Hello all,

Firstly I have to report on the passing of paterfamilias of Compagnes Drift, Raoul Beaumont in this last week. He had been gravely ill and in hospital for nearly two weeks and gave up the struggle on Thursday. In him I have lost my No 1 fan of these reports. He hung on every word I wrote, always saying how much he enjoyed reading them! His last year was buoyed by two things; one his Harley Davidson and getting well enough from a previous set-back to be able to drive it again. The other was progress on his mill. I am pleased that we had reached the milestone of finishing the planks on the water wheel in time!

General View of the Water Wheel and Lister CE engine. The fitting of new planks is now complete

This Saturday was spent with the cup-brush on the angle grinder, polishing up the remaining four pairs of spokes and the hub, chipping away at deposited cement and painting them. The last part of this was tricky because there was nothing to stand on which wasn't freshly painted. I then re-painted the outer ends of all the planks and the outside faces of all the shrouds of the wheel. So now from the stream side, the wheel is looking really smart! I expect that we will have interested people wandering around next Saturday when the family is holding a Celebration of Raoul's life, on the farm.

 

New paint on the hub and spokes of the Water Wheel

I had an order from home for more stone-ground whole-wheat meal (remember, it's only called 'flour' after it's been separated into cake, white, brown and bran), so I ‘conditioned’ a batch of grain, started the engine and ran that through the Stamford Mill. I always sift out the biggest bran with a round sieve made from mosquito netting. This still has a small amount of unground wheat with it, and if I’m doing multiple batches, this gets fed through the mill once again. The bran is always saved for rusk making.

Milling with the Stamford Mill

Two visitors at lunch, Niekie Rust who I understand, but didn't confirm, took part in the re-enactment of the ox wagon trek over the Hottentots Holland Mountains and then through here and beyond with Hercules Wessels several years ago, and family doctor, Isak van As, came down to the mill afterwards, and I turned the wheel by muscle power again, while they watched inside. It's good to see the pressure faces of the teeth on the wallower pinion starting to shine!

Shiny faces on the Wallower pinion of the Vitruvian Mill.

That's a reminder to get the beeswax out and apply it to the Pit Wheel cogs!

In the evening an interesting visitor arrived, Pieter de Kock. When he introduced himself, I immediately asked if he was descended from the original Servaas Daniel de Kock. Yes, he is a direct descendant, he said, and that was the reason for his visit, on this the exact 201^st anniversary of the Battle of Blaauwberg. Onder Kaptein Servaas de Kock acquitted himself so well in the battle (although the day was carried by the British) that General Janssens rewarded him with the farm Compagnes Drift! Pieter brought with him his prize posession, the sash worn by the Onder Kaptein at that Battle, which has been handed down in his family, in a glass case, which he has had made:

Jayne Beaumont and Pieter de Kock, with the sash worn by Servaas Daniel de Kock at the Battle of Blaauwberg on 5^th January 1806.

Also in the case is a Cape Silver Christening cup marked SDK. Legend has it that it was made from melted down silver stirrups! Pieter left the case with Jayne for a while, and Jayne lent him her extensive file on Servaas de Kock and the early history of Compagnes Drift farm. Here is a detailed picture of the plaque inside:

Plaque and detail of the sash: ‘Servaas de Kock sash worn by him at the Battle of Blaaubergstrand 1806

A last picture of the new ‘vernacular’ walls being built by the farm staff, and the earthworks, making walking between the front of the mill to the wheel much easier and the bridge across the mill stream.