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| The Windmill that Saved a Tree |
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| Will Future Archeologists Be Baffled By Such a Mess? |
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| The Windmill May Have Toppled Some Time Ago If Not For The Tree |
This was an intriguing sight worthy of committing tresspass. Only a few times in my life have I walked onto someone's property without permission. If you grow up the granddaughter of farmers and ranchers, you learn that cardinal rule early. While it is basically good country manners, it is an issue of safety. No one wants a rear-end full of buck shot. Because this tree grows along a busy Kansas highway, and it was full daylight, and no cattle were present, the worst that might have happened to me was a cussing from the owner. I escaped all verbal and physical assault.
The tree must have survived its seedling and sapling stages by escaping the prairie fires. Whenever water was pumped here, the livestock would have kept the vegetation trampled down, preventing fire from coming close enough to burn the tree. Now the mature tree holds up the windmill.
No one has the time or the money to remove an old rusting windmill. I wish that along with our great American work ethic and rugged individualism, we also held a profound respect for the beauty of the land we "own". Then, there would never be such depressing sights as this.
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