Dickköpfig

Having gone to bed at 2:30 am, I had 3 hours and 45 minutes sleep before the alarm got me into action again. Quickly cleared the central heating room of jackets and boots and miscellaneous objects before the pellets delivery lorry appeared at 6:46, 14 minutes earlier than the appointed time, despite having come from the depot over 100 km away on the other side of Augsburg.
 
In 12 years and 14 deliveries, I have never known the family-run company, Wagner to be late. The link is in English and they have a UK partner whose identically painted truck has the wording "AntiDust" the equivalent of the "AntiStaub" on their German trucks.


Punctuality is reputedly a German trait but in reality one often spends hours and days waiting for craftsmen, Telecom and the likes to turn up at the agreed date and time. For Wagner, it is part of their "Strong Stuff" 100% “reliability” philosophy. Friendly, fair, punctual, clean, quality …. Apart from one visit when we had a young apprentice who is still there, we have only had two different drivers. Today’s we know particularly well as he has horses at home with his 50% American wife and children and so we always have something to chat about over a coffee when the pellets are being blown in (see Extra photo). What I particularly like, they also check the empty pellet bunker and equipment as with their enormous experience, including having to suck out pellets from blocked bunkers, they can spot potential problems.
 
6,000kg lighter and 46 minutes later, I waved him off onto the main road and assuming we don’t have a “Millenium Winter 2018/9”, hope we won’t see them again for 12 months. Although must remember to order them in July when the price is a little lower. €205 +7% VAT for 1,000kg. Why the reduced rate of VAT (normally 19%) is unclear but that’s only one mystery of the VAT system.
 
I should have gone back to bed but was now fully awake and so cleared up the bottles, plates, cutlery from yesterday and got the dishwasher into action. A bit of bliping and catching up on news. Eventually, Angie appeared somewhat sleepy-eyed and announced she wasn’t up to a morning horse ride, so I set off with Luna, the loser from yesterday, and after a bit of swimming in the river, she finally lost her mortally offended look of the last 18 hours.
 
Grabbed an early lunch of left-overs. Most Germans (8 out of 9) don’t know of cold soup and certainly would not dream of trying cucumber, dill and yoghurt soup. Although many did like the cucumber & mint smoothie type lemonade I made. Then fell asleep on the sofa for several hours but woke up in time to still do the two tasks delayed from yesterday.
 
One - rebuilt the carburettor on the petrol engine of our emergency electricity generator and was very pleasantly surprised and a bit proud that it sprang into action on the second pull. My thanks to Jim or Bill or John in the USA for their great Youtube video.
 
Two – the one beehive that I had given the centrifuged frames to, for the bees to clean up before putting them into storage, were so strong that they appeared to not only have cleaned everything up but had actually started storing pollen. The weather is so good that there is an abundance of flowers. It’s my own fault as I should have taken them out yesterday morning and the 30+ extra hours was too long. In a spur of the moment decision, I decided to leave the hive as a two-box colony for this winter and can compare them to the other three, one-box hives. Removed a couple of the cleaned but not yet touched frames and inserted a feeder with 2.5kg of sugar fondant and I will probably have to keep an eye on them to make sure they get extra supplies as they try to fill the empty box with food, pollen and brood before it gets cold. The forecast seems to be in our favour.
 
So am feeling pretty bullish about the bees. The German translation for bullish is the title of today’s Blip, literally meaning “thick-headed” and thus the obstinate, stubborn traits. I don’t think one can mistake that this fella is a male bull but he seemed very calm and easy-going and his girlfriend also seemed to be quite happy and suggested we move on and leave them in peace. Must be traits they get from the owners, our friends the “Organic Mullers”.  Mrs MY was too busy today for an evening ride with Angie as she is looking after the farm animals while the Seniors are away on holiday. But Angie did manage an evening ride having been busy doing an autumnal spring clean after the party and she did manage an hour or two sleep on the lounger by the pool.

PS The bull is not named Jack, Jock or Jacob or some similar friendly pet name but "Niederwieser" after the breeder the Müller's bought it from.