Water Mill Blog - 8th January 2008

The Christmas and New Year break is over and the team gathered at the mill this morning refreshed from their break. Well some of them, anyway.

The weather defied the forecasters for much of the day and stayed dry-ish and mild. Not that it bothered most of the team who stayed under cover. John took advantage though, and managed to make good progress on the retaining wall towards the farmyard. Another day like today should see that finished.

Headley stayed inside the mill, replacing the bearing hanger and bearing for the PTO shaft and bevel gear.

We need this in place so that we can check where the bearing at the other end of that section of shaft needs to go.

The hanger has slotted holes so that the gear can be disengaged from the pit gear when the PTO is not required, although it is not a quick change process.

Derek did some more landscape tidying, getting the site ready to plant some hedging. We have a supply of laurel bushes ready to plant but we haven't put them in yet.

Martyn and Kim started working on the hayloft floor at the paddock end of the loft. This part of the floor was occupied by the chaff cutter and there are some odd arrangements of joists to allow for openings in the floor.

At some time in the past a very neat circular hole had been made and then boarded over. Another rectangular hole gave access to a chute for the chaff.

Some of the joists needed repair but we have preserved all the oddities for future generations to puzzle over.

The last member of today's team, Richard, made three hatches to complete the floor repair in the first part of the hay-loft. These hatches were probably above a manger or a hay-rack in the stable below and would have saved a lot of work carrying feed or bedding.

By mid afternoon the forecast rain had finally arrived, putting and end to outdoor work. The indoor workers had all got to stages that needed more material so we had a quick tidy up and headed for our homes.

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