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Another day at the office 9-30-06

Soapweed

Well-known member
Thestartofalongride.jpg

The start of a long day
Earlymorningride.jpg

Early morning ride
Theappledoesfallfarfromthetree.jpg

The apple does fall far from the tree, in fact the apple is bigger than the tree.
Deerinthehills.jpg

Deer in the hills
Ridingdownthetrail.jpg

Riding along
PeachBlossomagainII.jpg

After each riding a portion of a two section pasture, I met up again with Peach Blossom
Fearnot.jpg

Her motto: "Fear Not"
Gatheringatawindmill.jpg

Gathering at a windmill
Goodwater.jpg

Tanking up on drinks for the trip
Anotherdrinkfortheroad.jpg

One more drink for the road
Theyalmosthavethesameexpressiono-1.jpg

They almost have identical expressions on their expressionless faces. :wink:
Linedoutheadedforhome.jpg

Lined out headed for home
Hesalert.jpg

He's a lert. The world needs more lerts.
Gatheringthenorthcountry.jpg

Gathering the north country
Therearestillafewlingeringsunflower.jpg

There are still a few lingering sunflowers
Yellowstoneaprettygoodhorse.jpg

Yellowstone, a pretty good horse
Moreyearlingheifersatthenextwindmil.jpg

More yearling heifers at the next windmill
Gatheringcowsandcalvesfromanotherpa.jpg

Rounding up cows and calves from another pasture
Stringingdownthetrail.jpg

Stringing down the trail
Anotherdrinkforanotherroad.jpg

Another drink for another road
Tracksinthetrail.jpg

Tracks in the trail
Nicetoseewaterinthewaterholes.jpg

Nice to see water in the water holes
Almosthome.jpg

Almost home
Afterdinnerwecorraledthepairstoprec.jpg

After dinner we corraled the pairs so we could precondition these heifer calves.
Ourthreehardworkingpartners.jpg

Our three hard-working partners
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
Faster horses said:
Great pictures, Soapweed.

How many windmills do you have?

Awhile back I erroneously said we had seventy. That counts electric pumps and corral waterers. We do have 58 windmills that are all working right now, as far as I know. All are pumping excellent water, and you can get a good cool drink out of any of them.
 

jigs

Well-known member
not many wind mills around here anymore, but right after I was married I helped a 83 year old man in the FlintHills. we went out to run fence and get the pasture ready for cattle. he climbed up that mill wrapped a leg and leaned back ....I was shocked!

once he returned to the ground I asked if he wanted me to do that, and his repy

" if the day comes that I can not service my mills, then start diggin, because there will be a funeral pretty soon."

he has since passed on, but I learned a lot from that man. he was 60 years my senior, and I had to hustle to keep up with him!!!
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
Wind makes a real good source of power. It is free and there's a lot of it. Aermotor makes a good windmill. Many of our old Aermotors have been up for twenty-thirty years. We change the oil in them once every year. If they fail for any reason, they can be replaced with either a reconditioned mill or a new one, which are now made in Argentina. Windmills are pretty hard to beat as a source for stock water, and they tend to look picturesque as they do their duty. :wink:

We have a windmill on a hill right above our corrals. At one time, it filled a reservoir that held water for the corral system. That has been replaced with electric well water, but the windmill on the hill has a hundred feet of plastic lead pipe that fills an eleven foot tank at the bottom of the hill. I just like looking out at the windmill first thing every morning to see what direction the wind is from and how fast it is blowing. The noise of the windmill in operation is just rather comforting for some reason, and reminds me that I live on an honest-to-goodness cattle ranch.
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
I've often said there's not much I miss about West Texas, I don't miss the 90mph non stop wind from Feb to June, or the blowin sand. I don't miss the Mesquite too terribly much, it is good wood for bbq'n, but we have hickory and pecan wood here. And I don't miss the hail and Tornadoes. All that said, this thread got me to thankin, there's alot of windmills out there, and I guess it was somethin taken for granted....because I do miss the windmills. Right off the top of my head, there's only one windmill that I know of in about a 30 mile radius of us. But.....there is one down at the barn that we have future plans of puttin up, all our cattle water is dependant strictly on rainfall fillin up the tanks (ponds) and sometimes that's just not dependable. We've never had any in the pasture go dry (knock on wood) but we do have a small one that's in the adjoinin Grass lot next to our workin corrals that does go dry. Then we hafta haul water if there's anything in the corrals at the time.
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
WE have lots of windmills around from years gone by but most are not running anymore unless they are the new windpark style windmills that seem to sproutng all over the place. I can think of at least 3 windmill still standing on this farm but most don't have the fan anymore and none have pumped water for years (Under most of them they have installed sandpoint wells)...

Have thought about maybe putting up some in areas we have no water anymore so we can run cows on stalks easier.. We have lots of wind here and nary a day goes by without a real good breeze... How deep can they pull water up from? Often wondered.. maybe it is time to hit the google.. The price of bringing in electricity and than the price of electricty is insane around here.... Just nuts.
 

JF Ranch

Well-known member
In my opinion, the windmill is one of the wonders of the world. Whoever designed it was truly remarkable. I'm mainly referring to the Aermotor brand, because it is the make that has stood the test of time around these parts. Others were made but outside of museums, the Aermotor is about the only brand in use today.

Just think about how many times that motor makes a revolution in an hour, day, month... Once we figured out an estimate of how many strokes a windmill made in a year, then translated that into how many gallons of water it pumped. I don't remember what the figures were but they boggled my mind.

All of this work is done with relatively little maintenance. Yes, the oil should checked or changed once each year, but otherwise it is mainly taken for granted. When parts do wear out, they can be replaced almost like new and continue on for another lifetime!

Windmills are an amazing machine aside from any romantic symbolism connected to them.
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
JF Ranch said:
In my opinion, the windmill is one of the wonders of the world. Whoever designed it was truly remarkable. I'm mainly referring to the Aermotor brand, because it is the make that has stood the test of time around these parts. Others were made but outside of museums, the Aermotor is about the only brand in use today.

Just think about how many times that motor makes a revolution in an hour, day, month... Once we figured out an estimate of how many strokes a windmill made in a year, then translated that into how many gallons of water it pumped. I don't remember what the figures were but they boggled my mind.

All of this work is done with relatively little maintenance. Yes, the oil should checked or changed once each year, but otherwise it is mainly taken for granted. When parts do wear out, they can be replaced almost like new and continue on for another lifetime!

Windmills are an amazing machine aside from any romantic symbolism connected to them.

Yes, but the "romance" is just frosting on the cake. :wink:
 

Jassy

Well-known member
I tend to agree with soapweed about the romance of a windmill. Not only are they functional and neccessary for a ranch to survive...they make great things to take pictures of. Every windmill has it's own surroundings and it's own beauty. There's just something peaceful about moving cows to a windmill and getting that refreshing drink for beast and humans.

Ok soapweed...I tried taking pictures while riding my horse...but he doesn't cooperate very well...standing still isn't his best attribute..lol I so enjoy your story telling through the photo's...Thanks for sharing with us.
 
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