The mill is working properly again! Thanks to Mike Mortensen of Mike's Welding in Kimballton, we have a new U-joint connecting the fantail axle to the gear box which can handle the stress of the current angle. Once the parts came in, we were able to get the new joint on in a few hours and with no welding required. 

This joint should last some time for us and will ensure that other components aren't breaking down unexpectedly within the next few years. It will need to be greased once in awhile, but we'd much rather have that than another emergency later on. 

The downside to all of this is we did have to cut into our budget for a lift to make the repairs. We planned to have this lift in July to perform a bit of maintenance on the lower gearbox and address some other projects. We might have to push back on some of that for the time being, but at least the fantail is working properly again. 

We'll have the sails turning again on the next windy day! 

On Monday this week, we had a sharp wind come from the south with the windmill facing north. The windmill began to adjust accordingly, but at some point that morning, the fantail mechanism failed, and we noticed the fantail spinning freely in the wind, no longer turning the windmill's cap as it spun. 

At first, we assumed the issue was once again the top gear box which was already scheduled for an oil change in July. However, when we finally got a lift up high enough to see what was going on, the problem turned out to be with the fantail's axle. The key holding the joint between the axle and the upper gearbox tore through the shaft until it no longer grabbed and fell out, causing the fantail to lose connection with the gearing. The image above shows the damaged shaft along with a diagram of how a keyed joint is supposed to look.

This same problem happened in 2020 as well, but it has only been an issue since the last major restoration to the cap frame in 2018-2019 when the windmill got it's new windshaft and had major repairs done to the main beams of the cap frame and fantail. 

The problem corresponds to the unlevel angle upon which the fantail sits. When the spars were replaced in 2018, they changed the incoming angle of the axle going into the gearbox. The pink line demonstrates the angle of the axle, while the green line shows the angle of the gearbox opening. If this connection isn't properly aligned on a level plane, it puts unnecessary stress on the keyed joint shown above and the gearbox itself. This explains why the keyed joint failed in 2020 and why the gearbox seals were worn out by 2023. 

While attempts have been made to shim the gearbox closer to level with the fantail in the past year, we believe the damage had already been done. As a result, the problem we currently face is repairing this axle so that it will last. A welded coupling will eventually fail, but we also want to avoid having to get a crane and disassemble the fantail altogether if we can. 

At this time, we're working with a local welder on the solution and hope to have this resolved next week. We are not anticipating high winds over the next few days, and the windmill can still be turned manually if needed. West winds aren't as common, so facing east is generally a good place to be and also makes the worksite accessible with the lift. 

This does also mean that the catwalk will be closed for the time being. Anyone planning tours of the windmill will not have access to it until the repairs are finished. We will provide another update when the repairs are complete.

We also realize this isn't a conventional update, but we as an organization believe our members deserve clarity on issues the mill encounters and how we go about solving them. We believe we have a permanent solution to this issue which will eliminate the need for these kind of emergency repairs every couple of years going forward. 

There is much to share and not a lot of time to share it! As I rush to get this out, along with the Spring issue of The Breeze which still haunts me at night, I’m overwhelmed by all that has taken place over the last month up until this very moment. For those out of the loop, the windmill’s upper gearbox is once again on strike and we are working around the clock (and the weather) to try to get that up and running as soon as possible. In the meantime, however, there is still plenty of exciting news to share along with some secrets I can’t quite reveal just yet.

If there was an elephant in the room, it’s name would be Tivoli. This year’s Tivoli Fest was yet another record year. As our closest followers might recall, the Danish Windmill sponsored a digital billboard directly in the middle of the Omaha metro along i80 which broadcast a Tivoli message for most of May and is currently advertising the windmill until the end of June. This was an expensive project that unfortunately the Iowa Tourism Office chose not to fund, but thankfully we have been able to recoup some of the funds so far via the Shelby County Hotel/Motel Tax grant sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.

