Electrifying

Monday Angie had contacted the electricity company to ask when they were going to exchange the three poles on our property and the roof mast on the house that had been damaged in March. They were somewhat surprised it hadn't been done, seemingly somehow overseen by the contractors who have been in the area for weeks doing various jobs.

Within hours the contactors boss was around and inspected what needed to be done and today the 4-man team arrived with two lift trucks a van and trailer with a roll of new insulated cable. Power switched off for hours as they set about the work on the house.
Angie took off with Luna for a walk and to get a "traditional" Bavarian mid-morning snack from the butcher.

Within minutes of getting lifted up onto the roof, one of the team started to remove the roof tiles when there was load shouting and chaos broke out. A huge swarm of wasps had used the gaps caused by the bent pole to make themselves a new home. The poor guy had suffered half a dozen stings, luckily all around his two ankles (everyone in shorts). At his bequest, I got an onion for him to rub on them & checked on the mobile what else helped. Had a huge pot of homemade apple vinegar which we then soaked in cloths & wrapped around the ankles before finally getting two large cooling pads we happened to have in the freezer. That eventually seemed to help the most but was painfully cold! He was in quite a bit of pain and didn't take any further part until after lunch.

Now the question as to what to do with the roof area covered in angry wasps. The "Capo" (German/Bavarian/Italian for the boss) and the eldest who "immigrated to the west from East Germany shortly after the Wall fell in 1990, had no problem - in the way I had got to love when working in East Germany in 1991. Pragmatic & adapt to whatever you had. Ignoring my offers of a beekeeping outfit, he grabbed the propane gas bottle and flame thrower they use to heat up insulating sheaths, jumped on the lift and started waving around like the conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra and managed to do the job without setting fire to the roof.

Just as he was finished making things safe, Angie arrived with the bread rolls filled with hot "Leberkäs" - liver cheese which is neither made of liver nor cheese but does contain pork. The poor guy of Turkish origin politely declined the offer but luckily Angie quickly realised why and sorted him out with cheese & cucumber. She also found some cooling gel to put on the stings but the victim took no further part in the work until lunch when they all sat down at the table in the shade of our terrace with lots of cooled drinks.

Having reconnected us to the mains, part two was to pull the new one-piece insulated cable from the pole on the other side of the stream, the 200m to the house using pulleys attached to the old telegraph poles. Next week on Tuesday, they will replace the wooden masts. The had wanted to do it on Monday morning but managed to get them to delay it as it would be chaos with seven guests in the house slowly getting up to shower and breakfast at a traditional, holiday (for our family at least) late morning start. Germans like to start work around 7:00 am, especially troops like ours who are not local and stay in cheap B&Bs from Monday to Wednesday night, work overtime and go home Thursday evening.

When they had gone, Angie suddenly decided she wanted to try out the new lawn tractor that has been ignored every since collecting it a week ago. She wasn't impressed! Perhaps time will help. I forgot to take a photo.