Finally Lady Winter decided to visit the Heart of Europe.
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Where is the heart of Europe. I saw a video on the Weather Channel this morning from the Italian Alps. They were walking through cleared paths with snow 5 foot high on both sides. Getting rescued by Helicopter. Normally we would have about a three foot snow pack right now. I see patches of bare ground here and there. I think they donât have much even up where Bruce lives. Less snow makes life easier. Iâm not going to cry if this is the new normal.
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Looks like baby girl winter to me Kamil. 
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Hello KamilK.,
Czech Republic correct? In the Heart of mountains, yes?
The old Mineral heart of Europe.
Nice espaliered you are establishing there. Apples?
Regards
Steve Unruh
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Right you are, @SteveUnruh. We live in small district town some 20 km north of capital Prague.
But not apples. Wine. Our town is Czech famous wine growing location.
My cellar with 2017 harvest.
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Joep, Iâm a fan of articulated tractors especially Holders, otherwise the Am2 is special because of its two-stroke diesel engine, which is known for smoking and lubrication problems if you donât change the oil regularly. I managed to arrange my own, change the piston rings, set the pre-ignition, repair the nozzles and make the exhaust with separate pipes for each cylinder. Otherwise, for its weight (800 kg) and power of 20 hp, it is extremely powerful, it carries 500 kg on the forks without any weight on the front.
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Thanks, a world opened today. Dan was right, a lot of Italian tractors. All really expensive, but I like the small footprint and the fact they are really strong. To be continued.
Well my pasquali wasnât too expensive but it was a basket case. The good news is that parts are still available. My pasquali has basically the same engine made today by Kohler minus a ton of emmisions stuff I am sure but you can buy all the parts to rebuild it. Just hard to find in north America but on your side of the Atlantic it should be easy enough if you can find an old one. I would actually consider doing a repower to a gas motor that you could fit a charcoal gasification system to. I think that could be fit with some creative design work. The motor on the old pasquali tractors has a standard mount I forgot the type and an adapter between the transmission and the motor so it would be a relatively easy motor to swap I think. Around here the used ones are rare one of those things people own and donât sell. They where commonly used for skidding out logs. That was the history of my machine and why it was so badly damaged when I got it. It took me about 2 or 3 years to find mine. But I was crazy cheap and refused to pay what most people where asking. I see one or two of the pasquali 988 on craigslist a year withing maybe 300 miles. I spent a good part of the day doing some repairs to the loader on mine but I definitely find it worth while.
Oh there is a 400 series IIRC pasquali which is about twice the size. Those are nice machines as well. But both lack live pto power.
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Very nice project it is! Read it before, nice tractor. Less pto power wouldnt bother me , my Kubota b6000 has enough. But I need some counterweight. Maybe that is the deal, wait for a cheap one and swap engine. On the other hand, not looking for new projects, just happy to loose some. Doing administration right now, tomorrow start jumping around for 16 hours a day until it is weekend again. Not realistic to start a new project, and an unfinished project is no project. No hurry, crane and kubota do the job for now. The mower behind the kubota has a broken axle, if that is repaired and spring starts he has to start mowing again. Extra tractor would be nice, saves a lot of time.
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Not true for me Joep. I have them lined up. If I canât find something I need for one or lose interest in one there is always another to tinker with. I wouldnât know how to act if I started and finished something in one motion.
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Thanks. Are your rear tires loaded? I had to load them on both my loader tractors. My pasquali was down right dangerous with the loader before I loaded the tires. Bouncing and throwing you like a rodeo dangerous when I tied to rake with it like that. But loaded rear tires with the modern rim guard made all the difference in the world.
People would be eating sawdust bread( 10-15 percent flour, 85-90 percent sawdust) just look at the non-dairy creamer powders for coffee. It is mostly ground cellulose
with some chemical flavorings.
What is ground cellulose: sawdust!!
When I was a kid my mom made sawdust bread. Right after my dad died. We had no money. She sent me to my grandfatherâs wood working shop for a bag of sander dust. I asked her why? Mom said she was going to make some cheap wood filler. Never seen any wood filler but that bag of flour in the kitchen took a long time to run out!! And we didnât go hungry. It was yrs later that she told me about the sawdust bread that she fed us.
When you are truly hungry you donât really think about the way food tastes. You are just greatful for the food! Not going to bed hungry.
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What do you think the food in the grocery stores today is? The ingredients would scare you if you actually read what is there and Google all the terms. I am pretty sure they put in as much as they can by law now.
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Bread I am baking myself has only four ingredients: pure flour, water, salt and cumin. Mother yeast is recirculated and kept alive between baking. I make two or three loaves a week, mostly shared with wide family. Each is little more than three pounds.
If it is kept carefuly in bread box, it is edible for whole week. Things bought in Tesco may go to trash next evening.
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Your lucky you got a Tescoâs , wish we had one or a hundred stores here in Australia
Nice to see real old fashioned bread being made. Few people probably understand the amount of work involved with such a basic task. Bread gets a slightly lower priority in my home.
I toss all the ingredients into a bread machine and let it do all the work for me. But it is still miles ahead of the grocery store version.
My hat is off to you for your efforts.
I do like a bread that includes a couple of fresh eggs in the mix along with real flour. Maybe partly just because I have the chickens and feel joy each time I use something I produced on my farm.
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Hello Kamil, for our region (Bela krajina) is a typical dish "belokranjska pogaÄa ", my wife likes to bake it. Half went to lunch 
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