Mil's Place: WHAT IS A WINDMILL TO YOU?

"Windmill at Ranchvale"

by Mil, 1969

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A WINDMILL IS OUR BEST FRIEND!
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What is a windmill to you?
Have you ever really thought about it?
Get a picture of one...look at it!
Why, you say, it's nothing but a tall tower
Made of heavy weather-beaten wood,
Kind of gray-looking, old, and cracked.

And it has that big propeller/fan
Way up there high, with gears and all...
Right atop that skinny little platform.
How'd they get it up there, anyway?

The windmill does have several hundred feet
Of pipe below the ground, what for?
It holds the sucker rod that lifts the water,
Reaching way down deep into the earth
To find it and bring it up.

So then, what is a windmill?
It is...possibilities for the future...
It is...life, hope, success...
It is...a home...a place to live.
It is...forever, a cold drink of water...
It is...a symbol of life...and growth...
It is.. poetry...and has it's own rustic beauty...
It is...our best friend!

You are looking at the miraculous thing
That opened the West,
A century and a half ago!
That enabled small farmers to make a living
On small pieces of land.
It enabled ranches to grow to many sections
Of land, with up to forty or more windmills each,
Providing water for the cattle.
So many mills that "windmill men" were
Employed to keep them going!

WATER! Water is the key word.
No water, no people, no livestock...
No farms or ranches.

On a more personal level
A windmill is like an oasis.
On a hot summer's day, riding a tractor
All day long---
A nearby windmill provides a fresh bag full
Of cold water!
It provides a dripping, leaking straw hat full
Of wonderful water to dump over the
Plower's face, head, and shoulders
And help him cool off...
It provides memories of previous dunkings!

Out walking on a quail hunt.
What better than a cold drink
At some remote windmill in a lonely pasture?

Think how a cow or horse feels,
Eating that dry dusty grass all day long.
And espying that distant mill that they
Can almost hear turning, a mile away---
It's saying to them, as it creaks and turns and
Gently clangs...
"Cold water....cold water."

I never saw anyone erect one,
But looking at that little tiny platform
and at the heavy fan and gears,
I has to be a chore!
I have helped "pull" several
And that IS a chore!

There is poetry galore in windmills,
No, not steel ones.
They may pump water just fine,
But somehow, they just have no poetry,
At least not for me.
It's that wood in the windmill---
Wood that has withstood many
Hot windy summers
And many cold freezing winters,
That gives windmills personality....
And character.

Maybe a decades-old tried and true
weathered-wooden-windmill,
Is a metaphor for the farmer who owns it...
And for that matter---
For all of us, perhaps beaten and weathered a bit

By life.

What is a windmill to you? To me?
It is more than just a machine.
It is an oasis--- for somebody.
It is a best friend--- for somebody.
Somebody out there on a remote farm,
Or a big cattle ranch.

Creaking, turning, gently clanging---
That lonesome sound,
Windmills.... keeping people good company
While they keep on bringing up that
Cool, clear, water.