Country Jaunts

While most people probably head to the city when they want to find something interesting to do, Ryan and I head the opposite way whenever possible. We can't get enough of the country. The green trees and rolling hills of Virginia are captivating and relaxing to us. We can get out the the hubbub of the city and take a walk. It's what we do a lot of times on the weekend. Virginia is also such a historic place that there are all kinds of small old historic towns that are really fun to visit and explore. 

This Sunday we went for a drive and thought we'd head out towards Middleburg since we hadn't yet explored out there. But before we got there, the road passed through Arcola, another small town that has stayed small and has modernized even less than Middleburg. They had an old mill and it appeared to be open, so of course we stopped in to see it. 

Inside the mill and learning about the machinery

What was really cool was that there were a couple of guides in there to tell us about it and even crank it up and show us how it worked. They opened the waterway to turn the water wheel, which turned the stones and ground corn into cornmeal. The mill was pretty well mechanized and gears created a system that then moved the ground cornmeal up a belt and into a storage bin. It was really cool! 

The corn goes in the hopper on top and they can control the coarseness of the meal by raising or lowering the upper stone. 

We learned a lot too about how a mill works and why the stones are grooved, etc. Not to mention, it was just beautiful there. The leaves had all changed colors and had mostly fallen to the ground. We got one of the guides to take this great picture for us.  

A most wonderful Sunday afternoon with my sweetheart