Colder temperatures are moving in quickly as our short stint with Fall quickly turns to Winter. We had another unusually busy month this October with plenty of travelers passing through.

As we prepare for the approaching holiday season, we have acquired more new items for the gift shop including the return of Danish paper mobiles, Livingly as well as an assortment of new gnomes. Our catalog is also finished and in the process of mailing out right now. A digital copy can be viewed at danishwindmill.org/catalog.

The windmill joined other local businesses at EEHK’s literacy night in Exira this month. Shaun hauled over an antique manual grinder and some copies of The Little Red Hen to teach kids about the hard labor required to turn wheat seeds into food. The kids enjoyed trying to grind some grain themselves and each left with a souvenir vile of flour ground in the windmill. They later told Shelli Nelson that grinding is hard work and they’re glad they don’t live in the “old days.”

The windmill also debuted its new LED lights this month. Tim Palmer volunteered to help Shaun get them installed, and we’re still exploring all of the different light patterns we can use. The best part about these lights is they are permanent, and allow us to continue to run the windmill through the Winter without having to wait to take them off.

Work on our new Education & Preservation Center is also progressing. Erik Andersen, Mike Howard, Sarah Sayres, and Gene ‘Beaner’ Thomsen have all volunteered their time to help get the siding installed and painted. We managed to get the exterior painted before the cold set in, and will hopefully have the battens installed fairly soon. We still have painting, flooring, and more to get the inside ready.

Until then we’ll be preparing for what we hope will be another festive and busy Julefest!