The results spoke for themselves. Not only was there a single parking space available in all of town over the weekend, nearly every single business posted record numbers in some form or another. The Museum of Danish America posted one of their best visitor counts in the last 25 years and by far the most in recent times. Kringleman Pastries enjoyed record sales and visitors all weekend long with the Egg Krate, Danish Countryside Winery, and Farmhouse Quilting also enjoying considerable turnouts. Even Elk Horn’s relatively new Seneca Studios, which opened just in time for Tivoli last year, had a massive crowd. Owner Ashley Hansen added: “I had an absolutely incredible turnout for Tivoli! I started an hour early, went two hours over, and still had to turn away dozens of people. The amount of people that came in was absolutely mind-blowing. I did not slow down once, whereas last year I was fairly slow by the end of the day.” Driving local commerce has always been a paramount objective for us at the windmill, so to hear this testimony from local businesses is everything we want to hear. Even the windmill, which doubled its festival turnout last year, still saw a sizable increase this year.

The festival itself was yet again a massive hit, too, from a very busy Friday pre-festival day all the way through the fireworks Saturday night. And to top it off, the recently renovated hotel, Hygge Inn & Suites, enjoyed a full booking in addition to a great turnout for the opening of their event center.  We wish to thank all of the community volunteers who make this event possible, especially the Danish smørrebrød team that works tirelessly in the town hall keeping traditional alive year after year. Courtney Davis and Emily Nelson both stepped into the fire this year as new volunteers for the festival committee and we could not be more appreciative for their help and commitment. With the windmill’s 50^th anniversary colliding with Tivoli next year, we are already thinking ahead about the upcoming celebration and know we will need all of the help we can get.

And speaking of, with such an important milestone on the horizon, a lot of attention was put on the mill’s flowerbeds leading up to Tivoli. Between numerous greenhouse trips and a number of mid-SUV sized loads of soil, the flowerbeds all around the windmill have been completely refreshed with new perennials that we hope will add some needed color around the mill throughout the seasons. To ease the usual burden of watering, and ideally conserve water, we’ve also taken care this year to install an above-ground sprinkler system which has been a fantastic investment in time and water thus far. We’re continuing to work towards next year’s big festivities and need plenty of help, so feel free to reach out this Summer if you would like to get involved in making our grounds as beautiful as can be for what will be more than a run-of-the-mill celebration.

It’s been a minute since our last update and as usual there is much to be shared! We also do want to apologize in the delay in getting this issue out. There has been a lot of work in preparing our gardens for Spring and for Tivoli Fest that had to get done as soon as possible, and we just don’t have the help for those tasks that we used to.

The windmill had some interesting visitors in April including several different parties from Denmark. The Danish National Landscaping Team visited the windmill over Easter weekend where Shaun provided a thorough tour of the windmill and grounds before Tim Palmer took over for a tour of the Museum of Danish America’s campus. The group are eyeing their upcoming Euroskills competition to be hosted by Denmark for the first time this year. This tournament hosts several trade skills including landscaping, masonry, and carpentry. With Denmark hosting this year, Danish teams have been given some leeway and encouragement to train outside the country, and the landscaping team happened to be passing through Elk Horn in between locations.

The windmill also enjoyed a return visit from Ole Mieth before the end of the month. This marked his first time in Elk Horn since 2014 when Ole arrived to inspect the windmill and found the wings to be in exceptionally poor condition, inspiring the Spin Campaign that brought in new wings in 2017-18. Ole’s background in railroad engineering has made him an experienced expert on metal gear systems like those inside and outside the windmill. Ole graciously volunteered some of his time on a trip through the US to inspect all of our gears including the exposed wheels out on the fantail. Everything is in good order and Ole even coated the gears in a fresh layer of water-resistant grease for us.

The windmill also enjoyed a few large group tours so far including a large bus group in April followed by some busy field trips between Atlantic and Audubon third graders followed by the Atlantic Area homeschool group. The wind cooperated most of the time, allowing the kids some time to see how the windmill works and watch the sails go by.

On April 30, we celebrated another community Earth Day with some EEHK middle school students. We didn’t get as big of a group this year, but that didn’t stop the kids from getting mulch spread for us. We’re thankful for EEHK’s willingness to keep this program going and always look forward to seeing some familiar faces and meeting some potential new volunteers eager to help us out.

