Today I will "show and tell" about an area of the province of Nord-Holland. Amsterdam is in Nord-Holland. I took a guided bus tour through the area north of Amsterdam which was "reclaimed" from the water for agricultural purposes (Why do they use that term? It's not as if the land ever belonged to the people in the first place - they were not reclaiming it, they were taking it away from the water.) This was a massive public works project the government financed prior to the Second World War to make work for the masses of unemployed men in the country and to create badly needed land for growing crops to feed the population. These "reclaimed" lands are called "polders." Previously, this area was covered with lakes and marshes. Now, it is some of the most fertile agricultural land in the world.

This project was accomplished with massive amounts of manpower and about 50 windmills. Men built and maintained dikes and windmills. The windmills pumped water from the lakes and when the land was dry enough, canals were dug around the perimeter of the new fields. Across this whole region, the canal system was designed to systematically drain into the ocean, just as a network of veins and arteries carries blood to the heart and away again. After the canals were dug, water from the fields drained into them and the windmills worked to maintain the desired water level in the inner canals, draining them into the outer canals so the water could make its way on to the sea.

Nowadays, electric pumping stations do most of this work. Electricity is more reliable, because it is not dependent on the whims of nature. If there is no wind, the windmill paddles don't turn! A number of the old windmills are maintained by the government and private owners so that this part of Netherlands heritage will not be lost. Nobody wants to see them disappear from the landscape.

My tour group drove all around the polders to get a good idea of the canal system and the scope of the polder project. The fields were growing lush grain and vegetable crops in all directions, as far as our eyes could see. There were no flower fields there (I believe that crop is mostly grown in the Zuid(South)-Holland province.)

Here is the windmill we were able to visit. At the front and centre of this picture, you can see the aqueduct where the water from the polders (on the left) is pumped into the outer canal. As you can see, it was another beautiful day:

In this picture you can see the grain fields of the polder stretching off to the left, the inner canal, the dike and at the far right, the windmill's perimeter fence. I didn't have time to visit that shed built over the canal, so I don't know what was in there. You can get an idea of the size of the dike by looking at the people in and around the shed. Click on the picture to enlarge it, if you can't see the detail.

Here is a close-up of the thick thatch roofing. It is about ten inches thick, and quite impervious to rain. The hollow reeds it is made of create an excellent insulating barrier as well.

Inside, the thatch is secured to horizontal strapping spaced about twelve inches apart.

I was very interested in the mechanical workings of windmills. I've never been able to grasp mechanical or technological concepts well, but this was something I could actually see and understand, so I loved it. I was amazed that while standing on the ground outside, all I could feel was a faint breeze in the air, but that breeze was being "concentrated" by the windmill paddles and turning those massive, heavy paddles around at a good clip. I climbed to the top of the windmill on the steep, ladderlike stairs to see how this power was used to pump large amounts of water. This is what my climb looked like:

In this particular windmill, I was not able to see the topmost mechanism very well. The paddles are secured to a big, solid, square, hardwood beam which is 12 to 18 inches in width. This beam is fitted into the centre of a sturdy wheel which sets the mechanism in motion. In this picture you can see the outer end of the main beam (bottom left,) the main wheel and the cogs around the outside of the wheel.

From this point on, the mechanism is nothing more than a series of wooden gears:

At the bottom of the mechanism is a large pumping chamber fitted with a wooden auger that collects the water from the lower level and carries it upwards to dump it out on the high side of the dike. This picture is not very clear, because the pumping chamber had a scratched, rather murky plexiglass cover on it and only a small section of the chamber was visible, but I hope you can get a decent impression of it:

Stopping the windmill was done by hauling on the brake rope. The next two pictures illustrate this:

On the ground level were living quarters. This windmill had two chambers, each of them set up the same way. Basically, each chamber was a self-contained apartment with room for a family of four to eight people, all fitted into a room that measured about 20 by 25 feet, including the space for the sleeping compartments. The table is next to the window, of course:

One hearth served for both heating and cooking, and laundry dried on racks set up around the hearth. Storage cabinets were built into every nook and cranny:

Along one wall were the sleeping and linen storage compartments. There was not much storage space at all. This was true of all homes in the past, even in the homes of wealthy people. A cooking pot or two, a kettle, some cooking utensils hanging on hooks on the wall, a few plates and bowls and a small chest of flatware, an extra suit of clothing for each person and one extra set of linens - what more could a human body need? Here is the cabinet for bed and table linens for a family of four:

On each side of this linen cabinet were built-in sleeping compartments. The compartments had curtains, and wooden doors that could be closed against the cold night air. Under the beds there would be fitted a second sleeping compartment for children, drawers for storage or maybe an open space for storing canned foods, root vegetables, kitchen equipment, whatever ....

I just have to tell you more about these beds. The mattresses were stuffed with hay (for the common people) or feathers (for the rich folk) and were very, very thick and deep. They used at least two pillows for each sleeper, maybe three or four.

The beds were very short - definitely not long enough for someone to stretch out in. That is because people of that time, in that part of the world, believed that if one lay prone during sleep, too much blood would collect in their brains and this would cause them to lose their wits. It wasn't enough to use a pillow to raise their heads to prevent this. They believed it necessary to keep their hearts raised higher than their waists, to keep the blood flowing properly. Therefore they slept in a sitting position, propped up with pillows. Children were not constrained in this way because it was believed that their brains didn't really develop until they were older, anyway. Can you imagine???? Hmmm .... it must have made for awkward sexual intercourse???

At any rate, the sleeping compartments looked very cosy and inviting, with their thick, soft mattresses, mounds of pillows, white sheets and patchwork quilts. With their heavy curtains and wooden doors, I'm sure they were warm and pleasant even on the coldest, windiest winter nights: