Month: April 2025

Bob and I had a great meet-up and hand-off with Kris, who will be housitting for the remainder of our homeowners’ trip. They chose to split the sit since they weren’t sure if anyone could or would want to do the whole thing. Kris is another experienced house sitter (30+ sits, sometimes with her daughter), who is also a former work colleague of one of the homeowners.

We will definitely miss the super sweet Bijou and Nala but may be coming back in December for a month long sit.

Other photos from our final days in Pella.

A few pics of the tulips in bloom.

And a mystery solved. A design feature that we (Bob first) noticed on many of the buildings downtown (see top level of Jaarsma Bakery and store 2 to the left) is a representation of Danish windows.

After our transfer with Kris, we drove 1.5 hours to Iowa City, home of the University of Iowa to do a repeat housesit for two cats for a week before heading back to Des Moines for more medical procedures for Bob and potentially jury duty for Beth along with one more housesit.

During our walk through with our homeowners they mentioned that we might enjoy a visit to Lake Red Rock, which is close to Pella. We got some additional information about it from a travel brochure that we had picked up downtown. Since no rain was in the forecast for today and it was to be less blustery than it has been, we decided to go check it out.

We started at the park’s Visitor Center, which was about a 15 minute drive from the house. There we learned that Red Rock is actually the largest lake in Iowa. It is 11 miles long and has a water surface of 15,250 acres. The lake and the Red Rock Dam were created by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1969 to reduce the risk of flooding along the Des Moines River. The dam is also used to provide hydroelectric power.

From the Visitors Center, we drove about 18 minutes to Cordova Park to climb the observation tower there and then walk some of the Volksweg Trail.

The Cordova Observation Tower was constructed as a water tower in 1972 as part of the park’s water system. The water tower was 15’ in diameter and 100’ tall. It could hold 130,000 gallons of water. In 1984, the park was able to utilize rural water, so the tower was no longer needed. It was converted into an observation tower in 1998 with the addition of stairs, the observation deck, and a red light on top to help with navigation for boaters. It is the tallest in the Midwest and is recognized as having the tallest and longest continuous fiberglass staircase in the world.

The following are pics from our out and back walk on the Volksweg Trail.

Happy April Fools’ Day! No pranks within this blog however.

On Sunday afternoon, Bob and I drove about 12 minutes due east of us to the local winery in the area, Tassel Ridge. We got there about 3:30 to find that their electricity had gone out. They apologized and said that if we did a tasting, they would have to substitute cheese and crackers for the usual warmed bread with dipping. Since we rarely are offered any food with a paid tasting, that still sounded good to us. There were a couple of tables being served, and we found a table on their patio where there was plenty of natural light and a nice view.

I will not remember this visit for the quality of the wine. Most was okay, but something I would have been disappointed with in a restaurant, but I will remember the staff’s friendliness, professionalism (they had old time credit card carbon-paper receipts ready to go since they couldn’t use their computers), and their generous portions of food and drink, as you’ll see below. They even brought us the bread and oil for free in addition to the cheese and crackers after the electricity came back on.

Today, after a breakfast at a downtown cafe that our homeowners left us a gift card for, and after walking a few blocks in the very cool temps (feels like temp in the high 20s F) to exchange a book at a Free Little Library, we headed to Frisian Farms Cheese House for some locally made, Dutch inspired cheese. Note: the cheese we were served at the winery was a Frisian Farms Gouda.

The farm is located between where we are staying and the winery. It is run by two local men, who eventually both returned to Iowa to pursue the dairy business after realizing they missed the cows their dad sold when his land was annexed by the city. They decided to make Gouda cheese as a nod to their own and the community’s Dutch heritage.

A nice young man talked us through the cheese making process and encouraged us to sample their varieties of Gouda. Not wanting to be rude, we did try a few and bought their flavored herb variety to take with us.