Pulling a...windmill?

When I tell people I helped my dad pull a windmill I get some funny looks sometimes. So, since dad and I did just that today, I thought I would take the time to explain what it is.

First of all, windmills are fairly common in our area because they run on a natural resource we have plenty of in western Kansas...wind. They don't have to be hooked to electricity and they keep the tanks supplied with water for the cattle.

This is the windmill we were fixing today. When one stops pumping water, you have to take things apart to figure out why it isn't working. And it's a messy process.

More often than not, the problem is down underground. There are several metal rods connected to the head of the windmill (the part that looks like a fan) and they extend down into the ground. This particular windmill had about two sections of that rod underground and each section is about 20 feet long. So, to get to the problem, we had to pull out about 40 feet of pipe and "sucker" rod up from underground. We call it a sucker rod because it goes up and down and creates suction to bring the water to the surface.

Since the pipes are so long, it creates a problem. When we pull them out of the ground, we have to figure out what to do with such a long pipe. My job is to climb up the windmill and stand up there to guide the pipe so it doesn't get caught on anything. Since I'm scared of heights, this isn't exactly a job that I love.

Here's the view from where I stand. To put it in perspective, the top of my head was usually about as high as the wooden platform you can seen on the windmill in the top picture.

You might notice the pipe that goes across just below my feet that has something hooked on it. This is the pipe we slide through the legs of the windmill to hook our pulley and rope system to. Twenty feet of pipe (sometimes filled with water) is pretty heavy. If it were to slip out of our hands it would be lost in the well. So, we use a pulley and "pipe jack" to prevent that from happening.

Pipe Jack-holds the pipe in place so we don't have to hold it by hand.

In the above picture, dad has vice grips clamped on the sucker rod so that it won't fall down into the well while the pipe jack holds the pipe in place. We have had the sucker rod fall down in the well before and it isn't exactly easy to fish it out.

This is the cylinder at the very bottom of the pipe. It is the very last thing in the bottom of the well. It contains all of the technical stuff like a foot valve and leathers...which I don't know a ton about ;-) But somehow all of that combines to create the suction needed to pull the water up the pipe and also keep it from draining right back down the hole. 

Today, as usual, our problem was in the very bottom. One of the rods connecting to the stuff in the cylinder had come unscrewed because the threads were becoming stripped (meaning they were getting worn down so they wouldn't stay screwed together). So, we loaded the problem piece up, took it to the house where dad created a new piece with better threads (so that it wouldn't come unscrewed)

Then it was back to the windmill to put it all back together again. 

Fixing a windmill is usually a bit more gratifying on a hot day...but it also makes it more miserable. However, the reward of nice cold water gushing out the pipe is always the best part. Dad and I always have to wash up our hands in the fresh water and usually end up getting a little bit on each other as well ;-) Today it was a little chilly, so we didn't have any water fights.

Now, the next thing is to hope that our tank (which had several holes we also tried patching) actually holds the water the windmill is now pumping into it. Have a great week and I'm on to the next adventure!

The joys of summer

For my first day of "official" summer work, I helped my dad and our hired hand fix some fence. I thought I would explain some things unique to our area since I was seeing them that day.

Below are pictures of something I have looked forward to every summer since I was just a kid. They might look a little weird, but they are wonderful to eat. If you look closely on the cactus, you will notice a yellow bloom. The piece right underneath the bloom is what we call a "cactus apple." When they are ripe, they turn a beautiful pinkish red color.

When I was a kid and we were moving cattle on horses, I would keep a closer eye on the cactus than the cattle I think ;-) Dad had introduced me pretty early to the wonderful snack. So when dad and I spotted one that was "just right", dad would hop down off his horse, use his pliers to twist off the fruit and then proceed to rub the thorns and pricklies off on his Wrangler jeans. Through this whole process, I would sit anxiously on my horse just waiting for that wonderful burst of sweet flavor. Then he usually gave the first one to me. It is sweet and delicious and our favorite part was to suck on the seeds to savor every last bit of it. 

Now, as much as I look forward to cactus apples, our cattle look forward to these next delicacies. These are soapweeds. They are also called yucca plants, but we call them soapweeds out here. I guess they are called that because their root can be used in soap. The blooms on the soapweeds are like candy to the cows. They will literally crawl through fences just to get to them. Right now we have hundreds of them beautifying our pastures.

