Something old … becomes something new … The original Windy Acres property was located in Victor, New York. A single-family property, it was originally constructed in 1965 and was purchased by our family in 1983. The house was situated on roughly fourteen acres. A four-stall horse barn was added in later years. There was always a large American flag flying on a permanent mast in front of the property. My Dad wanted to make sure I mentioned that. There are some older photos of the original place in the Around the Farm gallery. Since my folks had retired and long left the original Windy Acres behind in favor of sandy beaches and Florida, we felt it would be cool to revive the Windy Acres name.
We purchased the current property in the summer of 2015. With nearly 10 acres of land in the slow-rolling hills of southern Maryland, it is home to the seemingly never-ending collection of animals that live here. We have had at least three horses and sometimes four, as well as five goats. Two of the Boer goats were born here. Six cats at one time; four inside and two “barn” cats. Four dogs most of the time. Add the myriad of wild critters that permeate our daily adventures here, and there is never a dull moment ! Deer, turkeys, rabbits, turtles, chipmunks, foxes, skunks, possums, beavers, groundhogs and more. On the bird side of things we have Barred Owls, several different hawk species, and an occasional Bald Eagle and Osprey sighting. The new place, pictured at right, always sports our nation’s flag as well.
Weather Camera ( LIVE )
A view of the main pasture from the second-story roofline of the house looking west. Some incredible sunset views at times, mostly depending on the cloud cover. Even the type of clouds present can affect the quality of a sunset. Typically, the best sunsets are seen in skies with high and mid-level clouds like altocumulus and cirrus clouds. Conversely, low-lying clouds like stratus and stratocumulus clouds rarely yield noteworthy sunsets. This is because the higher-level clouds intercept more sunlight that has not been muted by passing through the boundary layer, the space between the upper or “free” atmosphere and Earth. If there are no clouds is also not a good result, since the sun’s rays sort of blind the camera at sunset. Also makes nice timelapse videos of weather events like snow or thunderstorms. The degree of flooding the main pasture endures, for example, can also be seen when we encounter steep rainfall rates or totals. If we get around two inches or so in a short time span the level of runoff created is crazy.