And speaking of volunteers, we want to thank Justin Nelson for helping us out in preparing the gardens for Spring. We have opted to start over in the flower beds surrounding the windmill this year, and it took quite a bit of effort for Shaun and Justin to dig out some of the shrubs that have been there for years. We are almost done getting new flowers in place, and if all goes well, we will also have a new sprinkler system to optimize our garden maintenance and help conserve water. And of course during some of this we discovered one of the spigots burst in the basement, so we have not had a lot of time lately to get some other things done like this paper.

We would like to announce that the windmill has been invited back to Christkindlmarket Des Moines this year and we will be participating in both weekends! We’re excited to be back and hope for some mild weather. We also want to thank the Rasmussen Group of Des Moines for sponsoring our participation.

Finally, we are thrilled to share a couple of internal changes. Joni Griffin stepped down from the Board of Directors and joined our part-time staff at the windmill. In her place, Joanie Heuton has volunteered to join the Board and fulfill Joni Griffin’s term through 2026. We will have some additional vacancies on the Board coming up in January 2026, so please keep us in mind for anyone looking to get more involved in the community and support our cause.

The windmill continues to turn as the winds of Spring crest our Loess Hills, blowing in fresh air, some needed rain, and tearing down a few trees. Our latest windstorm tore down a large evergreen behind the windmill when a 55-mph gust lifted the tree out of the ground, roots and all. Our antique farm mill also sustained some damage, but we are hoping to spruce that up later this year. The downed evergreen has since been removed, and the benefit of this is we now have more crowd space for audiences to watch folk dancing and other events on the entertainment stage during Tivoli Fest.

Speaking of Tivoli, the festival is nearing quickly. The annual coronation dinner is Saturday, April 5^th with tickets available at METC, SCSB, and the windmill. There is still plenty of time to get involved in volunteering for the festival, and we need all of the help we can get, so get in touch with Chelsee Jacobsen (city clerk) or Jill Madsen (METC) about volunteering opportunities. The windmill is ready for another exciting year. We will have all our usual entertainment options including the annual Viking invasion and folk dancing performances. We also partnered with local artist, Deborah King, who designed the cover for our new Tivoli Blend coffee, now available in the gift shop. The cannister features a festive Danish scene including the windmill, mermaid, and some of the iconic buildings of the Danish Villages.

For most businesses in town including the windmill, Tivoli Fest is the busiest and most profitable two days of the year. We would like to thank Danish Mutual Insurance for donating $2,500.00 towards Tivoli Fest’s live entertainment this year. The Museum of Danish America will sponsor this year’s Danish folk music performances which will include an extra performance on Friday, May 23 at the museum complex. As noted earlier, the windmill is sponsoring a billboard in Omaha, NE. East-bound interstate 80 traffic nearing the exit ramp for interstate 480 will be met with a large LED billboard capturing attention for our annual ethnic celebration. Local investment in this festival benefits the community as a whole.

We’re excited to announce that Joni Griffin has stepped down from our Board of Directors to join our team at the windmill. Try to stop by sometime and say ‘hej.’ We’re excited to have Joni with us and have no doubt she will be an invaluable asset for us. This also means that there is a vacancy on our Board of Directors. Anyone interested in opportunities to join our Board should get in touch with members of the nominating committee, Bill Rollins and Joanne Greving.

In other news, the windmill was forced to pay $880.00 back to the Iowa Tourism office last month. These funds were initially awarded for the FY2024 Tourism Grant program and were part of the money we used to pay for local billboards promoting Julefest last year. This particularly project proved to be very effectives as many local businesses reported some of the best Julefest numbers reached in many years. Unfortunately, due to billing delays related to office closures during the week of Christmas, the necessary payment was not drawn from our bank account until January 3^rd. This momentary delay resulted in these funds being disqualified for grant use and so had to be forfeited back to the state. This especially stings since our requests for funds to pay for the Omaha billboard we will have this year were denied.

