The winds of change continue to gust through Elk Horn. Our gift shop renovations are finally complete, and we’re excited to see how the opening of this year’s travel season starts for us. The kitchen merchandise area is finally complete, as is the aebleskiver pan display. Our Christmas wall is redone with new and exciting lines we have picked up in the last month, and the facelifts to our candle area and Viking corners are also complete. To add to all of this, our new Welcome Center hub has been running smoothly and we’re able to showcase everything going on with ease.

To highlight a few of these changes, we’re particularly excited about the new aebleskiver display. We sell 5 different pans including 3 cast iron pans, an electric pan, and a cast aluminum pan. Our visitors always have lots of questions about the differences and recommendations, and so now each pan has a small sign highlighting unique features as well as care instructions. Meanwhile, the new shelving we’ve acquired from IKEA gives the area a nice, modern look while keeping all of the food items more organized and easier to find.

We’re also ready to introduce our new line of artificial flowers from Gry & Sif, a Danish design company. We have tulips and anemones in various colors and other accent pieces to compliment any arrangement. To compliment these, we’ve also added a new line of vases, made in 3 sizes using 3D printing and recycled materials.

Finally, we are delighted to share that the Danish Lakrids are back in the shop again after not having them for a few years. Chocolate-licorice candies in a variety of classic flavors are on the shelves now and we have the true licorice candies arriving soon in sweet, red, and salmiak.

Looking ahead, we will soon have two new t-shirt designs featuring our main Danish Windmill – Elk Horn, Iowa design in both solid red and cardinal (the color of our crewneck and hoodies). We will pick up a long sleeve version of the solid red shirt next Fall. We hope to have the new tshirts in the shop sometime next week and we expect them to go quickly.

And on March 21^st we will join the Danish Villages in celebrating another Throwback Thor’s Day featuring a Danish meal at Norse Horse tavern as well as aebleskiver at the bakery. The windmill will be open late as usual along with other businesses in town. This is a great opportunity to get a delicious Danish meal and see all the changes we’ve made.

Finally, we want to remind everyone of our fundraiser for the daycare coming up in April. Every Sunday will feature a food option in town and we will be donating all tour revenue (donations and admissions) to the local daycare, Kids in the Village. The first session will be on Sunday, April 7^th and the Kringle Man will be open from 10am – 2pm serving aebleskiver and medisterpølse.

It’s hard to believe that Spring isn’t here yet, but at least we’re almost there. We want to thank everyone who came out for our second annual Hygge night. We enjoyed seeing people milling about the town and had a great time with those that came down to the windmill. We still have plenty of our signature hygge-themed t-shirts, crewnecks, and stickers in stock, too.

We’ve been busy at the windmill taking advantage of the traffic lull to make some needed improvements and renovations. Our Welcome Center upgrade is now complete and operational. A new TV broadcasts the daily hours of businesses in town and whatever other information we choose to include such as upcoming events, sales, local weather, or anything else. We’re looking forward to adding our social media wall later this year. The public chromebook is now ready for use for travelers in need of additional resources or those seeking to learn more about our organization and the Danish Villages.

Renovations in the store itself are also underway, with two of the three planned projects now completed. We’ve added shelving space to our Christmas area to make a dedicated space for our very traditional bramming collection. We’ve also added a small wall to our Viking and Candle corners to help consolidate and organize merchandise into a more consumer-friendly display. We’ll even have Viking shields for sale soon to go with our swords, axes, and helmets. The last project is underway and involves a partial upgrade to our kitchen & food area. We’re still waiting on the new shelving to arrive later this week, but we’ve very excited for this new setup and all of the new possibilities we will have for merchandising this part of the store. Part of this includes a full aebleskiver pan display featuring every type of pan we sell and some educational materials on the differences between them. We anticipate this project being finished by March if not a little sooner.