As you can see, the cows pretty much pick them clean as soon as they enter a pasture. I've tried them myself a couple of times and they aren't too bad. They aren't sweet though. This time when I tried them, I thought they tasted maybe a bit like raw asparagus. Kind of made me want to grab a bunch and steam them up ;-)

Along with all the joys of summer, we also have the unpleasantness of snakes. We were being very careful and watchful for snakes while working on the fence. Little did we know that the first rattlesnake we would see would be on mom and dad's back porch during lunch. Thankfully our cats had it cornered and dad had a shovel nearby. I wouldn't mind going the rest of the summer without seeing another one!

Have a wonderful summer and I'll keep you posted on farm life as I finally get free from school to enjoy life on the farm ;-)

You can take the kid out of the country...

but you can't take the country out of the kid.

I haven't posted on my blog lately because, frankly, I've barely been home. The end of the school year is the busiest time of my year. Part of that is because I am also a track coach. We are finally preparing for state competition and we are taking 13 athletes! That is the most we have taken since I started coaching about 4 years ago.

I love going to track meets, even with all the drama a girls' team sometimes brings with it. One of the best parts of taking our kids to the state meet is the fun of seeing them in a big city. Sometimes we are a little worried about what might come out of their mouths, but for the most part, it is a blast.

I thought this picture from our first track meet of the season pretty much sums up our lives as western Kansas kids and athletes. Our javelin runway was right next to a feedlot...which we all thought was hilarious. I have to admit, the slight smell of manure made me feel right at home.

However, as much as our kids want to sometimes fight against other people thinking we are a bunch of rednecks, they also embrace their identity. Yesterday it was quite apparent that we were a farming/ranching community when about 5 of our boys broke out in a chorus of mooing like cows just for the heck of it. It was extremely accurate and I was even more impressed when they continued with the sounds for chickens, donkeys, sheep and goats. Some might call us strange, but I think it says a lot that our kids actually know the true sounds these animals make versus the "generic" sounds we are often taught. They spent several minutes  fine tuning their goat sound so it didn't sound like a sheep. They finally agreed that a sheep had a slightly lower sound ;-)

Say what you want, but it helps keep my life in perspective. So, you can always take the kid out of the country but you can't take the country out of the kid! Let's go Cats, let's do some great work this week on our way to State!

Time to do some farmin'

As summer approaches, it's time for me to hop in the tractor and begin farming. One piece of equipment I'm extremely familiar with is the sweeps. I have been running these behind the tractor since I was in high school. I didn't realize, however, until I lived in a 4-H scholarship house in college that not everyone in farming knows about sweeps.

Different areas of the country require different equipment to farm. For instance, in western Kansas the way we farm is designed to conserve every bit of moisture we can since we don't get as much moisture as other areas. Now, my family is moving towards doing more no-till farming (meaning we do more spraying and less physical moving or "tilling" of the soil). However, we still have instances that require us to use sweeps. Sweeps are designed to disturb less of the moisture in the soil because they just barely go under the surface.

These triangular blades skim under the surface of the soil and basically pull the weeds up by the roots. 

After the weeds have been pulled up, the "pickers" that spin behind the blades grab the weeds and flip them over so the roots are exposed, hopefully guaranteeing that the weeds will die.

The field I worked yesterday was chiseled earlier in the year because it was blowing badly during our high winds. If we were not to work the ground again (or basically run any type of vehicle over it), it would be extremely rough. So, we were partially using the sweeps to kill weeds, but also to even out the surface for future use.

You can see the deep tracks from the chisel before I use the sweeps over them.

This is what the sweeps look like behind the tractor. The strategy is to barely overlap your last round with the outside tire of the sweeps. This way you don't miss any weeds/ground, but you also don't overwork an area causing it to lose even more moisture.

 

Farming requires a lot of tight turns and when the soil is loose, the front tires tend to slip through the soil instead of gripping like you want them to. To counteract this, there are two sets of brakes on the tractor. If you want to turn right, you press on the right brakes. In some cases I'm nearly standing on the brakes trying to get the tractor to turn before I run over a crop in the field next to where I am. This picture shows the clutch on the left hand side of the picture and then the left and right brakes. I'm using the right brake this time.

Finally, probably my least favorite part is cleaning off the blades after I stop for the day. This is done so the blades don't rust from the moisture in the dirt that is stuck to them. If they rust, or if the mud/dirt is left on them, they don't slide under the surface of the soil quite as easy. They would eventually clean off, but it's just good practice to clean them. This is the tool we use and this is how it is used.

School is almost out for the year, so I am looking forward to more "bonding" moments with our tractor and sweeps on the farm. Have a blessed week!