Bio Fuel E10

The German Government forced the introduction of a new Bio petrol for cars, so-called E10 which contains 10% Ethanol from plants. Up to now, it's been 5% which caused no problems but at 10% the ethanol becomes aggressive to parts of the motor & can cause complete motor failure. 90% of cars in Germany can use E10 without any problems and for the remaining 10%, E5 has to also be sold for some years. However, a few negative press reports and a lousy PR exercise by the Government, car manufacturers and oil companies resulted in a widescale refusal by motorists to use E10.

Apart from lawnmowers, snow blowers, chainsaws etc., we run diesel vehicles so it doesn't directly affect us but I am not convinced of its environmental benefits but naturally 100% behind finding alternatives to fossil fuel. This isn't the place to discuss this issue but I have to say one of our horses, the 25-year-old Arab "Asyr", has been fed 100% bio/organic food for the last 10 years - no pressed pellets supposedly filled with all the right vitamins & minerals, smelling like a dream 3 course gourmet dinner & costing as much, has landed in his stomach in this time. We were probably "taken in" by the rumours that the pellets were made from garbage such as the seeds & stalks from grapes mixed with used potato chip oil & mixed with industrially produced supplements. Attached is a photo of Asyr being tanked up today - in the light of the E10 discussion I am however now wondering if it is normal that for the last 10 years his droppings are like that in the photo? ;-)

Most of the pile on the left is from our other horse, the black "Rosie", the right pile is Asyr's. The hose is attached to a vacuum cleaner & Asyr was enjoying getting rid of his winter coat so much that he forgot to be true to character & get over-worked up about something mechanical/noisy. The brush at the end of the hose is simply held by the sucking & is not tied on - proof at Flickr. With increasing age, he seems to get heavier winter coats & a rough time getting rid of it in spring. As it has turned warm so quickly it's particularly difficult this year. Added to this, it had rained 2 days before & he had rolled on the fields to get rid of the hair & had pancaked himself. It would have taken hours to have cleaned him with a brush, with the vacuum it was about 1 hour. After the exercise, I had to take a shower as I then looked as he had done an hour before. He really enjoyed the exercise & remained quiet the whole time, although he would have normally been neighing like mad as Rosie had gone for a ride without him.