The Windmill Project

Wouldn't you know it, after the crazy wind yesterday, today is about as calm as can be outside. Hopefully it will stay that way so we can get some roof repairs made.

Most of the time (when we're not building a new roof) we don't mind the wind so much. And it is definitely windy here in the Texas panhandle! We especially notice the wind because our house is located up on a ridge.

I've mentioned this before, but one of the things Brian has always wanted to do is put up a windmill. Even before we moved here, Brian started researching windmills and generating power with them. We were able to get a pretty good deal on a wind turbine. However, Brian didn't like the pole/tower that came with it (it would have required guy-wires, among other things). Being the engineer that he is, he got to designing his own tower. He consulted his dad and the two of them came up with a pretty awesome design. (And I apologize up front for my lack of understanding and my crude explanations of this whole process!)

They wanted to windmill to be as high as possible, yet that raised the issue of reaching it for maintenance, etc. Our tower will be over 70 feet tall! So they designed a tower that could be lowered if needed. (I told you, pretty awesome!)

Brian's dad even built a scale model of their design, which involves hydraulic rams. He brought the model with him this last trip down (1 inch = 1 foot). This shows the tower standing upright (without the wind turbine on top).

When you need to lower the tower, there are four hydraulic rams that tip it down.

While his dad has been here these last couple of weeks, they have started working on the windmill project (in-between working on the house addition!). His dad has been busy out in the shop welding and cutting the steel pipes they found at a salvage yard.

The first step was to dig the foundation. This thing is going to be heavy so they wanted to make sure they had enough support for it. We rented a backhoe for a day to finish digging the hole.

The hole is about 7 ft by 7 ft square and 8 ft deep. (The actual footings will be 6 ft by 6 ft.)

This picture shows the hole in relation to our house:

And as a little side note here, I had to include a picture of my dear husband. I guess he decided that he was so busy working on the house these last 2-3 weeks that he didn't have time to shave. This is the longest he's ever gone without shaving! (I can't say the beard is my favorite -- I have never really wanted him to grow one. And he did finally shave it all off this morning.)

Here's Brian working on flattening out a section of cut pipe (sitting on top of another pipe for support) that will be used somewhere (?) and that something else will slide on (?) -- you can tell I'm a little fuzzy about this part (sorry!):

Once the hole was ready, the next step is to put in the four support poles. These will be anchored in the ground to support the main tower and attach to the hydraulic rams. Here are the support poles that Brian's dad worked on welding together.

This is one of the hydraulic rams (the smaller black thing against the wall):

Some of the welding cross pieces will be removed once the towers are in place.

On the lower section, you can see the darker pipes at the base.

This smaller piece is set in the ground first and then the larger support structure will slide down into it. So into the hole it went!

Brian added lots of rebar to add strength to the concrete.

This is how you get in and out of a hole 8 feet deep!

Then the concrete truck came yesterday to pour the first part of the foundation. I think it's about a foot deep and is a pretty strong mix of concrete.

Once it cures, they will somehow set the larger support beams inside and the fill the rest of the hole with concrete. (That's going to be interesting watching them move that huge heavy thing out of the shop and set it upright in this base!) The actual windmill tower will be bolted to the concrete foundation and then attached with the hydraulic rams to the support poles (at least, I think that's how it will work).

I love watching engineering minds at work! It's so cool to see them go from drawings to scale models to the real thing. And someday in the not too distant future, we'll be wishing the wind was blowing hard every day!