Encouraging steps ahead: Internet connectivity for mill and guest house
Work Party 23-24 September 2022
Friday 2nd saw six of us up at the mill: Kalven, Grant and Andrew as well as Gaye, Elvis and myself. The plan was tFriday 23nd saw Michael & Karin, Peter Q & Michelle, Henry as well as Gaye, Elvis & myself ready to do some constructive work in and around the mill. Michael & Karin have taken on the project of getting the Guest houses ready to be available for Air BnB bookings. They had chosen a suitable paint scheme and purchased the necessary paint. Together with Gaye they set about masking the borders and then commenced painting later in the day.
Peter Q was hard at work on the project of laying the cable connecting the router in the school computer room to an extension router in the guest house. He was duly assisted at various times by S’bu, Elvis, Moses and Mdu. This is a major project and will bring much-needed connectivity to both the Mill and the Guest Houses. Henry (Michelle’s pug) made his contribution by winding his lead round people’s legs to prevent them from working too hard.
Kalven, Andrew, Wayne & Megan arrived late in the afternoon and began making preparations for milling. The first job was the construction of a new chute from the millstones to the Rotary sifter.
On the Saturday this preparatory work continued: A good part of the morning was spent lifting both sets of millstones and removing all the old product from the grooves. Next the new screens were fitted to the Sifter by Andrew. These screens had been equipped with mesh of a more appropriate size by Gavin Chandler screen builder by appointment who is considered an expert in his field. Actually, there is no one else in his field. Also, plans were made to lock the cone clutch beneath the millstones so as to prevent slipping.
By mid-afternoon we were ready to mill and proceeded to open the sluice gate to set the mill in motion. We then commenced to mill about 80 Kg of wheat in just under an hour without any hitches.
The product was also very satisfactory:
About 40 Kg Fine flour (First Stage, 250micron mesh)
About 25 Kg Whole Grain Flour (second stage 530 micron mesh)
About 8 Kg Bran Flour (third stage 530 micron mesh)
On shutting down the mill, we immediately lifted the runner stone for cleaning of both stones as this is much more easily done before the flour hardens in the grooves.
Later Jill and Megan packaged all the flour into 2.5 Kg packets. We were also able to take about 10 Kg to both Cathy Knox at Spar and Colleen at Colleen’s Kitchen for test baking.
Autor: Peter Frow
