All posts by susanmanzke

Getting and giving change

July 17, 2019Odds and endssusanmanzke

I’ve been taught that it is not polite to accept change and count it in front of the person who handed it to you. This works most of the time. I find people are mostly honest.

When I handed someone money for an item yesterday, I expected fifty cents in change. These were the coins I got. One is a quarter. One is not.

I didn’t notice the difference until I got home and one felt lighter. That’s when I saw that the one on the left was not a quarter. It even has a hole in the top where someone once had it on a chain or something.

Maybe it was an honest mistake. Maybe they just got it in change themselves. I’m just happy that it was only a quarter. It’s not much of a loss.

I will not pass this coin on to someone else. It will stay here.

From now on, I’ll check my change when finalizing a sale…but probably not. I prefer to think of people as honest.

Farmer’s Market sale

July 16, 2019creativity, writingsusanmanzke

I’m very tired after our time today at the Seymour Farmer’s Market. The weather wasn’t too bad. We had a breeze. It wasn’t until we got home that it got steamy outside.

The big news today is that I made my first sale. Actually, two sales!

One pressed flower bookmark went and the big news is that one of my books was purchased.

Can you guess which one?

Barley Soup and Slug Spit was my first sale at the Farmer’s Market. I hope the person who purchased it gives me a good review.

Bob and I are happy to be home and ready to put our feet up, basking in the brightness of our big, huge, gigantic sale.

A time to work

July 15, 2019Bob, Odds and ends, worksusanmanzke

Bob started tearing down the back entrance shelter to our back door without telling me what he was doing this morning–I was at my computer working on my next column. Eventually, I figured out he needed an extra pair of hands.

Working together is something we continue to do. These days, Bob can’t bend low, but I can. He can’t tip his head back to see high spots, but I can. I’m also able to pick up things he drops before he goes for his grabber.

This entrance had been built 40 years ago and had deteriorated. Bob’s plan was to take down some of the rotten parts and replace them with new treated lumber and that is what we did.

Bob used the back of his truck as his workbench.

I came in handy when we attached the wood at ground level.

Bob could easily reach what he needed at the tailgate level.

It got too hot to work so we didn’t finish completely, but at least we could close the gate again when we left this project today.

When we went into our cool house Bob smiled and said, “It’s good to know that we can do something for ourselves again.” (He hates to ask for help, even from me.)

The beauty of butterflies

July 14, 2019nature, photographysusanmanzke

I continue to look for butterflies whenever I’m outside. They seem to be flitting about our farm a lot. When we were driving the cart toward the woods today, one almost hit me in the face. Lucky for both of us it missed.

Lately, butterflies have not posed for my camera, so I have not been able to take photos of them. Even though I see them, the butterflies are always flying and I am not fast enough to catch them on the wing.

As a child, I chased butterflies and fireflies. I caught the fireflies but never a lively butterfly.

Today’s photos are out of my archive. Enjoy.

I hope to see migrating butterflies again this fall. It was a special gift when they stopped here on the farm in 2018.

Rock hunting

July 13, 2019art, crafts, creativity, Family, fun, naturesusanmanzke

Today Rebecca and Andy came for a visit. Andy grilled hot dogs for our lunch and I went rock hunting with Rebecca.

Our daughter creates beautiful copper trees. She sells them in shops and under our canopy at the Seymour Farmer’s Market.

Her trees are all mounted on rocks, most of which she found on her dad’s rock pile on the farm.

As I sat on our cart, Rebecca went rock hunting. She looks them all over and only takes the best rocks for her trees.

One by one Rebecca takes the cream of the rock pile.

Andy says Rebecca has enough rocks at home, but there will never be enough rocks for our daughter and her copper trees.

Susan Manzke

Writer, Speaker, All-Around Good Person