We also have new products on their way to the store. A shipment of books is coming with some excellent new titles, and we’ve also dabbled into some new lines including Maileg’s dollhouse collections and Gry & Sif’s felt ornaments and decorations. These are both quality Danish companies and we’re excited to showcase their top-selling merchandise in our shop. We will also have a new Scandinavian-themed bodycare line starting this week featuring high-quality handsoaps, lotions, lip balms, bar soaps, hand sanitizers, and more in a variety of alluring scents and fragrances. Finally, we’re excited for the return of Lakrids by Bülow and their classic licorice candies. All of this and much more is being made available in the gift shop every day. And if there’s something else you would like to see us carry, let us know.

We also recently announced an upcoming fundraiser. We’re partnering with Elk Horn’s local Kids in the Village daycare center on a multi-day fundraiser to help raise money for daycare. Every Sunday in April, we will be donating all of our revenue generated from tour admissions to the daycare. This is a great way to see the windmill for a wonderful cause. We’ve already secured food options for part of each Sunday for people to plan their trips around, and the windmill will have new educational exhibits on the first two floors. More details on food vendor times will be released soon, but we hope to see a lot of familiar faces touring the windmill again soon. We will even grind if the weather permits.

Finally, the windmill has already received two new volunteers for this year! We can’t wait for them to get started and encourage anyone interested in helping out to come talk to us. There are plenty of fun things to do whether it’s visitor services, giving tours, or even running the windmill. Contact us for more information or visit our volunteer landing page at danishwindmill.org.

The windmill held its annual meeting on January 30^th at the town hall. Shaun gave a presentation on the financial position of the organization followed by a review of 2023 and everything we accomplished last year. We’re hopeful we can build on the year we’ve had and enter a new era of prosperity for the windmill and community, but as attendees learned, we still have a lot of work to do. If you missed the annual meeting, it is available on our YouTube channel for viewing. We want to thank all of those who joined us in support for the evening. We also want to thank Chad Juelsgaard for his service to the Board of Directors. Finally, please join us in welcoming Nicole Butler onto the Board. She will assume the office of treasurer for 2024. If you wish to be considered for the Board of Directors in 2025, please get in touch with Bill Rollins or Joanne Greving.

A lot of information about the windmill was given at the annual meeting, including two big announcements that we are excited about this year. The first is our new digital Welcome Center station is ready. To supplement the Chromebook we obtained via grant for travelers last year, we have added a full desk with community brochures and literature in addition to a TV that displays local business hours, weather, upcoming events, and whatever else we want to put on it. Later this year we will add a “social media wall” which will allow visitors to upload photos they take of themselves or the windmill onto the TV using our hashtags. This is a trending business tool right now that will generate both exciting engagement and free advertising for our organization.

The second bit of news is even more thrilling. We’ve signed an agreement with Midwest Pano to produce a full virtual tour of our windmill. If you are familiar with Google street-view, the interface is very similar. Users will be able to explore the entire windmill, view everything inside in high-resolution detail, and even interact with digital engagement buttons we can customize the tour with. The tour will also include our outdoor exhibits, allowing far-flung visitors to take in our entire complex from the comfort of home. We believe this will be a monumental resource for us, not just as a membership benefit, but also as a means to draw additional tour revenue from people unlikely to visit us in person. Expect more announcements on this as we get closer to launch. We will be having the imaging done once the weather is nicer and our complex is green again.

A final piece of information that we would like to share regarding the annual meeting, is that we are actively encouraging people to attend. This event is held once a year, as required by our by-laws, and it is an easy opportunity to learn about what we’re up to and the help we need. We are doing everything we can to grow and keep everything running, but the challenges of outpacing our operating expenses are mounting. We need all the help we can get, and it doesn’t have to be just donations. We are inviting community members to explore our volunteering opportunities including giving tours, helping us digitize archival materials, and even running the windmill! Just contact us at the windmill to learn more or visit our volunteer page at danishwindmill.org.

In the meantime, we’re excited to be participating in a community hygge evening again. Come down to the windmill and see all of our sales. If you would like an annual report from the meeting, we have plenty of copies left at the windmill.

Click this link to view the annual meeting presentations. This was our first time doing this and Shaun ended up out of frame after we adjusted the camera, but we will keep recording these meetings going forward: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP-46-YOT-k

Snow, snow, snow. What more can be said? We found ourselves forced to close the windmill a number of days these past two weeks due to inclement weather and frigid temperatures. On the positive side, we've managed to get some great snowscape shots for future promotional use. We’re more than happy to welcome the more moderate winter temperatures this week as businesses open back up and return to stride. Needless to say, not a lot has happened since our last update. Business has been understandably slow and while we do have some exciting announcements waiting in queue, we’re not releasing them just yet. 

