It is a rather blue day since one of my hard drives file structure got corrupted and now I can’t get to any of my files, but it is fitting since it is a Blue Moon today. And since I couldn’t get to my files, I went outside this evening to take a picture of the blue moon partially covered by blue clouds rising over a bluebird house.
Blue Moon
Don’t let this innocent face fool you. She might not be hunting live critters yet but she sure goes after stuffed toy ones. And that is not all she plays with as my shoe strings and my camera strap were involved in a serious tug-a-war match.
Innocent Puppy Face
Since this week started out as a critter week, I might as well continue with that theme. Besides the squirrels fighting over the bitternuts yesterday, which I could hear inside, the chipmunks are making a lot of noise and busy eating acorns. Apparently the young have surfaced as my population has really increased the last week. This chipmunk has a big pile of acorn shells on this stump where he has been eating.
Cute Chipmunk
The red squirrel in yesterday’s picture better look out since there are other critters in the trees besides squirrels, chipmunks and birds. Actually this poor kitten was driven up the tree by a dog and the dog had treed quite a few kittens in a short time.
Treed Kitten
The little red squirrel is back, although a little bigger than the last time I saw him. But his little size doesn’t stop him from chasing the larger black squirrels away, especially since bitternuts were involved. Although his mother apparently didn’t tell him to wipe his mouth off as he eats, but then he was in a hurry to get another nut ate as quickly as he could.
Red Squirrel eating a Bitternut
Since I started the “old” week on Monday with a windmill, it probably is fitting to end the 7th day of the “old” week with a windmill. And this windmill definitely has seen better days and it is too worn out for me to identify the brand, although the brace wires are a different configuration than the Aermotor that I posted on Monday so it probably one from the hundreds different manufacturers.
A Field Guide To American Windmills by T. Lindsay Baker has identified some 1500 manufacturers of windmills so it probably will be hard for me to identify which manufacturer when there are over 50 manufacturers in my state without seeing a name. And the models of the windmills had interesting names too; some just had manufacturer name but other incorporated their function in the name such as Althouse, Chief, Milo Giant, Steel Chief, Steel Giant, Waupan Vaneless, Monitor Steel Power, Horicon, King, Ozark, Reliance, Eclipse, Double Power, Sheboygan, Duplex Geared, Kilbourn Steel, The Dandy, Everlasting, Favorite, Boss Vaneless, Champion Power, Sandwich-Perkins, Fouk’s Accelerating Air Motor, Parson’s Colorado Wind Engine, The Iron Screw, and Aquarius the Water Bearer.
But whatever the brand or name, the windmill served its purpose in the past, providing needed water for farming. They say that barbed wire and windmills were the two inventions that made it possible to develop the American West.
I hope everyone enjoyed the “old” week theme and will have to see when the “old” stuff returns again.
Worn Out Windmill
This week I was on the hunt for old barns and I found a few. So for the Saturday post of the “old” week, I’m going to post a very precious old barn. This barn was my grandfather’s and the farm is still in the family.
Old Family Barn
For the Friday picture of the “old” week, I decided on a close up shot of a barn door and the “Big 4” door hanger. By zooming in on the metal washer, I was able to read the company and name of the hanger. The old white barn that was on my home farm had these door hangers before the tornado took the barn down.
I found an advertisement in the November 1922 issue of the Building Age and Builders’ Journal for the Big 4. Below is that ad.
“You Need the NATIONAL “Big 4” Flexible Door Hanger and “Braced Rail”
That barn – or similar job – that you are handling, calls for a heavy-duty Hanger and Rail; for an easily sliding door gives the stamp of the right construction to the whole building.
The Big-4 Flexible Door Hanger has as its keynotes Simplicity and Strength. Note its sturdy appearance in the illustration. Thousands of pairs in use for years in all sections of this country and Canada prove its Serviceability under varying conditions. Made entirely of steel and supplies with anti-friction-steel roller bearings, giving a perfectly free motion to the door.
Brace Rail: Millions of feet of this rail are in use and giving uniform satisfaction for these reasons: brackets only 12 inches apart and double riveted – giving extreme rigidity. The brace below the screws trebles the holding power of the screws. Brackets are same width and thickness as the rail itself, and holes are staggered so the screws will not go into the same grain of wood. A fitting companion for the Big-4 Hanger.
National Manufacturing Co., Sterling, Illinois”
So I wonder what year this “Big 4” was installed and how many times it rolled on the rail track.
The “Big 4” Door Hanger
Continuing with my old theme week, this old wooden corral has seen better days and doesn’t look like it would hold any fighting bulls but I wouldn’t mind seeing a cowboy sitting on the fence rail.
Old Corral
This old wheel rolls right in with my old theme week. After being on the road for a while yesterday, it would have been a much bumpier and rough ride with old wooden wheels than rubber tires. Yet wheels like this carried settlers across the nation and were a critical part of survival. Wooden wheels of different sizes were part of their daily life for transportation and work.
The earliest known examples of wooden spoked wheels are in the context of the Andronovo culture, dating to ca 2000 BC. Soon after this, horse cultures of the Caucasus region used horse-drawn spoked-wheel war chariots for the greater part of three centuries. They moved deep into the Greek peninsula where they joined with the existing Mediterranean peoples to give rise, eventually, to classical Greece after the breaking of Minoan dominance and consolidations led by pre-classical Sparta and Athens. Celtic chariots introduced an iron rim around the wheel in the 1st millennium BC. The spoked wheel was in continued use without major modification until the 1870s, when wire wheels and pneumatic tires were invented.
I much rather look at wooden wheels than a pile of rubber tires especially considering the skills the wheelwright needed to make the spokes, rim and hub and to fit them all together.
Wooden Wheel Spokes
