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Short road trip.

481 Views 21 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  dennishoddy
Went out near Enid today. Been maybe 13 years last time I was that far west. I can’t see why anyone would want to live like that. 900 windmills (weren’t there my last trip) 78 trees and nothing but flat boring grass. Maybe living in eastern Oklahoma all my life has spoiled me to beautiful landscape or maybe I failed to see the beauty in the flat and boring today. I’ll stay this direction if I have my drathers. I’m poking fun more than anything and I think the major landscape diversity we have here in our great state is something that makes us really special, that and the amazing folks. The windmills were something, first I’ve ever seen. A fella I spoke with said he gets 26k a year from having them on his place.
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Lots of big deer out there in that tall grass lol
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Went out near Enid today. Been maybe 13 years last time I was that far west. I can’t see why anyone would want to live like that. 900 windmills (weren’t there my last trip) 78 trees and nothing but flat boring grass. Maybe living in eastern Oklahoma all my life has spoiled me to beautiful landscape or maybe I failed to see the beauty in the flat and boring today. I’ll stay this direction if I have my drathers. I’m poking fun more than anything and I think the major landscape diversity we have here in our great state is something that makes us really special, that and the amazing folks. The windmills were something, first I’ve ever seen. A fella I spoke with said he gets 26k a year from having them on his place.
You just didn’t go far enough north and west. I’m pretty fond of the Salt Fork river bottom.
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Our farms are in Grant county north of Enid. Not much to see out there other than barbed wire fences. The winds blew the barbs off years ago. Nothing but those wires between us and the north pole.
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I have a brother-in-law who said one time he would like to plow and see where the furrow started and ended,. Keep going on West to one of the most beautiful canyon areas I have seen.
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During the long flat straight drive I kept imagining what it was like 150 years ago on that flat prairie. I would like seeing the canyons you’re talking about.
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When I took my then 4 year old on a road trip back to Spokane to see my parents a few years ago she noticed that all the hills and trees were gone pretty soon after we left.

By the time we hit Tulsa and got 40 miles west she asked "what is this, it's so flat?"

I replied "We are entering the great plains, we have about 8 hours before we see mountains and trees again sweetie."

She sat there for a moment and then said "This isn't the great plains...this is just plain".

😆😆
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Yeah, those wind turbines are just a blight on the landscape. Did you come into Enid from the east on 412? If so, did you notice the big yard full of tower sections and turbine blades on the north side of the highway? They're just disgusting to see IMHO. Either the fellow you talked to puts up with a bunch of them on his property or he's blowing smoke up yer skirt.
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Yeah, those wind turbines are just a blight on the landscape. Did you come into Enid from the east on 412? If so, did you notice the big yard full of tower sections and turbine blades on the north side of the highway? They're just disgusting to see IMHO. Either the fellow you talked to puts up with a bunch of them on his property or he's blowing smoke up yer skirt.
I came from the east. He darn sure could have been, said he has been in that area his entire life so maybe his family has a lot of land with them on it but it sure could have been a fish story.

When I took my then 4 year old on a road trip back to Spokane to see my parents a few years ago she noticed that all the hills and trees were gone pretty soon after we left.

By the time we hit Tulsa and got 40 miles west she asked "what is this, it's so flat?"

I replied "We are entering the great plains, we have about 8 hours before we see mountains and trees again sweetie."

She sat there for a moment and then said "This isn't the great plains...this is just plain".

😆😆
That’s about what it was roughly 40 or so miles west and there was nothing worth looking at. Really can’t understand anyone wanting to wake up and look at those windmills.
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^ The same reason why guys wake up to smell cow/pig/chicken shit all day...

