Central Iowa; Wednesday, 30 June 2010 --
Our full day of visit with Sister Hazel started with breakfast at her 20-acre farm. Then chores, including feeding several horses, some of which belong to Hazel. Her prize pony (class: Pony of America -- POA) is Minnie.
She is a beautiful, little horse weighing about 600-700 pounds; like many POA ponies, she is spotted -- NOT pinto --, which is the result of the Appaloosa gene pool from which the POA class was partially derived. My horse, Queen, would have fit in this class as far as her size was concerned, but she was broader in her body and her weight of 800 pounds exceeded that permitted under the POA classification, and her ancestry did not include the Apaloosa.
Later in the day, we drove over to Tom's house where he showed us his flowers, vegetable garden and fruit trees.
Tom's vegetable garden was not large, consisting of a few prolific tomatoes and a couple rows of root vegetables, including onions. He was especially proud of the three or four varieties of blueberry bushes that he had.
This one, pictured, was particularly impressive with its bunches of ripening berries. Of course we all picked one or two from each bush to sample their different taste.
In his backyard, but not nearly as photogenic, Tom had two or three varieties of pears, a peach tree (but no fruit this year) and a crabapple tree. Most of the apples he had encased in a Nylon "bootie" or special biodegradable protector made in Japan; this is how the Fuji apples were originally (and still are!) grown in Japan, to prevent the invasion of pests such as the Coddling Moth (or Apple Maggot). Grumpy was particularly interested in this aspect, since his apples have been the target of the pesky worm each year.
Here pictured (right to left) are Paul, Mother, Hazel & Grumpy, after our farewell meal together at the Apple Inn restaurant next door to our motel. We each had a choice steak, cooked medium rare, with fresh steamed vegetables; Paul had a hamburger and a piece of apple pie; Hazel and Grumpy shared a decadent chocolate "mud pie" with vanilla ice cream; Mother was frugal with a single dip of ice cream.
We would leave early the next morning, hoping to change our next night's stay from Mitchell, where we had reservations, to Chamberlain SD.
She is a beautiful, little horse weighing about 600-700 pounds; like many POA ponies, she is spotted -- NOT pinto --, which is the result of the Appaloosa gene pool from which the POA class was partially derived. My horse, Queen, would have fit in this class as far as her size was concerned, but she was broader in her body and her weight of 800 pounds exceeded that permitted under the POA classification, and her ancestry did not include the Apaloosa.
In his backyard, but not nearly as photogenic, Tom had two or three varieties of pears, a peach tree (but no fruit this year) and a crabapple tree. Most of the apples he had encased in a Nylon "bootie" or special biodegradable protector made in Japan; this is how the Fuji apples were originally (and still are!) grown in Japan, to prevent the invasion of pests such as the Coddling Moth (or Apple Maggot). Grumpy was particularly interested in this aspect, since his apples have been the target of the pesky worm each year.
We would leave early the next morning, hoping to change our next night's stay from Mitchell, where we had reservations, to Chamberlain SD.
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