Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Wooden windmills on the prairies


Even rarer, I'm sure, than wooden grain elevators are the wooden windmills that are still standing. This one is on my brother-in-law's farm north of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It's in need of repair as the wooden slats are rotting and it's becoming structurally unsound. It's too bad as these also are icons of the prairies. Using wind power readily available on the wide open prairies was an energy efficient way of pumping water from the well for the water supply of the farm herds.
I have a few photos of windmills in Saskatchewan. Does anyone have a collection? Or know of one? I googled windmills and came up empty. I'll have to do some more searching as now I'm curious as to whether these memories of our past have been preserved.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Inventory of Existing Saskatchewan elevators


I just came across this list of existing grain elevators in Saskatchewan that was completed in July 2006. There are between 500 and 600 remaining. What I like about this list is that it gives the dates the elevators were built. The Pense elevator I've posted here was built in 1967.
If you want to see the list and see if your favourite elevator was still standing in '06, click on the title of this blog.