On that note, we would like to take a moment to clear the air about nonprofits and what it means for us financially. We occasionally receive, directly or indirectly, comments or questions about the kinds of fiscal support we receive and what we’re expected to pay in taxes and other obligations. The short of it is that, first, nonprofits are not exempt from many of the bills and services an ordinary business pays for. We still have utilities, maintenance, advertising needs, and so on that are not free or discounted because of our status. Second, we also do not receive direct financial support from either the federal government or the state of Iowa, and we must fight tooth-and-nail among other local organizations for funds from overstretched local community foundations.

And while it may seem like there is a sea of grants to apply for, most of them do not apply to our circumstances and/or are inundated with other applicants struggling to survive. This is a bleak situation to be in as budget cuts at both the state and national level continue to slash endowment programs and other critical funding sources for the larger museums that depend on them. The trickle-down effects of this critical funding for educational organizations and cultural heritage sites like our own could be devastating. While we continue to remain hopeful for a positive future, it must be acknowledged, we are not on solid ground right now.

February is a slow time of year for us, but that also means it is the perfect time of year to catch up and deep clean. We’ve been at work lately cleaning out and digitizing files and records including the boxes and boxes of slides and photographs collecting dust in our cabinets. We’re excited to share these old pictures with everyone and so have been posting batches of slides on our Facebook page on Fridaysfor #FlashbackFriday. Staff have been having a blast combing through these and playing a bit of guess who, and our friends on Facebook have been doing so as well. We would also like to thank Tami Jacobsen for helping us digitize the older Kodak slides.

Visitor traffic has shown some life this month, but it is still generally slow. We had only 322 entries in the guestbook for the month of February, but we also received the year’s first visitors from Denmark. The recent warm front brought in some familiar faces, but in general the cold has been keeping people away.

We’re happy to announce that the 2025 Danish plates are here. From Bing & Grøndahl we have this year’s Mother’s Day plate and Christmas plate. Last year was the final year of the Children’s Day plate. Royal Copenhagen is celebrating its 250th anniversary and so in addition to their 2025 Christmas plate, we also have a special commemorative plate for the 1775 - 2025 anniversary.

Last Thursday we put together another Throwback Thor’s Day. We coordinated with Norse Horse Tavern, Kringleman Pastries, the Egg Krate, Love You Mor, and the Museum of Danish America to put on a festive night of Danish food and fun. Norse Horse’s frikadeller special sold out in 20 minutes, and plenty more people enjoyed æbleskiver and medisterpølse at the bakery. Other businesses including the windmill were open late for the occasion. Unfortunately the mill didn’t have anyone stop by this time, but we know this is fairly typical this time of year. It’s still worthwhile to organize these events for the community and we’re hoping to host several more this year.

Tivoli Fest preparations kick off this week. Those who are interested in volunteering for the festival this year are encouraged to come out and join us at the Norse Horse, Thursday March 6 at 5pm. It will be difficult to top last year’s successes, so we will need all of the help we can get. Anyone interested in joining the committee is more than welcome.

Winter may slow things down, but we have been very busy at the mill since the start of the New Year. Between the Denmark shipment arriving the last week of December, the annual meeting in January, and several changes currently underway, there hasn’t been a lot of time to sit down and get out the updates we need to announce.

First, we want to thank those who came to the annual meeting in January. Chris Fredericksen and Bruce Poldberg were elected for new terms as board members. The officers for 2025 are Chris Fredericksen (President); Tony Petersen (Vice President); Nicole Butler (Treasurer); and Brandon Baggett (Secretary). There will be 3 vacancies on the board next year and we ask those who are interested in joining to get in touch with us. The annual report from the meeting can be downloaded here.

Second, the newsletter is finally ready and off to print. We hope to have them mailed out by the end of this week, but the newest issue is already available for viewing online, here. In conjunction with the newsletter, we have also published a comprehensive review of the 2024 repairs that encompassed Phase 1 of our Back on the Grind capital campaign. That review, including several images of the project, can be viewed here.

More improvements were made to the gift shop in January including an overhaul of our candle displays. A proper display for our Danish ball candles was made, and we’ve re-worked the center island to make space for our new LEGO train exhibit that is almost finished. This exhibit is still in development, but we hope to have a functioning passenger train for the travel months and the LEGO holiday train running during the next Julefest celebration.

