Off Grid With The Udens

Off Grid With The Udens 📺 28k+ on YouTube! Watch us build an off-grid strawbale tiny home in Bulgaria. 🇧🇬
We're the Udens. Follow our journey here 👇

There’s something really lovely about watching a dad and his boy spend time together. 🤍Alex is nine now, and it makes me...
11/09/2026

There’s something really lovely about watching a dad and his boy spend time together. 🤍

Alex is nine now, and it makes me realise just how quickly these years disappear.

Today he’s in the workshop with Phil, learning, asking questions, having a go and getting involved in whatever they’re building. To him, it’s just another afternoon with Dad.

But I think it’s so much more than that.

I think boys need their dads. Not just for the big moments, but for the ordinary ones too. The afternoons in the workshop. Being shown how to use something. Being trusted to have a go. Listening to Dad talk about what he’s doing. Making mistakes and trying again.

They might not remember every thing you taught them, but they’ll remember that you were there.

I know life gets busy. Work, bills, jobs around the house, everything that needs doing. There will always be something else that could be done.

But your little boy is only going to be little for such a short amount of time.

Alex won't be nine forever.

So dads, make the time. Get in the workshop. Build some Lego. Take them with you when you're fixing something. Let them help, even when it takes twice as long. 😂

Because one day they'll be grown men, and these ordinary afternoons will be the childhood they remember.

And honestly, I think that’s worth far more than getting the job done a little quicker. 🤍

This time last year, Alex was getting ready to start Grade 2. Now somehow we're getting ready for Grade 3. ❤️He actually...
09/09/2026

This time last year, Alex was getting ready to start Grade 2. Now somehow we're getting ready for Grade 3. ❤️

He actually did a few months in a prep class before joining Grade 1, so his school journey here has moved pretty quickly.

I was a primary school teacher in the UK, and Alex was home educated from a young age until we made our permanent move to Bulgaria three years ago. So while Alex wouldn't know the difference between going to school in the UK and going to school here because he never did the former, for me the difference has been huge.

I went from knowing the UK education system inside out to knowing absolutely nothing about the one here. 😂 I've had to learn as we've gone, and one thing we've definitely learnt is that every school is different. Our experience is our experience, and we could never speak for every child or every school in Bulgaria, particularly when comparing a large city school with a smaller rural one.

We're often asked what we think of schooling here, but really all we can talk about is what we've experienced with Alex.

His journey hasn't always been easy, particularly socially, but I don't think any child's school years are completely straightforward. There are challenges, friendships, confidence, learning to find your place and a whole lot of growing up along the way.

One thing we have been incredibly lucky with is Alex's teacher. She is kind, caring, understanding and genuinely knows him, and she will continue with the children from Grade 1 through to Grade 4. That continuity means a lot to us.

This weekend Alex chose all his new stationery with his grandparents, which has somehow made Grade 3 feel very real. 😂

So here we go again.

New year, new stationery, another year of learning and hopefully lots of good things ahead for him. ❤️

This photo was taken a year ago.Just me and Phil, standing on the foundations of the home we were about to build ourselv...
07/09/2026

This photo was taken a year ago.

Just me and Phil, standing on the foundations of the home we were about to build ourselves.

At this point, it was still very hard to imagine what it would eventually become.

Since then we've laid the straw bales, built the walls, worked through setback after setback, learnt an enormous amount and somehow turned those foundations into something that actually looks like a home.

I genuinely cannot begin to tell you how incredible the build looks right now.

I'd love to show you, but Phil has made me promise I won't share it until we've got the videos out. 😂

So for now, here's where we were a year ago.

Two people, a piece of land, a crazy idea and absolutely no idea quite how much work was ahead of us.

We're still building it ourselves.

And we're still here. 🤍🌾

To those who moved away from the people they love. 🤍We moved to Bulgaria because we wanted a different way of life for o...
06/09/2026

To those who moved away from the people they love. 🤍

We moved to Bulgaria because we wanted a different way of life for our family. More space, more freedom, more time together and the chance to build something of our own.

But nobody really prepares you for the other side of it.

You miss birthdays. You miss Sunday dinners. You miss the little everyday moments that you never thought twice about before.

And your children grow up with their grandparents and the rest of their family much further away.

We've never regretted moving here, but that doesn't mean we don't miss people terribly.

So when my parents come to visit and I see Alex and Ember laughing with them in the pool, I find myself trying to take it all in. These visits mean so much to us.

Moving abroad has given our family so much, but it has also taught us that building a new life doesn't mean you stop missing the old one.

To anyone else who made the leap with their children and left loved ones behind - I see you. ❤️

How is it 1st September already? 🥹This summer has absolutely flown by. I swear I blinked and Alex and Ember have grown a...
01/09/2026

How is it 1st September already? 🥹

This summer has absolutely flown by. I swear I blinked and Alex and Ember have grown another few inches.

