Surprise! Critter camera photos

May 13, 2020Sunnybook Farm, wildlifesusanmanzke

Both 4-footed and 2-footed critters are caught on my camera.

I had left the camera set up for a couple of days/nights in a row. These are a few views that I caught.

Usually, the camera isn’t set for daylight shots, but as you can see it caught me working.

Cats are not the only critters caught coming onto the front porch. This Hen is named Silver.

Last night, two raccoons made a lot of racket because there was only crumbs leftover for them to share–I hope this discourages from coming back.

Maybe if I had this set up the bear walked through the yard, I might have caught him, too.

Will set up the camera again and see what happens.

Looking out the window

May 12, 2020Bob, Farming, Sunnybook Farmsusanmanzke

About this time last year, Bob was starting to feel better. It was the first year in his life that he didn’t farm. Instead, he watched our renters working the Sunnybook Farm fields he had traveled since 1978.

Yesterday, I watched the same family working in the same fields.

The renter working up the soil for planting.

As I watched them, I thought about Bob.

I felt him looking out the window with me.

Big changes have come to our farm, none of them easy.

Bob’s spirit is still here. He planted a bit of himself into the soil each year, as did his dad, and other farmers before them.

I continue on today with Bob in spirit, even if others are doing the farming.

Such is life.

A Winter Bloom in May

May 11, 2020fun, gardeningsusanmanzke

I like having house plants blooming in the winter. Seeing the colorful blossoms and greens gives me hope that spring will soon arrive.

Because my husband Bob was so sick this past December and died in January, I had no heart left to put my bulbs in soil.

Finally, I felt sorry for my amaryllis bulbs. Without any fanfare, I plopped them in a pot of soil. Now they have rewarded me with their trumpet-like blooms.

I have them out of the backroom and set them where I can enjoy the pink blooms in my kitchen now.

There are more flower bulbs and tubers in my basement. These are waiting for warm weather when I will place them in the soil outside. My fingers are crossed that they will do as well as these amaryllises have done.

Next week the temperature is predicted to turn warmer, without frost. If that is true all the bulbs will come out of the basement and start their journey to summer blooms.

Yeast for bread

May 10, 2020foodsusanmanzke

I had asked on FaceBook if anyone knew where I could get bread yeast. There seemed to have been a run on yeast as so many people currently are home making their own bread.

The store shelves were bare, but a cousin told me I could buy yeast that would work and not spend a fortune.

I bought a brewer’s yeast online and have used it to make my bread.

There is no taste difference to my home-baked bread. The only problem with my usual recipe and today’s bread is that it needed double the time to raise. This would not work in my bread machine as the settings do not change enough to suit this longer rise.

I used my bread machine to mix my loaf, but after the first raise, I took it out and put it into a loaf pan. When it had raised enough for the second time, I baked it in my oven.

It was tasty, as I ate a piece when it was still warm.

I now have more than enough yeast to make many loaves of bread, at least until my flour runs out.

Friend or foe

May 9, 2020animals, catssusanmanzke

There are barn cats that come to the house for food.

We never brought outside cats to our farm. They just found us.

My critter cam caught these two touching noses. I don’t remember hearing a catfight, so this just might have been a greeting in passing.

I just thought I would share this photo of Squinty and Tom today.

They usually observe social distancing when eating, never staying this close to one another.

Now they have found sunny corners to warm themselves on the farm. Again living at a normal distance.

Susan Manzke

Writer, Speaker, All-Around Good Person

Surprise! Critter camera photos

Looking out the window

A Winter Bloom in May

Yeast for bread

Friend or foe