I had an equine audience for a second as I roamed my favorite area of rural Morton County – let’s face it, most of it is rural – last weekend with a friend who was in town from Philly. I only had a second or two to try to get this shot, because they obviously figured I had food. Right after I took this photo they began working their way down the long hill toward the truck, obviously hoping for some goodies. Maybe I’ll have to take a bag of apples with me next time!
This critter stands next to an interesting feature, a mangled windmill on a farmstead just west of Harmon Lake. In its heyday I bet this was an amazing homestead; it looks out over a beautiful valley to the north and gets a beautiful view of the eastern and western horizons at sunrise and sunset. Now it’s just the cattle that get to appreciate the view.
This windmill took a real beating. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one this mangled, which of course made it immediately catch my eye. It looks as though it caught some interference while spinning. I had a similar experience when working at the ski resort in Big Sky one year. The winds at 10,000 feet can be pretty nasty, as Monty Python would say, and one of the chairs on the Challenger lift swung outside the safety cage on the big pulley at the top of the lift. Naturally things started getting all mangly as the lift wheel turned, and we were without our double black diamond run for a little while.
Sadly, I don’t think anyone’s coming out to fix this windmill any time soon.
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