My parents are here visiting at the moment and there's something so lovely about hearing their laughter and giggles coming from the pool. The kids have spent so much of this summer in the water, and watching them have so much fun together has been pretty special.

We're going to make the most of every minute of these last few days before Alex heads back to school.

It's been a summer of building, swimming, late nights, early mornings, family, a few unexpected disasters 😂 and so many little moments that I know we'll look back on and miss.

What an incredible summer it's been. 🤍

#българскосело

Just spotted this gorgeous little green lizard under the barn. 🦎We've got swallows swooping in and out around the deckin...
31/08/2026

Just spotted this gorgeous little green lizard under the barn. 🦎

We've got swallows swooping in and out around the decking, eagles soaring over the land and tortoises casually wandering around like they own the place. 😂

Sometimes I genuinely feel like we live in a Disney movie.

Except there's usually a power tool going somewhere in the background. 😂🤍

Our first apple. 🍎🌳At the end of this year we'll have owned our little bit of Bulgaria for five years, and one of the ve...
30/08/2026

Our first apple. 🍎🌳

At the end of this year we'll have owned our little bit of Bulgaria for five years, and one of the very first things we did was plant an orchard. At the time they were basically little fruit tree sticks we'd picked up from the local market, but we knew if we wanted fruit trees here we'd have to start from the very beginning.

Apart from a couple of plum trees, there wasn't really any fruit growing on our land, so we planted knowing it would be a long wait before we'd see much in return. There was something quite lovely about that though, knowing we were putting things into the ground that would take years to give anything back, and slowly bringing life back to the land.

Yesterday we picked our very first apple. 😂🍎

It's only one apple, but we were ridiculously excited about it. There's something very satisfying about eating something that you've watched grow from a tiny tree you planted years ago.

Of course, it doesn't always work out that way. The summers down here in the south are intense and every year we're learning what will and won't cope. We planted an avenue of almond tree saplings this year and lost every single one, while our olive trees have been one of our greatest successes.

I suppose that's part of growing things here. You plant them, you look after them, you learn as you go and you see what happens.

Five years ago we were starting with a piece of land that needed bringing back to life. Now we're (slowly) growing our own food, building our home and yesterday we stood in the garden eating our first apple from a tree we'd planted ourselves.

It made us very happy. And honestly, that's enough. 🤍

#България

Building a house with your husband is one thing..Building it with your best friend is something else. 🤍We've been throug...
28/08/2026

Building a house with your husband is one thing..
Building it with your best friend is something else. 🤍

We've been through a lot together over the years. Some amazing times, some really difficult ones, and a whole lot in between.

Somewhere along the way, all of that has made us pretty tight.

We know each other. We communicate. We know when the other needs a bit of support and when they just need to get on with it.

And after all these years, I'm still completely crazy about him.

Now we're building a home together, raising our kids, working, learning as we go and trying to make this mad little life work.

There are days when we're exhausted and days when we have absolutely no idea what we're doing. 😂
.But there's nobody I'd rather be doing it all with.
We've been through too much together to scare easily now.

I'd choose him all over again. ❤️

Can you help us out? 🧐 We’d love to connect with other families around the world who are living off grid and building th...
26/08/2026

Can you help us out? 🧐 We’d love to connect with other families around the world who are living off grid and building their own homes! 🏡🌿

If you know of any, please tag them below 👇 We’d love to find some like-minded families, swap stories, share the ups and downs and have a good old chat! 👋😊

It's been a while since we sat down and shared a proper update with you..Over a month, in fact.And there's a very good r...
26/08/2026

It's been a while since we sat down and shared a proper update with you..

Over a month, in fact.

And there's a very good reason for it.

When the storm hit, everything changed. Our time and energy went into the straw bale build, trying to save what we could and getting ourselves back on track.

Then, whenever we weren't building, we've been making the most of the summer with Alex and Ember. Alex is still off school, and these are days we're not going to get back.

The heat has also meant we've been making the most of the very early mornings and late evenings. Sometimes that's just what you've got to do to get things done here.

And because this is a completely DIY build, it's just us. We're not professionals, we don't have a team of workers and there isn't someone else coming along to finish the jobs for us. We're learning as we go and fitting the building around family life.

So yes... we're very behind. 😂

But here's the funny bit.

We're not behind on the build.

We've actually made a huge amount of progress.

We've filmed it all too.

Every job, every step, all the little bits in between.

We've just got a rather ridiculous amount of footage sitting there waiting for us to turn it into something you can actually watch. 😂

So over the next few weeks we're going to start working our way through it all and finally show you what's been happening here.

There's a lot to catch up on.

And honestly, we can't wait to show you. 🤍

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