Windmills

LEBANON, OH -- As a naturalist, in this column, I normally discuss the plant and animal life I encounter on my adventures into the hinterlands here in southern Ohio. But with winter approaching, I’m thinking of venturing out less so I can stay cozy and warm inside and take naps whenever I want to. I’ll need to find something else to occupy my time this winter, if I’m spending less time out in the field.

So, this week I began scanning through thousands of pictures I’ve taken over the years as I traveled to visit area parks, nature preserves and natural areas. Many of the photos, I’m finding, aren’t about nature at all. Rather, they are rustic out-of-the-way scenes from rural backroads away from the normal everyday hustle and bustle of our lives. 

(From 2017) When I was a kid I used to get my drinking water from a well pump on a farm. I remember the untreated ground water having the strong taste of dissolved minerals.

I find these scenes to have a pleasant, calming and relaxing quality about them. In today’s article, I am sharing some of those photos and hope that you find them interesting and much to your liking, too.

From 2014: First the good news: I found a nice windmill to photograph. Now the bad news: lighting conditions were pretty crummy.

Back in the days of my childhood, many small farms still did not have electricity in spite of The Rural Electrification Act of 1936. 

Beneath the remains of an old windmill is a well from which water was once pumped to the surface. This was a common agricultural practice on farms before electricity was available for pumps in rural areas.

Water for daily household needs often came from hand-operated pumps that drew water from wells. Water for livestock tanks came from wells that provided water pumped to the surface by windmills. 

A Greene County, Ohio windmill lies face down in a pasture along a fence line after succumbing to decades of wind, rain and rust.

Windmills were almost as common then as laptop computers are to us now. But being more reliable and efficient, electric pumps have gradually replaced windmills. 

Once a windmill - not always a windmi

Over the years, I’ve noticed a declining number of the old farm livestock tank windmills. Other than a scant few that have been maintained purely for nostalgic reasons, there aren’t many to be found these days.

An old abandoned farm in Highland County, Ohio slowly disintegrates into nothing more than an memory.

So much for windmills. In future articles, I will discuss some of the other interesting things I’ve captured on my camera while traveling our bucolic backroads.

More News from Lebanon

• Carillon Historical Park receives $1.5 million grant from the James M. Cox Foundation Funding completes plans for new exhibit honoring the late Gov. James M. Cox, the Dayton publisher, Ohio governor, and U.S. presidential candidate
• Jim Renacci Joins Growing List of Conservative Leaders Endorsing Zac Haines for Ohio State Senate, 7th District Zac Haines endorsed by former U.S. Representative Jim Renacci