Mary at http://travelinghammer.blogspot.com/ took a picture of my grandparents old house on the farm. I loved reading what she had to say, but I also had some memories of my own.
Grandma had a garden out behind the windmill. How much water came from the hose depended on just how much wind was blowing to pump the water to the surface. She trenched along the side of the plants and let the water run from one end to the other. I don't remember sprinklers in the garden, but maybe she used them. Dinah and I used to unhook the handle and lift it so that the windmill would run. When the water finally come to the surface, it was so cold and sweet that there was nothing better in the world to drink. Now we have so many additives to the water that it doesn't taste near as good as that fresh water from the windmill.
There was a cistern at the front of the house. When the wind blew, Grandma would run the hose to a pipe in the cistern so that it would fill with water. If the cistern wasn't kept full, there was always the chance that we wouldn't have wind and the water might become a bit scarce. I don't remember that ever happening.
I also thought about the water spilling from the top of the windmill, and we kids would play under it as kids today play in a sprinkler. I'm not sure, but I think that this happened when the wind was blowing hard enough that the hose couldn't handle the volume, so it spilled out at the top of the windmill. Is that right, Dinah?
In the little building beside the windmill, there was an old sink pump that had originally belonged in the house. We could laboriously pump water into the sink and pretend we lived in the "old days". There was also a wood burning stove in the building, and occasionally, we were allowed to build a fire. We had so much fun at this old house. I treasure the memories.
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Thanks for sharing so many good memories, Vonita. It's especially nice to read memories about watering the garden and playing in the water on a hot summer day like today. I'm not sure why water sometimes flew out the top of the windmill. Your theory sounds pretty good to me. Your dad would probably know. I think the pump in the milk house was always there even when there was still a pump in the kitchen in the house. When Ben and I were living on the farm and the electricity went off, I used to wish they'd left the pump in the kitchen so we'd still be able to pump some water. After the pump was gone, all the water in the house depended on an electric motor that ran a pump in the basement!
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