Fourth of July (Part 3)

I've blogged about the Watermelon House several times over the years, most recently when we revisited it on Christmas. Pat and I thought it might be fun to show it to his brother, Gene, who's never seen it before. Just out of dumb luck the property owner happened to be standing in the driveway when we arrived! His name is Jim and he was happy to answer all of our questions. For the first time I was able to satisfy my curiosity about the Watermelon House. He told us that it was built 15 or so years ago, and its original purpose was to be a health food store. This would explain the complicated cooling equipment on the right side of the building. According to Jim, the property belongs to his family, and the proprietor of the health food store was essentially leasing the space for the structure. Unfortunately, the little store never achieved liftoff, and so the Watermelon House has just sat here, unoccupied for all this time. It's charming as heck and I love this quirky little building. Jim told me that soon he'll be a full time beekeeper (he already has several hives in the field beyond) and that he'll be selling his homegrown honey from the Watermelon House. You can bet I'll make the drive for that!

Here are a few more pictures I took since Jim kindly allowed us onto the property.

Here's Jim!

This rudbeckia is actually across the street from the Watermelon House, but that yellow is so cheerful I thought I'd include it in today's post.