July• 2019 | 97READER’S DIGESTbeen seven to ten windmills needed
around this former lake to pump all
the water out. But once the lake-bed
was dry, a single mill sufficed to stop
it from filling up again.
He leads the way up a steep stair-
way to the second storey of the wind-
mill. He points at a corner where two
huge construction beams are joined.
Each is marked with the Roman
numeral VII. “These polder mills
are kits,” he explains. “They can be
dismantled, taken apart, and moved
to a different location for reuse.
Everything is connected with wood-
en pegs and wedges. When a polder
was dry, most mills were
moved to another project.
Old technolog y, but brilliant
engineering.”
It was this engineering as-
pect that sparked Suurmond’s
love of windmills ten years
ago. For two years, Suurmond
helped as a student-miller on
De Onrust, while learning
about the different styles of
windmills, their parts, pecu-
liarities and uses. The training
ended with an official exam.
He smiled and said, “I ap-
peared in front of a panel
of three old men who fired
questions at me. I had to show
them I knew how to operate
the mill. They kept me waiting
15 minutes and then told me I
had passed.”
The exam made him one of
900 volunteer millers and 2000 other
volunteers who keep the country’s
remaining windmills in operation,
together with some 50 full-time
professionals. The volunteers are all
members of the national guild of
millers,het Vrijwillige Molenaarsgil-
de,established in 1970.MA ARTEN DOLMAN, 57,is a typical
example of the classic miller, from
the days when the profession passed
from father to son. A professional
miller, Dolman operates the Windot-
ter, a flour mill in Ijsselstein, about 50
kilometres south of Amsterdam, thatJan Suurmond climbing the blade of
polder mill De Onrust