TT- John Deere Huckepack

German for "Piggyback" - Sure all experts will see that my little old 1965 JD was pushing the slightly bigger one. In fact I will now be applying to be allowed to have a "50km/h" sticker on my tractor.- as this Blip was taken it was doing around 54km/h.

Albert had said he would be around at about 5:00pm, would take off my front loader (badly designed system makes dismounting difficult) with his tractor and then with a contraption he had put together, lift my tractors front wheels off the ground and tow me that way. I was thus able to discard all the winter clothing and WWI fighter pilot fur cap/helmet and follow him in the car to Max's place, 19km away.

Max was waiting for us having got home from work. I was expecting to simply leave the tractor there and go home. Oh No. Spanner and wrench in the hand and within 30 minutes a boot load of very black "oily" motor parts that I have to take to the local garage tomorrow in Ottobeuren to be cleaned, overhauled and polished and hopefully be able to return on Saturday to continue the work, taking apart the motor from the gearbox and renewing all the seals. While we were about it, Max hammered out the pistons and shook his head even more from side to side, with a slight smile and a "just in time" remark.

I like Max - wish I knew how old he is (will find out) but I am sure he still has a "2" in front but maybe like the policeman looking like schoolboys, I am a bad judge. No bullshit, no big talk - he simply looks, assesses the situation, gives a sensible commentary and a plan of what he recommends and then gets on with it. No swearing, no cursing, no panic, no hassle: in a quiet tone, gives instructions as to which bolts to undo.. I could work for a boss like Max. The lads got class.(this has a double meaning as those connected with the agricultural world might guess).

Thanks Albert and Max, even though it turned out to be a longer evening than planned. It was very successful and my first ever experience of seeing a motor taken apart. Oh and by the way, his workshop which was once the family's cow shed is so tidy and clean you could eat off the floor, despite the 4 tractors in there, in various states of being repaired. And remember it's not a business premises.

Early start tomorrow getting the parts to the garage and hope they have some spare capacity.

PS For those interested - we don't have "cats eyes" in Germany because of the snow/snow ploughs but instead the B&W marker posts on most roads. The posts on the drivers side have a rectangular reflector and the ones on the opposite side of the road, two circular ones - I guess so as to know in fog which side of the road you are about to crash down the embankment. The posts are generally set exactly 50m apart and are thus often used as markers to judge distances from the vehicle ahead. The rule of thumb, even used by the police and courts, is that one should leave "half the speed" distance. Thus if driving at 150km/h you should have 75 metres distance from the car in front , thus 1.5 of the the marker posts. Until early 2000's the Bliped road was the main Munich to Zurich road, most of it single carriageway and constantly jammed. It runs parallel to the Autobahn now, as can be seen on the map,