THE WINDMILL AND LATER IMPROVEMENTS

               THE WINDMILL AND LATER IMPROVEMENTS

     When Charlie and I moved into the Sherwood farm house, the center of the pump house was in a direct line with the center of the windmill wheel, the pump and the well.

     Under the pump house was an excavated hole about eight or ten feet down toward the well.  This well hole contained not only the well but also the beginning of a galvanized water pipe which led away from the well, ran under ground, being buried beneath the farm driveway, running toward the farm buildings, and came up from the ground near the milk house and delivered its well water to the built-in tank in the milk house.  This was the tank where two large cream or milk cans could be cooled by the cold well water.  The overflow water from the milk house tank flowed out through a pipe into the large watering tank in the barn yard from which the horses and cattle drank.

     For the windmill to pump water it was necessary for the wind to blow against the large vane which was permanently fastened to the windmill wheel.  This caused the wheel to turn, facing the direction of the wind.  The numerous vanes grouped around the hub of the wheel were thin, light, and curved just enough to let the wind push them in a circular movement around the center of the wheel, causing the wheel to revolve.  To the hub of the wheel was attached (off center) the rod extending from the wheel down to the pump.  A piston-like movement converted the rotating movement of the wheel to a linear movement of the rod, causing the rod to rise and fall.

     This rod was bolted to the rod running through the pump, thus forming a single continuous line from the windmill wheel, down through the center of the windmill superstructure, to the pump.  As the rod would rise, a valve would open and water would be drawn into the pipe; as the rod would lower, that valve would close and another one would open, allowing the pump to force the water into the underground pipe leading from the well to the milk house.  This action would then repeat itself.

     If water was wanted for the house while it was being pumped to the milk house, a device on the floor of the pump house near the pump could change the valves, thus diverting the water from being forced underground to letting it rise to the pump where it could be caught at the pump in a pail or container.  In later years there was an electric motor in the pump house which could be used to pump water on windless days.

     In windy, stormy weather, or whenever water was not needed, the wheel could be "closed."  This meant that the vanes around the wheel were "folded," that is the vanes were turned and extended so the force of the wind would flow between the vanes instead of against their broad sides.  This reduced wear and tear on the wheel.

     On the southwest corner of the pump house was a lever which could "open" or "close" the windmill wheel.  This lever was inside the pump house, but a small door-like opening in the wall allowed someone standing outside the pump house to open this little door, reach in and open the wheel from the outside without entering the building.

     When a small amount of water was needed (such as a pail full) and the wheel was not being used, the bolt, holding together the rod from the wheel and the rod through the pump, could be removed, and that bolt could be used to fasten a pump handle onto the pump rod.  Water could then be pumped by hand.

     (In later years there was an electric motor installed in the pump house which could be used to pump water on windless days, either to a pail or to the milk house.)

     In 1918, when Fred Shikoski bought the I. O. Sherwood farm, farm prices were high after the first World War.  Fred was about 44 years old, in the prime of life.  Charlie was fourteen, strong, healthy, capable and did not continue attending high school.  He worked with his father.  Even though he had assumed a large, extensive debt to buy the farm, Fred, with Charlie's help was able to make many improvements.  These included erecting a 14-foot wide, forty-five foot high, poured cement silo; building a 12 x 24 foot machine shed; and a double corn crib wide enough to drive through between the two cribs to unload corn.  Charlie himself built a combination milk-house/swill-house using odd lots of blocks that Fred bought from the lumber company, which was discontinuing the sale of that kind of block.  I believe it was at this time when the milk-house/swill-house was being built that the water pipe, (which ran from the well hole to the milk-house,) was installed and buried  under ground, under the driveway from the house to the farm buildings.

     In the later 1920s when Charlie became "of age," (21 years old at that time), he worked as a carpenter under the direction of Otto Bierman for the Lawson Estate.  Prices were booming until the 1929 crash.  During the depression farm prices plummeted.  Many farmers lost all their savings and farms.  Fred managed to keep his farm.  Farm prices rose during the second World War, but Fred became too old to do the farming himself.

     At the time that the milk-house was built, farmers commonly sent cream, not whole milk, to the creamery.  Cream was separated from the whey and the whey used to feed the hogs.

     To separate the cream from the whey, a hand operated cream separator was set up in the milk-house.  The milk was poured into the round vessel on the top of the separator, the vessel twirled at a steady, moderate speed using a hand crank.  The cream, being lighter than the whey, would be hurled to the outside of the vessel.  After sufficient, constant and even twirling, the operator would open the valves and the cream would be drawn off from the outside of the vessel into a container, while the whey would be drawn out from the center of the vessel into a different container. The cream would be put in pails or cans and hung in the tank where it could be cooled by the cool well water, and kept cool until picked up to be taken to the creamery.  The whey would be used in the swill house to make swill for the pigs.

     In 1944 when we took over the farm, farmers commonly sent whole milk, not cream, to the creamery.  The cooling tank in the milk-house was not big enough to cool all the whole milk, so a large tank, similar to the tanks usually used to water cattle, was installed in the barn to cool the milk.

     In 1945 the house burned down.  It was the well water flowing from the well underground to the milk house that allowed me to wash clothes in the milk house after the house burned when we lived in the 12 x 16 foot shack.

     When Charlie built the new house approximately where the old house had been, he left an opening between the new foundation and the old well hole.  He removed the windmill, and built cement sides, top and bottom of the well hole, making it a room separate from, but adjacent to the basement.  He replaced the original pump to supply water not only to the barn area but also to the new house plumbing.

     When the water from the old well did not pass state tests, a new well, deeper than the old well, was drilled outside, west of the house.