62. 25th October 2008. Compagnes Drift Mill. Keyhole Surgery and Barrel Race

Hello all,

Keyhole Surgery, you ask? Yes, on two fronts; the first in the wall, to insert the end of the rail which will support the upper end of the wooden end-section of the launder. I first had to work out my levels to allow for the thickness of the wood:

To get there, I brought another ladder, held up by a cat's cradle from the other ladder above. The section of the 'light' rail is now marked on the wall. Next step was with the Hilti hammer drill with a long bit. That was followed by a tyre lever and hammer to open the hole up, to about 300 mm deep. The wall is made of clay brick, but not too hard. Soon this is what I had:

The rail is already hoisted up (phew!) and supported by loops of wire. Look carefully and you can see the skilful join made by my fellows in the workshop. The hole in the wall is just big enough for the rail to enter.

Here, for reference, is how it looked before I forced it into the hole. Note how far it's sticking out beyond the upright. Now, look below:

So, it's gone in about 300mm. I then needed to support it properly from the top of the upright, so I made up a stirrup:

Seen on top of the drum of Iscor Black, with which it's just had a generous coat!

But by that time, the Annual Barrel Race was on the go, up at the Station! Lots to eat and drink, and I waited till the Beaumont Wines B team had done their heat:

 

Here's Marlize, Assistant Winemaker, leaving the other two teams behind! It looks easy, but it's not! Then she handed over to Schalk, head of Marketing and webmaster. He held the lead, even increasing it, but.......

... he seemed to lose control, and OOPS!

Just after that, he up-ended it and the other two teams showed him a clean pair of heels!

Back at the Mill, I had an order of meal and bran (they're actually asking for bran now!) to be used next week during the Open Gardens menu, so I conditioned some grain. But first I wanted to finish off the beam. I mixed some cement, and after assembling the 'stirrup' at the top of the upright and rotating the beam so its base was level, I first wet the hole, then forced as much cement into the hole around the rail as I could:

After a coat of Iscor Black, it's starting to look as though it's been there forever! One can still just make out the 'BARROW STEEL' on the upright, just below the stirrup, but the cross-bar rail gives it away.... at the end is a clearly visible 'PRETORIA’, dating it to only after Dr van der Bijl's efforts in the 1930s:

The rest, as they say, is history!

Back to Surgery, with the milling behind me, I cut out one of the pieces of the launder damaged by the storm the week after I put it up:

 

Now you see it, now you don't:

 

Patched! It still got a coat of the black stuff! There was still time to give a coat of the same stuff to the four 6-metre planks which will make up the wooden end of the launder:

Having just last week seen the stunning film 'Shine a Light', of a recent performance of the Rolling Stones, I was disappointed they didn't include 'Paint it Black', which was running through my head as I painted!

During the week, Sebastian had the framework of the weir installed at the outflow of the dam. It looks great. After the cement is fully dry, we can break out the light cross-bar at the top, which is just a spreader:

So we’re making progress with the control of the water! We will be able to hold back 15” over the whole surface area of the dam, and let it out in five 3” increments as milling progresses.

A good day's progress, in preparation for two full weekends coming up of 'Open Gardens' during which there will be plenty of visitors!

Regards
Andy

 

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