Daydreaming

Spent the beautiful sunny morning getting to grips with the glass panels around the outdoor chicken run, difficult given the run is mainly for winter use as protection from Siberian winds and snow.

The panels are so heavy that just too align them up by lifting a centimetre or two, have to use a car jack and when she had a spare minute, Angie to help balance them. We at least managed to get the front side completed and it looks quite good.

Then took off as I needed to get over to sheep farmer Karls place with a car transporter trailer. Found him wedding one of the fields in preparation for bailing a crop of "aftermath" - I had never heard this description of a second hay crop. Here the first crop is called "Heu" the second crop "Grummet". Karl said I should go down to the farm and get his lodger and general "do-everything-around-the-farm-at-weekends", Manfred, to load up the trailer.

Manfred or better known as Manni was nowhere to be seen so I wandered around taking loads of photos. I simply love the place. Apart from the whir caused by the stream-driven electricity generator, the place is so peaceful. And I started to daydream until Karl appeared to change tractors (here each implement has a tractor). He stopped to have a quick shandy and a beer and we discussed the new "hut" he is building - shown in the collage, the hut appeared in just a day, all done without a water level. It's actually quite big. You may be able to spot a full-size tractor in the central section. I do like the overhanging roofs in this part of the world.

In the meantime Manni arrived back from searching for mushrooms in the forest - not a single one to be found (he did get some earlier in the week) but I had read a report that mushrooms were badly behind schedule with our dry and until recently hot weather. I did bring him my 25kg sack of potatoes from the Bodabira Club, Bliped last week. Manni had asked me to get a sack but they had sold out so I gave him mine. Did however manage to get a sack of the smallest ones later at half price (5.00 Euros/25kg) plus a handful of freshly dug onions and a jar of freshly pickled beetroot - in return I brought around a jar of honey - one ought to do more such trading, there is a club in the parish for such things but I don't know much about it.

Karl set off with the baler and Manni with a self-propelled digger and then joined by a friend who brought along a tractor with a PTO to help.
We loaded the trailer, I said my farewells and set off at a very slow speed with about 2km of dirt track to negotiate, avoiding the worst potholes.

Once on the road, crawled along at 70km/h before pulling in to Farmer Franz's place and getting him to unload the trailer so that I could return it to its owner. Franz & son Markus inspected the load and found a few problems which will require some welding - luckily Markus paid attention at the welding classes at agricultural college and is very good at it.,

Eventually home for a quiet evening, falling asleep before I had finished the meal Angie had cooked ........