If this cow could talk, he’d say “at least my windmill works…” and then he’d be given his own daytime talk show.

The reason he’d be cracking wise is because the wind turbine standing behind him has apparently suffered some delamination on one of its blades. Owie.

Too bad they don’t make two-story “Out of Order” signs. You can see this damage all the way from Highway 83. I’d hoped to get a closer photo of this, but the access road is blocked with red DANGER tape and No Trespassing signs. If you’ve read this blog for a while, you know that I honor those signs. It’s not just the law, it’s respectful of other people’s property.

The sky went through a lot of changes while I was up on the wind farm. It went from rain to nasty clouds to deep blue skies to multiple colors as the sun began to approach the horizon.

I used a polarizer to bring out detail in the sky. The results vary depending on your angle from your light source, in my case the sun. Thus I get a lighter shade of blue in the sky in this shot, as the sun was directly behind me.

It would have been interesting to see exactly how and when this blade failed. I bet it was a spectacular sight! If I were to offer a layman’s opinion, I’d guess that it happened while the turbine was stationary; otherwise it looks like the delaminated blade would have likely torn right off. In this case, it merely split. It may not have been pointing up at the time; the weight distribution of the blades was altered when it collapsed, causing the intact blades to balance toward the bottom.

I was really excited to get out tonight. I got to hang out with a friend who went with me, I got to see the clouds roll away and a very nice (albeit chilly) June evening take shape. I even got to do some running around with the camera after leaving the wind farm…but those photos will have to be posted later.