...smells like (or looks like) money to us.
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Very good point I’ve never given the smell of animal sh&t a second thought when I walk out of a morning. That money is a lot prettier ha
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As much as I hate em, those wind farms have saved a lot of family farms from bankruptcy.
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As much as I hate em, those wind farms have saved a lot of family farms from bankruptcy.
I can see where they have probably been a blessing to our flat land neighbors and ugly or not that is good to hear. Hate hearing stories about people losing their land. I know it happens but heck I’ve heard so many about properties handed down from statehood and in 2008 were lost from loans that never should never have been given
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I can see where they have probably been a blessing to our flat land neighbors and ugly or not that is good to hear. Hate hearing stories about people losing their land. I know it happens but heck I’ve heard so many about properties handed down from statehood and in 2008 were lost from loans that never should never have been given
We have the 40 acres Great-Great Grandpa staked at the Oklahoma land run in Grant County still in the family. Killed two nice bucks from it this year.
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We have the 40 acres Great-Great Grandpa staked at the Oklahoma land run in Grant County still in the family. Killed two nice bucks from it this year.
That’s got to make you feel good, kind of a special thing getting them off of that property. Pretty darn cool in my opinion.
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My sister and her husband built their dream home about 25 years ago west of Okarche. It was in the middle of 900 acres and the only road on that 900 acres was the one going to their house. There was a nice 20 acre pond, a decent draw with big cottonwoods and prairie grass all around. You couldn’t see another yard light or any traffic. Skip forward to today after the oil and natural gas boom and 7 windmill farms being built they can now sit in their living room and hear the turbine blades cutting through the wind. That only road is now the main road of a network of smaller ones going to tank batteries, compressors and injection wells. The natural gas plant is about 1/2 mile from them and is lit up like Wrigley field. Their shop has been broke into and they’ve had a vehicle stolen from their garage and the nice pond they have is about only 5 acres due to most of the drainage it caught being redirected during drilling of wells. Sign of the times? Progress? Energy demand? Yes to all that but what a cost. They do get some money from all of this but when their family has 4 sisters and 2 brothers it’s not much. Our land is constantly changing.


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My sister and her husband built their dream home about 25 years ago west of Okarche. It was in the middle of 900 acres and the only road on that 900 acres was the one going to their house. There was a nice 20 acre pond, a decent draw with big cottonwoods and prairie grass all around. You couldn’t see another yard light or any traffic. Skip forward to today after the oil and natural gas boom and 7 windmill farms being built they can now sit in their living room and hear the turbine blades cutting through the wind. That only road is now the main road of a network of smaller ones going to tank batteries, compressors and injection wells. The natural gas plant is about 1/2 mile from them and is lit up like Wrigley field. Their shop has been broke into and they’ve had a vehicle stolen from their garage and the nice pond they have is about only 5 acres due to most of the drainage it caught being redirected during drilling of wells. Sign of the times? Progress? Energy demand? Yes to all that but what a cost. They do get some money from all of this but when their family has 4 sisters and 2 brothers it’s not much. Our land is constantly changing.


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That would be a tough one to take but what’s the saying you can’t stop progress. I’ve always seen the oilfield stuff, pumps and tanks everywhere, so maybe I’ve been desensitized but the windmills are something that would take some time. Did they ever catch any of the thief’s? If there is an open gate you can bet someone is going to come prowling around.
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So the sad news from the land owner of our deer lease is that a windmill company has contacted him and his neighbors.

He has said no in the past, but is seriously considering it this time.

He is running a cattle operation. What effect do these windmill farms have on live stock? How about wildlife. Lots of studies of bird deaths from windmills, but what about disturbance of other wildlife. As an aside, when looking at this subject via google, beside birds loses there is a concern about bat mortality from windmills.

But what is the effect from noise pollution, increased traffic and habitat lose on deer?

One thing the land owner mentioned is he has no say where they place a windmill-the windmill company decides.

Th old guy that coordinates out lese said this past week end that as soon as the landowner signs the papers with the windmill company---he will find us another lease at another location. This is interesting as this group has leased on this ranch for almost 30 years and in this particular 3800 acre section for 13 years.
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The windmills here in northwest Osage County are on the hilltops or higher ground. Not much deer activity where they put them. I do know that the windmill companies have to pay a yearly fee to raptor restoration. There is a certain number of eagle deaths they are allowed but any over the quota and it gets very expensive for them. It's kinda like a carbon credit. I have a good friend who is a falconer and he had one of his falcons killed last year up by Grenola Kansas by a windmill blade as it was chasing a duck. There was 2 different studies done about how the turbines effected prairie chickens. 1 by the windmill companies and 1 by an independent wildlife department. You can guess how different the 2 had to have been. Prairie chickens have disappeared from every windmill farm area so far. They do not like tall structures.

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I don’t think the wind farms have much effect on animals other than the bird issues. One of my best coyote calling areas is in the shadows of a working wind generator. It joins up with a wheat field covered in deer tracks.
The animals have grown up with pump jack’s moving all over their territory. They get used to them just like they get used to the wind towers.
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