Master of the windmills

FALCON • Ray Balsick likes to surround himself with his old cronies, like Aermotor, Eclipse and Dandy.

It doesn’t matter that all Dandy and the gang do is squeak, creak and moan all day. That’s what retired windmills do. And if they get too noisy, Balsick, 80, pulls the switch.

Like Balsick, the old-timers worked hard on ranches for years.

Now, he’s their caretaker. He gives them a new purpose in life.

And Balsick gets back what he gives.

Twenty-five windmills tower over his yard.

He’s no Don Quixote. And his windmills aren’t those big turbine workhorses that are going to solve the nation’s energy problems. These are the picturesque, old-school icons of rural Americana.

His 6-acre home sits a few blocks off U.S. Highway 24 on Cotton Tail Drive, just east of the Woodmen Road intersection at Falcon.

Swing by for a closer look. Balsick loves to talk windmills.

“The other day I looked out and there were about five cars out there and 30 people wandering around my yard,” he said.

Often, people knock. He and his wife, Louise, are used to it.

“I show people who never saw before how a windmill pumps water,” he said.

That would be the sole working windmill, which circulates water for Balsick’s garden.

As for the rest: “Lawn ornaments,” he said. He laughs. He is humble about the landscape he created, mostly with his own two hands.

Distant clouds hover over the Eastern plains as the blades spin and flap in seemingly random directions. Each emits a distinct sound. Balsick doesn’t have to look to know which one is singing to him.

He arches his shoulders and tucks his fingers under his overalls as he speaks with pride about his flock of 25-foot-tall friends.

He put up the first windmill 17 years ago, after leaving the ranch in Calhan and the demands of tending to cows.

“You start with one, and pretty soon you see another you like,” he said. “It mushroomed.”
Trying to get him to name a favorite is like picking a kid you like best.

The windmills each have that special thing that makes them dear.

Of course, there is a sentimental fondness for, say, the Aermotor that worked on his grandfather’s farm.

But there’s a paternal fondness for those he brought back from the dead, making each blade by hand, using years of carpentry know-how as a guide. Most have six sections of 12 to 14 blades, each cut, sanded and painted with care.

“I use old blades for a pattern,” he said. “All the towers that are made out of wood; I made them.”

Most windmills weigh about 600-to-700 pounds. He doesn’t lose sleep over the wind blowing them down or away. Theft isn’t a worry, either.

Placement is a matter of “this seems like a good spot, put it there.”

There are a few other lawn-ornament windmill spreads in Colorado, he said. And there are guys like him all over the world.

Balsick recently returned from the International Windmillers’ Trade Fair in Nebraska.

He brought back a rusty pile of parts that cost a lot more than it looks.

Under Balsick’s care, it will transform to another beauty.

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Contact the writer at 636-0253.