Category Archives: Odds and ends

Bob doing some fixing

September 2, 2019Bob, creativity, Odds and ends, Sunnybook Farmsusanmanzke

The Manzkes brought up two wooden picnic tables from Illinois some 40 years ago. They had them for years in Illinois and we still use them in Wisconsin.

The thing is that they aren’t exactly as they were many years ago. Wood doesn’t last forever and when Bob finds some wood rotting he replaces it.

Last week Bob thought these picnic tables had finally come to the end of their lives. He was ready to make a bonfire out of them, but I talked him out of that drastic measure.

Bob searched out some wood scraps and patched the heavier table back together.

Never fear, after his patching, the picnic table is usable again–maybe for many more years to come.

BAM! right in the kisser

August 30, 2019nature, Odds and ends, photographysusanmanzke

Going for a drive down our lane is very interesting some days.

Because of the tall corn growing on our farm, we don’t get a great view of the landscape, but we still enjoy our rides…well usually.

Today, a flying grasshopper flew right at me and hit me in the face. Actually, it hit me in my glasses. I was so happy I was wearing my glasses as I’m not sure if that grasshopper could have damaged me.

Also, Bob and I don’t talk much as we drive. Some bugs, like this grasshopper, could end up in one of our mouths. (Once I swallowed a Junebug! Yuck!)

I wanted to write this blog about getting hit by a grasshopper but had a hard time getting one to stand still long enough to take its picture.

I finally got this photo of two on the ground. I know it’s out of focus, but those bugs are fast. They don’t sit long enough to say ‘cheese’.

Bob and Sunny were on the grasshopper search with me, hunting slower ones that I could capture with my camera.

Just a word of warning, when driving out in the country, wear safety glasses or a helmet and keep your mouth shut.

Better safe than sorry.

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.

Learning a little

August 26, 2019fun, Odds and ends, reviewsusanmanzke

I have been trying to learn German online. I use the free website Duolingo.com. If a person doesn’t want advertisements a student can pay for them to be removed, but I’m too cheap and go for the lessons that are completely free.

I work at duolingo.com from my laptop and cellphone.

There are many more languages on the Duolingo website than German. Here’s the list I gleaned from Wikipedia.

Spanish (22.7M)
French (13.1M)
German (7.47M)
Japanese (5.93M)
Italian (5.17M)
Korean (3.61M)
Mandarin Chinese (3.42M)^[40]
Russian (3.03M)
Brazilian Portuguese (2.22M)
Turkish (1.41M)
Dutch (1.33M)
Swedish (1.13M)
Greek (1.04M)
High Valyrian (1.04M)^[41]
Hindi (980K)
Irish (950K)
Polish (858K)
Hebrew (842K)
Norwegian Bokmål (817K)
Vietnamese (600K)
Danish (524K)
Arabic (504K)^[42]
Hawaiian (496K)^[43]
Romanian (456K)
Czech (412K)
Swahili (368K)
Welsh (357K)
Ukrainian (321K)
Indonesian (320K)^[44]
Esperanto (315K)
Klingon (489K)
Hungarian (328K)
Navajo (288K)

Did you notice you can actually learn Klingon?

A person can also learn English on Duolingo.

This is the perfect learning opportunity for me. German words don’t exactly stick in my memory, but I can review a lesson over and over and over again. No one is judging my progress. I keep going because I want to.

I’ve heard that learning a new language is a good way of keeping your mind sharp as you age. I also know if anyone speaks German to me they will have to do it very slowly, one word at a time, or I won’t understand them.