Having cut some sheaves of wheat growing wild in the field below the Mill house just before the Open Gardens weekends, we have been talking about the possibility of growing a patch of wheat, cutting and binding it, threshing it and then milling it, then baking bread from it, all in one day!

I was hoping that Jayne & Sebastian would be able to accompany me on a fact-finding mission to the Old Time Harvest day at Brakfontein, between Heidelberg and Riversdale this year; in the end I went on my own.

Next Friday and Saturday, the West Cape Tractor & Engine Club is having its Annual Show, this year in Villiersdorp nearby. We’re pulling out all stops to make it an interesting show, which will include ‘Sheaf to Loaf’ exhibitions. Arthur Wilding’s 1921 Aveling & Porter Steam Traction Engine will be powering a Ransomes wooden threshing machine. Hermann Geldenhuys will have his roller mill and Gawie his ‘portable kitchen range’ including a Bolinder stove. 

I had an order for 10kg of meal for baking at the Show as well as another order for 10kg. During the day, there were visitors who weren’t holding themselves back with their orders, which amounted to 10 more; so at last, I didn’t have to hold the Vitruvian Mill back! In the end I milled 34½kg. I mention this level of accuracy because we are interested to know what the losses are between grain sack and meal bag. We started with a new sack today and now have a record book. 

But my first surprise was what the rats had managed to do in one week!

Two Stationary Engine shows and some farm work have kept me from my favourite pastime, but preparations were made in the meantime. Jan-Renier Voûte visited last time and offered to make up the blank for the ‘Miller’s Willow’ out of some dried Syringa wood he has. He also measured up the paper bags we use and offered to make a wooden meal-scoop. 

Before leaving for an overseas holiday he delivered the two, so my project was to finish the Willow and fit it, this being the final stage in the restoration of the Vitruvian Mill! I simply had to sand the wooden arm down until it had the right amount of springiness to hold the ‘rap’ of the shoe against the rotating ‘damsel’. This gives the agitation required to shake the grain off the end of the shoe at a controlled rate.

Again something different! We’ve been meaning to visit Elim Mill since we visited Genadendal Mill, also a Moravian Mission Station, about two years ago. Joanna Marx, who introduced me to Compagnes Drift, received an SOS call in the week from Malcolm Temmers, Municipal Manager of Elim, saying their Water Wheel was rubbing against the building! Could she please come and give some advice?

Immaculately kept houses in the Main Street of Elim. 

The race is on to have the mill working, or at least the wheel turning, for Heritage Day, which is this coming Thursday! I was up very early, and after getting my spray driver organised, was on the road at 6am and at Elim well before 8. During the week, we’d modified an existing puller at our workshop with a ring to locate over the end of the Gudgeon on the outer end of the axle-tree. We welded on big chain links at each end to hook chain blocks on to. I always drive around with several of them and lengths of chain and shackles. To protect the wood of the spokes, I had a big bag of thick rags.

The puller is positioned on the end of the Gudgeon shaft of the axle tree.

Some of the 13 buckets which I’d found on the belt at the bottom of the elevator were badly rusted, so after polishing them up and neutralising the rust, I repaired them with a wear-resistant epoxy product we use here for pumps, etc., called Steenvas ST100. By wrapping the outside of the bucket with insulation tape and applying it by finger on the inside, I could re-form the shape.

I then gave them and the others a coat of Duram NS5 primer.