Milltown Hand Sanitizer; Et. Al.

How about a little good news on this Monday after Easter??

One of my former students and her husband have been working diligently of late to help boost the supply of hand sanitizer.  

And, they're locals.  

Victor and Jessie Hixson Vachon, who live west of Dover, founded Mill Town Artisan Distillery a few years ago. 

For more information about their usual products, visit this link:  

https://milltownstill.com/

I don't usually buy whiskey, but I purchased a bottle, as a Christmas present, for my daughter Annie soon after the Vachon's dotted the i's and crossed the t's to get their operation up and running. 

I knew Annie would appreciate the gift because she and Jessie are friends and SHS 1997 classmates. 

On Saturday, I ordered another bottle of Mill Town product for Annie (and four more to share among family), this time it's hand sanitizer. 

A few silver linings have emerged in this awful period we are experiencing.  

One includes the spirits distillers across the country who have been able to convert their operations into a very important health product for all who are doing everything possible to avoid and to avoid spreading the coronavirus.  

Mill Town of Sandpoint is doing just that.  Hats off to Jessie and Victor for seeing a need and addressing it.  So, I'll let Jessie's note to me yesterday tell the rest of the story. 

Jessie Hixson Vachon

from Jessie . . . 

Ok, I have a little more info for you! I am not sure how long a bottle will last. It's 32 oz, so it's fairly big. They're best for doing refills. 

Right now, it's available through me (I'm delivering to people in town on Tuesday).  

Holiday Shores (at Hope) will have some.  Some will also be available in Post Falls at Up North Distillery. Pricing is in the press release below. We'll be donating some of it also.

Mill Town Press Release . . . . 

Recently the FDA, TTB, the WHO and the craft spirits industry came together to lift restrictions on the production of hand sanitizer. 

Many distillers in the spirits industry are in the unique position to shift production from liquor to ethanol used for hand sanitizer. Mill Town is one of those distilleries.

After weeks of planning and scrambling to find packaging and raw ingredients, wading through pages of guidance being updated daily, and logistics of adapting equipment to a new use, we were able to start bottling our finished product.

Mill Town is following WHO guidelines to create a de-natured 80 percent alcohol hand sanitizer in 32 oz. bottles that are perfect for refilling smaller hand pump bottles.

We are the very happy recipients of a couple pallets of bottles from Litehouse Foods and so grateful for their responsiveness and support. We are also utilizing expired beer from MickDuffs to produce product for donation.

We’re very happy to be able to provide a much-needed product, to help take care of our neighbors and the people who mean so much to us, and to help to support our community while also providing an avenue to help us keep our doors open.

To order, please email me at jessie@milltowndistillery.com or find us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MillTownDistillery.

Pricing is $13 for a 32 oz. bottle and a $5 discount for essential workers. 

Also, please let us know if there is someone in need who can’t afford it, or if you would like to purchase a bottle to gift as a donation.

~~~~~

A very different Easter but a good one . . . .

I actually felt a sense of sad emptiness yesterday morning after one more day of awaking and remembering our new, uncertain, sad world. 

Admittedly, even with our beautiful surroundings and lovely spring weather, these daily thoughts are wearisome at best. 

Still, we have to shake it off and make the best of the situation. 

So, as a tiny step in trying to bring some normalcy to Easter, I went to the freezer first thing in the morning, pulled out a frozen ham and plunked it on the kitchen island. 

When Bill made his first sweep through the kitchen to take the dogs out, I pointed to the ham and said," Well, at least we can have ham today."

As the morning wore on and the ham went in the oven, visions of lemon pound cake, drizzled with raspberries kept running through my mind. 

I also remembered my Irish news feed pointing out that St. Patrick's Cathedral Mass in New York would be live streaming.  

Even though we have relatively slow Internet for streaming, I was able to take in most of the Mass after finishing my blog. 

Then came preparing the lemon pound cake, which actually turned out looking like it was supposed to look----usually a miracle for me.  

Then, the thought of all those bags of Brach's malted Easter eggs Bill's been adding to the cupboard of late.

Hmmm, some of those would look nice on the cake, I thought. 

Eventually, as the day unfolded, a few nice aspects of Easter came together---even a neat PBS nature documentary about rabbits around the world---wild rabbits, show rabbits, big rabbits, too many rabbits, etc. 

My sisters, who have been documenting via Facebook daily snowshoe hair sightings in their woods,  also watched over at their house. 

I can't tell you how refreshing it was to watch something featuring fascinating information about something other than coronavirus or classic sporting events. 

Rabbits will never be just rabbits in my mind because they made me smile on Easter Sunday, 2020. 

Bill and I enjoyed an early afternoon ham dinner while watching a movie.  He had asked me to turn the channel from another documentary while we were eating. 

It focused on fat. 

Yup, that made sense.  

During that time we also enjoyed a phone conversation with Annie who was in the midst of a Camino de Santiago-type walk through an area in Seattle.  I think she completed 12.5 miles before returning to her apartment. 

More than likely, the nostalgia of her three experiences on the pilgrimages was helping her through Easter weekend. 

Willie and Debbie came over in late afternoon for a servubg of that lemon pound cake dessert.  

We sat far apart in our chairs on the west lawn soaking up some semi-warm afternoon sun on what had been a cold day. 

The final show of the day took place in the still dirty barnyard, which is slowly drying up. 

Dirt and all, CB (whom I've dubbed as 'The Greatest Showman') was putting on quite the show.  The other two couldn't quite muster up his level of enthusiasm, so they tolerated his antics. 

A very different Easter but still satisfying, even though that cloud of gloom and sadness and uncomfortable uncertainly always lingers as we work hard during each day and night to distract our minds. 

And, of course, while doing so, we cherish every reminder of the goodness and tempered joy in the world. 

So important. 

Happy Monday.