Threshing day, this is the day the farmer worked for. Here he would see the fruits of his labor. The grain was his pay for the years work of plowing, tilling and planting. I was an area celebration. Neighbors would gather and help each other with the threshing. Hay ricks would be towed in, followed by grain wagons. The wives would show up with lemonade and food, there would be visiting and catching up on the gossip.
Usually one farmer would have a threshing machine and another would supply the tractor and together the neighbors would work from sun up till it set.
Hay ricks would empty and be re loaded with the straw for the hay stack. Grain wagons would be hauled back to the granary to be unloaded. It was a frenzy of activity.
The tractor would be hooked up and work begins. Wheat bundles tossed to the threshers belt and separated out grain rolls out of the chute while straw piles up behind the thresher.
For the farmer this was the most critical part of the year. It made him or broke him. No longer do the steamers operate the thrashers today.
The government has passed all kinds of regulations and inspections that most people don’t want to spend the money to show them off. The government has taken a harmless hobby and quashed it because one individual screwed up and blew his tractor up. The many have to pay for the screw up of one.
For me these celebrations are about the steamers and the roll they played in pioneer life. Instead an old tractor gets hooked up and sputters along imitating an old steamer.
This is what I learned to drive, it was one year newer. I didn’t drive a car till I was 16. It was trucks and tractors out across the fields and down the country roads.
May the dove of happiness be your companion this weekend.
4 comments:
Love the pictures John. Your blogs are always so interesting. Have a wonderful weekend.
Dianne :)
It's always something! Great post accompanied by some awesome photos.
I find it kind of ironic that though I was raised in Montana I have never once driven a tractor. I'm a city slicker of sorts...not that any cities here are very big. Still I love the things on the farm that I see. I miss the orchards of Idaho where we'd get apples and peaches every year. Flathead Cherries are what we get now mostly. Love the pictures and history John.
John thank you for sharing all these posts onad photos on the thrashing days. I really enjoyed them. It sure looks like you really enjoyed it as well. Now don't forget to plan for more time to be spent there next year.
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