Month: March 2025

Today we stopped into a museum that we regularly drive by when going between downtown Pella and the house we are watching. It is associated with and on the campus of the Vermeer Corporation. This international manufacturer of agricultural and industrial equipment is headquartered in Pella on a campus known as The Mile. It borders a one mile stretch of road, now named Vermeer Road, starting with Plant 1 and ending at the property where fonder, Gary Vermeer lived and raised his family. The museum is located in the Global Pavilion at the one end of the campus.

The museum was free to visit and even has a gift shop, if you’re so inclined. It provided an informative overview of the corporation’s history, charitable efforts, agricultural and industrial equipment lines, and even a few ideas that never really caught on.

There was a whole exhibit on the effects of a tornado that hit the plant on July 19, 2018. 400 guests from around the world and nearly 3,000 team members were on site celebrating Vermeer’s 70th anniversary. Towards the end of the day, the campus sustained a hit from an EF3 tornado,, with wind speeds reaching 144 mph. While no major physical injuries or loss of life occurred, there was quite a bit of destruction to the campus as shown on the photos below.

As non-farmers, there was a lot of information that was helpful for us in learning about the many processes that the Vermeer equipment was designed to help facilitate/improve.

Additional exhibitions detailed their expansion into the design and manufacturing of industrial equipment, including for landscaping/clearing land and the laying of pipelines or utilities.

My favorite section might have been the 10 innovations that didn’t make it, just ‘cause that seemed like something most companies might not share.

All in all, it was a pretty interesting museum. We would recommend to others. The price is right, the exhibits are helpful without being overwhelming, and if you are really impressed, the gift shop sells some quality items.

One of the main sights on the main square in Pella is the Vermeer Windmill. It was designed in the Netherlands and disassembled and shipped to Pella for reassembly in 2002. It’s replica of an 1850s city mill that would be built high on a hill to catch the wind. At 12 stories high and 124’ from ground to blade tip, it’s the tallest working mill in the US.

Bob and I decided not to spend the $40 that it would have cost for both of us to tour the windmill, but we did check out the very cute gift shop. Instead, we decided to walk around Central College near downtown. Central College is a private college that is associated with the Reformed Church in America. It was established in 1853 and has been accredited since 1942. It has an enrollment of just over 1,000 students.

After our walk around campus, we checked out a cute local market down the street.

So on the evening of the same day we left our Ankeny housesit (Wednesday), and after a brief visit with Bob’s sister and brother-in-law, we made the short drive (just over an hour) to meet our new homeowners in Pella. We met them at the Liberty Street Kitchen in downtown Pella for dinner before following them to their house, which is about 6 miles out. (Side note, if you ever find yourself in Pella, Iowa, we highly recommend Liberty Street Kitchen, which is located inside the Amsterdam Hotel.)

Our homeowners were so lovely, and we had a thorough walk through at the house before we turned in. The homeowners are now in Paris taking a French language immersion course. It sounds a bit intimidating, but they’ve taken other courses before and really enjoy it. In the meantime, we are in the lovely town of Pella, caring for Nala and Bijou, 2 female Golden Retrievers (as was our dog in Ankeny). As they have a large yard to run around in, they are mostly outdoor dogs and sleep in crates in the garage. They are very sweet natured.

Pella is a city of about 10,000 about 40 miles southeast of Des Moines. It was founded by immigrants from the Netherlands, a fact of which they are very proud. The city is also home to the Pella Corporation (maker of windows and doors) and Vermeer Manufacturing (maker of industrial and agricultural equipment). A famous former resident of Pella is Wyatt Earp, who lived in Pella as a child, long before he became a lawman in the Wild West.

This morning we walked around the main city square as well as a bit off the square, and their pride in their heritage was evident.

There is also a still working windmill downtown that we hope to visit tomorrow.

Last Wednesday Bob and I left the Residence Inn in downtown Des Moines to return to Ankeny for our second sit with Flynn and Sweet Pea. This time we are here for a week so will be leaving this coming Wednesday.

All of these housesits in the greater Des Moines area is helping better understand the layout of the various communities in and around Des Moines. Ankeny is a city of about 68,000 that lies a bit northeast of the city of Des Moines. The one thing that Bob and I know it for is the rail trail (decommissioned railroad line) that runs through it — the 25 mile long High Trestle Trail.

Bob and I walked about 20 minutes from where we’re staying and walked north on the trail for a bit into and out of Ankeny’s small Uptown area. We unfortunately didn’t get to the scenic High Trestle Trail Bridge, which is lit daily from sunset until midnight.

