Monthly Archives: July 2019

Deer me

July 19, 2019photography, wildlifesusanmanzke

Whenever Bob and I take a ride in our cart to our woods, I grab my camera. It’s a sure thing some interesting wild animal will appear if I forget it on the table.

This first photo I snapped of a doe and fawn from quite a distance. I took a couple of shots, but most were blurry because I moved the camera. It’s not easy keeping the camera steady when the zoom is outstretched.

Besides having my camera with the zoom lens, we set up a critter cam to capture photos of our four-footed neighbors.

When I looked at the photos taken by the critter cam yesterday I found a doe nosing around the area. She seemed to be alone. She stayed in the area for quite some time so we got quite a few shots of her.

My favorite one from yesterday is of a doe with an attitude. The only thing that would have made this photo better is if she had her tongue out.

I have all kinds of nature photos, too many for my laptop, so I’m working at editing out the doubles and blurry shots. This sure takes time so I better get to work or I won’t have room for new photos.

Thanks, Bob.

July 18, 2019art, Bob, creativitysusanmanzke

I was checking online for the cost of a hand rest to use when painting. Many times I’ve smudge a work by setting my palm on my painting. I know that there are plastic gadgets can mostly eliminate this problem and that’s what I wanted.

After seeing the prices ($20 to $40) of the manufactured hand rests, I decided to make my own. I took some packaging foam pieces and glued them together. That didn’t work at all. The cross piece just bent and made its own mark on my painting. Ugh.

After hearing my complaints, Bob took two of my tiles and went down to the basement. In a little while, I heard the saw cutting something. Not much later Bob came up again and said, “I made you a hand rest. You can’t try it yet. It’s glued and needs to dry.”

I couldn’t wait to see it and raced down to his workbench. His solution was much better than anything I considered.

Both the 4 by 4 and the 6 by 6 tiles fit. The rest works perfectly, as long as I don’t mess up my painting some other way.

Thanks to my honey I can do the fine work with ease. Thanks to Bob’s own creativity, I now can paint with fewer problems.

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.)

Susan Manzke

Writer, Speaker, All-Around Good Person