The reason why Mom and Aunt Judy and Aunt Linda went to Oklahoma was so that they could be judges at the Central Oklahoma cactus club show. Judges are very important people who get to say which plants look the best and which ones should get blue ribbons and red ribbons and so forth. The Oklahoma show was very small, and the reasons why it was so small were (1) the club had not had a judged show for several years, and (2) three of the people who would have entered a lot of nice plants in the show were either out of town, in the hospital, or dead.
So the whole show fit on a few tables, and it didn't take long to judge it. Which was good because after the judging, Mom and Aunt Linda and Aunt Judy had more time to shop for new plants to buy.
This is the plant that won the "Best Succulent" award. It's called a
Haworthia truncata, and it looks like its leaves got eaten off by a rabbit or something. But they didn't get eaten off. That's just the way the plant grows.
After lunch, the three judges got to go see where Aunt Joyce and Uncle Jim live. Aunt Joyce has a great big, huge greenhouse with a ton of plants in it. And she sells these plants, and that is how she makes money. Sometimes she even comes to Kansas City to sell plants. Uncle Jim does not sell plants. He teaches in a university, and what he teaches is history, or at least Mom thinks that is what he teaches, but she can't remember for sure.
Here's the greenhouse behind the house where Aunt Joyce and Uncle Jim live. They just moved there a few months ago, and they had this greenhouse built. Also they had the fence built.
There are some funny signs on the fence.
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| Pumpkin, Pickle, and Sugar |
But I think that the very best thing about Aunt Joyce's house is that she and Uncle Jim have three dogs. Mom liked the dogs, and she took some pictures of them because she knew I would want to see them. And she was right about that!
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| Pumpkin |
Aunt Joyce said these dogs are pomapoos, which means they are part pomeranian and part poodle.
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| Pickle and Pumpkin |
I think they look lots more like poodles than like pomeranians, but nobody asked my opinion.
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| Sugar in the greenhouse |
All three dogs are girls, and they all live outdoors all the time. I think this kind of sad, but nobody asked me about this, either.
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| Sugar |
At least the dogs have a nice, new shed for a doghouse, and inside, it has dog beds for them. Aunt Joyce said that there will be heat in the shed this winter, so that is good.
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| Pumpkin and Sugar |
During the summer, the dogs have a shady spot where they can hang out under the tree, with a big dish of water. Mom said it seemed pretty cool in the shade, even though the temperature was almost 100ยบ, and it was really, really hot inside the greenhouse.
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| Sugar |
Mom does not like it when people leave their dogs outside all the time. I told her she should have brought Pickle, Pumpkin, and Sugar home with her to be my sisters, but Mom said that was not a good idea because Aunt Joyce and Uncle Jim would miss them. Also she said the dogs have a good life in Oklahoma, even if they don't get to go in the house. And besides that, we already have our Legal Limit of Dogs (plus two cats). And Mom also said that if she had to live with three dogs who were named after food, she would feel hungry all the time!
