A millwright from the Netherlands is in Steinbach this week doing maintenance on the Mennonite Heritage Village windmill.
MHV Executive Director Barry Dyck says just like any other machine, the windmill needs regular maintenance and Gerard Kleijn is the man for the job. Kleijn says a number of volunteers from the MHV have been helping him in his work.
“To align all of those wheels takes a lot of effort and you have to know how to do that. In fact, when I am done I am going to train these guys to do regular maintenance, just the small stuff. After that, at least they can maintain it for one or two years themselves and then an expert has to look at it and realign everything.”
Dyck says it is important that everything is working properly so that they don’t create damage through neglect. He notes the windmill is very special to the MHV.
“The other interesting thing about the windmill is that it is made almost entirely of wood and wood will tend to expand and contract as humidity levels and temperatures change and sometimes wood moves a little bit and so a lot of these things have to be realigned and in some cases replaced.”
Dyck says Kleijn will be in town doing maintenance for 9 days and the project will cost approximately $10,000.
Meanwhile, the Mennonite Heritage Village is moving to their winter schedule which is five days a week instead of seven and getting the grounds ready for winter.
“We are open, we will continue to be open all winter. The restaurant is closed for the winter so we secure it, drain water lines where needed and close things up so that we do not have winter damage. In the other buildings, we will bring in linens and other sensitive materials that we may have put out there for summer. It is putting stuff to bed for the winter.”
Dyck adds the MHV held their annual Volunteer appreciation dinner on Thursday to thank everyone who helped out this last year.
Sun, May 5, 10:30 AM
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