It is always good, and a bit humbling at this age, to learn about something of which you were previously unfamiliar. One of the buildings that we had been encouraged to check out while in Des Moines was the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates building. Neither Bob nor I had heard of the building and it brought no clear picture to mind as to what it was about. Today, we took a free guided tour with Bob’s sister and brother-in-law (who did know about the building and its purpose) and about 10 others, to learn more about the building.

The building itself is architecturally attractive and interesting, and it served as the Des Moines Central Public Library from 1903 until 2003, when it underwent a nearly $30 million renovation to become the Dr. Norman E. Borlaug World Food Prize Hall of Laureates.

Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, a native Iowan, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his lifetime of work to feed a hungry world. Specifically, he created new wheat varieties that transformed agriculture production in the 1940s and ‘50s and later in Asia and Latin America, sparking what is now known as the GreenRevolution. Because of his work, he is known as the man who has saved more lives than any other person in history. Very impressive!

He felt strongly that the Nobel Committee should give a prize for work in food and agriculture because of its importance for humanity. Apparently, the Nobel Committee is not allowed to give a prize in that area, so Dr. Borlaug helped lead an effort to annually bestow the World Food Prize to recognize contributions in any field related to the world food supply. The first prize was awarded in 1986.

Bob and I have wanted to visit the Iowa capitol that we can see from our hotel. We were particularly interested in the law library, as we had heard how beautiful that was supposed to be. We decided today was the day to explore that part of Iowa’s capital city.

The current capitol sits atop a hill at the end of Locust Avenue. It was completed in 1886. It is topped by a 23 karat gold covered dome, which was most recently regilded in 1999 for approximately $482,000.

The public enters on the ground floor (basement) of the capitol and goes through a quick screening process. The information desk had a helpful brochure for self-guided tours.

The State Law Library of Iowa occupies the entire west wing of the second floor and contains over 100,000 volumes. The quote above the door, which is unfortunately way too relevant with the current administration, reads, “Where law ends, tyranny begins.”

After our tour of the capitol, we walked through the East Village, where I stumbled on a Free Little Library to change out a book, and on into downtown to catch the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Bob and I have been moving around the greater Des Moines area catching up on doctor appointments and unfortunately also fighting a stomach or viral bug as well. However, we’re both feeling 100% once again.

Currently, we are staying at a Residence Inn Hotel in downtown Des Moines. We arrived yesterday afternoon and will be here until Wednesday morning when we return to Ankeny for our second housesit. After that, we have back-to-back-to-back housesits in the area until almost the end of April, along with a few more doctor’s appointments and procedures and maybe jury duty as well.

Today we decided to get out and walk part of Des Moines’ impressive trail system. It was in the lower 30s F when we headed out, with feel-like temps in the 20s. We headed out along the River, eventually making our way to and around Gray’s Lake for about a 6 mile walk.

We initially crossed the Red Bridge over the river but ended up having to come back as construction had the trail closed on that side.

Bob and I wrapped up our first Ankeny housesit midday yesterday. We don’t often say this, but we were happy to go. The very energetic Flynn made us both feel our age. We did make a bit of progress with him in terms of understanding how to moderate his behavior a bit so are hopeful for a calmer sit when we return later this month.

We are currently spending 5 free nights at a Baymont Hotel that we have earned from our secondary hotel program. After stopping to pick up groceries, we were delighted to arrive at our large room to exhale before watching the Oscars (or at least part of it). I need to get my annual fix of gawking at gorgeous dresses. However, we were disappointed/dismayed/ frustrated to find that neither TV in our room could be properly controlled by the remote or the buttons on the units themselves. That is, they could turn on the TV and they could control the volume, but they couldn’t pull up the channel guide or change the channel. Even worse, the channels that they were stuck on were Fox News on one and some kind of auto racing or truck racing on the other. Two programs/channels we would never have voluntarily chosen.

Based on instructions from the front desk, we tried reprogramming both tvs to no avail. The nice young front desk person came up, and she also was unsuccessful. She sent up two of her compatriots. They managed to get one tv to ABC to watch the Oscars but then it was stuck there. Finally, this morning after 2 trips to the room the maintenance guy was able to get both units fully functional. With all the world events, this is obviously a very little issue, but it would have been a long 5 nights without any tv, especially as we couldn’t comfortably watch at our last housesit, as Flynn saw that as his playroom.

Anyhoo, today has been lovely. We ran a couple of errands and then got out on a nearby trail that Bob found for us to enjoy what may be the last decent weather day for a few days.

We walked a few miles of the 19 mile Great Western Trail that opened in 1992. We encountered 1 runner and a number of cyclists using the trail.