Oh no!

Oh yes! A tractor Blip for the boys. It's a terrible shot but beat egrets & budding trees which were anyway no better.

Just as I was about to leave with the dogs for a walk & shop in Erkheim, Farmer Franz said his brother-in-law Albert from Erkheim would be coming by to have a look at my stranded John Deere. Albert is a retired farmer and who also worked at the local dairy making cheese etc. He still has a beef herd but no more milking cows as well as having lots to do with horses. For my problems, he is ideal, a JD fan owning several and knowing all about them - he kept reeling off various models and their HP/cylinders etc etc. (He also has an old very nice Porsche cabrio).

So this afternoon Franz & Albert turned up and within a minute reckoned it was the starter - Franz had always reckoned this. We managed to get the starter out, a bit of a battle as access is so difficult and Albert called an aquaintance who is apparently a starter motor genius who said he would have a look. Albert even then drove the part over, although it was in the opposite direction to home.

Thanks very much guys, I hope tzhe diagnosis is correct as the repair will be a lot less than my feared motor failure. If they are right, I will still have to do something about having the motor checked over.

I guess I could have called the German equivalent of the UK's "AA" or USA's "AAA", the ADAC who I have been a member of for over 20 years. They are the biggest club of any kind in Europe, with some 19 million members and very often in the media criticising government etc etc. It was revealed that their prestigious annual car awards held last week had been falsified and probably over years. This year the VW Golf was voted Germany's Favourite Car by the members with 34,000 votes. In truth it was 3,400!

Has really knocked their image as an independent organisation fighting for the motorist. Would probably be half as bad if they weren't so politically active. Sadly there is no real competition.

Hope all managed Monday. Here we are due for 24 hours of horrible wet weather in some form, rain, sleet or snow but nothing special with daytime temperatures well over freezing.

The Blip is taken through Franz's, I think 1972 Deutz. I think he has 4 or 5, his pride & joy his two New Hollands, especially the bigger one built in the UK. He likes to use the Deutz for small work as it needs to be kept free of rust. Albert is hidden (on purpose) on the left, phoning the starter specialist.