Almost there....

Well, after lots and lots of planning and hard work, our mill is all but ready!  You know it, you've heard it, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  Boy did we plan and now the fun is starting.  All the electric is finished, the equipment is hooked up, and we've been playing with some of the fleece we've hoarded all this time!  Let me just tell you, the equipment makes some good stuff!  

On Sunday, we worked to finish hooking up a lot of the finishing touches, belts, grease, protective cages, and a few other things.  My mom was really nervous about turning on the big carder, but we held our breath, flipped the switch, hit the button, and we were off an running, well, almost.  We struggled a bit with figuring out how to bring the carded fiber through the roving deck.  Once we got that under control, we had roving, lots and lots of roving, beautiful roving, garbage cans full of roving!  Did I mention we have roving?

Later today, we're going to give the pin drafter a try and then onto the spinning machine.  We'll keep you posted on that, but boy is it fast, and lots of fun!

One can of roving

Getting it ready for the carder

Me helping get the picker ready!