Yay, it’s holiday time! My beautiful boys are home with me for the next fortnight with no routines and outside demands. We love this time together. It is a great time to reflect and rejuvenate before we begin the next term’s challenges. (Yes I still am in school year mode!)
Just before the holiday began, I had a chance to go to my boys’ open classroom afternoon where they could reflect and share their learning with me. I loved it! I could see their pride in their achievements and learning and to celebrate this with them was so special. (Thanks Deb and Leah!)
This interaction gave me pause to reflect on my learning this term. It has not been a simple chronological progression from beginning to end in whisky production. The production phases of the Distillery dictated what I was doing from one day to another! One day might be brewing and the next – barrel fills or spirit runs. Yet when I look back on all my notes on processes and method I feel quite chuffed with how much I understand and can now do unassisted. Gareth and Pete’s support, patient explanations and repetition of process have been invaluable! Thank you guys!
For those of you who aren’t aware, our distillery is located in a heritage listed building in the Wharf Precinct of Goolwa. It is a high tourism area with steam trains on one side and a paddle steamer on the other side of the building so over any holiday period, it is all hands on deck to provide service to the many tourists who visit. As a result we refocus on what can be done in production and barrel ahead in other ways.
New barrels ready to fill!
Following on from a busy Easter, the week began with both our boys having a ‘daddy day’ picking up barrels from SA Cooperage and unloading them into the Distillery. Gareth then began to build racks for these over a period of one and a half days with boys in and out of the shed observing the progress of rack building. It is fortunate Gareth does have the equipment at home to be able to do this and it is great for our boys to see the thinking, planning and skill that goes into creating structures.
A Jet 16 thicknesser.
After a trip to South Coast Timber, Gareth off loaded timber in his other Distillery shed (man cave here at home) and set to work. He began by thicknessing the wood which cleaned up the lengths and created pieces of even size and consistency. From here the long beams went through the plainer-jointer to create an angle on the edge of the beam that would match the curvature on the barrel. Once they were trimmed in pairs with the docking saw to create even lengths they were then stacked in pairs to the side so cross beams could be created.
Dressed cross beams ready for use.
Each cross beam was routed with some extra edge dressing then stacked. After lots of pre-drilling of holes the timber was ready to be assembled before relocation to the distillery.
Daddy’s little helper.
This is when little helpers come in handy to hold things steady and to see how all the pieces begin to fit together.
Ta-da, the new racks are assembled!
Now all those barrels are neatly stacked and are ready to be filled with new make spirit!
