His wheels are always turning

Don Quixote battled them. Holland is renowned for them. And Garden Springs resident Hugh Grim restores them.

Forty years ago, Grim saw a windmill lying in pieces in a neighbor’s yard. He offered to buy it, and his neighbor agreed. Grim gathered the scattered bits and pieces and stored them in his shop, which is where they stayed until last year.

His wife, Dolores, laughed when she recalled what launched the project. “I said, ‘You’d better do something with that.’ ”

Grim nodded and said, “I decided to see if I could put it together.”

The windmill is a 1906 Fairbanks Morse with a fan 8 feet in diameter. It proved to be a bit difficult to find parts for a windmill built during the Theodore Roosevelt administration. But Grim, a retired construction foreman, was undaunted. When he couldn’t find the parts he needed, he made them.

He discovered plenty of helpful information on the Internet, including a book titled, “A Field Guide to American Windmills.”

Last November he rented a crane and the Fairbanks Morse perched on a 38-foot tower, which he also built, was installed in the Grims’ backyard. And thanks to his daughters, it even has a pump. They’d discovered a reproduction of an original pump and used their creative painting skills to add a coat of rust to make the pump match the rest of the structure. “When I was a kid in the country, only rich people had windmills,” he said.

As Dolores looked out over her husband’s handiwork, the barest whisper of wind moved the fan. “It’s funny how you can’t keep your eyes off it,” she said. “I enjoy watching it. It’s kind of idiotic ’cause it just spins around.”

She’s not the only one to appreciate their unique backyard attraction. The windmill has become a neighborhood focal point and conversation piece. And it led to another project for Grim.

“A neighbor stopped by and said, ‘I’d like one like that.’ ” That was all the encouragement Grim needed. “My cousin in Oregon just happened to have a windmill, so I went down there and bought it.”

It was, of course, in pieces.

This time the windmill was a 1915 Aermotor. Grim got busy and built a 44-foot tower in his driveway. Businesses such as Haskins Steel, Spokane Galvanizing and Carlson’s Sheet Metal were helpful in the rebuilding process.

His neighbor was thrilled with the result, but Grim was just warming up. He located another dismantled windmill and brought it home. It’s his third and biggest project yet: a 1934 Aermotor with a 12-foot fan.

“The motor was frozen,” he said, “just locked up inside.”

Challenge invigorates Grim, who looks younger than his 77 years. He patiently worked over the motor, finally freeing the bearing that caused the problems. The engineering of these mechanical marvels fascinates him.

“These are just water pumps,” he said. “Before electricity you pumped (water) by hand, used a gasoline engine or you had a windmill.”

His current project has local roots. Fading red letters on the back of the fan read “Hughes & Co,” a Spokane dealer that went out of business many years ago. The windmill originally was owned by Lind Hardware, in Lind, Wash.

Grim demonstrated the mechanical process that causes the mill to capture the wind and use its energy to pump water. He pointed out the differences between the 1906 windmill and his ’30s era project. “The 100-year-old one is all open gears. I have to climb the tower to grease it.” His current project features an enclosed gearbox. “I’ll only have to lube it once a year.”

He’d planned to sell the windmill when he finished, but now he said, “I think it’s going to stay right here.” Grim shrugs off the time and expense it takes to restore them. “It’s just a hobby,” he said with a smile.

“It keeps him busy,” added his wife.

When asked if there’s another windmill in his future, Grim paused. “We’ll have to see what happens,” he said.