April-May 2000
Fulton, IL, USA - The last week before the dedication
During the last week before the dedication everybody was working on the last details of their job on the windmill.
Wijni and Johan were finishing the masonry work on the front facade and the piers. Eric and Guus were working on the "smaller" wheel for the top gear. And the Fulton PW guys were spreading protective sheets on top of the belt to prevent erosion while giving the grass the chance to grow sufficient roots.
According to previous planning Johan and Wijni were preparing and laying the final layers of brick of the facade facing East.
Like before, Johan was cutting some of the brick to create halves, quarters and odd-sized fragments, ...
before throwing the brick up to Wijni ...
who then puts them into place.
Both of the guys had every single brick pass their hands.
While the final part of the masonry work was done by the Havengas, the Molemas were working on finishing the internal top gears for the windmill.
The Fulton beltmolen currently has only the top gear, but is fully prepared to have the lower gear added later. The "Friends of the Fulton Windmill" are raising funds to have a second dedication in about a year from now when the Fulton windmill will be ready to start grinding grain with all of the lower gear installed.
In the meantime Eric and Guus are working to get the smaller of the two upper wheels ready, using an electric drill...
and hammer and chisel.
Meanwhile Roy and others of Fulton Public Works were levelling the surface of the belt...
to prepare the belt to receive a protective sheet to protect it from erosion.
Ron, Roy, Dale and John (left to right) laying the sheets while Randy and Eric are "supervising".
The last part of the job was cleaning the site and installing the Festive cord of little flags on the sails to get the windmill all ready for May 6, 2000's Official Dedication.
Hippo
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