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!