 What's the deal with the black & white saddle shoes?  Click here for the story of our farm in Greene County, Iowa. Here's looking at life at Simple Serenity Farm  We've had very little snow so far this winter. Saturday morning, January 14, brought a reminder of just how pretty a light snow can be. Just over an inch fell in the wee hours, and the countryside was beautiful at wake-up time. Click here for larger format Earlier photos in this series
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"Poggensee's Postcards"
The 32nd annual Winter Games at the University of Okoboji were held Jan. 27-29 in mild weather & little snow Photographer Don Poggensee reports that he took-in the Friday night and Saturday activity of the 32nd University of Okoboji Winter Games this past weekend, Jan. 27-29, at the Iowa Great Lakes.
''With the lack of snow and safe ice, many of the events were move to vacant lots or cancelled,'' Poggensee said. ''We attended the chili cook-off on Friday night; men's broomball games on Saturday; the 'Freeze Your Fanny' bike ride, for which it was very cold and windy; the 'Snowball Drop;; the 'Chocolate & Sweets Classic,' and yes, those shoes you see in the one photo are pure chocolate.''
The Polaris Company sponsored snowmobile demonstration rides for kids, and also the much-anticipated ''Polar Bear Plunge,'' which has people in swim suits jumping through holes cut in the ice on Lake Okoboji into the frigid waters.
With so little snow, there were far fewer snowmobile riders than usual at the Winter Games, but officials estimated they still had a crowd of about 30,000. The temperature on Saturday stayed in the low 30s.
The gorgeous photographic views of Iowa and its people which are appearing as "Poggensee's Postcards" on this Internet site are the work of photographer Don Poggensee of Ida Grove in northwest Iowa. Poggensee has been studying and working in both photography and aviation for nearly 40 years. His favorite places to shoot include Alaska, the Arctic and Prince Edward Island, but Iowa has provided him with his most frequent scenes and subjects. He estimates he has over 200,000 shots of Iowa in his photographic library. He was corporate pilot for 30 years for Gomaco, the Ida Grove company that manufactures road-building equipment used around the world as well as classic trolley cars. After his retirement from corporate aviation, he continued to manage a digital photo lab for Gomaco until fully retiring in the summer of 2011. Poggensee continues to be involved in a framing and matting studio, as well as a stock photo business called Wind Rider Images. His photos have been published in over 60 magazines, in about 20 books and on many calendars, greeting cards and posters. He also writes an occasional guest column here on this Internet site. In early December 2009, a display of 150 of Poggensee's best photos opened at the Iowa Hall of Pride in Des Moines. To read more about that display, click here. You can e-mail him at donpog@netllc.net |