The next issue of our newsletter, The Breeze, is being finalized now and nearly ready to go to print before going out to all of our members. If you want your own copy mailed to you, it is never too late to sign up for a membership at the low cost of just $10 per year. You can learn more about our membership programs, as well as fundraising and volunteering opportunities on our new membership website: danishwindmill.org (now live!) We have also introduced a family membership for 2024 which includes unlimited free admission for two adults and all children under the age of 18 in the same household! To learn more or sign up just give us a call or visit us in-person or online.

We have a couple of events coming up, too. First as a reminder the Windmill Expo & Membership Drive is next week on Tuesday, January 30^th. We kickoff at 5:30 featuring a presentation by Shaun Sayres on the state of the windmill and a review of 2023. We hope you can make it. The event is also a membership drive and we encourage anyone to come and learn about our organization and programs.

Second, the Danish Villages are having another ‘Hygge Night’ on Thursday, February 8^th. Grace on Main will be offering Danish smørrebrød (open-face sandwiches) and there will be other events and specials going on throughout town. The Windmill will be offering gløgg to visitors and will also be kicking off a quick winter sale inspired by Valentine’s Day. There’s no better way to prepare for that special occasion than 10% off candy and chocolate, 20% off candles and candleholders, and 30% off ALL of our gnomes! The sale begins on the 8^th and runs through February 15^th and is in-store only. So come visit us and take advantage of these great deals at the windmill and around the Danish Villages!

Finally, our 2024 Royal Copenhagen and Bing & Grøndahl collectible plates are in. We have limited quantities right now and can’t show them online yet, but they are beautiful as always and we look forward to having them displayed in the store very soon.

There are some other VERY exciting things we’d like to share, but you’ll have to come to the Windmill Expo to find out what they are!

Another year is upon us and we’re excited to see it here. There aren’t too many updates to provide at the moment. Apart from inventory and other year-end processes, not too much happens at the windmill this time of year.

We’re still waiting on the official Welcome Center numbers, but it looks like we experienced at least a 12-13% increase in visitor traffic this year. We had visitors from all 50 states again in addition to a number of foreign countries including every continent besides Antarctica. We’re optimistic about our gift shop revenue as well, with sales figures that will likely be our highest on record since 2009. We hope to have all of the official numbers soon.

In the meantime, planning for the annual meeting is underway. This year we’re rebranding the event as the “Windmill Expo” in an attempt to make the event more appealing to the community and encourage attendance. The usual annual meeting and election of board members will take place, but we hope to encourage the public to attend this event and learn about everything we do as an organization over the course of the year. This event also typically doubles as a membership drive, and as usual, we encourage everyone not already part of our membership program to consider getting involved this year. We need all of the support we can get from our community and hope to have a strong showing when we gather together at the end of this month.

The Expo will be held on Tuesday, January 30^th at 5:30PM in the Elk Horn Town Hall. Food and drinks will be provided and the event will feature a presentation by Shaun on everything the organization accomplished in 2023 and what our projected plans are for foreseeable future including 2024. This is a great opportunity to come and talk with our staff and Board of Directors about everything our organization does and what else you might like to see us get involved with in the future. As always, this event is free to attend and open to the public. We hope everyone can make it.

Finally, we are seeking volunteers this year for a number of different projects. The windmill is sitting on a large archive of photographs, newspaper clippings, and documents that need to be digitized. This work can be done on site using our own equipment. Anyone interested in helping us document these records is welcome to do so, only basic proficiency of operating a computer is required. To learn more or express interest, get in touch with Shaun at 712-764-7472 or via email at mgr@danishwindmill.com.

Traffic at the windmill has finally slowed down with Christmas approaching and the holiday shopping season coming to a close. While we don’t have the final numbers just yet, December proved to be an outstanding month to cap off what will undoubtedly be a historic year for us. Sales skyrocketed to heights not seen in over 10 years, and if we don’t hit 70,000 visitors before the end of the year we will certainly be close. We want to thank everyone for following along and hope you are as excited about the year we had and what that might mean for next year.

