Pallets

We are hoping to re-roof a largish outbuilding using the old tiles from our house re-roofing in 2017 which have been on wooden pallets outdoors placed on grass very since & which are now fairly rotten. We need to clean every one of about 800 concrete tiles by hand with a brush and place them on a new pallet & using my old tractor lift them up around 3 metres on to the roof. For 800 tiles I need at least 10 pallets.

From memory the tiles weigh about 5kg each & with 6 stacks of 13 tiles on a pallet, we have 390kg which the tractor can easily lift but the problem is that without any hydraulics at the end point, I can't adjust the angle. Thus is I lift the pallet which is flat on the ground, by the time it's in full height position it is tipping back at a very steep angle & threatening to fall off.

So got to find some pallets. Angie searched the eBay classifieds and found someone giving them away free about 25km away. So I was dispatched with horse trailer to collect them. Turned out to be a transport/logistics business with a yard in a small village. The boss, an experienced logistics guy was very pleasant said I could have as many as I wanted from several piles by the side of a lane. Mainly one-use with small damage and  a few proper solid Euro-pallets which normally have a deposit but were in slightly worse state, however for me no problem to repair for our purposes.

The whole action took hours! Chatting with the boss it soon came out that I wasn't local and then that I was British, and he wanted to know everything about Brexit as he simply could not understand why the UK was shooting itself in the foot. I think it must have been a full hour standing in the sun & heat with him shaking his head from side to side.

Very few 'normal' people but even such business people know anything about the background to Brexit. They have always that of the Brits as crazy but lovable. "Die spinnen, die Briten"- nutcases.

Eventually got away having loaded about 20 pallets from which I should be able to make 15 good ones. Quite enjoyed the drive out into lovely countryside, a rare event in this Corona year.

The photo is very boring, I had taken loads of videos as it showed a bit how very small German villages often hide quite extensive businesses right in their centres and by just driving past you would never know.