Category Archives: Odds and ends

Heat and humidity

July 26, 2020Odds and endssusanmanzke

This is not my favorite weather. I do not like extremes, neither hot or cold. But we have to live with what we get.

A lot of plants like hot and humid weather. This is especially true of corn. If you sit in the middle of a cornfield you can hear the corn grow. I’ve tried to listen to this but I’m never patient enough. Others have told me that they did hear the corn stretching toward the sun on a hot summer day.

Grass, also in the corn family, is growing like crazy. A person can’t just cut once a week. The time between cutting here has to be less than seven days or I’m left with a hayfield and not a lawn.

Today is just too hot for me to do outside work. I even left the chickens out of their coop early so they can get fresh air. Usually, they are not set free until after lunch. Keeping them locked up assures me that the eggs they lay will end up in a nest and not hidden somewhere in the yard.

So I’m back inside the house where I have a window AC unite. As I write, I’m also watching Car-E play.

I’m glad he’s attracted to his hanging toy. A few minutes ago he was by me, walking across the computer, typing all sort of cat gibberish. ;ajgd;lhpq Oh oh, Car-E is bbbbback.

Hnjhuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuj

Guess I’m done with this blog for today. Car-E wants my attention NOW!

The straw and the strawberry

July 4, 2020Odds and endssusanmanzke

I heard that a straw could be used to push out the stem of a strawberry.

I finally tried this.

I poked the straw up from the bottom end of the strawberry, through the fruit. The stem is pushed out.

This what happens to the strawberry. A hole in the strawberry is left after the center and stem is removed.

Quite satisfying to do.

New toy

May 4, 2020Odds and ends, photographysusanmanzke

I used to ask Bob to take a picture when I needed extra hands. He was always accommodating, though he had a heavy finger and often ended up with 20 snaps when he was trying to get only one.

Now I need to take my own photos. I have a tripod for my camera, but I wanted one for my phone.

This is what I bought.

I took this photo with my camera. You can see me on the screen.

The tripod came with a Bluetooth clicker so I can activate the phone camera while I’m standing away.

This was photo was taken with my cell phone on the tripod. I used the Bluetooth to snap it and got 100 photos! I guess Bob wasn’t the only one with a heavy finger.

The rescue

April 28, 2020animals, nature, Odds and endssusanmanzke

It was time to take Sunny for a walk this morning. I hadn’t planned to go far. But ended up walking for 30 minutes.

Along the way, I noticed a few worms had wiggled onto the shoulder of the road. They were covered with bits of gravel and soon would die.

I picked up one and deposited it back in the grassy ditch, not where it would drown, but where it could clean itself of the gravel and not get smashed on the road.

During my walk, I rescued 6 worms. It’s nothing earthshaking, except for those worms.

There are so many others in our world today who are real rescuers. I honor them all.

Still, doing my part this morning made me feel useful, if only to a half-dozen worms.

Showing signs of life

April 27, 2020Odds and ends, technology, worksusanmanzke

Russell asked me if I had gotten the cart going. When he first asked, I hadn’t even tried turning the key to our maintenance golf cart. Well, yesterday I turned the key.

There was nothing. No buzz, no gage movement, not a flicker of light. The directional signal had been on all winter, sucking power.

The battery was drained. It was time for a charger.

I took my time connecting the charger to the terminals. First, I made sure which was positive and which was the ground. Once the positive and negative signs were visible it was easy to snap on the charger clamps.

After a couple of hours charging this old battery, the cart did buzz. After a few more hours, it almost acted like it wanted to start–that made me happy but not excited.

I’m still scratching my head, trying to get it to pop.

What I think is the best thing to do now is to get a new battery.

The new addition will come in the near future, but until then I’ll keep trying to encourage the cart to roll again.

Susan Manzke

Writer, Speaker, All-Around Good Person