Our annual appeal for donations went out two weeks ago. We’re so very thankful for those who have already given this year and hope to continue raising funds into the next year to help with covering next year’s substantial operating expenses. As the letter we sent out acknowledged, our operation is by no means profitable. And while sales revenue from the gift shop are very exciting, we are still well below our ability to cover all of the expenses of operating the windmill and everything that comes with it. This year we spent $20,000 just on the interstate billboards encouraging travelers to come to Elk Horn. These expenses, while less exciting than capital projects, account for the most critical needs of our organization to function, and we hope that people may continue to give in support of our cause.

The publication of our annual appeal carried with it another problem that we hope to have resolved soon. At some point in the last 6 weeks or so, the function of our website to accept electronic donations has broken down. Unfortunately, at the risk of disrupting site traffic and end-of-year webstore sales for the gift shop, this situation could not be resolved before the end of the year. We hope to have it addressed after January 1.

On a more positive note, though, the resolution we did come up with was to debut our new membership site slightly ahead of schedule. While it is still technically under construction, we encourage everyone to have a look over at danishwindmill.wildapricot.org (to be danishwindmill.org soon). This website is part of the membership/donor management software we invested in at the beginning of the year as part of grant funding received from the Pomeroy Foundation. It is intended as a membership-specific website for members of our organization (which everyone reading this paper should already be!). On this website, you can manage your membership, make secure donations, download our quarterly newsletter, learn about volunteering opportunities, and much more. We’re already in the process of uploading files from our digital collection including the Vestergaard account book which was completely scanned in high resolution images last year. Going forward, you will even see the articles we publish in this paper including this one! So go ahead and check out danishwindmill.wildapricot.org. We’re very excited to finally have this new website out in the open. And danishwindmill.com isn’t going anywhere… for now.

From the Danish Windmill to all of you, we wish all of our supporters far and wide a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We’ll be busy conducting inventory through the rest of the year. If you want to help us out, just come in and buy something!

This year the Danish Windmill participated in Christkindlmarket Des Moines for the 6^th consecutive year. It is an annual festival styled after the famous German Christmas markets in Europe featuring performances, authentic foods, and a cluster of unique vendors. From November 30 – December 3, we had a portion of our gift shop stored in a tiny 8’x10’ hut alongside other vendors outside Principal Park in downtown Des Moines. It was far and away the best year we’ve had at this market, and we’re excited to share some of the behind-the-scenes information on how it all comes together. Be sure to read to end to find out why we keep coming back to this event every year!

The process for the annual market actually begins in Spring. All vendors reapply to participate on a yearly basis. Part of this process includes deciding on what to sell, what your electrical needs will be, and whether or not you want a pop-up tent or wooden hut for your business. The pop-up tents are flimsy and have been torn down by wind in past years. They also aren’t heated. The wooden huts are heated, but they cost an additional $500 per vendor. We’re fortunate to have had the Rasmussen Group of Des Moines sponsor our hut costs the past several years.

A lot of time and energy goes into this market to make it all work. It requires a full day in Des Moines just setting up and decorating, acquiring the rental truck to haul everything, and moving a truck-load of merchandise out of the store to Des Moines. We also have to factor in all of the supplies we need and make sure any technology we rely on over the course of the event is working, including our credit card reader. We also had to gather all of the supplies for gløgg. We offer a nonalcoholic mix for sampling every year. It is always a huge hit and we gave out over 500 samples this year.

With our hygge hut in place, there is still the matter of how to stock it. For a lot of vendors that sell one or similar products, not a lot of space is needed for display. But people who have been in our gift shop know that is just not the case for us. We’ve gotten creative over the years in managing our market space, especially when it comes to utilizing the space outside of the hut itself. In 2022, Shaun identified a couple key places to improve on for the 2023 market. The first was a more organized external display setup which we achieved using the modular shelving built by Shane Schechinger of Next Gen Creations in Harlan, IA. The second was the issue of lighting, which Shaun tackled himself by building two Victorian-style lamp posts that utilized modern, battery-powered lanterns. By addressing both of these problems in 2023, we had more product out on display and shoppers browsing through could actually see everything we had to offer.

