Happy Gardens

It's been too long since I've posted!  Spring is a busy season, we've been adding on to our veggie garden space and I think everything is happily in the ground now too.  I just want to share some of my pretty spring flowers!

Happy Earth Day!

gnomes love the little blooms, just their size

Last night, I heard the gnomes in my wild grove getting ready for their biggest celebration of the year - Earth Day.  Luckily we humans picked the same week - they had been celebrating spring for ages.  So both coincide and they are so happy we finally joined them!  It's a special reason to celebrate today after all of the much needed rain!

a Gnome Home entrance

I've noticed a couple of baby "chicks" missing, I'm sure the gnomes love these little plants too!

I just got a glimpse of this little purple hat disappearing, probably a teenager who stayed up too late!

Happy Spring!

Gnome Homes above downtown Granite Falls

Our family had a tour of the upstairs of the Second Time Around shop in downtown Granite Falls.  It's been virtually untouched for years and our imaginations are full of ideas for it's potential uses.  However, in the end we decided the price is too high and we'll have to leave it for the gnomes.  Surely they have moved in up there!

I didn't take a photo of the exterior that day, but this one shows part of the building on the far left, with the boarded up windows upstairs.  I think there would be river views from those windows but couldn't tell.

These are photos of the interior, obviously the space was always used for offices, and from the back it seems there were once two buildings combined into one.

The basement if also fascinating, especially this old sign painted onto the wall-

The main floor is a nicely remodeled space, but of course we like the older interesting stuff better!  If any of my readers are interested in this building contact me and I'll put you in touch with the seller.

Orwoll house gnomes are upset about this!

The historic Orwoll/Orwell house on the corner of 9th Ave and 2nd St. in Granite Falls is scheduled for demolition for no other reason than the owners didn't keep up maintenance and replace broken windows.  What a waste of a beautiful old Victorian that is in great shape otherwise.  My daughter is in a group trying to keep this from happening, see her post   http://youngruralpreservationist.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/please-dont-go-orwoll-house/
You can help by signing the online petition 

Meanwhile my Grove Gnomes are making room for more displaced house gnomes from downtown Granite Falls, just in case!

Arts Economy Rises on the Southwest Prairie | Minnesota Public Radio News

The community of Granite Falls already has some wonderful artists and we're hoping that more see the charm of our town and decide to move here, this article from Minnesota Public Radio describes the benefits that art can have to an economy, the gnomes are excited too!

Arts Economy Rises on the Southwest Prairie | Minnesota Public Radio News

The gnomes are upset since I haven't been posting any news in a while.Since we're snowed in for the first time this winter,  I've just created an account on pinterest.  I can see where this can get addicting!  So the first board I did was about octagon houses, of course  .http://pinterest.com/octagonhouse/victorian-octagon-houses/
If any of my blog followers have a pinterest account, please let me know and we can follow each other.
 I'll be back here soon with a new blog about our exciting art gallery at the K.K. Berge Building in Granite Falls.

Boring water stuff.....

Well I've posted views out of my living room windows on here before, today it's something different!  We finally got our new well hooked up so we can apply for our B and B license, here are some more boring pictures of the new system and holding tank in the basement -

Now that we have enough water, we found it wasn't going down the drain as before.  It turns out our lack of snow caused the sewer line to freeze.  So the septic tank is pumped and now my husband has the enviable task of trying to thaw out the line!  I guess the north side of the house wasn't the best spot for the septic tank!