The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Weather or Not?

linder's picture
linder

Weather or Not?

I have a question regarding the use of my Komo grain mill in a wet climate.  We will be moving to Olga, Washington in the not too distant future.  For six months we will be living in a yurt(pictured here) while our house is being built.  I would like to take my Komo mill with me to the yurt.  We have electricity and I have a Coleman oven sits on top of my propane stove that I will use to bake bread.  My husband doesn't think this is such a great idea because of the moisture in the air in the yurt and claims it may damage the mill.  I contend that although it is wetter in WA than in Northern California, this difference should not hurt the mill and infact, it would be better to use it once or twice a week rather than having it in storage for 6 months.  What do you think?  Thanks

LInda

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

is highly explosive.  If you have an open flame in the the yurt, you may find it dangerous to use the mill within the same time frame.  Please don't blow up your yurt and yourself in the woods.  

barryvabeach's picture
barryvabeach

Linda,  I am sorry to tell you that there is no problem storing it for 6 months, so there is no danger there.     On the other hand, you can tell your husband that they are a lot of electric powered grinders that were made in the 60 and 70's that are still going strong, and I bet bunches of them were used in humid climates, and probably without central heating and air conditioning.  In fact I keep my electric mill in my garage, and the humidity here in the summer can be quite high .  A few weeks ago I checked and it was 75% humidity in the garage. On the other, other hand, If you have extremely high humidity in the yurt, it may cause the wood to swell and split, and worse,  very high humidity can cause rusting of the motor.  It is probably unlikely that it would be significantly damaged by keeping it in the yurt, but I am pretty sure you would be very disappointed with any type of damage, especially since it has virtually no risk of damage in storage with the rest of your household goods.  Options -  can you rent a small self storage place somewhere near the Yurt, and just use it there, or bring it to the Yurt, use it then return it to storage. If not that, then go to a camping store and find a watertight bag that the mill will fit in, then take it out, use it, let it cool off a few minutes, then force out as much air from the bag as possible, and seal it back up. The concern is that if it was not wrapped in a water tight bag, if you turned up the heater in the yurt, dew could form on the motor because it may be colder than other objects that have heated up ( like moisture condensing on the outside of a toilet tank on a humid day).   .   BTW, the yurt looks nice, hope you enjoy the great outdoors.

linder's picture
linder

Thank you both for your comments.  Looks like I will keep the mill in storage for six months and work with already ground whole wheat flour from the grocery store or hopefully from the co-op on the Island once it gets going.  Boo-hoo, I will miss my home ground whole wheat.  Oh well, at least we will have fresh baked bread!