For the opening on Thursday night, Shaun and Julie arrived around noon to start setting up the exterior displays and getting the hut ready for the official opening at 5. The market went until 9PM, when vendors are officially allowed to tear down and close up. The new shelving helped with this process, too, as it only took about 30 minutes to get everything back in the hut for the night. The grounds are patrolled by security, but we don’t want to leave anything that can be ruined by snow or rain outside.

The rest of the festival is a marathon. Each day we were outside preparing by 9AM, with the market opening at 11AM (people started trickling in around 10:30). Tami joined the crew on Friday and the three worked constantly the rest of the event from 9AM to 9:30PM. They are long days and the crowd is almost constant. The organizers warned us that they expected 80,000 people this year. We wouldn’t be surprised if they hit that mark. Usually the festival, being outdoors, is very cold and often chilly with wind gusts coming off the river to the east. This year we were fortunate to have milder weather, but it also meant we were busier. Either way, the people were enjoyable and it is always nice to see some familiar faces stop by our booth to show support.

By Sunday evening when the festival ended at 5, we were exhausted. Everything left got put back in the truck and after about 90 minutes emptying the hut and packing up, it was time to make the drive back to Elk Horn.

This event is always very hard work and this year was no different, but the results spoke for themselves and we’re blown away by what we accomplished this year. This year we grossed over $26,000 in sales! To put that in perspective, that’s almost what we did over the entire month of August this year. And it is a full $10,000 jump from what we did last year and $15,000 over the year before. In 30 hours of business, we had over 950 transactions. That is a sale every 2 minutes. Every day was literally nonstop from opening to closing, and we sure felt it as the soreness of standing all day started to kick in by the weekend. It isn’t easy, but it’s always a fun experience.

We cleaned up this year at the awards table, too. Shoppers voted our booth as the Most Authentic and Best Display, and we placed second in People’s Choice. We always had a large crowd, and if our hut wasn’t the brightest it was certainly close.

We’re thankful for the support we’ve received to continue going to this event and we are already excited for next year’s market, projected for December 5 – 8. We’re also thankful for the dedication of our employees who have to push themselves hard to make it through the whole event by themselves without breaks and in the cold. It’s for a good cause. That’s why we do it, and why we can’t wait to go back.

It has been awhile, and as usual there is plenty to catch up on at the windmill. More repairs were made on the windmill. Julefest has come and gone, we had our annual Christmas market in Des Moines, and as of this week our Christmas lights are installed on the windmill’s enormous sails. And we were even awarded another major grant for 2024.

Earlier in November, the windmill lost a shutter, the same one that had broken back in 2020. The repair failed and the brace holding the two flaps together was broken entirely in half, dangling only by a sliver. Since a lift would be required, Shaun used the opportunity to get some extra maintenance done on the windmill before the end of the year. One of the suggestions Erik the millwright made when he was here was to add eyebolts to the fantail blades and frame, so that the mechanism could be securely disabled with a ratchet strap. We also wanted to go through each of the sails and make sure all bolts and fasteners were secure or lubricated as needed. Tim Palmer volunteered his services to help, and together Shaun and Tim spent a couple days modifying the fantail and going through the sails. They fixed a shingle that had come loose, tightened a number of nuts that endlessly varied in size and shape, and lubricated all of the joints of the shutter system to get it operating more smoothly again. Shaun also used the lift to finish wrapping the building in the new ambient lighting that can be seen around the whole millhouse. The high winds made some of the work up on the sails more challenging, but it was good to get some of the maintenance done before winter sets in.

