~~Threshing Time~~

 

The oats were yellow and ripe now. Pa had been busy the past week cutting it. He used three horses on the grain binder. Ruth and Ma helped the boys shock the oats. It had to be put in shocks, then stand and dry out for some time before it could be threshed and the grain stored.

The whistle on the steam engine signaled that the threshing job at the neighbors down the road was done and the machine would soon be coming to Berdina’s house.

“Let’s go climb the pine tree so we can watch it come,” shouted Lydia.

Up the tree they went and sat in the big crotch. Here, they could see way down the road. The big, black steam engine clambered up the dirt road, steaming away and pulling the threshing machine. Behind came the horses pulling the water tank.

The tension mounted as they came down the big hill. Would they have trouble making the turn into the driveway at the bottom?  It took awhile, but they turned safely into the road that led into the farm.

The man driving the engine was very dirty and greasy looking. His blue and white striped cap was pulled down over his eyes and he had a red handkerchief tied around his neck. He slept in the hay mow at night and never changed his clothes ‘til the threshing season was over.
 

Each morning he was up bright and early to get things greased and ready to go. long before the men arrived.

Now that Berdina and Lydia had watched the arrival and setup, they had to make up for lost time.
Ma had been told the men would be here for dinner so she had dinner underway. Fresh apple pies were baking, the whole oven full. The big roast was browning on top of the stove and would be finished in the oven once the pies were done.

A couple of neighbor ladies had come to help Ma. She would help them back later when they needed help. There were a lot of potatoes to peel and vegetables to prepare. The grown-ups did this. Berdina and Lydia had to set the table, round up the chairs and pump water and carry it in. There were dishes to wash and a small tub of warm water, soap and towels to put out the back way for the men to use to wash before eating.

The business of getting dinner for the threshers was taken very seriously. It would be a catastrophe if dinner was not on the table when the men shut down the machine. Pa was proud of Ma's cooking. It took a lot of food if the woman was a good cook. It took several pies, as Ma sat the pies on the table. Some of the men had to have two pieces.

After the men were done eating, the ladies, Ma and the kids ate. Then there were lots of dishes to wash and supper to be started.

There were many men in the threshing crew. It took five or six men with their horses and wagons to haul grain from the field. More men hauled the grain to the granary and several men worked with the machines.

There was a man with the water tank. He had to haul water to put in the boiler on the steamer. Wood fired the fire box under the boiler. The steam ran the engine and made the power to run the big machine. The steam spun the long belt that sent the choppers, pulleys and wheels whirling, blowing out the chaff and straw through the blower. A man tended the blower and the straw was blown onto a pile where a couple of men built the straw stacks. There was great satisfaction in a straw stack well built. Grain poured out of the spout of the machine, where a man called a bagger had fastened a bag to the bottom of the spout. As each bag was filled, it was loaded onto a waiting double box wagon and taken to the granary to be stored in bins.

All the men who worked around the machine wore handkerchiefs tied tightly around their necks to keep the chaff out. It was very hot, itchy work.

There was a bucket in the machine that caught the grain. When it was full and weighed a certain amount, it was automatically tripped and the oats dumped into the spout. The bushels were counted this way and Pa had to pay the owner so much for each bushel threshed.
 

Berdina and Lydia had to take cold drinks out for the men, so they got to watch, but they didn’t go too close as it was so noisy and the air was full of chaff and dust.

Threshing day was an exciting day.

When the job was done, the whistle blew, signaling to the next neighbor that they would be coming.
Berdina and Lydia climbed the big tree again to watch the giant machine chugging and puffing up the hill with huge cleated wheels digging up the road to make it to the top of the hill.

It would be another year before it would be back.