Our t-shirt and apparel sections have also been reworked to make space for a new line of toys and games that we’re excited to bring in for 2025: Thames & Kosmos. This brand specializes in educational games that introduce children to different ‘STEAM’ learning experiences including engineering, weather, renewable energy, and gears. We’re excited to bring this brand into the gift shop and plan to integrate it into the windmill tour as a means to enhance the windmill as an educational space. 

Our annual plates from Royal Copenhagen and Bing & Grøndahl are also in. These include both Christmas plates, the Mother's Day plate, and Royal Copenhagen's 250th anniversary plate. These and the Thames & Kosmos items are already available online at danishwindmill.com, and we're continuing our free shipping offer into 2025 indefinitely.

Finally, we have another Throwback Thor’s Day coming up on February 20. Join us in Elk Horn for a night of Danish food and fun, featuring a frikadeller meal at Norse Horse. We hope to see you then!

There is plenty to be excited for as we quickly switch gears for 2025. While we don’t have the numbers done quite yet (you’ll have to come to the annual meeting to get them!), this was nothing short of another tremendous year. We’ll talk about the year as a whole at the annual meeting in a few weeks, but in the meantime we had a rather eventful December to reflect on.

First, our annual Christmas market in Des Moines was another major success this year. Shaun, Julie, and Tami ran the hut over the weekend and Sarah McDonald volunteered to help on Friday. We loaded up a 15-foot uHaul with as much product as we could, built more displays to be used outside, and sampled about 500 servings of gløgg. The weather was unseasonably warm and people came out in droves. Between 11am and 9pm on both Friday and Saturday, there wasn’t even a moment to step away from the register.

We knew going in that it was going to be a very busy four days, but we didn’t expect this. Last year we grossed over $26,000 in sales and averaged a transaction about every 2 minutes. This year, we hit $36,000 and 1,100 transactions in 30 hours of our hut being open. For perspective, that’s more revenue than we had in the entire month of June this year, at the peak of Summer travel. To go through that much product in a short time is exhausting work and we’re thankful to have the staff on hand willing to make that possible. Additionally, and this should come as no surprise, we are looking to have 2 to 3 additional people with us next year to help. As fun as this festival is, we found the limit for what 3 people can do to manage something like this. It continues to grow every year and we are already looking forward to next year.

What’s even more impressive between our recent successes during both Julefest and Christkindlmarket is how we managed to achieve so much with what we had. As those following along already know, our Denmark shipment was delayed significantly this year. It’s the first year we hadn’t received our goods by Thanksgiving, and the bulk of it didn’t even arrive by Christmas. Much of what we ordered had been intended for these events specifically, and while it is a little disappointing to have to shelve these items for next year, we can’t help but be excited at the results regardless.

And yes, our shipment is finally here. It arrived in three parts and in a manner we hope to never repeat again. First, when we placed our orders in September, our Danish suppliers had not yet received all of their goods yet themselves from the manufacturers. This meant we would have to plan for a secondary shipment in late-October / early-November by air. The typical time for an air shipment is 1-2 weeks, so that wouldn’t be an issue. It would arrive by the second week in November and we would be fine... but that’s not what happened. Our sea shipment arrived in Chicago on November 3rd where it remained detained by US Customs for nearly 2 months while we waited for each Danish supplier to come up with the appropriate paperwork for the special exam that was to take place.

In the meantime, coordinating the air shipment also took longer than expected. The goods arrived later than initially planned and coordinating with businesses 7 hours ahead is difficult itself without factoring in how busy these companies are during the holiday season. Beyond these reasons, and we still aren’t sure as to why, our air shipment was delayed by an additional month, and we didn’t receive these goods until 6:30 AM on Christmas Eve.

The second Christmas miracle occurred when we received word on Christmas Eve that Customs had released our main shipment. 12 pallets arrived at the windmill on Friday from a driver that didn’t know where the windmill. He also didn’t have a pallet jack. Shaun was able to push 11 of the pallets to the back of the truck where Julie and Jo, as well as Cloid Farley and Andy Anderson, were ready to carry boxes inside.