The 2023 Polar Run was held last Saturday morning during Julefest. The weather was cold, but not terrible, and a cheery group of runners made the trek from the Mermaid to the Mill. Logan Moore won the fastest time award with a time of 21:57. Omar Sallak received the award for best costume. We want to extend our sincere thanks to Emily Nelson of Kimballton for volunteering to help administer the run. Unless the Mill can find new volunteers to help with the run next year, this will be the final Polar Run. The rest of Julefest went wonderfully with many of our annual visitors coming into town for the festivities, even in spite of the snowy weather on Saturday. Traffic was noticeably slower this year, but it did enable our visitors to browse the store and tour the windmill without the hassle of battling against any large crowds. This year at the windmill we sampled aebleskiver which many of our visitors had never had before. We would like to thank Sarah McDonald for volunteering to operate two aebleskiver pans for the demonstration.

We would like to take a moment to extend a special thank you to Dick Soll, a regular viewer of our Millcam. We had the windmill turning all throughout Julefest, and Dick noticed one of the shutters didn’t appear to be sitting quite right in position. He called the windmill to let us know and after Shaun inspected the shutter, it became clear the locknut had failed and fallen out. Within a short time, Shaun replaced the nut and the windmill was turning again to the delight of those who braved the weather that day. We always appreciate those in town looking out for us, and we always encourage people to let us know if something doesn’t look quite right.

The windmill staff did well to turn around quickly as we regrouped from Julefest and prepared for the annual Christkindlmarket in Des Moines. Julie, Tami, and Shaun all ran the hut from Thursday evening through Sunday. The weather was mild and the crowd was fierce as the days blurred together into one long 30 hour shift during which our hygge hut had almost 950 transactions. For the math wizards out there, that’s a sale every two minutes! We were quite literally blown away by the turnout this year and we’re excited to aim for an even larger turnout in 2024. Our hut also cleaned up among the event awards, achieving the most votes for “Best Display” and “Most Authentic” while placing 2^nd in “People’s Choice.”

With Christmas just around the corner, it was time to put the lights up. We collaborated with Nate Potts who made sure we had all the materials we needed. Aaron Larsen of Larsen Equipment and Dirk Wasson of Top Hand Tree Service drove a 55’ lift to the windmill last Monday. It was a clear day with little wind, and although the windmill was supposed to be facing West that day, Shaun had to turn it manually from East to West to make sure the crew had good access to the sails. A 55’ lift is enough to reach the centerpoint, but not the top, so the guys strapped lights on one sail at a time while Shaun and Nate manually turned the sails along until all four were lit. We want to thank Nate, Dirk, and Aaron for their assistance in keeping this tradition alive in Tom Potts’s memory. We also want to thank Mike & Lou Howard for their generosity in making this possible.

We’re also thrilled to announce that the windmill has been awarded $6,900.00 from the Iowa Tourism office for the Iowa Tourism FY2024 grant cycle. This money will go towards an extensive marketing campaign via Reagan Outdoor Advertising which includes geofencing, targeted digital ads, and poster floods (small billboards) that will all be coordinated around seasonal tourism, Tivoli Fest, and Julefest. We will have 5 smaller billboards in the local area for Tivoli Fest and 3 for Julefest to further encourage patrons to come experience the Danish Villages at their best. We’re excited for this opportunity to breathe some need innovation and freshness to our marketing strategies and look forward to working with other local organizations and businesses to further enhance these projects next year.

But we aren’t out of the woods yet. We want to express our assurance that our annual appeal for donations will be going out soon. It took a considerable amount of time to receive the necessary reports from MøllebyggerPetersen ApS for the work we aim to have done within the next two years, and by then, the chaos of the holidays had already set in. We are working to turn around and get this information out to all of you as soon as we can, but we still welcome donations of all amounts in the meantime. As busy as the gift shop always seems, and as hard as our staff works year long, the revenue alone is not enough to keep our doors open, and without the generosity of those who have donated to us over the years, we would not still be here. As fun and exciting as capital campaigns are, especially with our 50^th anniversary just around the corner, our priority is and will remain closing the remaining gap of our annual operations cost, which is still quite large.

Finally, please join us in thanking all of our staff for what is projected to be an incredible year. They have done everything asked of them to keep everything running as smoothly as possible, working long hours and weekends to keep the Mill open to locals and visitors. We owe it all to their unrelenting dedication and passion for the windmill, and by extension our town. Thank you, sincerely, to Faye & Cloid Farley, Joanne Greving, Phyllis Hoegh, Tami Jacobsen, and Julie Nelson.