Enjoy it while it lasts

Today was the last super day for the forseeable future but it has been a great week and so no complaints. I was mobbed by fellow Blipers to go in the pool yesterday and went in at the "deep end" letting the water 4" above my knees. Result: today I have a tummy bug. Will never listen to you all again!

Early this morning, just before Jenny arrived to do my wound dressing, Farmer Franz called to say he had some small hay bales left over and minutes later he arrived. Angie was luckily at home and did the unloading with Franz while I looked on from the bedroom window. If it wasn't quite so much work and if we had a suitable dry storage place, it would be nice to just have small bales. Easy to handle & portion. There were only about 20 bales so we should find somewhere to put them.

Rest of my day was dirty & smelly - last night (9:00pm) was mowing one of the horse fields when the tractor died. Couldn't do anything then and set to work today on a suspected fuel block. Empty the diesel tank, remove all hoses, dismantle diesel pump, empty & remove diesel filters. Naturally at every step, diesel got on hands & clothes. Loads of dirt but only myself to blame as I hadn't properly filtered some old heating oil diesel which we had left over after our old heating oil tank was decommissioned a few years ago. As in the UK it is illegal to use heating oil (tax reasons) but I think the 100 liters won't be a prison sentence & better in my tractor than in the ground - nó I wouldn't! Oil tanks, particularly in flood risk areas, are subject to regular checks as well as having to be equipped with a vacuum leak detector & frost heating cables. Decommissioning is subject to all sorts of controls and of course costs but I think they are important controls for the sake of our environment.

The heat this week has caused damage to the autobahns even resulting in the death of a motorbike rider yesterday. Thunderstorms arrived at 4:00pm signalling the end. For us so far no damage but elsewhere in the region, large hail storms.