Steam powered Tractor Tuesday

After seemingly weeks of wonderful weather, a depression named "Siglinde" is on the way to us from the British Isles and bringing wind and rain. So the farmers are out doing the last bits of tidying up and I could manage a Tractor Tuesday entry. Have been very lapse this year, just as I am currently being very lapsed on checking out on others journals. Hopefully will catch up soon.

The first "engine-less" Fendt GT (Gerätetrager = Implement Carrier), the F12GT, was introduced in 1957 as a means of small farmers having a very flexible machine that could take equipment on the front, top, underneath and behind. This amazing photo of a sugar beet harvester demonstrates well what the idea was. It was called a "One-Man-System" so that a single person could put on/take off all the various optional equipment. And this sugar beet machine required no tools to fit it on.

They had tested the idea since 1953 and were not overly optimistic if the idea would be accepted. After 17 new models, Fendt ceased production of the GT series in 2004. Fendt's factory is about 30km from home. Fendt tractors still command a particular premium brand mystic despite being bought out in 1997 by the US AGCO corporation.

The photo was taken on the morning's dog walk. You can see from the smoke /steam in the background that Siglinde was coming. It is the chimney from the grass/maize drying unit that will now slowly be winding down operations for the year, including cleaning up their three JCB Fastrac tractors. I suspect it was a very good year for them as in these parts we didn't have a drought, being blessed every week or so with night time and tame thunderstorms.

Also between tractor and chimney, the sunflowers and other "greening" flowers are just hanging on despite the light frosts of the last few days. I have checked - the farmer is simply "greening" and the plants will in due course simply be ploughed in so as to improve soil structure. My bees won't be visiting today in the cool and windy weather.

As we returned to the car walking along the newly laid estate road on the edge of the village we saw another "unusual" Fendt belonging to a garden contractor who is planting trees along the road for the parish council. See Extra Photo. A F280P, a very successful compact 4WD "plantation tractor" used in smaller/narrower businesses such as vineyards, fruit farms. 3044 were built between 1988 and 2002.

The road has only just been given a name "Am Steinacker" (On Stone Field) no doubt thanks to the gravel beds that abound here. 25 building plots are being sold by the parish council to individuals, the services are all in and now the trees are being planted alongside the road. I guess some will start building in spring.  Plots still available ..... You are free to design the house yourself, the final "footprint" needs to abide by certain limits.

The chimney sweep came today to do the central heating. Waste of time as it has been at a virtual standstill since April and was last swept in May. But rules are rules and we will get the invoice in due course. However, the two of them are very pleasant and Angie regularly sees the chief sweeper in the sauna when he isn't covered with black soot. Need to keep in with him as he can legally shut down any fire of any sort - oil, gas, wood, coal. pellets....
Didn't do much apart from continuing process of using up garden produce and lots of homemade projects on the way - pickled onions English style but no malt vinegar here so tipped in a good shot of Italian Averna spirits to get a brown colour. Wouldn't be pickled onions if not brown. Several litres of Apple Cider Vinegar bubbling away and now ready to be bottled - some I will use for some more onions. Made two jars of lemon curd today and a no-bake lemon Philadelphia cream cheesecake (result tomorrow after a night in the fridge). I think there are still some tomatoes in the greenhouse that need to be dealt with. Will possibly dry them even though I have countless jars of them swimming in olive oil. A couple of Mangos have been chopped up and are in the fridge with some brown sugar awaiting the fresh ginger, onions etc to make chutney. Chutney, as we know it in England, is very difficult to find and then extraordinarily expensive. Branston pickle is also on the list of To Dos.

The lack of Branston (and countless such UK items) on any German supermarket shelf continues to make me raging mad when I hear the export claptrap from the ignorant, uninformed, incompetent idiots running the Brexit show. They should all be locked up for criminal negligence. And for life, or at least until my grandchildren's grandchildren are born.