Threshing Event Down on the Farm
Cousin Dan wanted to see if he could pull off getting an old threshing machine back in running order. A while ago a team of Amish came and spent the better part of a day supplied with various belts and parts. Dan had planted just enough barley for the event to make it interesting. Yesterday was the day. Dan’s niece, Alison, fed the grain bundles while Dan was in the background of the machine checking out sieves, gears and belts, with his grease gun getting a lot of use. It was quite the excitement when the main belt broke. Off to the shed and a replacement was soon put on. This machine would dump a half bushel at a time into the flair box.
It took several loads to finish up the barley. The threshing machine did well and it was deemed a success. Dan had commented that the geese had made a huge dent in the amount of grain that was netted. I do believe the motivation was to accomplish what had been just in a days work sixty or so years ago. As we sat down for supper Dan commented that it would be some time before he would be up for hiring out to do fields for someone else.