Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Grist for the mill(er)
I had a splendid day at the mill (West Point on the Eno in Durham) on Saturday.
I finally got to do some grinding, in addition to taking about a bazillion pictures inside and out (including the spiders, see below). I think this flower is nightshade, but I'm too lazy to look it up; maybe later. I took oodles of people pics, but I don't feel like posting them just now.
Then, of course, another picture of the waterwheeel and dam. I don't know why mills are so photogenic, but they are.
Then a (rather poor) picture of Kent, one of the millers (I could be called a 'miller's apprentice', I guess). I blame him for the poor image (notably the rope hanging in front of his face; I was lucky to get ANY shot of him. Photographing some people is like stalking wildlife with a camera! Kent's standing behind the Meadows Mill checking out the feed rate from the hopper into the shoe.
The shoe
itself is the last picture; it screens the grain (yellow corn or maize, in this case) from the hopper and feeds it into the stones for grinding. All these mecahnisms (the shoe, the stones, the sifter, the elevators to move the meal or flour) are run by belts which are are (ultimately) run off the waterwheel shaft. I love the mill - the way everythign runs together, the smell of grease and corn meal or flour, the sounds, the openess and sturdiness of the building, the other millers, the people who come by ... everything!
The Yates Mill, which is very close to my house, just opened, and I was very excited about the prospect of milling less than a mile from where I live (the drive to Durham is 25 miles). But it turns out the Yates Mill project is more about restoration than actually having a running mill - at West Point they had (unfortunately in many ways) that dilemna 'solved' for them by the simple fact that the original mill had collasped before work could begin. Therefore they just rebuilt a very nice and functional mill in the great tradition of rebuilding after a flood, and didn't have to fuss about authenticity so much. I know there is a place for both approaches, but for me I much prefer having visitors poking around the mill's innards than fussing about them scuffing up the restored floorboards and roping them out. I love letting kids smoosh grease in the fittings, I love the workaday shoplike feel of the place, the casualness of it. Firing up the stove when it's chilly, making a natural working mess and cleaning it up, not freaking at the use of an electric fan when it's hot. It's a mill, not a museum, and I like it that way!!
¶ 3:33 AM 
I had a splendid day at the mill (West Point on the Eno in Durham) on Saturday.
I finally got to do some grinding, in addition to taking about a bazillion pictures inside and out (including the spiders, see below). I think this flower is nightshade, but I'm too lazy to look it up; maybe later. I took oodles of people pics, but I don't feel like posting them just now.Then, of course, another picture of the waterwheeel and dam. I don't know why mills are so photogenic, but they are.
Then a (rather poor) picture of Kent, one of the millers (I could be called a 'miller's apprentice', I guess). I blame him for the poor image (notably the rope hanging in front of his face; I was lucky to get ANY shot of him. Photographing some people is like stalking wildlife with a camera! Kent's standing behind the Meadows Mill checking out the feed rate from the hopper into the shoe.
The shoe
itself is the last picture; it screens the grain (yellow corn or maize, in this case) from the hopper and feeds it into the stones for grinding. All these mecahnisms (the shoe, the stones, the sifter, the elevators to move the meal or flour) are run by belts which are are (ultimately) run off the waterwheel shaft. I love the mill - the way everythign runs together, the smell of grease and corn meal or flour, the sounds, the openess and sturdiness of the building, the other millers, the people who come by ... everything!The Yates Mill, which is very close to my house, just opened, and I was very excited about the prospect of milling less than a mile from where I live (the drive to Durham is 25 miles). But it turns out the Yates Mill project is more about restoration than actually having a running mill - at West Point they had (unfortunately in many ways) that dilemna 'solved' for them by the simple fact that the original mill had collasped before work could begin. Therefore they just rebuilt a very nice and functional mill in the great tradition of rebuilding after a flood, and didn't have to fuss about authenticity so much. I know there is a place for both approaches, but for me I much prefer having visitors poking around the mill's innards than fussing about them scuffing up the restored floorboards and roping them out. I love letting kids smoosh grease in the fittings, I love the workaday shoplike feel of the place, the casualness of it. Firing up the stove when it's chilly, making a natural working mess and cleaning it up, not freaking at the use of an electric fan when it's hot. It's a mill, not a museum, and I like it that way!!
¶ 3:33 AM
