Windmill Installation

Why a Windmill?

The two ponds up on the hill are fed by runoff and rainfall, and are about 8 feet deep (at their deepest part) when full, with about 1/4 acre capacity each; one is slightly larger than the other, so we call it the Big Pond. They're not real large ponds, but they add diversity to the landscape, hold a fair amount of water, and they just plain look pretty. Originally stocked with fish, they still have fish in them, but have not been managed or fished for about 5 years. The pond edges are very shallow, and they are mostly in full sun, so during the summer months they grow filamentous algae and other pond weeds, and when it gets really hot the algae grows to cover the entire surface.

Bobby had been spraying the ponds with a copper sulfide algaecide, but for the most part the algae is more of an aesthetic problem than a practical one, as no one likes their ponds covered with green "scum." The algae is a food source for fish and other pond dwellers, and shades the water, which is also good for the fish; but an overgrowth of algae can quickly lower the oxygen levels in the water as the plant matter dies and decomposes, using oxygen that the fish need.

I wanted to find a solution to the algae "problem" that did not involve using herbicides, no matter how "acceptable" or biodegradeable the product information says it is. Copper sprays are harmful to amphibian life, and residues remain in the water and pond bottom mud, continuing to contaminate the biology of the pond. A little Internet research uncovered a couple of ideas, ranging from adding dye or bundles of buckwheat straw, to stocking with grass carp. I settled on a long-term approach to improving the health of the ponds by installing an aeration windmill. This maintains high levels of oxygen, keeps the algae pushed to the side, and prevents nutrient build-up in water levels that fuel the algae growth. In a word, aeration doesn't entirely prevent all algae growth, but it reduces it significantly, so that it is no longer a "problem," but simply a part of the pond's biology.

6 Boxes + 3 People + 1 Week = A Windmill on the Big Pond

We decided our first farm visit project would be installing the aeration windmill, to stop the application of the copper sulfide herbicide and improve the health of at least one pond. I'd explained to Bobby that the Farm would not use chemicals, in order to be able to certify it as organic eventually; I didn't want to make him quit "cold turkey" with some of things he was using to reduce his workload, such as the spot-spraying of Roundup under the fencelines, which saved him from having to weedeat along 500 feet of fence; but the copper spray on the ponds had to stop imediately.

So I ordered a 16-foot windmill from Koender's Windmills, shipped to arrive just prior to our week-long visit in April '07. It came by UPS in 6 boxes, and they were waiting for us in the shop when we got there.

Day One we dug the footer holes with an auger attachment on the tractor, and poured the concrete, surrounding galvanized pipe pounded deep into the bottom of the holes, with the ends sticking up to clamp the windmill tower's legs to.

Day Two the Tower Guys put the windmill tower together in the shop, while I cleaned pond edges and stayed out of their way.

Day Three the guys started putting the blade sections together, while I continued with cleaning pond edges and skimming algae off the surface of both ponds.

Day Four the fan section was finished, and the tower was hauled up the hill and mounted on its concrete throne.

Day Five the blade assembly went up the hill in the back of the little red farm truck (with me sitting on it, holding it and laughing), and fitted to the top of the tower - which we'd brought down on its side first, of course - then the whole contraption was raised upright. A little futzing with the guide rope we'd handed to a standerby to hold the blades from spinning (he didn't, so they did, wrapping the rope 'round and 'round the spindle, which I had to climb up and undo in some pretty stiff winds) and we were looking at a real, working windmill!

Day Six we rented a Ditch Witch, dug the trench for the air line to run from the windmill down to the edge of the pond, and installed the air line, with the diffuser stone in a bucket of gravel in the bottom of the pond. It rained that day, and our tempers were short, so it was kinda tough and ugly, but we got 'er done.