Apple Day and Miscellaneous Maintenence

 

Sunday13th October was Apple Day at Acorn Bank.  As we drove in in the morning, we were struck by the very impressive Helm Cloud that had formed over the North Pennines and Helm Bar over the Eden Valley - we don't often see such distinct formations.

A sack being hoisted

The Apple Day was very well attended, and we managed to get 417 visitors down to the mill.  Nick and Ana Jones from Little Salkeld were among the visitors, along with some of their millers.  Richard and I milled flour all afternoon (until we ran out of grain), and I bagged some - we sold 32 bags in all.

In between times, we tried out the newly restored sack hoist  -great success!  It does require concentration, as there is no auto-stop  - the sack would wind up into the pulley if we let it.  There was also a minor issue with the pulley over-running when the cable is dropped back through the trapdoor, and unravelling the cable.

The brake band

 Therefore on Tuesday we added a brake band to introduce a bit of resistance to its spin.  We used an old lifting strap as the friction band.

Among the other jobs we tackled today, George and Peter began to lay out some of the stone which will form the walls of the kiln.