Ackerbeats

The proper rain with a few thunderclaps and probably some lightning came this morning. As the store man said at the local agricultural supplies shop - "Isch a bissl cool abbr doad guad" (my best try at Swabian to say the plants needed it -  "It's a bit cool but does good"). Dogs and I had just done our walk in the forest with an umbrella for me.

On the way home spotted a sign on a shed near Ottobeuren, erected by our village "Rural Catholic Youth Group" announcing the highlight of the year on September 16. I thought the "Ackerbeats" was announcing a band, but it seems to be a phrase becoming more common in the area.  The word "Acker" has the same origins as the English word "Acre", the area an oxen pair could plough in a day. In Germany though, the word now means an arable field, i.e. one that is regularly ploughed rather than grassland. This unit of measurement is still used today by farmers despite the official hectare (10,000sqm) but is called "Tagwerk" or Days-Work, about 3,333 sqm. The word Acker is also used as a verb to mean "to slog" at something, hard work.

The Facebook page of the Group claims the event to have the longest (only) bar in the village and the venue, "offering a unique sunrise behind the barn ;-))". Last year I Bliped the shed being prepared for the event.

I wish I had panned a bit further left for the photo with two tractors passing, but I had been hoping to catch two cows grazing just to the left.