A Tour of Thorp Mill

This week has been a week of changes. At work, personnel are moving out and moving in, and the Central Transit is now back in full swing with a new route. And I cut all my hair off because it was buggin' me too much! Here's my new do:
My camera's batteries kept dying, that's why the pic's so blurry. I love the new cut! It's super easy to style and looks really cute with a knitted beret! The weather here is also changing. Fall is definitely in the air! I even got my furnace a new filter and turned the heater on yesterday to burn off all the dust from the summer. And yes, all my smoke alarms roared into life for about 20 minutes. I was so nervous the fire department would show up! LOL!


Today it was rainy and a tad bit foggy in the evening. A perfect day to bundle up in a comfy wool sweater and an orange and brown plaid skirt and head off for an afternoon getting myself rooted again. Mary T. called and invited me to go to the Thorp Mill, built in 1883, and take a tour of the old mill. Being there brought back memories of Mary Jane's Farm in Moscow, Idaho, and the amazing time Mary T. and I spent there. It also rekindled my love of all things old, yet useful. The mill is in excellent condition and could still be run if it needed to be. Our tour guide, a chap named Tanner who wore a '30s fedora, suspenders, and a hand-embroidered silk tie, kept us on our toes as we tried to keep up with his stories of the mill and his many cups of coffee. I took my camera, but because the batteries were nearly dead, I was only able to get some pictures and then only one or two at a time before the screen went black. Anyway, I thought I'd let the pictures give you all a better description of our tour... OH! And there was a contest where we were asked to guess what certain items from the 1800's were. One of the items was an extremely heavy piece of iron with two levers that rose up from the side to meet in the middle. When pressed down, it would staple into whatever you placed between the plates. Anyway, most guessed it was a stapler of some sort, but I put down that it was a belt lacer, though I had to confess when I won the prize that the actual object has "BELT LACER" stamped right on it and all I did was copy that onto the form. LOL! They still let me have a prize, and I chose a book about the mill called, Listen to the Millrace by Barton Porter.

The lacing on one of the huge belts that run the wheels.

The turbine that runs the whole thing.

The turbine as it was actually running. I'm looking down through the flooring of the turbine house.

An old speedometer for the turbine. It used to sound an alarm when the turbine ran too quickly. The thing was gutted shortly after being installed...

On a knitting note, Mary T. has started a ruffled scarf from some handspun that is to DIE FOR! It's going to be a beautiful piece of wearable art when it is finished. Also, a long time ago, I sent in some yarn to Spin-Off magazine for their sock yarn edition. While I didn't get published in the magazine, I did make it onto their website! Go to this link and see my sock yarn! :)