Pictures from my Oklahoma trip

[gja1000]

These are just random pictures from my trip

1. Barn on the road into the Witicha wildlife refuge
2. buffalo in the refuge - unfortunately, I didn't have my 18X zoom camera with me - so they are tiny!
3. rock work on a church in Fletcher Oklahoma. The round rocks were done back in the 30's and 40's in the government work program. It is really beautiful - crude but beautiful.

[gja1000]

This "display" in downtown Fletcher just tickled me. This is NOT a stop sign or stop light, it is sitting under a blinking red light.

1. be sure to look at the flyers
2. the flyers can be changed out - whatever is "for sale"
3. you can even find an apartment for rent or fresh eggs or a free kitten!

Classic small town wonders! This is just like the town I grew up in!

[gja1000]

These were taken in downtown Oklahoma commemorating the settling of "Indian Territory" which later became Oklahoma.

1. plaque telling about settling Indian Territory
2-4 - the statues are much larger than lifesize and it is amazing!!

[Marilyn]

Gayle, these are really nice. Looks like you had a very good time!! I love the STOP bulletin board in the middle of the street. I think it would be against the law around here to do something like that. The town of Edna, TX got in trouble with the highway department because they painted horse foot prints on the roads leading to their high school football stadium. There mascot is the Cowboys, so it was kinda cute, but the highway department didn't think so.

Thank you for sharing. It's always interesting to see another part of the country!!

[gja1000]

The day before I took this pic, my mom told me about my great grandmother and great grandfather who were both from Switzerland but had met and married in Kansas. They traveled to Oklahoma with two covered wagons. When they got to the south Canadian river which was at that time a very wide and deep river - my g-grandmother told my g-grandfather that she was NOT crossing THAT river and if he wanted to get across he would have to drive his wagon across, swim back and drive hers across. He did!

So, when I saw this statue of the horses rearing up at the water crossing, I was flabbergasted that my mom had just told me a story about a river crossing.

[gja1000]

These are some of my favorite places in Oklahoma

1&2 pics 1 and 2 are of the Cherokee Trading Post between Clinton and Weatherford on I40. I love the Indian jewelry there and I always have to stop and look.

3. I took this pic for Janet - although I don't think her Ricky looks like the little guy above the name
4. There are LOTS of wind farms in Oklahoma - this one is right along I40 between Clinton and Weatherford. HUGE windmills!!!

Also, on my first post in this thread, I forgot to explain pic #4 - Braums - my FAVORITE ice cream place in Oklahoma! There are some in north Texas now!

[gja1000]

This is my hubby's aunt and uncle's cabin on Lake Murray in southern Oklahoma, near Ardmore. That's my car!

They retired in 1996 and live here full time. All the family gathers there for Memorial Day and then various family members go down to the lake all summer long. My husband and his uncle built the cabin 30 years ago!

[gja1000]

1. That's Rowdy on the left and Rexy on the right

2. The neighbor dog, Duke, Rex and Rowdy

3. a GORGEOUS tree in Norman Oklahoma, every branch was covered with lights! OH MY! You can tell how TALL it was as you can see the roof peak behind it! It would take a cherry picker to get those lights up there!!!

[Janet]

Gayle your pictures are great. I'll most likely never see them in person so thank you for sharing them. I showed Ricky the cafe picture and he just laughed. Then asked...how much do they know about me anyway....LOL.. I told him you all know what size shorts he wears...LOL. Then told him I was j/k.

We are starting to get those windmills here Gayle. People are using them for electricity and there is one just 2 miles from me. They are considering a windmill farm there. They have one up so they can decide if there is enough wind for more.

[judy]

Thanks Gayle. Those are great pix! I can't believe the statues. They are really beautiful.

Love the stop sign!`

[gja1000]

Originally Posted by Janet

We are starting to get those windmills here Gayle. People are using them for electricity and there is one just 2 miles from me. They are considering a windmill farm there. They have one up so they can decide if there is enough wind for more.

Our farm is in line for a future wind farm. In order to put a windmill(s) on your property, they have to lease it. Oil companies do the same, in order to drill an oil or gas well on your property, they have to lease it. Oil companies typically lease your land for about $100 to $300 per acre for 3 years. We currently have all our farm leased to an oil company.

Well, the wind farm company wants to lease our farm for $1.00 (yes, one dollar) an acre for 100 years (yes, one hundred years). We said NO THANKS!!! I would love to have a few windmills on my farm, they bring in about $5,000-$8,000 per year (depending on how much elec they generate). BUT you might lease your land with them and then get a 5000 sq foot substation instead of a windmill (which pays NOTHING). You are giving up the surface rights to your property for 100 years - again, NO THANKS!!! We think they will change the lease at some point - it will be several years before the proposed wind farm is built.

Some people put up the small windmills to generate personal electricity. What you don't use, the electric complany in Oklahoma HAS to buy back from you. Several people do that and we are considering doing that on our farm.

[Janet]

That is exactly what some are doing in our county and a few counties to the west of us. They have it for personal use. Sounds like a pretty nice set up, although I haven't really done too much research. Just what the neighbors are saying.

[AngieDoogles]

Great pics Gayle! I've never been to Oklahoma. Thanks for sharing!

[Marilyn]

Originally Posted by Janet

That is exactly what some are doing in our county and a few counties to the west of us. They have it for personal use. Sounds like a pretty nice set up, although I haven't really done too much research. Just what the neighbors are saying.

I did a little research into this. The personal windmill itself is only about $4,000, but when you add in the tower and the equipment needed to transform the electricity generated to usable electricity for your home, and import and export, the cost was much much more. One windmill would not generate enought power with our average winds in this area and with the energy requirements due to our hot summers, so you would need several to do the job. It's been a while, but I figured it would take about 20 years or so to break even and that's if you never have to do any maintenance on the system. I was subscribing to a magazine for a while that was devoted to wind and solar energy. There was lots of really good information in there, but that's where I got the data to do my evaluations.

It may be that in a cooler climate with higher wind speeds it would be more feasible. Hubby and I would like to someday be totally disconnected from the grid. The only way we have been able to figure a way to do that is to have super efficient foam insulation and geothermal HVAC system utilizing a combination of wind and solar power. The insulation and equipment is soooo expensive though for even this setup the payback is pretty long with current technology and pricing.

[gja1000]

Thanks for the figures, Marilyn! Do you have a source that you could share with me? My cousin who lives in OK is the one who is thinking about doing the leg work on the personal windmill. I know she would appreciate some/a source(s) to figure all this out. She knows someone who put up a windmill many years ago, and has enough power to run her farm, plus sells about $500 back to the elec company every month. But, the wind blows pretty hard all day every day in Oklahoma. There is a HUGE car dealership in Norman, OK that has one windmill (pretty good sized) that produces all their power.

We actually only have an electric pump on the farm right now - to pump water out of the well for the cattle. So we don't need much electricity; thus, most of it could be sold back to Okla Gas and Electric company. There are 6 cousins who are part owners in the farm now, so we could all share the costs. We just need to learn more about the whole process.