Christmas Trees

Just behind the house the Bavarian State Forest Dept. was collecting trees for the Ottobeuren Basilica Christmas decoration. Spoke briefly to the head forester who also has the hunting rights around our house. Important to keep "in" with him but he is anyway a very pleasant person.
The Bavarian State Forest has been turned in to a profit orientated business and has a forest area about the size of North Yorkshire (8000 sq.km). The forester said they would shortly be felling near the house and I could have the "waste" but nowadays there is an official price list for this waste and one is required to show a chainsaw competence certificate.
For those with sharp eyes, the registration number of the car is " R-SF 810". Although the State Forest have an office in Ottobeuren, all company cars are registered in Regensburg, the seat of the H.Q., hence "R". The "SF" is not official but a nice touch and stands for "Staats Forsten" ie State Forest. Personalised number plates are very common and cost 13 Euros extra. There is little possibility to sell number plates as in the UK as the numbers are not tied to a particular car for life. We have 5 numbers (cars, trailers, tractor) with sequential numbers (10-11-12-13-14). If we move to another county, we would have to exchange the plates. Hence one can tell in which county the owner lives but of course in the case of company or rented cars this is not possible.