Sagging Barn

Resting Comfortably Another interesting site I found along Sargent-Ord Road in northeast Custer County, Nebraska is this barn squatting on its haunches. With the words, "Cross Wind Mercantile" painted on the front, it appears to have been a business, possibly an antique dealer. The white vinyl fence in front looked totally out of place, as …

Windmill Festival

Comstock Windmill Festival Heading east on Main Street out of Sargent, NE is a nice paved county road that eventually ends up in Ord, Ne. It has no road number, just a name: "Sargent-Ord Road". For a one-mile stretch near Sargent the road is called "Airport Road"; yes, Sargent, NE (pop. 506) has an airport. …

Giant Pinwheels

This is what I imagine whenever I see one of these majestic windmills out in the middle of a farmer's field, a giant pinwheel.  Look closely and you might see the wind hiding in a big puffy cloud.  I never get bored seeing these colossal wind machines spread across the Iowa farmland, but I know …

Old and New

This scene really got my attention.  First of all, just the barn itself on a stone foundation, still standing tall.   A new paint job will do wonders, but the old gal is so sturdy-looking, the windows are still square, no sagging or leaning of the main frame.   The windows look like they have cardboard covering them from …

Old Farm, New Windmill

This scene made me think of my grandparent's farm in western Nebraska.  Windmills were a common sight back then, but they were the type seen below: a lattice structure about twenty feet tall, and a tail or weather vane to catch the wind and rotate the large wheel so the wheel's blades would catch the wind …

Iowa Windmills

I like the windmills in Iowa.  They seem to be scattered randomly, mixed in with the variety of crops grown in the area.  They are not on a "windmill farm" per se where they're all packed together tightly in neat rows like I've seen in California and other places, each one of them identical to the …