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very cool.

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The cost of a well, new manual pump and boom truck to put things back together will probably push the total installed and operating cost up to $3000 to $4000.
The payback until I’m getting free water vs. running a pump may be out there a ways, but if SHTF we will have water.

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Back in the first part of the century farm windmills to pump well water with the power of the wind were a great improvement over hand pumping.
They allowed for a lot of the agricultural development in the Midwest and Great Plains areas.

The original Aermotor windmills are still being manufactured and sold in the US as well as some offshore copies of these time tested windmills.
http://aermotorwindmill.com/
There are also people who reclaim older mills and put them back into service.
http://www.millerswindmillservice.com/
http://www.obrockwindmills.com

I wanted one.  For nostalgic as well as practical reasons.  But I didn’t want to pay the costs for a new windmill.

I had approached some farms where I could see useable looking mills still standing, but nobody was really interested in selling.
I had seen one go at a farm auction, but it was in pretty bad shape and really only useable for spare parts.

In early June I saw an auction listing for an upcoming auction less than 20 miles from me.  They listed a windmill as an item to be sold.
This windmill was still standing, wheel turning in the breeze, and appeared to be in great shape.  I had my upper bidding limit in mind when they started the bidding on the mill.
I was the high bidder at only $150 over my upper limit.

Great!  I bought a windmill.  How do I get this thing home?
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/cshire/windmill11.jpg

There is the original way of lifting and lowering the windmill head with a gin pole.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ1J93OT628
The tower can then either be dis-assembled piece by piece as you work your way down, or some have tipped/lowered the tower with a cable to get it all on the ground for dis-assembly.
I looked at that as an option, but in the end decided on the services of a boom truck to get things on the ground for me.

Here is how the day went:

Here I am in the man bucket loosening bolts and getting rigging ready for  the lift.
I was concerned that the bolts would be rusted solid and difficult to get loose.
They were finger loose after ¼ to ½ turn with a breaker bar and dis-assembly was easier than anticipated – good old made in the USA steel.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/cshire/photo-3.jpg

Some more prep work

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/cshire/photo-2.jpg

The wheel and gearbox coming down.  

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/cshire/photo.jpg

This was laid face down resting with the hub centered in a stack of used car tires.
This provided good support to the hub and wheel spokes while protecting the thin sheet metal blades from any damage.

The tower legs were cut off about 12” below ground level where they bolt to the ground anchors that are buried an additional 4’ down and set in approx. 2’ of concrete.
We used a angle grinder and sawzall to make these cuts.  I was planning on borrowing and oxy cutting torch from a friend, but ran out of time and made due with what I had.
A cutting torch would have saved some time and been easier.
The tower was lifted by the boom truck and swung over to a clear landing area.
My brother and I pushed out the legs of the tower while the boom truck let out cable.
This allowed us to lay the tower down pretty easily.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/cshire/photo-1.jpg

The tower was then split in to two approx. 20’ sections for transport.

The whole thing was down and dis-assembled in under 3 hours.  The rest of the day was spent making the 3 trips to get the windmill to its new home and filling the holes in the previous owners yard.

Later this week I’ll post some close up photos of the wheel/gearbox assembly.  
I will need to make a determination if any repairs/rebuilding are required before putting the mill back in to service.
I also need to decide on a location for the windmill and have a new well drilled.  
The plan is to locate the windmill to provide water for livestock as well as rigging up a drip type irrigation system for the garden area.

Cost of windmill at auction              $650.00
Boom Truck service                        $250.00
Sweat equity and vehicle gas          $100.00
Total                                             $1000.00

The cost of a well, new manual pump and boom truck to put things back together will probably push the total installed and operating cost up to $3000 to $4000.
The payback until I’m getting free water vs. running a pump may be out there a ways, but if SHTF we will have water.

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Current place (7.5 acres) was built in the 60's and has a well with the usual submersible pump, pressure tank, etc. for household water and hose bibs for garden etc.

We just closed on a new place in early June.  This is 17 acres with a turn of the century farmhouse.
Farmhouse well is currently submersible pump/pressure tank.
The well is probably 10'-15' from the house, similar to the farmhouse shown in the photos where the windmill was removed from.
The usual setup was the windmill filled a cistern or tank in the house basement and then pitcher pumps or similar lifted the water to the kitchen, etc.

If I use this well close to the house, I would have to cut down a lot of great shade trees to get decent wind flow.

I am thinking of a separate well near the barn/garden area.
Water would be pumped into a slightly elevated storage tank for gravity flow to points of use.
Water would be readily available for livestock and garden, and I could run a pipe to the house and a storage tank for emergency water.

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Save those trees if you can. They are one of the few non-replaceable things on your new property.

There is no way to artificially reproduce what those trees do.

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real wisdom right there....save those trees.  I am my second year into a multi year tree planting project, relocating maples from the woods with a back hoe.  Planting time is January, and it is a lot of hard work. They will still nto be fully grown until I am long gone.