Windmill The Perfect Present Dalton Gardens Man Restores Old Wind Tower For Wife

The wind shifts and catches its tail while the blades begin to spin slowly. It has been decades since the 40-foot Chicago Airmaster windmill has felt the breeze pass through its galvanized steel frame.

Betty Rude peers out her living room window with a quiet smile. The wind charger towers over her yard, making this Christmas Day like the ones she experienced as young girl.

“They’re just really homey, and family means a lot to me,” she said, staring out at her Christmas gift while snow blanketed its braces.

Her husband, Don, comes up behind her and puts his arm around his wife’s small shoulders.

“I just wanted to get her a special gift,” he said. “Instead of buying gifts, I thought it would be nice to make something for each other.”

The Dalton Gardens couple has had their minds set on a traditional windmill for the past two years. In October, Don and his two brothers traveled to Scobey, Mont., located in the northeast part of the state. Being a North Dakota farm boy, he knew where to begin searching for his wife’s dream gift.

“I got up early and went to the restaurant where all the farmers and ranchers hang out,” he said. “They asked us who we were and I told them what I was looking for.”

Rude met a local rancher who happened to have an old wind tower lying in his fields. However, it was just scraps of rusted metal, with some pieces twisted and bent, and others missing completely.

“It was probably built at the turn-of-the-century,” he said.

Nevertheless, Rude, who recently restored a 1947 Ford dump truck and a 1906 bobsled, knew he was up to the task.

“We had three pickup trucks with trailers and we made two trips to the ranch to pick up the windmill and some other things,” he said.

For a month, Rude sanded, bent and painted each brace. He custom-made his own parts to replace the ones that were broken or missing. He had a sheet metal shop cut new blades and a rhombus tail for the windmill.

Then, he assembled the renovated pieces in his backyard workshop. All of the real workings of the windmill, including the water pump system and brake for stopping the blades, were restored to working condition.

Like two kids trying to impress their mother, Rude and his brother raised the steel structure when Betty Rude was out of town for the weekend.

“We used tractors to stand it up on the concrete base,” he said.

His brother pulled on the windmill with one tractor while Rude guided it from the other end with another tractor to prevent it from falling backward.

“I was gone that whole weekend, so you can guess how surprised I was when it was all up,” Betty Rude said. “There are not many gifts as unique as a windmill.”

The neighbors also seem happy with the dominating, mistral tower that stands in the yard like a miniature skyscraper.

“For the first few weeks, they were all stopping by complimenting us on how nice it looks,” she said.

As for Don’s wish to exchange homemade gifts with his wife, he’ll have to wait until next year.

“I have to admit, I didn’t make him anything,” Betty said. “But I did get him something.”