A great quartet of main players is the heart of our homestead - the land, the house, the solar system, and the all important well, pump, and water pumping windmill. It was the first big project, starting before we moved when we still lived in the city. It was, has, and continues to be a big part of our lives, not only for the practical and much appreciated pumping of our water but for its aesthetics, too. We love the look of it. For almost 50 years it has been a big part of our lives, and we hope it continues for many decades more. So it was a great surprise to me to find, when I went to add something to the "windmill page" that there wasn't one. How could that be? Something so important to us! With all the many, many pages on our website there was not one for our wonderful windmill. Now there is...

The full story is in our "Homesteading Adventures" book (we didn't neglect it there!) but the basic story is we bought a fresh, new 8 foot Heller-Aller Baker 'Runs in Oil' windmill and a beautiful red Monitor pump direct and in person from the Heller-Aller Factory in 1976, after we bought the land and had the well drilled (105 feet deep) but before we moved. That winter we put together half of the fan and it was an impressive part of the decor in our living room (well, we liked it). Many adventures are attached to the whole system, with a re-purposed abandoned power tower bought from a friend, a 1200 gallon tank for water storage, pump rod and pipe and all that. Great memories (some are more fun from a distance in time!). But all these many years later the system still works and we daily appreciate that wonderful great cold well water coming out of the tap in the house, arriving from some 400 feet away where it is pumped from the ground into the tank by the now faded but still running Baker Water Pumping Windmill.

Some photos and highlights follow, along with more recent adventures with this basic, not-so-simple homestead water system.

PUMP ADVENTURE (Again) - February 27, 2017

Last week during that extended warm spell we had some days of good wind so we could pump water with our windmill. The water is pumped into a nearby 1200 gal tank (earth covered) and in the winter we can only pump when temps are above freezing, and, of course, when we have a good but not gale force winds. We fill the tank in late fall/early winter before temperatures drop and then usually a few days during winter to top it up. This year we had ample opportunity. We thought. So when it was both warm and windy we turned the windmill on and let it pump for a few days. The level in the tank was down to less than 400 gals so we were happy for the pumping weather. When we checked the water level again, expecting to have pumped at least 200 gals, we found it had added only about 20 gals. Sigh...

We’d been here before, many, many times over our 40 years here. We knew what was wrong, and what needed to be done. Leathers. Our pump is rather like an oversized old fashioned “pitcher pump” but a deep well version with leathers since our well is 105 ft deep. We can pump it by hand but we much prefer the windmill do that job. At the bottom of the drop pipe is a brass cylinder, and inside that runs the leathers assembly attached to about 95 feet of 3/8” stainless steel rod in 12 ft sections. It really works very well. But we have hard water, very tasty but full of minerals that coat the rod and eventually trickle down to lodge in the leathers. Which spreads them out, wears them out, and can jamb up the whole business. In this case, the main leather had worn through and the water was simply not being pumped up to go into our tank.

In our early years we had a regular steel drop rod which would corrode and add its own supply of sediment. Back then we had to pull the rod and replace the leathers many times a year. We got very good at it, and quite tired of the job, especially when it happed in the winter. Eventually we installed stainless steel drop rod, much heavier but much “cleaner”. And Steve figured out the best configuration for the leathers. Now we’re down to pulling, cleaning, changing leathers (and connectors which wear down against the well pipe) about once every five years. It had been six years since the last time. And it was obvious if we wanted to pump water now we had to pull the rod. This is done by hand. Our hands. And we much prefer to do it in the warmer months. We could moderate our water use and probably get by until spring. Or we could do it now. And we had this two day window of relatively warm weather to do it in.

We wanted plenty of water; we didn’t want to have to stint. So...we pulled. And we discovered that the stainless steel drop rod had not become any lighter over the last six years. And getting the pieces apart wasn't any easier. So as we pulled up and disassembled the rod, piece by piece, we discussed that we really needed to find a way to make this job easier. But soon (relatively) it was done. The 95 feet of rod was piled up in 12 ft pieces against the side of the windmill tower.

Now we had years earlier scrounged all the local supply of leathers and finally ordered online some that were close in size. The best we could do. So Steve modifies them to fit. That was fine; we had some on hand. When we pulled the rod we discovered that the connectors were badly worn and had to be replaced. Unfortunately, we didn’t have those on hand but we hoped to get them locally (Manistique), or at least in Escanaba. It was getting late but there was still time to get in town so we went inside and starting calling. First Hoholik’s in Manistique. They kindly went and checked. Yes, they had some in our size - hurray! -- 4 of them. Oh. We needed 8. No way around it. So we called all around Escanaba. Nothing. Simple common rod end connectors but not common in our size. One place said they might be able to get an order in yet that day and they’d arrive the next day. Maybe. We would simply have to wait until the truck came in to see if they came in. We ordered.

So the next day, a beautiful warm day, we simply had to wait. Well, not exactly ‘just wait’. Steve went to work on the leathers while I cleaned up the drop rod. The phone call did finally come. The connectors were on the truck and we had just enough time to get to Escanaba to pick them up . But not enough time to get home before dark. The weather forecast was iffy for the following day but nothing to be done but hope for at least above freezing temps for the hands that had to hold that drop rod as it went back down the pipe, piece by piece, with the fresh new connectors holding it all together.

And it was indeed above freezing, and a simply beautiful day with the sun poking through the clouds now and then to cheer us on. The gods do smile down on we homesteaders more often than we remember sometimes! Steve arranged a block and tackle up in the windmill tower to help us lower the last, heavy (since you’re now holding the previous 60 feet of rod), pieces so it was stress-free and quite pleasant. We enjoyed being outside, working together on a homestead project that we’d done so many times before. We knew the drill. And we were confident it would work. Well, fairly confident...

Everything was together, the pump rod down, the pump back on, the tools gathered, the windmill rod connected. There was a real nice breeze; it was still above freezing. We let it pump. Steve opened the faucet on the side of the pump. Water!! He closed it and I ran up to the top of the tank and put my ear to the small opening we have into the tank (to measure the water level)......ker splash, ker splash, ker splash. Ahhhhh, what a wonderful sound, water splashing into the tank. It pumped all evening. And the next day. And I measured almost 700 gals of water in the tank before the temperature and the wind dropped. Life is good. We have water. And we are full of appreciation.