Millbrook Village Society has been awarded the October,2009-May,2011 George and Helen Hertzog Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service, Northeast Region,Group Award. See full text at Award Letter
On Nevember 18 the work crew wrapped up the cutting activities for 2011. We cut 78 pieces of 2 by 6 black locust out of some of the worst logs we had ever seen. Some of the logs only yielded one or two pieces. It was a good effort for the year in helping the National Park Service. Here's hoping for a great 2012. Shown below are some of the activities for the day. Participating on this day were Tom Horsfield, Don Scott, John Tauke, Harold Jacobs, Arnie Buza and Jim Kyle. 


 
       


Damage from Hurricane Irene-
More details on the Hurricane Damage can be seen at Storm Damage.

Damage to Foot Bridge The brook now is to the right of the Garris Barn

MVS member Tom Horsfield named Volunteer of the Year in the Del. Water Gap NRA

Millbrook Village Society's Tom Horsfield was recently named the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area's Volunteer of the year at Last Saturdays Volunteer Appreciation Picnic on 9/17/2011. Tom has been a long time member of the Millbrook Village Society, a NPS Volunteer and a tireless volunteer at Millbrook Village. Tom has been the lead person in the in the Friday Work Crew at Millbrook Village and has devoted a tremendous amount of time and enery to Millbrookk's projects, events and activities as well as contributing a great amount of time, effort and expertise to the NPS, especially with all of the lumber cutting with a portable saw mill for the McDade trail Project and Childs Park Project for the National Park Service. Thanks, Tom and Crew for all of your work. Tom's wife Nan is a long time volunteer at Millbrook Village with avast knowledge of local history and of the village. Tom and Nan are life long residents of the area and can be found at Millbrook Village almost every Sunday, sharing their knowledge and memories of the area. Stop by and say Hello to them at Millbrook. Congratulations Tom. I'm pleased that the NPS honored you as Volunteer of the Year, a well deserved honor.

Cutting Lumber for the National Park Service

Since the society owns a Wood Miser Saw Mill and the Park Service is in need of decking lumber for observation platforms and boardwalks, the society volunteers have been spending Fridays and also numerous Tuesdays to cut hardwood logs into the required dimensional lumber. They supply the logs and we slice them up. We have been at it since around the beginning of March. This is a monumental effort utilizing the always helpful Millbrook Volunteers. The photos below relate to this effort. Contractors employed by the NPS have been using the wood as shown below. We visited Childs Park to see the final resting place for some of our cut wood.

       
From the raw log.  To the finished lumber  Our efforts in place at Childs Park, Pa. The platform overlooks this beautiful view of Dingmans Creek. 
 

Covered Bridge - A bridge with no place to go while permitting is in process.

The only thing remaining for the bridge project is to move it across the VanCampen Brook and then install the decking and siding. These steps were left to the end to make the move lighter. We are now caught in the administrative limbo of having to secure the necessary permitting which will involve costly engineering studies and in most likelyhood a long delay while the administrative gods have been sated. So here we are - donors of a bridge with no place to go. Perhaps it will rot in place on the pine cribbing as a testament to the volunteers that invested hundreds of manhours for the benefit of the village.

 

 		 

The weavers in Hill House are seeking textile stories from the
descendants of Millbrook Village about any spinning or weaving
activity that took place in the village. Do you have a family story or
memory you'd like to share? If so, please e-mail
mailto@millbrooknj.com  to tell us about it. As
much as possible, we would like to incorporate real family stories
into the textile presentation given to our visitors. Our village
volunteers and guests appreciate your taking the time to share your
family history with us.

  Barn Frame Loom has been re-warped!

Sally Orgren has been busy in the Hill House rewarping the barn frame loom. She makes a special request to keep any cats out of the house as they would wreak havoc with the loose threads on this project.

Barn Frame Loom Before Rewarping Loom in Process of Rewarping Barn Frame Loom rewarped and in operation. Fabric coming off the Barn Frame Loom

We managed to keep all of those hundreds of threads in order (thankfully, no cats came to help us out!) and the loom is back in operation. Come visit Hill House and see the beautiful fabric a loom from the 1700's can still produce!

In August, we will begin rewarping the Weaver's Delight (the rug loom). If you ever wondered "How did they set up those old looms?" now is the time to visit Hill House and see for yourself! Stay tuned for pictures to come of the colorful rugs recently woven on this vintage loom by our volunteers.

Items on Our Wish List

Mannequins and Dress Makers forms are needed by the society to be used in our displays of period clothing. If you have knowledge where we might acquire these and other items please use the feedback form to get back to us.

 Large framing chisels and wooden mallets for volunteer use in building projects. We can sharpen and replace handles if necessary

Stationary Gasoline Engine to power our Sawmill, 40-50 HP minimum, 70HP preferred or even better, an old 25to30HP "one lunger"(horses were  stronger back     then.)