Death of a Windmill

 

For many years the windmill has captured the breezes.  Throughout the years I have taken pictures of it.  It is an old wood frame wind tower, They are few and far between, so it became a windy model for me.  Went down the road other day and saw its propeller had fallen off.

No longer was it spinning in the breezes.  The pasture and sheds appear to of been abandoned many years ago and it just sat there spinning freely.  The fierceness of the wind with lube finally took its toll.

Down in the weeds n grasses is its final resting place.  The winds shall flow on by, ruffling the grasses, no longer spinning the propeller. 

Over the years I have taken videos of windmills and this one usually made the final cut.  Alas I could not remember where I spotted it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8r-w8PY6Zc

When I first spotted it, it was a nice summer day and the blades were slowly turning.  There was water in the stock tank and a couple of horses were eyeing the stranger taking pictures.

No longer will the pastoral scene be there.

Bits Here and There

 

Nature is my neighbor, sometimes not enjoyable when it is mice and spiders.  Then when Mr 10 point shows up.

He spent the afternoon there, relaxing in the shade under the semi trailer.  Later that afternoon I saw why he was lounging there.  As he grazed, he hobbled.  He had injured a leg and was not up to speed.  That evening some of hos does showed up for the evening meal.

Better then any television show.

A few days later on the way to the clinic I spotted this guy in the bar ditch.  When I went past, it just watched me.  Making a U turn and going back slowly it did not like.  To wing it took and landed in the pasture to watch me.  Make another U turn and as I’m leaving it flies back to the ditch to finish its meal.

One of many reasons why I like to avoid driving on the main highways.

We finally got some nice showers in the area.  The brown pasture above should show some green spots shortly.  Lots of lightening rolls in with the storms.  As long as there is no damage, lightening is spectacular to watch.

I hope other dry spots in the country get moisture.  We are right on the edge of the dust bowl and dry land makes the old timers nervous.

Drought makes for some spectacular Dust Devils.  This one was close to 300 feet in the air, about 10 miles away.  Hoping this area got some showers also.  Knock the dusty devils down.

Nature has its own rhythm, it’s just that sometimes we don’t want to dance to the tune.

Rodeo Time

 

The Ranch Rodeo and Bronc Riding was this past weekend.  Got out there for a part of it.

First round was in the evening, second day was afternoon….. Temps went over the century mark…… lots of drinking….. well ya….. water and…. hehe.

 

Not all the riders had a good grip.

Hope you had a good weekend and  may the Lord bless your week.

Windy Times

 

Would make a good headline for the political debates and campaign trail.  So much hot air spews forth from Campaign trail it becomes a load to beat. 

What this is about is the wind is a blowin, not bad, 30 to 60 mph.  Enough of a breeze to move things around, like trash etc.  As fronts pass through the wind kicks up and the neighbors lose stuff sets sail.  One thing about living in the country is learning how to deal with the elements.  Make sure lose things are secure or anchored someway. 

60mph is not bad, I have been heavier winds, over 120mph.  Those get serous and cause major damage.  Major hurricane and tornado winds, batten the hatches down and ride it out. 

Nature has a furry that has no equal.  Yet man tries to duplicate with its bombs and machinery of destruction. 

When I lived in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, winds of 100 mph were not unusual and gusts over 120 occurred at times.  Had a friend who built a house by the Air Academy.  He built it using concrete and stucco, to withstand winds of over 150mph.  The Air Academy has clocked winds over 120mph so he wanted to be relatively safe.

Out here on the prairie the wind does not howl quite as fast.  It do blow a lots though and the tumble weeds get re arranged a lots.  Usually they get bound up in the fences and if it snows, makes for a big snowdrift. and repairs later. 

Like so many things in the country, the wind gets griped at yet what good does it do.  The wind will blow where it pleases and when it pleases.  Not much man can do about it but complain.

The wind also makes a good metaphor, the hawk. the wayward one…. or your choice.

Things that had been on the north forty are now on the south 100. 

