Today's picture was taken in 1904, and shows a large variety of windmills. The picture was taken at the Louisiana Purchase exposition. This was part of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The interesting thing is the variety of shapes, styles, and sizes of the windmills. Windmills like this are still in widespread use. The primary advantage of such systems is the ability to have water, without having to run electric lines to an area. Running electric lines today is insanely expensive for a consumer. Today, there is much less variety, and all the windmills are pretty much the same size and design.
Domestic Update:
We had a busy week out in Chickie Town last week. Lovie and the babies are still in the coop. When the babies get bigger, I will let them out, but for now, I would not want a snake or something to get the little guys. The other peacocks are free ranging, and just walk around as they please. I enjoy watching the peacocks, but normally, I do not sit and count them, since they walk around, and are not always together. On Wednesday, I noticed one of the girls was sitting on the porch, and not moving around much. When I went over and looked at her, you could see that she was really sick. She had her feathers all puffed out, and her eyelids were droopy. When she tried to walk the staggered. She was really sick, and that concerned me, so I thought I better check on the other ones. When I started checking, I noticed that besides the sick one, their was another one missing completely. I started looking for her, but could not find her. Then my daughter and Mrs. PJM started trying to find her. We looked all over the entire property three times, and could not find her. Given how sick the other bird was, we decided she probably had gotten sick too, and had just crawled off somewhere and died. Well, we took the sick bird, and put her under the chicken coop, which is a cool place. We put some Gatorade under there for her, some water, and then got her some medicine. Checking on her throughout the day, she was not getting any better. Next day, same thing, one peacock gone, and one very sick under the chicken coop. We were concerned that with one gone, and with one very sick, that we might have an outbreak of something in the flock. I spent two days reading on the Internet about bird illnesses. There are 100 different things that birds can get, and each requires a different treatment. The thing is though, that all the illnesses pretty much have the same symptoms. So we were very concerned. Then, on the second evening, I looked out in the Chickie Town, and saw a pea-hen out running around, jumping up and down and looking fine. I was surprised, and thought the sick bird had gotten better really fast. I went out and looked under the coop, and the sick bird was still there, so the one jumping around was the missing one (this was Elly May, one of the ones hatched last summer). So, Elly May was back, and in fine form. I decided I would watch her for a while. She ate and drank and hopped around and visited with the others. Then, I notice she starts walking away, out to the rough pasture area of the property. I follow her, and find that sure enough, she has herself a big nest of eggs out there under a cactus.
You can see in the picture how we could walk right by her and not see her. She really blends in. Now, I don't know if here eggs will hatch or not. It seems pretty late in the season to be hatching eggs. It is over 100 degrees every day, so I don't know if that is too hot for the eggs or not. But we will keep watching and waiting to see what will happen. The other pea-hen looks like she is recovering, and looks like she is feeling better.
