Blipping Badlands

Today I journeyed to the badlands.. sadly not those of the Dakotas though. I remember as a young child going to the farm to visit my paternal grandmother. She was a typical farm lady, a strong lady, a matriarch in many ways, I remember her beautiful crochet work and knitting, her greying hair in a bun, her glasses. I remember stealing tomatoes from the greenhouse and the goat that guarded the path, I swear that goat hated me but maybe it was just the fear of a young child. I was five when she passed away.

There were two landmarks on the journey to the farm a gaudy yellow house and this windmill. I remember it as new shiny like something I saw in old western movies or those of dust-bowl America. I was always excited when we passed it as we were nearly there, closer to the loving arms of my gran to exploring and seeing my cousins.

It never crossed my mind that the windmill served a purpose, I thought it just a bigger version fo the toy windmill I had in the garden and watched on blustery days from the dining room window. These are actually wind pumps, used extensively on farms and ranches in the central plains and southwestern United States and in Southern Africa and Australia to pump water from underground wells. These mills feature a large number of blades, so they turn slowly with considerable torque in low winds and are self-regulating in high winds. A tower-top gearbox and crankshaft convert the rotary motion into reciprocating strokes carried downward through a rod to the pump cylinder below.

The farm windpump was invented by Daniel Halladay in 1850's in early California and some other states, the windmill was part of a self-contained domestic water system including a hand-dug well and a redwood water tower supporting a redwood tank and enclosed by redwood siding (tankhouse). Eventually, steel blades and steel towers replaced wooden construction, and at their peak in 1930, an estimated 600,000 units were in use in America. The multiple-bladed wind turbine atop a lattice tower made of wood or steel hence became, for many years, a fixture of the landscape throughout rural America.

I can only assume this one was for pumping water too. It was sad to see it in such a sorry state, decayed, dilapidated and deserted. The shot however was perhaps more interesting given the shapes, textures and colours arising from the condition, I hope you enjoy this shot as much as I enjoyed the memories it evokes.