John and I agreed to meet that day so he could give me a tour of the different working stations of the Mill. I was excited to go further into the Mill than just the place where I get my own feed at. The large engine outside was running, hulls fly through the air in town is always a sure sign that John is working with grain at the Mill. Its very little, but as you drive you can see them in the air. The single engine runs a shaft, and the different parts of the Mill are clutched in to drive that work station.
The following stations can all work together or not run while some others are. Items such as horse feed can be made in a 2 ton mixer.
Bird Seed is also mixed, and John makes different types of bird seed depending on which season it is, or which birds are most common. He admitted he can make 15 different types of bird food, but prefers to make only 5 different types. But if you buy 250 pounds of seed he will mix a batch for you.
Now its time for some pictures of the Mill and all her gears, spinning/humming. Inside are square tubes call elevators which move the grains from one operation to another until the end product is made. Buckwheat makes this trip up and down the three story building six times before its separated and the fine flour has been sifted and dropped in the bagging location.
But if you don't need hundreds of pounds of flour made, and want to make your own, and own a kitchen aid, this one is for you.
This one, if you want to make your own by hand, I have this one too!!
My friend has this one, and he uses it for all sorts, he loves it.
This unit is a bit cheaper, but isn't as well made judging by the looks of it.
Now we have information at our finger tips, but back when I lived on the farm, this wasn't so. Relationships were important to keep, and the Mill was the place where folks would get together and pass on news that was going on. The counter help would have to be some one that was good at keeping inventory, math, feed/food information as well as a good, friendly gossiper. A person who got along with everyone, and did so to help spread the word of the information they had gotten else where.
They had to be a Master Gossiper, one that didn't take sides, or hold judgment against different people. After all, the information they told would be the information that you told them to spread. There were certain things that wouldn't be spoken of, and some matters of family business weren't spread. There was/is a fine line of spreading that information.
I am not sure of the workings of the grain/feed business, as the crops we grew were to sustain our own farm. We sometimes had to buy grain in if we didn't have enough to make feed for our hogs. That's right, we were in the hogging business, or pork producers. Not a huge operation mind you, and I am not convinced that we were that successful at it.
From slaughtering our own hogs, storing them in a freezer until the buyer came by, to making scrapple to sell locally. I still think to this day, if Mom could have gotten that recipe out, we would have been known throughout the eastern seaboard for our scrapple, it was that good.
We were one of those familys that John Cougar Melloncamp would sing about, when he wrote the song Rain on the Scarecrow. A small farm run by country folks trying to make a living in the dirt. But soon technology and factory farming would put us out of business. I will not say that Mom and Bobs business plan was not at fault either. When your a kid, you don't always get the information you want from adults.
Thou we owned the farm, I think about 20 acres, we leased about 140 more from the state for 50.00 a month. The bank really owned the farm, and I remember the day I climbed in the truck and left the farm for the last time. I remember the banker, Randy using a staple gun to staple something on the front door, a foreclosure letter no doubt. Country living at its finest, and everything I ever knew.
Our local Mill, which is long gone, took up a local collection as they had done many times before for other families that suffered from the same out come as we had. They kept our line of credit although we couldn't pay it back, or perhaps later it was paid back.
I was shocked when I moved here to have a Mill in my backyard. But not just any Mill, thou its 26 years later, it remains the center hub and supply store that anchors this community, just like the one when I was a kid.
So now that I have shared what the Mill meant to me/us/to a community as a child, I hope you have learned why it is such a important place.
Please take a little time to watch the first 40 seconds of this video to try to understand what farming was about back in those days. I suspect it is much the same these days. Even though my homestead sits on 5 acres, its mine, and no bank can have it. It might not be much to some, its more than others, and I can, at a small scale, work this land as I learned back on the farm. With a old milk farm at the bottom of the mountain, it isn't hard to get tied up in making my land produce food. I do have a real since of pride during harvest time.
Everything else I do to be self sufficient today, were important things to do back on the farm to make ends meet or put food on the table. As food prices go up, the population increases, food becomes more GMO and less valuable as a food source, I am pleased with all that I do for myself and family.
To cover this topic properly, I decided that one post isn't going to cover the information needed to understand how a Milling Company works. I am not sure if 3 parts will be enough, but I do know 2 won't be enough.
I am no stranger to a feed store, feed supply store or even a milling company. The first thing that needs to be talked about is the difference between those three, and I am going to cut straight to a Milling Company. A Mill is a place that takes in grain and makes feed for animals or food for humans, they often make their own feeds and set different protein levels, and sell name brand feed along with their own. They also mix grains for feed for farmers, the farmer is the chef, they just cook it. Whatever you want, they will do it, and recipes are guarded like top secret documents.
As a child, a social event to look forward to just about this time of year, was the gathering at the local mill to get the low down on the new stuff, and who is doing what, who has the newest equipment, who is trying which seed, who is planting the newest seed as a test market, who has free seed sponsors, and how folks were doing in general since little to no contact had been made since fall.
This would be an all day event, free coffee, folks would park in a corn field and walk over, it would be a time we would spend with other folks since falls harvest. During summer, there were fairs to do, and farming was a cut throat business. My tractor is Red and better than your green one, my hogs being showed by my kid has this blood line, and the little squabbles went on and on. But those were during the times we were working the fields and showing off our hard work.
When fall came, we put all that aside to get the harvest in, helping each other without past issues. However I don't remember locals taking it to far, because we all knew that we depended on each other in the fall. I was young, and listened a while until I was bored and joined my friends to run around.
Bobby, my step father is a different kind of man. He can't read, nor write further than his name, and he doesn't care to. But he brings to the table a whole different set of skills. He knows how to grow food, hunt it, and raise hogs.
Bobby only allowed 1600 pounds of a ton load to be known by the mill, the other 600 pounds were taped in triple wrapped feed sacks and hauled in by us and dumped into the mixer. Than it was moved to be pelleted with water and high pressure. Once it was done, we would stack it on the truck and wait till Dad was ready to go.
The Milling Company was also a bartering house for goods to be exchanged either way. We often Hunted Ginseng for the plants roots, dry them and get cash for the amount of grams it weighed. They also took in grain and offered stock/store goods in exchange. I remember getting those hard candy sticks, the striped ones, 10/1.00, all sorts of flavors.
