Country Gal by Vanita Blundell Jan. 29, 2008

It seems that the most common conversation is the weather. Whether is it too cold - unseasonably warm- too wet - too dry whatever Mother Nature decides to hand to us we like to talk about it.
I have told how my dad hated for anything to bother his hat. If I really wanted to get into trouble, all I had to do was the flip his hat- that got his attention and it was not the good kind. He could, however, flip your hat off your head and send it flying across the pasture and it was funny - if I even thought about doing that to his hat, I would get the “look” I never actually ever tossed his hat inside the house -as there were things that one just did not do.
When dad would come in at night it was always apparent of what kind of day he had just by the way he entered the house. If it was a windy day, you could be fairly certain that it had not been a good day. Since the wind would blow things around, blow dirt in your eyes, and it just might blow your hat right off your head. This was not good.
The wind that we have experienced lately made me remember the effects that it had on my family. Before we had rural water, our water supply depended on the wind. We had a supply tank by the windmill that kept our water. Every now and then if the wind did not blow, enough we would run out of water. Can you remember when it would freeze, the water that had run out and over in the supply tank, would be all icy? Looking back on it now, I am sure that the EPA or someone would try to do something about those tanks. I am sure that most the supply tanks would not meet their regulations. And they probably were not, but we somehow survived. I never remember having the water tested or the tank checked out. If it held water, it did the job. I know that our water was hard and it was not good to wash our clothes in. However, it seemed to be okay to drink. I had an aunt that always brought her own drinking water, as she would not drink ours. Mom had told me that the water had mineral in it and I thought maybe it might be good for me as when you take vitamins it would say on the box ‘vitamins and minerals for all of your daily needs’.
A little before my time Mom and Dad had a wind charger. The wind was important for us to have power. Now there are in large wind generators that create energy. I hope that we can make more use of our natural resources than we have been.
We have one water mill that if the wind blows to hard it will shut down and that some of the wind generators are the same way, or so I was told. As a result, a little wind is helpful, the weather we have been having has been it little more helpful than necessary. Especially when you can hear the wind whistling around the buildings is enough to chill you to the bone. It reminds me that wind, just like anything else, is good as long as you do not get too much of it.