And finally, the last of our shipment arrived last Monday: an 11-pound box of vimpels that our exporter sent by sea, by itself, by accident. In case anyone is wondering, it costs approximately $1,000 to ship a singular 18 x 12 x 12 box from Denmark to the US by sea. Thankfully we were able to have most of that waived due to the shipper’s error(s).

As we write this, there are towers of boxes in all directions. The shipment arrived just as we start our annual inventory count, so it is taking a long time between processing what has just arrived for orders and finalizing counts in the store before we can move everything around to make it all fit. It’s a long process, but we will get there. Plenty of our new stuff has already been added to the store and we encourage everyone to stop down sometime to see it all for themselves. From LED candles to model ships to teddy bears, we have quite a bit of new merchandise this year that we know people will be excited about. It will take a little more time before the store is more presentable again, but we have some fun changes coming very soon.

Finally, our annual meeting is coming up and will be held on Monday, January 27 at the Elk Horn Town Hall, 7pm. This event is completely free to attend and will feature a presentation by Shaun on the state of the organization, notable events of 2024, and plans for 2025 and beyond. We’ll have two new board members to elect or re-elect, and there will be smørrebrød to snack on, too. This is a great way to learn about our membership program, volunteering opportunities, and more. Come join us for the evening and learn more about what we do and the help we need to make 2025 an even better year.

Pictured below: Julie and Faye after we got the shipment unloaded. Not pictured: another room full of boxes behind the camera. 

Another Julefest is in the books and we could not have asked for a better turnout! As part of our grant with the Iowa Tourism office this year, the windmill had billboards in Atlantic, Carroll, and Denison advertising Julefest throughout November. The results spoke for themselves as people came in droves on Friday and surged again on Saturday in numbers we haven’t seen in recent years. Multiple businesses reported extraordinary traffic and sales and there were times that it seemed there wasn’t a parking spot in town.               

We experienced this at the windmill as well, grossing over $14,000 in sales between Friday and Saturday, far exceeding last year’s totals and more than double of most previous years. Although we didn’t get enough wind for the sails to turn much, visitors enjoyed free admission into the chilly mill before warming up with some hot drinks in the video room. This year we expanded our selection, serving hot chocolate, Østerlandsk tea, two mixes of gløgg, and coffee. In addition to sampling some creamy Havarti cheese, we also offered tastings of our Lakrids by Bülow premium Danish licorice which proved to be extremely popular. Staff worked very hard to keep everything stocked and check out orders swiftly and we could not thank them enough.

We also held another new event for Julefest this year, Santa in the Forge. Our Vikings dressed the vikinghjem for the holidays and spent Saturday operating the forge and giving out handmade trinkets and candy canes to kids that came down to see Santa. It was a great time and they are looking forward to coming back next year and making this a regular event.

               We’re especially happy, if not relieved, by Julefest because our container from Denmark never arrived, another first. Unfortunately, our shipment from Denmark spent the entire month of November detained by US Customs in Chicago where it remains as we type this. The only explanation we have been given is that US Customs and the Consumer Products Safety Commission have intensified examinations of incoming goods this year, particularly for children’s items and baby toys. They are primarily concerned with stopping imported goods that have lead paint, failed general safety exams, etc. However, what constitutes a baby toy? While we do not import all that many children’s items, there are many that can be construed as such on paper when agents are going by item descriptions and import harmonization codes. For us, the main items slowing this down are our classic Anne Beate Design figurines. These are listed as “Christmas dolls” on the Danish invoice, owing to the messiness of translations in all of this, and correspondingly have harmonization codes that flag when Customs processes a shipment. As a result, we have been stuck waiting for Customs to examine these items and determine they are not in fact meant for children. Until this very slow process is complete, we cannot do anything but wait.              

