Windmill house: quixotic Dutch restores pump + art of mill maintenance

A few years ago, Maarten van Dijk went jogging by an old windmill near his home in Abcoude (Utrecht, Netherlands) and was intrigued by the half-abandoned building. Before long, he had become caretaker of the historic structure (under a leasing agreement with a foundation that owns 23 mills in the area), taking classes to learn to operate it and renovating the home that fills its base.   Beginning in the early 1500s the Dutch built windmills to help shape their country- to pump water out of areas below sea l