The Life of the Wild

 

Deer are plentiful in the evening and fun to look at  as they browse on the grasses.  They also a desired by predators and they make an evening meal for numerous critters.  They also become road kill when they get close to the highways and try to cross.

They are a curious animal, standing there staring at the two legged creature snapping pictures.  They are also mesmerized by headlights at night and blinded.   A combination that is very deadly.  There is a stretch of highway west of here that I see a dead one along side the road almost weekly.  The herd lives on though, it is but part of the process.

 

Quietly they munch away on their evening meal. glancing back at the stranger.  Life and death wages on in the wild.  Where it comes from, when will it happen….. is but s moment of fear that flies into adversity.

Being atop of the food chain it is a fear I know not.  My cognitive reasoning carries me through dangerous moments.  A separation that carries very little understanding.

 

May God be your companion this week.

Flying South…. Nope Not Me

 

This time of year the V’s have been floating over head.  A lots of them have been landing here.  No longer do they go to the warmer climes of the south.  Today there are numerous man made lakes for the birds to splash in.  Nearby are fields loaded with seeds.  It is heaven for birds.  The climate is not that harsh here through the winter.  Daytimes highs occasionally reach into the 70’s during the winter mostly it is the 50’s n 60’s.

So the migrating birds have found it is a nice place to hang out for the winter.  The golf courses make nice places to hang out and the farmers leave behind seeds that were not there a 100 years ago and there are those who feed the birds. 

The journey south is much shorter now.

Seldom do the ponds freeze solid so the birds have a refuge from the two legged critters.  There is plenty of down to insulate them.

In the morning feeding time thousands upon thousands can be seen flocking to the sun flower fields and nearby corn fields.  It is an amazing sight to see millions of birds in V’s up in the air circling fields.

Massive farming has changed the way lots of wildlife lives today.  There is probably more wildlife today then there was over 100 years ago.  There is an abundance of food and shelter that the farmer and rancher have provided.  Don’t tell the greenies that though.  They think the farmers and ranchers are pretty stupid and can’t take care of wildlife.

I put the little bird feeder out for the little birds but to see the millions of massed birds is incredible.  Man influences the environment but to what extent.  Do I really want to foul the land I live in.

Hope your week is going well and that may the bird of paradise be your companion.

Water Springs Forth

Snow is cursed by so many, yet it a fount of life that carries many through the parched summer.  High in the mountains snow fills the ridges, covers the valleys and caps the trees, making a vista to be in awe of.  But that very snow feeds the rivulets that cascade down the hills. oozing under ground.

Wind whipped snow sends all scurrying for protection.  Grasses are covered, bushes peek out and trees sway to the extra weight.  The damage of the snow is the renewal of spring.  Moisture in the shite stuff ushers forth the green fresh plants to blossom in glory.

For miles this moisture can travel underground to sprout forth in tiny puddles.  Gushing springs heave forth to nourish the ground.  Last years snow flows up out of the dirt.

A tiny wet spot oozes out of the ground.  Tumbles down the hillside to nourish a few plants to sink back in the ground.

A small ribbon of green marks the spot where the water flows.  Returning back to the earth to resurface in a another location.

Here the animals found water to slake their thirst.  Not more then a mud hole but pools enough of water.  Hundreds of miles away are the mountains but underneath the ground are streams of a different nature.  Water travels through the sandy rocks for miles to seep out of the ground at another place.  Creating a small garden on the parched prairie.

Indians knew of these places.  here they would find the animals for their food, plants for their food and water for their thirst. 

What appears to be barren land, the starkness in broken by a few trees.  On far hillside a small grove of trees mark a spring.  The hillside is an escarpment revealing where the formations of the mountains is exposed.  Over many miles this formation rises.  Springs ease forth along the escarpment, giving life to the land.

Small ponds create a micro system of life that would not be without the snow.  This water may of fell a number of years ago as it traveled under the earth.  Following a path the eye can not discern.

There are many springs in life.  What ushers forth, has it been there for years, has it been dammed or is waiting for release.

