Category Archives: Farming

Enjoying the season

September 18, 2019creativity, Farming, photography, Wisconsinsusanmanzke

Too much rain has put a damper on the best of days. Water and mud block our farm lane. Yet I am enjoying today’s warm, windy weather–I’m trying to take it all in, even the humidity, and keep it in my heart. That way I can bring it out mid-January and remember.

Last evening I raced outside with my cell phone to take a photo of the sunset. It was another day I’ll set in my heart.

As I was enjoying the sun setting over the cornfield, I saw another view of the sky.

I stepped down into the ditch and used the tops of the corn to frame the evening sky colors.

Hope you enjoy my view.

Grandpa’s truck

September 17, 2019Bob, Family, Farming, Odds and endssusanmanzke

A while back I saw our son, Russ, taking his son to look at Grandpa Bob’s old farm truck.

I couldn’t figure out what they were doing. It wasn’t until later that I found out that Russ was giving Harrison an education.

Russ was showing the hand crank in the truck door that worked the window.

It was something Grandpa had that none of their cars had. The crank was very interesting to Harrison.

I wonder what else we have around that would be considered ancient. I think that in the attic there’s a dial telephone that was attached to the wall by a cord. How in the world did we call on that phone without buttons?

Quick change

September 3, 2019Farming, Weather, Wisconsinsusanmanzke

Yesterday was a perfect September day. It was not too hot and not too cold and not too windy.

One of our rented fields was being chopped to prepare it for cattle feed. It needs a couple of days to dry before it can be harvested completely.

Last night the weather changed.

Two and a half inches of rain overnight will make finishing that field tricky, though a breezy wind may help.

Temperatures will go up and down for us in September, or so goes the forecast. We’ll just have to wait and see what comes next.

Corn question

August 29, 2019Farming, nature, Odds and endssusanmanzke

How many ears of corn on a corn stalk?

Internet drawing showing how to draw corn. Doesn’t look like corn to me.

When I was growing up, I remember seeing drawings of stalks of corn having many ears going up and down the stalk.

We usually see one to two good ears on a stalk. Many stalks just have one ear.

Bob gets close to the corn growing on our farm. He sees up to two ears of field corn on a stalk.

Too many of my non-farm friends think corn produces 6 good ears per stalk. They are surprised when they grow some corn in their garden and don’t get as many as they expected.

Take this as an eye-opener.

Enough already

August 8, 2019Farming, fun, Weather, Wisconsinsusanmanzke

Yesterday I blogged about all the water down our lane. Well, you can double that and more.

If I hadn’t dumped out our rain gauge, the water would have flowed over the top.

We will not be able to get down our lane for quite a while. Unless Bob goes with the tractor to rescue it, we will not be able to check our critter cam.

Of course, just like the last storm, we ended our day with a rainbow.

Just before dark.

In between bouts of rain, I had to rush out to save 2 hens. The door had shut with a gust of wind. All the others had made it inside, except these two old girls. They were soaked, but managed to join the others after I opened the door for them. Poor things. I then had to wait for the rain to slow again before I could get back to the house.

We’ve already doubled our average rain for August and it’s only the 8th. Ugh!

Susan Manzke

Writer, Speaker, All-Around Good Person