Aermotor and Beatty Pump Jack at local farm still in daily use.

[Joshschneids]

I always go and buy Summer Sausage from a local Mennonite farm. Since getting into windmills i talked to the owner of the farm about his windmill and he was willing to talk. It was near dark but i went out and took some pictures the next day. He has a 702 Aermotor and the well cylinder is at about 75 Feet down! Wow. It is like going back in time showing up at the farm, No hydro or running water. The only machine i seen was a small engine to power the pump jack if needed. David has a set up water tank on his 2nd story of his barn. The mill pumps roughly 100 feet to the tank and then has a pipe from the tank about 150 feet to the house and has gravity fed water. To keep it from freezing he has it piped under ground 5 feet to the barn and back to the house. He has a man hole set up to go down the 5 feet to access the top of the well if needed. David claims he can pump near 1000 Gallons in a day if he has a good wind. He relys on the mill to water all his cattle and his house. Cool seeing these in action and still serving a major purpose in this day of age. I attached some pictures of the pump jack (he has a kubota engine he attatches to it if needed) as you can see he has customized it a little. A Quarter of the vane is rusted off of the mill and missing a blade or 2 . Just a little story i thought i would share. Josh

[windybob]

Nice! You can run water anywhere if the head pipe is taller than the hill.

[steve p]

The Amish that are about an hour south of me still use windmills as well as pneumatic pumps.