Peace like a river runs through it.

Lizard Toads

 

There little lizards referred to as horny toads.  They are a few inches long and an inch or two wide.  They puff up to look bigger then they are and can be very intimidating to other small critters.  They have horns/spikes and give the appearance of a small tank scurrying over the ground.  Used to catch them when I was younger and keep them in a small box for a few days as a pet.  I would catch bugs and put in for it to eat and had a jar lid for water.

 

It went running across in front of me.  I had almost stepped on it.  If it hadn’t been for that I would of not seen it.  Soon it will be to cold for it and into hibernation it will go.

Had a mixed mongrel that would walking with me.  She found one of these things and was just having a blast playing with it.  She would pick it up in her mouth and carry it.  The toad would wiggle and she would spit it out.  Go back and pick it up again, the toad would wiggle and out it would go.  I finally caught up with and got the toad and took over to a rocky ledge and let it go and scolded the dog to let it be.  It was a sad droopy eyed look I got from the dog.  Any way we went our way and the toad had a story for its grand children…. Hah

A short distance on, I came across a smaller one.  It to went scurrying across my path.  They blend in real well with their surroundings.

They like to eat ants, next year I may try to capture one and turn it loose on the local ant hill.

Old Threshers Day…… finit

 

Threshing day, this is the day the farmer worked for.  Here he would see the fruits of his labor.  The grain was his pay for the years work of plowing, tilling and planting.  I was an area celebration.  Neighbors would gather and help each other with the threshing.  Hay ricks would be towed in, followed by grain wagons.  The wives would show up with lemonade and food, there would be visiting and catching up on the gossip.

Usually one farmer would have a threshing machine and another would supply the tractor and together the neighbors would work from sun up till it set.

Hay ricks would empty and be re loaded with the straw for the hay stack.  Grain wagons would be hauled back to the granary to be unloaded.  It was a frenzy of activity.

The tractor would be hooked up and work begins.  Wheat bundles tossed to the threshers belt and separated out grain rolls out of the chute while straw piles up behind the thresher.

For the farmer this was the most critical part of the year.  It made him or broke him.  No longer do the steamers operate the thrashers today.

The government has passed all kinds of regulations and inspections that most people don’t want to spend the money to show them off.  The government has taken a harmless hobby and quashed it because one individual screwed up and blew his tractor up.  The many have to pay for the screw up of one.

For me these celebrations are about the steamers and the roll they played in pioneer life.  Instead an old tractor gets hooked up and sputters along imitating an old steamer.

This is what I learned to drive, it was one year newer.  I didn’t drive a car till I was 16.  It was trucks and tractors out across the fields and down the country roads.

May the dove of happiness be your companion this weekend.

Old Threshers Day…… VI

 

One of the old days is the old time entertainment.  The singing, with maybe an instrument, something small, a fiddle, harmonica or a dulcimer maybe.  Guitars and pianos were just plain ole big to lug over the prairie in a covered wagon, although a few made it.  There was always the washboard and maybe some spoons.  Otherwise music was pretty simple. 

There were some singers that sang during the lunch hour.  Some good picking and twanging to go with the barbecue.  There were a couple of large canopies with picnic tables under them and a PA system was set for the entertainment.   They had their guitars and a good nasal twang, good ole down home singin’.

Later s fiddler showed up and the hoe down was under way.

Collections, never have I seen so many collectible collections.

And there were also quilts.  What is an old time day without a quilt or two.

Jump in the Ox wagon and go for a ride around the grounds.

Threshers Day … IV … Tractors

 

Get country folks together and the tractor weasels it way in to the conversation.  Old Threshers Day has its share of tractors.  They get shown off in the parade or at the pull.

The Johnny Poppers are probably the most popular and the red McCormick's a second.  There is whole other variety of plowing machines.  The steam tractors were missing because of the regulations the government pushed on to them.  Sometimes I would like to plow the bureaucrats into the ground, they would make such good fertilizer.  They also know how to screw life up, oh well, on to the tractors.

