It’s hard to believe that it is just a few hours to the Memorial Day Weekend. The year is flying by, and I’m just not ready for the fast progression! It is almost summer, but the warm temperatures are already here, along with some rainy/stormy days. Today it rained hard in the morning, but has cleared to a beautiful sunny afternoon.
The garden is almost all planted. I just have some cabbage starts still chilling in the mini greenhouse. I learned last week that Yellow was doing his best to decapitate them one by one. I have now cut off his access and am letting them recover from their trauma before I plant them outside. The tomatoes I got from starts have been planted in their outdoor pots, and seem happy with their transplanting. I also have more tomato starts (that I grew from seed) that aren’t ready to go out.
The Cabbage Murderer on the right
Supposedly, radishes are going to be ready on Monday, if you believe the package that says they are done in 22 days. I’m laughing at that, because they are obviously nowhere near ready! That’s okay though. I can be patient. The snow peas seem to be growing the fastest, they are already about three inches tall with several leaves. I am excited about them, because I love snow peas!
I have now turned my attention to tending the raspberry patch. This house had a ton of raspberry plants, which haven’t been tended to since I’ve been here. As far as I can tell, it appears that there were originally six rows of six plants, for a total of 36. For reasons, I didn’t do any weeding last summer, so the patch is currently a mess of grass, nettle, little oak trees and various other things that need to be removed. I did prune out all of the old dead canes and trimmed up the live growth. I’m working on weeding everything out of the patch now, but it’s taking a bit of time.
On Sunday I took a break from all the yard work to visit Minnesota’s historic two-story outhouse, in Belle Plaine. The historic Hooper-Bowler-Hillstrom House was built in 1871, and the father of a large family reportedly got tired of hearing all the kids tromping up and down the stairs in the middle of the night, so he added another story onto the outhouse structure, and made it accessible via an outdoor upstairs walkway. It is also a rare “five holer.” The historic society that owns the home only does tours on the third Sunday of the month from May through September from 1 – 3 pm, and a few other special occasions. So I had to go when I had the chance!
The home is in rough shape, as it is funded through donations, but the tour of the house was interesting and it was fascinating to see another two story outhouse. The only other one I have seen is in Nevada City, Montana, and you couldn’t look inside. Here’s a link to other two story outhouses, and even a three story one!
While in Belle Plaine, I had lunch at the local Oldenburg Brewing Company, and enjoyed their raspberry hibiscus cider. It was delicious with my gyro. I will certainly visit again! On the way home, I had a chance to visit Trader Joe’s and Cost Plus World Market, and get all my favorite treats! It was a fun adventure day.
Wine and History Visited 