               Navigating this in the store has been tricky with scores of people waiting for these items for their online orders. We’ve lost a few customers over this, but thankfully most have been very understanding and patient with us. It will make for an interesting Christkindlmarket in Des Moines as well where we sell a month’s worth of items in just 3 and a half days. We are doing what we can to ensure the best turnout possible and we are expecting another successful event. Between all of the great vendors and food available, we always encourage people to come check it out. This year it will be December 5 – 8 in the Northeast parking lot outside Principal Park, Des Moines. Kringle Man Pastries will also be there and we look forward to another fun festival.

               As we look to round out the year on a high note, be on the lookout for upcoming sales events to help push some of our shipment from Denmark out when it finally arrives. We’ve had to compensate for the delays by ordering more products from domestic vendors, which means we will be sitting on a substantial inventory by the end of the year ahead of 3 very slow months. We ask our local supporters to come visit us before the year is over. Don’t forget members get 10% off, and there will likely be a few sales days coming up to help ensure we can pay the bills over the next few months.

               In the meantime, we wish you all a very happy holiday season to close what has been yet another remarkable year. Glædelig jul og godt nytår!

There is so much news to give and so little time! It has been a whirlwind these last few weeks between preparing for the holidays and executing Phase 1 of our Back on the Grind capital campaign. We’ll try to unpack it all here, but know that a full recap of the restoration work will be coming soon and available for viewing at danishwindmill.org.

First, we are extremely excited to announce that the repairs and improvements made by Møllebygger Petersen could not have gone any better. The two serious repairs we needed, repositioning the sliders on the cap frame and repairing the windshaft, both took significantly less time than expected. And as a result, Erik Batenburg and Ronald Scheltens were able to spend more time focusing on other detailed repairs than we initially planned for including re-shimming both wings, fixing the alignment of the gearboxes, replacing floors, adjusting teeth, and more. Everything went according to plan without issue and we could not have asked for better weather during the entire process either. We even had some steady winds before the millwrights left that allowed them to really test the mill and even grind a few bushels of rye! They left us for Denmark on October 26 and the mill is in the best shape it has been in for a very long time.

We have several community members to thank for their help in this project as well including Logan Aalbers, Kodie Haas, Colton and Eric Juelsgaard, and Mike’s Welding of Kimballton for getting us materials we needed as well as the fabrication of our new grease bank. We also want to thank Mike and Lisa Riggs for their hospitality in housing the millwrights during the two weeks they were here, no matter how much grease they tracked back with them at the end of the day. Finally, we wish to extend our deepest gratitude to Mike & Lou Howard. Their $50,000 donation made this critical project possible. We are grateful to have such a strong community of supporters and could not have taken this project on without their help. We extended this appreciation by hosting a banquet following the last day of work where locals, the millwrights, and our own board of directors and staff gathered for a night of Danish food and music. Bill Peterson and Nate Kemperman came to town to play some folk music and tell Dwight Lamb’s famous story while Shelli Lange of Master Griller Catering prepared a delicious frikadeller meal. Shaun gave a brief overview of the work accomplished and took the time to explain that we do still have work to be done to get our mill to where it needs to be, and we know we’ll get there with this community behind us.

Meanwhile in the store, the holiday season has quickly crept up on us. We’ve already stocked up on some of our signature Danish companies including the gingerbread mouse house from Maileg, felt Christmas decorations from Gry and Sif, new ceramic figurines from Klaborg, and refreshing winter flavors of Lakrids’s chocolate-coated licorice. Our shipment of gløgg is also here and we anticipate our container arriving from Denmark within the next two weeks. We have a lot of new and exciting items coming this year including some long-awaited restocks such as our tapered dinner candles. We’ve greatly expanded on our selection of Brink Nordic glass-blown ornaments and are also bringing in a number of sharp LED candles for everyday or advent-related use.

For those still waiting, our 2024 Gifts & Collectibles Catalog is going out very soon! It is already available for viewing online and we can tell people are excited with all of the new brands we’ve added for this year. View our catalog here!

Finally, Julefest is almost here and the annual brochure is now out and about. View the brochure online on our new event page: JulefestDV.com. We’re doing something completely new this year called Santa in the Forge which will feature a Viking-themed Santa and some blacksmith demonstrations in the Vikinghjem. Don’t miss it!