On Friday morning in all the wonderful snow our windmill arrived. Combine delayed shipping with an early winter and this was going to be an interesting project. It arrived in just a few boxes, then we had to put it all together kind of like a big lego project. It didn’t really take as long as I expected though. We started late Saturday morning and it was built by suppertime. We indirectly recruited some help when one of our friends stopped by unexpectly and ended up helping to build most of the fan part. The extra set of hands was a huge help to getting done so quickly. Sunday it was time to stand it up and get it spinning. You build the tower and the fan part then take it out to where you want it to be and put the two parts together as it goes up. Warmer weather would have been much easier as there was a thin layer of ice covering the pond already. There’s a hose that goes into the water with a pail attached to the end that has to go under the water or in our case ice. We had one crazy fool think that he could basically walk on water to put it in place. One big crack and that plan was changed. Dennis ended up making the hole redneck style – with the shotgun. Sounded like a crazy idea, but it worked.  The next step was to get the pail in the hole however. Our master curler was called into action and a few tries later the pail went down.  After a few minor adjustments and finishing touches it is now completed and is spinning away and the oxygen is bubbling into the water for the fish. Check out the album to see the pictures, then check out the website www.mayawindmills.com to see more about the windmills. They even have 4′ windmills which I think would look great just around the yard.

Windmill construction

We decided to close off the main driveway for the winter and just use the other driveway this year. It has become really hard to keep both driveways clear of snow especially if we are supposed to get lots of snow like they are calling for this winter. It is already starting that way. We are a little worried that some people may be confused, but have hopefully made it as easy as possible. We have a big sign with an arrow pointing West at the end of the closed driveway and another couple signs at the open driveway. The problem is going to be getting them to come around to the back by the spruce tree. We do have a big red arrow there and a couple smaller ones along the way so I don’t know what more we can do. We also moved the sign with the changeable letters to the end of the closed driveway. One side says use the other lane already, but on the other side the track where the letters go is full of ice from the rain the other day. We are impatiently waiting for the sun to come out and melt the ice so that I can put up to use the next driveway.

I can see that the sun is somewhat starting to come out right now. They are calling for variably cloudy this afternoon so with a little luck we will have some bright weather instead of gloom. In case you haven’t heard there is another system with freezing rain and snow headed our way for Thurs/Friday. If this is any indication we are in for a long brutal winter for driving.