Posts from the ‘Mill Top to Bottom’ Category

The bunkhouse basement was our shop. We stored tools here and bikes and renovation supplies. Some of our guests stored their canoes here when they came to stay at the Bunkhouse. It was also where the water heaters were located and the Pex distribution system. The Bunkhouse was designed so all the water could be easily drained out for the Winter months.

The second floor of the bunkhouse was full of bunk beds. (seems reasonable) We used some more of the cabinet doors for the walls here. We also had two bathrooms and two shower rooms on the second floor. The bunk beds were actually shelving racks donated by the Whitakers who donated a lot of the other materials used in the Mill renovation. Thanks.

The Bunkhouse was a hostel located in the three story Flour House next to the Mill. The Flour House was used to store flour from the Mill. We had renovated the first two floors into a place for trail users to spend the night. Most people who know the Mill will not be familiar with the first floor sitting area because we only set it up this winter with personal furniture we had stored at the Mill.

I have now taken you from the top of the Mill to the bottom of the Mill. I’m interested if anyone has a preference for the next blog. There are lots of stories about the renovation and also about the events that happened at the Mill. Any preferences out there? This set of pictures is about the Creamery ceiling. Nancy found cabinet door seconds in Kentucky and our guys made them into a ceiling for the creamery.

We built the ice cream shop to promote the museum because we felt we needed something to draw people into the Mill. It was built in what was originally the loading dock for the Mill and the floor still had barrel rings from the molasses barrels. We served Perrys ice cream and we loved meeting all of the people who came to visit. The blackboard is from an old schoolhouse.

This is the creamery kitchen on the first floor of the Mill. The access to the molasses cistern has been boarded up and covered with green floor tiles. It had a three bowl sink, a hand wash sink, a stove, oven, microwave, refrigerator and two freezers, one of which we called robo-freezer because it was so big. It also had lots of shelving for food and dishware.

The 3000 gallon molasses cistern is located at the basement level. Perhaps you remember the valve in the basement (4/15/15 blog) and the molasses pump (4/4/15 blog). The access to the cistern was on the first floor under where we wanted to put the Creamery kitchen but the Dept of Ag wouldn’t allow a trap door in a kitchen so we cut a new access from the basement.

The hopper shown is in the basement of the Mill. You can see the chute to the right where the grain entered the Mill from outside. The hopper is suspended from the Fairbanks scale on the floor above so the grain could be weighed. The miller then pulled a control and the bottom of the hopper opened and the grain fell into a pit where it was picked up by the grain elevators and traveled to the fifth floor. The two 36 foot grain bins are located just behind the hopper. In the second picture the base of the smaller grain elevator is shown. Again the grain came in from the right where it was picked up by the buckets of the grain elevator and taken to the third floor.

The basement of the Mill was reasonably empty when we purchased the Mill in 2005. It contained one piece of machinery which is either a hammer mill or a feed chopper, I’m not sure. Some of the original wood columns had been reinforced with cement pillars. There was a large valve in the wall that led to the molasses cistern.