There have been plenty of exciting moments so far on the journey to build One Mighty Mill. But, this one was huge.
In that photo above, we’re in Andrew’s workshop. He’s the baker and mill-builder who I met for the first time 5 months ago. Since he wouldn’t respond to my incessant emails and calls, I spontaneously drove 4 hours into the Vermont woods and showed up at his house uninvited and unannounced. It was the first time I’d ever seen a mill in person actually operate and produce flour. While I didn’t really know what I was doing, I did know that a stone mill was the linchpin to “wheat you can eat”. And even though we didn’t have a clear business model, we knew that a mill was the heart and soul of the new food company we needed to start. So, on that day 5 months ago and right on the spot, I asked Andrew to build us a mill. Then, I asked him to build us the biggest one he’d ever built.
5 months later, Andrew was finished. We went to pick it up this week.
In the photo, I’m in the middle and flanked by the builders, Andrew and Anthony. My friend, J.J., who owns a moving company, is on the far left. J.J. and I trucked up to Vermont to bring our mill back home to Boston.
If you look closely, you can see that everyone in the photo is smiling except me. I have this awkward, uneasy expression. That’s exactly how I felt. All the excitement from finally seeing our mill in person was completely neutralized by the anxiety of the sudden, undeniable verification that there was no turning back. We had officially taken the all-important leap to make our vision real. Our mill was freaking massive. So, it’s intimidating to take possession of a 7 foot, 5,000 pound mill that you don’t know how to operate. It got even more intimidating when I watched Anthony and Andrew use a chain and pulley to crank up the 1,200 pound stones and then, disassemble the mill. Since I’m pretty much mechanically incompetent, it was all I could do to not envision myself being crushed by the stones while trying to put the mill back together.
Anyway, the move took us the entire day. With a forklift and some heavy grunting, we got the stones and all the parts into J.J.’s truck. Late that night, we successfully put our mill in storage at J.J.’s warehouse.
It’s official: we have our mighty mill. Time to start building a place to put it.
I got next! 