Category Archives: Sunnybook Farm

Expert driver

October 4, 2019Farming, Odds and ends, Sunnybook Farm, worksusanmanzke

Yesterday afternoon I was on the Internet visiting face to face with friend, Pauline, in Tasmania. At the same time, Bob was waiting for a truck to arrive to pick up the corpse of an old tractor.

I didn’t know exactly when Bob went outside. I was too involved with Pauline. We hadn’t connected in months and I didn’t want to miss the time with her–it was 3:45 pm Thursday here and 6:45 am Friday in Hobart, Tasmania. You can see why it’s hard to connect at the same time.

If I had been outside, I would have taken photos of the tractor (missing one large back wheel) as it was loaded on the truck. Bob was impressed with the process.

Months ago, someone else tried loading that tractor and couldn’t. He left it out in a spot where it was in the way. We were so glad when this truck came and was successful with the loading.

I arrived as the last chains were set in place after the tractor was loaded.

The truck couldn’t use our farm driveway as that is just mushy from all the rain. He was sure to have gotten stuck there.

Instead, he had to back out between our buildings, which was a tight squeeze.

I held my breath as he backed out. The mirrors on his truck were sure to hit the building.

No worries. This expert driver knew exactly what he was doing and was soon on the road with his load.

Both Bob and I were impressed.

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.

Still waiting

August 21, 2019gardening, nature, Sunnybook Farmsusanmanzke

Cosmos flowers are one of my favorites–I have many favorites.

The trouble is that this year I’m still waiting for my cosmos to bloom. The plants are tall, but because I started my current cosmos directly from seed to the ground, they are taking forever to produce buds, let alone blooms.

It doesn’t help that quite a few of my daylilies didn’t survive our winter so we don’t have them to add color to our yard.

Oh, well, I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer for my cosmos to brighten my summer. Maybe next year, I’ll remember to start a few cosmos seeds in the house in April.