Look what I've got.

I've wanted this for a long time.








It belonged to my neighbor, Frank Kobe. He died last year. I miss seeing him sitting out in his chair trimming his juniper. I personally hate juniper, but Frank had it planted around his windmills. Frank built windmills and whirligigs and weather vanes of all sorts. I can't remember just how long this chicken whirligig has been around, but I think it was built already when we moved here. He and his wife lived in this neighborhood when we first moved here in 1965. I was fifteen. They were very nice people. Frank used to give my little brother rides around his yard on this contraption he built. It was pulled by his dog using a harness. The dog was a German Shepherd named Mike. I can still remember how my brother used to love riding that crazy flat contraption!
Frank and Phyllis are both gone now, but his nephew bought the house "as is" so that he could be the one to go through stuff and decide what to do with it. I stopped by the other day and asked if he would be interested in selling me the chicken whirligig. He agreed to sell it to me for 20 dollars. SCORE!

Frank was a handy guy. Click here to see his windmills. He also built that fence, which included wagon wheels. I wish I had taken a better picture of that to include the wheels, because the wheels are gone now. Another neighbor bought those from the nephew. That neighbor told the nephew that he had wanted them for a long time, too.

I am so happy to have this whirligig! I can't wait to repaint it and freshen it up and find a permanent place for it to reside!

Still standing.

Took some pictures of the old grain mill while walking with Logan the other day. It's still standing, but pieces were dropping off it as we were walking by it. They have determined it was arson and have it all fenced off, now. Logan was very good about standing in a holding pattern while I took photos. He was enjoying the workings of the lumber mill across the street. Oh and the random picture at the bottom is the swinging ball to my glass ball windchime.

Not what I planned on doing today...

but it was like losing an old friend. I had to go take pictures. I'm so glad my sister called me to let me know this was happening. It was worth leaving a fresh cup of coffee to go and take photos. This mill was an active, feed producing mill with an attached feed store when we first moved to Midland. So sad to see it go. It was an eyesore and a haven for crackheads and bums, but it was also a major icon in the Midland landscape. I just picked a bunch of random pics for this blog. The whole set is over at my Flickr account.



What greeted me as I arrived.



What used to be the front of the feed store.



At work.



Team effort.



Discussing options.



As the flames creep out. They put this out and it came back four times.



Bill, the firefighter, wanted me to take a picture of his pal up on the rig. I forgot to ask the pal's name.



Attacking an outbreak of flame.



Billowing smoke.



Going to check it out.



Letting it burn to collapse the roof so they can get the water inside.



Bill (on the right) and his pal, cheesing for the camera. This is while they were waiting for the fire to bring down the roof so they could get the water inside.



Bill's pal actually working. Trying to put out that flame that came back four times.



Letting it burn.



I did Bill a favor by taking pics of him and his pal, so he did me a favor by letting me get a picture for my nephew's little boy, AJ.