"à tous les vents" est un peu péjoratif, mais c'est peut-être le sens du texte. Sinon voici deux autres suggestions.

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Note added at 18 mins (2009-03-08 18:48:46 GMT)
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Sorry, I thought you wanted a French equivalent.

This is the normal translation for this phrase, but someone else may have something that appeals to you better, of course.

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Note added at 50 mins (2009-03-08 19:20:11 GMT)
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Spring has definately sprung !

Everything is waking up, weeds included(they seem to grow twice as fast)Just now I seem to spend an endless amount of time slashing cape weed which seems to pop up at an alarming rate and trying to keep the grass mowed so that the clover doesnt get to set burrs. We are open to the four winds and surrounded by paddocks so it is a never ending task. Hopefully we have a spell of fine weather ahead so that I can spray some of the spots inaccesible to the mower/slasher.The garden is generally looking happier and there is flowers popping out everywhere.
http://www.suite101.com/discussion.cfm/australian_gardening/...

With so many persons moving eagerly here and there, none but an Indian could have slipped away from that house and from the ranch without being seen. But though the place was bald and open to the four winds save for a few detached outbuildings, Annie-Many-Ponies went away upon the mesa and no one saw her go.

She did not dare go to the corral for her horse. The corral was in plain sight of the house, and the eyes of Wagalexa Conka were keen as the eye of the Sioux, his foster brothers. He would see her there. He would call: "Annie, come here!" and she would go, and would stand submissive before him, and would be glad that he noticed her; for she was born of the tribe where women obey their masters, and the heritage of centuries may not be lightly lain aside like an outgrown garment. She felt that this was so; that although her heart might burn with resentment because he had forgotten and must be reminded by a strange white woman that the "squaw" was not present, still, if he called her she must go, because Wagalexa Conka was master there and the master must be obeyed.

http://www.classicreader.com/book/932/2/

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Note added at 51 mins (2009-03-08 19:21:30 GMT)
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The boat trip
The settlement, perched on the edge of the Colville River, is called Umiat. Little more than an airstrip, a fuel dump, and some World War II-era Quonset huts, Umiat serves as a kind of base camp for oil prospectors, geologists, and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) operatives. For us it was the launching point for our transport to the fossil dig site—an 18-foot, flat-bottomed boat powered by a small outboard and loaded with several 5- or 10-gallon gas canisters.

The day would have passed in relative comfort if the boat had had a roof. But it was open to the four winds, and as we began to head downriver—which meant, counterintuitively, traveling due north towards the Arctic Ocean—we quickly began to bemoan the lack of a proper enclosure. For four long hours, as we motored the 50 miles or so to Tony's camp, we huddled under tarps against a maddeningly steady, freezing rain that buffeted us the entire trip. Wasn't August in Alaska supposed to be warm?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/arcticdino/producer.html

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Note added at 3 hrs (2009-03-08 22:21:33 GMT)
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I don't want to seem nit-picking here, but 'open to the elements' sounds to me as if it had no roof, whereas I would presume that it had unglazed windows through which the four winds could blow. As indeed in the loggia style.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/loggia

loggia (plural loggias)
(architecture) A roofed, open gallery

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loggia

log⋅gia   /ˈlɒdʒə, ˈloʊdʒiə; It. ˈlɔddʒɑ/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [loj-uh, loh-jee-uh; It. lawd-jah] Show IPA
–noun, plural -gias, Italian. -gie  /-dʒɛ/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [-je] Show IPA . 1. a gallery or arcade open to the air on at least one side.
2. a space within the body of a building but open to the air on one side, serving as an open-air room or as an entrance porch.


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Note added at 3 hrs (2009-03-08 22:23:31 GMT)
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http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/loggia

Sorry this ref got misplaced. It relates to the last paragraph provided above and not to my comments, further above.