Vermont - Day 24 - horses and bears

Shelburne Area Campground, near Burlington
Sunday, 24 June 2018

The campground I've stayed in the last few nights has a small population of rabbits, that we see occasionally when we're out for walks - especially early in the morning.  Today I saw one right outside the RV, and Dexter did too.

Look just to the left of Dexter's head.  Dext was riveted.  The rabbit never noticed.

I also learned a new bird at this campground - the catbird.  I've been seeing a bird for weeks that looked to me just like a mockingbird but without the white markings.  And then the last few days I've realized it was a bird I was hearing making those sounds much like a cat, and I finally put it all together and looked it up in the bird book and, sure enough, there it was right above the mockingbird.  No idea how I'd missed it earlier.

a catbird - they're bigger than this makes it look

today's route

North of the campground today I saw an unusual statue by the side of the road.  It was possibly wood or maybe concrete - sturdy, whatever it was because it was the figure of a King Kong type ape holding one arm straight into the sky with an old Volkswagen Beetle on its hand.

I passed a store called the Vermont Flannel Co. store and wished I weren't living in an RV so could dream up an excuse for going in to see what they had.  Although, silly me, I was thinking in terms of bolts of fabric, not ready-made clothing.  Just as well because I'd certainly have spent more than I should.

In Weybridge, not far north of yesterday's campground is the original Morgan Horse Farm, run by the University of Vermont.  I've never been more than mildly interested in horses, even when I was a kid - it was my sister Louise who was horse-crazy.  But this still seemed like it might be interesting, and it was.

This breed of horse was established by a man named Justin Morgan who, in 1789, bred a horse he called Figure.  Figure was part thoroughbred and part Arabian; he was short, strong, muscled, even-tempered, and good looking, a good work horse with endurance.  When he was bred to mares, the offspring always had his characteristics - a very dominate strain, apparently - and people wanted the horses with those characteristics because they were so useful.  Figure died in 1821, having established a substantial line of progeny.

front view of the barn

rear view of the barn

Fast forward 50 years to 1878, when this barn was built by Joseph Battell, a very wealthy man with a strong social conscience and a love of horses.  What he wanted to do at this farm was preserve the Morgan horse breed, which was being gradually bred out of existence, in favor of showier characteristics.  Battell did extensive research to trace the Morgan horses - those currently living and their ancestors - and he carefully began a breeding program to reestablish the original characteristics.

I took these barn photos because I couldn't believe how elaborate this building is.  It really is just a barn, just as it has been for 140 years.  If you can blow up these photos, look at the window details - even in the rear.

Anyway, Battell gave the farm to the US Government in 1906 and for the next 50 years the government continued the breeding program.  Morgan horses turned out to be very brave and were used as cavalry horses.  In the 1950s the University of Vermont took over the farm for the purpose of continuing and improving the breed.

These photos are all Morgan horses.  Most are yearlings.  They currently have 200 horses at the farm.  If you want one of your own, they hold a raffle every year for a colt from that year's crop; you can get information about it online.

And because I looked at some of the exhibits they have in the barn, I'm able to tell you that a horse has the largest eyeball of any land mammal.  Also that because horses have their eyes on the sides of their heads, their brains have to sort out the 2 images to make one image, but the horse's monocular vision is better than its binocular vision.

It was very interesting and I didn't dare let the dogs out of the RV for a walk because I was sure Dexter would get overly excited.  He tends to growl at large animals (cows, horses) he sees from the windows.  But I remember my Old English Sheepdog Charlie not being worried about horses at all and followed one too closely and got kicked.  So you never know.

After the farm, I drove into Middlebury looking for the Danforth Pewter Co.  It turned out to be smack in downtown and I found it only when I was out with the dogs and was pretty sure they shouldn't be in a store so didn't go.  The pewter people make their own stuff and it's really nice stuff, from what I could see.

One of Middlebury's claims to fame is its waterfall smack in the middle of town.

Just on the other side of those buildings is Main Street.  That bridge and many of the buildings were burned down in the late 1800s and were rebuilt by Joseph Battell, Mr. Morgan horse rebuilder.  This sign explains what happened.  I thought it was interesting that it was the same man.  Like I said - social conscience.

I really liked Middlebury.  It was quaint without being cute and seemed very pleasant.  I took these other photos there.

this shop is made of marble

seems to be what happens to our old tires

John Deere was hanging around too.

Middlebury College reminds me a lot of Southwestern University back in the late 60s when I first went there - lots of green lawns and old buildings.
As I drove northward toward Burlington, I noticed the mountains started flattening out.  I was in the Lake Champlain valley and could, in fact, see the lake pretty often from the road.  I haven't spent any time yet in the far northeast part of the state, but from the drive today I'm guessing it turns from mountains into rolling hills.

Just a few miles south of today's campground is something I've been looking forward to: the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory.  And it's worth looking forward to.  I took the tour, which was seriously full of almost un-bear-able puns but still fun.  Here's what I learned.

These bears were born in Vermont and can prove it - a genuine VT Teddy Bear has eyes that, if you look very carefully, say "born in Vermont" in them.

They use 200 yards of fur to make 750 bears each day, and each bear is made of 14 layers of fabric.  Because that's a fair amount of weight when the fabric is spread out on the cutting table, they blow air under it like on an air hockey table to help move it under the press.  The press uses 34,000 pounds of pressure to meld the 14 layers together, and then the different parts are cut out.

The eyes and the moveable limbs are attached with locking washers so the more the little kid tries to pull them out, the more they tighten, which means there's never a choking hazard.

The stuffing is made from shredded recycled plastic bottles that are blown into fluffiness.  A 15" bear takes ¾ pound of stuffing (which is a fair amount of plastic bottles, when you think about it).

In the gift shop they had some bears that I can and some that I can't find on their website. Bears   The ones I can't find are for the Shriners Hospital, with a portion of the sale price donated to the hospital, and the Right to Bear Hugs bear.  The ones I was most surprised and impressed with were the Limb Loss/Limb Difference Bears.  Those bears are made missing an arm or leg and are expected to help children of military personnel or children with birth defects or those in traumatic accidents.  It just never entered my head these might be needed but I'm glad it entered theirs.  You can special order a particular style.

All in all, you can't possibly come out of there without smiling.

I stopped at a grocery store on the way to the campground and ended doing a stunning parking job.

This is how I thought I was parking.

This is what was happening on the other side.  There's not even a full inch clearance.  I have no idea how that could have happened.