to progress bit by bit along that path we've set our feet on.

15.) If the GHSC were a physical location, full everything homestead and self-reliant, where would you find yourself the most?

That's a nice question! I think I'll be spending most of my time in the greenhouse, propagating plants, starting seeds, shuffling seedlings around. In the winter, probably the wood shop - it's a long time dream of mine to be able to work with wood.
G: Most certainly I'll be in the kitchen, cooking up something extra for our always hungry kids and teaching them food preparation along the way. On the rare occasion they're sleeping and I'm not, you'll find me with my hands brown-green from working the tomato plants in the garden!

16.) If you could interview anyone within the self-reliant community, on Steemit or otherwise, who would it be?

B and G: Two accounts we really admire and follow with great interest are @walkerland and @hopfarmnc!

17.) If you were in charge of the GHSC mess hall for a day, what would you feed us all?

B: Hmm, let me think there for a minute...
G: Move aside please! So we'll start with French crepes with farm butter and our grated quince jam for breakfast, along with some elderberry flower and dry mint and lemon rind cordial. A light lunch of colorful vegetable salad mixed with homemade pasta and some garlic, mustard, honey and olive oil dressing. Dinner would be oven roasted vegetables with thyme and rosemary with some sourdough buns and for the omnivore crowd - a whole slow cooked pock knuckle in bacon and molasses dressing.... disappears into the distance, muttering shopping lists and recipes

18.) Are there any skills you are currently trying to hone?

Yes! I'm working on this bamboo lashing stuff so I can build things out of local sustainably sourced wild materials. Part of my foray into Wildcrafting. And tree guilds.

19.) Has there been one thing in particular you've learned about yourself this past year?

B: That I have a much lower tolerance for sharp pain and unbelievably high tolerance for blunt pain :smile: Woodworking is to blame, I'll say no more!
G: I learned that sleep is the most important thing for me, even more important than food and water. It's impossible for me to do anything in a sleep deprived situation.

20.) If you could meet any one person in the GHSC community who would it be?

B: Well I gotta say, that would be @sagescrub and if possible his partner @idyllwild! They've been an inspiration in all they do and I have a feeling we all will have plenty of stuff to learn from each other

Some of these answers were just the best! Gerry's answer to the Mess Hall question had my mouth watering. I would dare say though that number 8 was my favorite! We would love to work with you guys as well!

I hope you all enjoyed these questions! If you have any favorites that you would love to see pop up again or any you would love to see, please let me know in the comments!

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Like always, the Global Homestead Collective is here to Unite, Educate and Encourage! Please join us on discord, and be apart of this amazing community! We couldn't do it any of this without you!

Much love,

Stacie D
@freedomtowrite

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