Liberty Belle
Well-known member
I am one of the lucky people on Soapweed's father's who gets Bob's newspaper column via email. I so enjoyed this one that I got permission from him to share it with ranchers.net.
#163 FRIENDS AND FANCIES
by Bob Moreland
The Spearhead crew weaned 250 replacement heifers here at the “Green Valley” yesterday. Steve stopped in early this morning and said the waterers down in the corrals, where the calves would be drinking, were dry. The supply for them comes from the windmill and reservoir up on the hill. Luckily we have a back up system and can change a valve in the basement and pump water up into the reservoir by the windmill, from the house well or, when electricity goes off, we can run water from the reservoir to the house. Steve and Marty changed the leathers on the well but the wind hasn’t blown much since.
When we came to the ranch, in 1947, that windmill watered the corrals and garden by quite an extensive pipeline system but a pump behind the house furnished the house water. You carried it in a bucket at a time. Ten years later we planted a lawn and spliced into the line about half way between the windmill and the corral and borrowed a backhoe. During the summer we can irrigate the lawn with “free water” pumped by the old windmill.
If there is such a thing as a famous windmill on our ranch that has to be the one. It has probably been there nearly 100 years, at first, pumping into a big reservoir with the sidewalls plastered on the sand as the dirt was excavated. It was probably 30 by 40 feet with a shingled roof over it.
We were calving in the early 1950s with many cattle depending on the reservoir. One cold morning in February there was no water in the corrals. I went up to check it out to find one side of the reservoir had caved in on the outlet. As I lifted the trap door and detected the problem, I was practically in a state of shock. At the same time my pipe came out of my jacket pocket and fell through the trap door. I took the Prince Albert can from my other pocket, gave it a heave, never to smoke again!
The cave-in created many problems: driving cattle to water, running hoses out of the house well, and drilling a new well as soon as we could get Gail Avery to come. Dale Greenamyre came in the spring and built a new reservoir with cement blocks.
I took a picture of the “famous” windmill with a rainbow in the background. Vedah Galloway saw it and liked it enough that she had Joan Buckles paint a picture of it. I decided that if it was that good I would use it in connection with cards to friends with an appropriate poem for various occasions. I have used the picture in prominent places in a couple books I have written and Mona Hurst, photographer from Farm and Ranch magazine, photographed it with Sybil and me horseback and a sunrise in the background. It made the cover that month.
Wesley Rothleutner, a prominent rancher from Kilgore, and our daughter, Sandra, were in the same stages with cancer in the early 1990s. Wesley wrote a beautiful letter to Sandra which started a correspondence between them. On August 19, 1992, I used the windmill picture and the rainbow and wrote the following to Wes. It appeared on his funeral folder a little later.
Dear Wes,
What’s more “Sandhills” than a windmill
And grass a growin’ tall?
That’s a rainbow in the background.
Can you hear that coyote call?
In ways you’re like a windmill, Wes.
You are both “Sandhills” as they come
And compatible with the elements:
Wind, rain, snow, hot sun.
You both stand tall and stately.
Your manners command respect.
Like the windmill, you serve Cow Country.
That image you reflect.
Your roots are deeply anchored
Like the four posts on the tower.
You have a sturdy platform.
I’ll bet you voted for Eisenhower!
Your head, like on a windmill,
Is level and cogs go ‘round.
One difference from a windmill,
Your ear’s bent to the ground.
There’s a brace loose on the windmill.
We know you have problems too
But with sixty or so years of service,
You both aren’t exactly new.
Our future is never certain.
Until now things coincide.
God’s given you both a purpose.
You have served Him well with pride.
This would be a wonderful world
The rest of us must confess
If we were all as disciplined
As that old windmill and Wes!
#163 FRIENDS AND FANCIES
by Bob Moreland
The Spearhead crew weaned 250 replacement heifers here at the “Green Valley” yesterday. Steve stopped in early this morning and said the waterers down in the corrals, where the calves would be drinking, were dry. The supply for them comes from the windmill and reservoir up on the hill. Luckily we have a back up system and can change a valve in the basement and pump water up into the reservoir by the windmill, from the house well or, when electricity goes off, we can run water from the reservoir to the house. Steve and Marty changed the leathers on the well but the wind hasn’t blown much since.
When we came to the ranch, in 1947, that windmill watered the corrals and garden by quite an extensive pipeline system but a pump behind the house furnished the house water. You carried it in a bucket at a time. Ten years later we planted a lawn and spliced into the line about half way between the windmill and the corral and borrowed a backhoe. During the summer we can irrigate the lawn with “free water” pumped by the old windmill.
If there is such a thing as a famous windmill on our ranch that has to be the one. It has probably been there nearly 100 years, at first, pumping into a big reservoir with the sidewalls plastered on the sand as the dirt was excavated. It was probably 30 by 40 feet with a shingled roof over it.
We were calving in the early 1950s with many cattle depending on the reservoir. One cold morning in February there was no water in the corrals. I went up to check it out to find one side of the reservoir had caved in on the outlet. As I lifted the trap door and detected the problem, I was practically in a state of shock. At the same time my pipe came out of my jacket pocket and fell through the trap door. I took the Prince Albert can from my other pocket, gave it a heave, never to smoke again!
The cave-in created many problems: driving cattle to water, running hoses out of the house well, and drilling a new well as soon as we could get Gail Avery to come. Dale Greenamyre came in the spring and built a new reservoir with cement blocks.
I took a picture of the “famous” windmill with a rainbow in the background. Vedah Galloway saw it and liked it enough that she had Joan Buckles paint a picture of it. I decided that if it was that good I would use it in connection with cards to friends with an appropriate poem for various occasions. I have used the picture in prominent places in a couple books I have written and Mona Hurst, photographer from Farm and Ranch magazine, photographed it with Sybil and me horseback and a sunrise in the background. It made the cover that month.
Wesley Rothleutner, a prominent rancher from Kilgore, and our daughter, Sandra, were in the same stages with cancer in the early 1990s. Wesley wrote a beautiful letter to Sandra which started a correspondence between them. On August 19, 1992, I used the windmill picture and the rainbow and wrote the following to Wes. It appeared on his funeral folder a little later.
Dear Wes,
What’s more “Sandhills” than a windmill
And grass a growin’ tall?
That’s a rainbow in the background.
Can you hear that coyote call?
In ways you’re like a windmill, Wes.
You are both “Sandhills” as they come
And compatible with the elements:
Wind, rain, snow, hot sun.
You both stand tall and stately.
Your manners command respect.
Like the windmill, you serve Cow Country.
That image you reflect.
Your roots are deeply anchored
Like the four posts on the tower.
You have a sturdy platform.
I’ll bet you voted for Eisenhower!
Your head, like on a windmill,
Is level and cogs go ‘round.
One difference from a windmill,
Your ear’s bent to the ground.
There’s a brace loose on the windmill.
We know you have problems too
But with sixty or so years of service,
You both aren’t exactly new.
Our future is never certain.
Until now things coincide.
God’s given you both a purpose.
You have served Him well with pride.
This would be a wonderful world
The rest of us must confess
If we were all as disciplined
As that old windmill and Wes!