Our Story

I spent my childhood on a farm in Kansas, fixing fences, baling hay, digging up potatoes, coon hunting at night, selling pelts, feeding cattle, picking gooseberries for the best pies ever, cooking with my grandma, and dousing myself in Sulphur to keep the chiggers away.  The benefits were many: spending time with family, eating the best ever gooseberry pie, which yes – were made from lard – jumping over bales of hay on my favorite pony, and falling asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. The best night’s sleep always comes from being happily exhausted.

When I was in my 20’s I moved away from the farm to follow my career. It was hard to leave, but I was ready. The sad part was that I would never again be able to spend another day working on that land.

After many years working in the corporate world, my mind and body started to crave all the unique benefits that a farm life can offer. I started to long for days spent in physical hard labor, and being able to end each day feeling satisfied with what I had accomplished. I longed again for the days of my childhood, days spent getting dirty through honest toil, working my family’s land and going to bed at night listening to the calming, soothing, wonderful sounds of the country and nature.

As I thought about it more and more, my dream shifted a little. My plan was to get back to the simple, solid, all-American country life. I was married by this time, and luckily my husband shared my dream. We found our perfect piece of land in Texas. However, times had changed since my early days on the family farm in Kansas. There were exciting new housing concepts for farm living that hadn’t been available when I was a child. There now was, in one word, the barndominium!

That was my plan. I wanted to live in a barn, or above it, to be more exact. With my husband’s help, I spent many hours designing our barn. The farm I had grown up on had changed and had gradually become quiet as my grandparents grew older. The cattle were eventually sold. That was a sad day, one I will never forget. My grandmother had remained on the farm for as long as she could after my grandfather had passed on. She had endured so much in her life, but there came a time when she could manage on the farm no longer, and we had to move her into assisted living.

While we were making the necessary preparations, she told us to take whatever we wanted from the farm. The buildings were old, the hay fields were grown over and fencing was falling down. This was at the same time that I was building my barndominium in Texas. I remember being so afraid to ask if I could take some doors and wood from the barns and buildings. My grandmother was so rightly proud of everything, down to each rusty nail, that she and my grandfather had built together. However, she was keen to let me know I could take what I wanted. That meant so much more to me than I had realized it would.

We spent a lot of time back home. We made many trips to Kansas, visiting my family and gathering items from the family farm for my new country life in Texas. Unfortunately, my grandmother suddenly passed away a week before we moved into our barndominium. But I wake up every day feeling the presence of my grandparents there, because of all the wonderful pieces of their farm I have surrounding me, and I am so thankful that I had all that extra time with my grandmother before she passed on.

I learned so much from my grandparents on their farm. They taught me patience, hard work, the value of good clean living, and the value of carefree laughter. It took me a long time to find that satisfaction and peace, but I found it. I found a worthwhile, happy home again, and I have now created a new business out of it.

Once we moved onto our farm and into our new bardomimium in Texas, filled with treasures from my family farm, I soon discovered we had a problem. Our living space was on the second floor. There were horses living below us, and we had 16-foot vaulted ceilings. It was hot and near impossible to cool the hot air trapped in the vault. At floor level the temperature was 70 degrees. In the vaulted ceiling, however, it was over 100 degrees.

We added more air conditioning, and that improved things a bit, but everyone told me that what I really needed was ceiling fans. I searched and searched for the right one, but I didn’t like any of the ones I found. One day, looking out across one of our pastures, I spotted our old farm-style windmill and realized, that was the answer. However, I soon found out how much it weighed. I also realized that I had no means of getting a large motor on my ceiling and adding the necessary supports without ripping out a huge chunk of my beautiful ceiling. That was definitely not going to happen!

After a year spent in research and design, I finally found my perfect solution: a windmill ceiling fan made of aluminum. It was large and extremely efficient, but also lightweight enough that it could easily be attached to any ceiling. The Windmill Ceiling Fan Company was born.

Today, I am finally home again. I have returned back to my roots. I work hard every day and take time to smell the fresh hay and appreciate the special life I have. I tend to all my farm animals, horses, cattle, geese, donkeys and dogs, as well as my fabulous husband. I am so happy that this journey brought me home, and allowed me to create this amazing company. I am so proud and grateful to be able to run The Windmill Ceiling Fan Company, seven days a week, 24 hours a day (just ask customers). We would love to help you come home as well to one of our unique, beautiful, functional windmill ceiling fans. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.