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.