Fun and fright

Family, Odds and ends, work

Last night a wicked thunderstorm came through our area. There was a tornado somewhere west of us, but the worst part was the straight-line winds. That knocked out our power for us for about three hours.

Still, we decided to take a planned outing and head up to Door County today. The branch pick-up would wait until tomorrow.

Rebecca and Andy took us for a ride to Egg Harbor where Russ and his family were having a weekend away.

First stop was Wood Orchard Market. I loaded up on Cherry Butter. When we run out of that good stuff we go through withdrawal.

Harrison’s ready to take your order.

Second stop was at Lautenbach’s Orchard Country Winery & Market.

Never too early for wine tasting

We visited by the pool at the Landmark Resort where Russ and family were staying. Planned to eat alfresco but storms sent us inside. Not as much fun eating inside, but our day was a great outing.

When we arrived home we found that the second wave of storms knocked down a lot more branches. Kind of happy we weren’t home to see this bad storm hit. Tomorrow is cleanup time.

Lucky for us, none of the large limbs were on the house.

Will go outside now to start on the small pieces but will have to think more about the big stuff. Can’t just pop those big branches in the cart.

Deer me

photography, wildlife

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.

doe and fawn by Susan

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.

An ordinary doe

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.

the same doe showing off for the camera

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.

Copyright © 2019 Susan Manzke, All rights reserved.

Thanks, Bob.

art, Bob, creativity

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.

Bob’s wood creation.

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

Odds and ends

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.

Copyright © 2019 Susan Manzke, All rights reserved.

Farmer’s Market sale

creativity, writing

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.