Overnight Tuesday came an e-mail from a friend, commenting on a Frank Lloyd Wright home she know, somewhere.

The reference jogged me to think back to mid-October, 2013, visiting Wright’s Taliesin, Spring Green WI, and seeing a unique windmill there (see photos at end of this post).  In turn, that caused me to think of another windmill found at the North Dakota farm around the time of my Uncle’s death in 2015, which I came across in a box a short while ago.  It is below, simply a piece of farm art on a scrap piece of wood, doubtless a cooperative creation of persons very familiar with windmills, prairie farms and water.

I don’t know who did the above creation, measuring about 7″x12″.  It is likely a photo from a farm magazine glued on a piece of scrap lumber and then varnished to become a piece of home grown decoupage.  It was a hobby which I remember seemed to have caught on like a prairie wildfire among my elders for a time.  If there was a ‘culprit’, I would put my Aunt Florence near ground zero for planting the seed to decoupage.  But it could have been my mom, or any to the other sisters or female aunts.  You know how such things go.

Show this photo to anyone who’s ever had a close call with an old farm, and it will bring forth lots of memories.  Windmills were the farm “water works” – a source of hopefully fresh water from a fairly shallow well.

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The windmill at Taliesin has its own story, which the internet helpfully searched for me.  Here, you can read the short story.

Oct 16, 2013 at Frank Lloyd Wrights Taliesin, Spring Green WI.  Photos by Dick Bernard

October 16, 2013. Taliesin

In a way, those windmills are like all of us.  In their lives they’ve seen a lot, and done a lot.

Unlike us, they spent their time stuck in place.  Most of us are capable of more flexibility, and making more of an impact than we feel we’re stuck with.

We take many things for granted, these days, which folks couldn’t imagine not all that many years ago.  Rural electricity replaced wind power on my grandparents farm in 1949.  An interesting diary of another North Dakotan adds to that story.  You can read the article here.

Now another spring begins.  A good time to take another look at how we, as individuals, can positively impact the status quo.  And then ‘spring’ into action!

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Bonus PREVIEW, especially for those whose ancestry includes French-Canadian and/or Midwest.  Visit the French American Heritage Foundation website (here) , click Library tab, click books, and scroll down to Roy-Collette Family History.  This is brand new, a French-Canadian family story from France, to Quebec, to the United States, to the Twin Cities area, North Dakota, Ste Elizabeth, Manitoba and Lampman, Saskatchewan.  This is author  Remi Roy’s paternal grandparents story.  At least scroll through the document.  There will be a specific post on the book later in April, but the entire 315 page book is available.  Disclosure: Remi Roy and I are cousins through the Collette line.  At the same site is my 400+ page French-Canadian family history, Bernard-Collette Family History, which is also available in its entirety, from 2010.

COMMENTS (more at end of post):

from Fred:  Liked the Taliesen windmill. We visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Spring Green hangout probably around the same time you did. I don’t remember the windmill, though. We greatly enjoyed the visit. Wright actually influenced how we sited the house we are now in. Instead of going up a few stories for a better river view, we opted for a land-conforming walkout rambler style. It still feels like the right decision.