These are some of the more unusual and rare tractors on display.

There is usually a homemade contraption around someplace.

 

Men and their machines.

Summer Poesies

Every Summer I put out petunias and other flowers in planters.  They get fed, watered and pruned through out the summer.  This year they grew out of the planters.  I put some moss roses in with them and they almost took over.  In among the roses are the petunias.  This year has been one of my best for flowers in the planters.

 

Have a great week and I hope you had a great weekend.

Lawn Mowers

 

The lot next door to me is vacant and used for storing old stuff and junk.  It doesn’t get mowed so I worked out a deal with the owner to find someone with some grazing animals to put in there to keep the grass and weeds down.  Couple of ladies down the road have a collection, donkey, goats. bovines, ponies and other critters.

I wanted the goats because they eat the nasty weeds also and go right down to the nub but the fence was not good enough to keep them, in.  They went over it, through it like there was no fence there.  So that didn’t work.

They had some ponies and brought them up to munch on the grass.  They did a good job of clipping the grass down and ate a few of the weeds.  So this year they are back, chomping on the grass.  One short though, it got hurt sop it is still at its pasture healing a shoulder bruise/gash.

 

Mom and daughter have been doing a pretty good job of roaming the lots munching on the tender shoots.  I talk to them and they talk back.  Mostly I watch them and keep water in their water tank.

I like it because it reduces a fire danger next door.  It is also nice to see something beside the cat roaming there or listening to the dogs howl n bark.

Deer used to camp there but I believe with the horses in there they have moved on.  Plus the dogs get obnoxious at times also.

One nice thing, these mowers need very little maintaince and leave some fertilizer behind.

The Cat

 

Across the yard he strolls, this is his territory.  I talk to him, he pauses, hunkers down, eyes darting.  Onward he walks, glancing side to side.  I talk to him again, he stops, looks, head tilts side to side.  Seeing nothing he walks on.  Into the ditch he ducks, disappearing in the tall grasses.  Reappearing a short distance on.  Through the gate he struts.  Into the vacant lot he moves on, prowling for what is next.

Such is the life of the neighborhood Siamese.   He is a feral feline and roams over neighborhood searching out morsels and marking his territory.  The domestics leave a wide swath for him when he struts across the streets into the vacant lots and old buildings.  There are culverts to sleep in, crawl into piles of junk, jump through broken windows.  This is his domain, here he rules.  Dogs run, rabbits scurry away and birds chirp out warnings.

King of the wild way he is.  Life without home, no human comforts to manipulate. 

Birds hopping among the leaves, gathering seeds.  Tail twitching behind the shrub.  Birds chirping and flying hither and yon, pecking away at the grasses.  Peaceful moments watching the birds gather up their meal.  Sproing, tawny fur jumps out of the shrub.  To close had the little bird ventured, he was now the meal.

His majesty dines on his capture.  Head in air he crosses to the culvert to relax for a bit and an afternoon nap.

 

Nature’s Way

 

 

Scrambling through ditches and pastures I stumble across things that fit or how’d that get there.

 

 

 

The wind gathers the seeds up and deposits them in among the grasses n weeds.  Jewels to sparkle in the green surrounds.  The beds of flowers and planters spread their bounty on the wind, finding  new places to set roots down.

Tromping among the stickers and thorns these damsels thrive, making a beauty.  Pausing for a moment, enjoy the reward, saying thanks to the ways of nature.

Along with the beauty are the ravenous monsters.  They eat each other and devour fields.  They can become so thick that the ground moves, sun light fades when they fly in hoards. The grasshopper is related to the locust and like the locust, grasshoppers can strip plants into the ground.

It is amazing anything lives after these little monsters have passed by.  There is a plan for destruction, nature renews itself, even in spite of man’s attempts to the contrary.  One of the reasons I question the greenies cry of wolf on the global warming issue.

Nature has a balance and will make changes to keep that balance… In spite of the human meddling.  We can help… but destroy………..