Category Archives: Farming

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!

Lane closures

August 7, 2019Farming, fun, naturesusanmanzke

Bob and I knew what we were going to find in our farm lane, but we decided to take a ride anyway.

We had over two and a half inches of rain over the last few days. All that rain couldn’t soak in so it had to go somewhere. One place it ended up was across our lane.

Bob was able to drive our two-wheel-drive cart around this puddle but not the next one.

This looked to be a hazardous drive. Bob thought he could get through once, but he couldn’t guarantee we’d be able to return. We turned around.

Maybe after some more soaking-in time, we’ll be able to get back to where our critter camera is set up for nature photos. All we can do now is wait and watch.

Growing flock

August 1, 2019Chickens, Farming, food, petssusanmanzke

Our chicks were hatched six weeks ago and have been growing fast ever since.

Feathers are still coming in. They are no longer those cute balls of fluff.

These birds are on their own now. Mother isn’t needed. As ‘teenagers’ they think they know everything and are often the last to go in to roost. We just hope that doesn’t make them dinner for local preditors.

Morning encounter

July 30, 2019Farming, fun, photography, wildlifesusanmanzke

Bob and I took a ride down our farm lane before 8 this morning. It was cool out and buggy. We never expected to see deer. The crops and grasses are getting tall and making it harder to see whitetail.

We saw this doe at the far end of our lane. She watched us for a while, even coming closer.

Eventually, she turned and ran.

Sunny was riding with us and enjoyed the deer sighting, too. It was a good start to our day. Now we are getting ready for another Farmer’s Market in Seymour. Hope to see you there.

Susan Manzke

Writer, Speaker, All-Around Good Person