Our neighbor who has a combine will be coming over here today to harvest our oats. Thus, it seemed needful last evening to snap a few photos of the field before the swath rows vanish. We will bale the straw right away today, too, so our Sunday will be very unrestful. On a farm, you must "Make hay when the sun shines" or "Make straw when the sun shines", even if its on a Sunday.
Next is a closer shot of an oat swath. Hopefully, you can see the grain heads.
The auger had to be maneuvered into place in preparation for putting the oats into the grain bin. Oh, I never like to see anyone sitting on top of a bin!
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If this were 100 years ago, Husband and our 12 kids would probably be in the field making oat shocks (bundles) out of the swaths. I would be preparing food……first catching a chicken for butchering, plucking, and boiling in a stew pot along with carrots, potatoes, onions, and green beans from my large weedless garden. The stew would be eaten with the fresh bread I just baked in the woodstove. The bread spread with butter I just churned from the cow I just milked. For dessert we’d have pie made from raspberries I just picked. After dinner, I would heat water for washing the dishes and then make preparations for supper. Through all that I was wearing a new work dress I just made from a bolt of calico recently purchased at the general store up the road. Wow.....I'm really tired now from just thinking about all of that.
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Here, you can watch oat shocks being made in this YouTube video, though the shocks are being made with a machine called an oat binder. We used to have an old oat binder sitting behind our machine shed when I was a kid; my sisters and I would play on it.
And, then there was the "threshing" of the oat shocks, pretty much what a combine does nowadays. When I was young, I often heard older folks talk about the "thrashing rings"......groups of farmers who worked together, moving horses and threshing equipment from farm to farm to harvest the oats. It was a really big deal at the time. The womenfolk would work together to fix the meals. There's hardly anyone alive anymore who remembers such things.
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Have a pleasant Sunday!
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9 comments:
Thank God for modern equipment! I remember those things and am glad we have improved. I think of my knowledge as a gift, in case we ever have to revert, we can lead them.
No wonder the life expectancy for people was fifty years or less. Photos of thirty year olds looked like they were eighty! Along with working themselves into the grave they also had to deal with no good way to solve health problems. Glad we are blessed with machines and technology to make life a little easier. Hope you and the family get those oats in the bin before bad weather hits.
Farm Wife,
Thanks for the farm lessons. This is the kind of day we city folks are glad you are out there and we are here....
Hey Janelle!! You'd be lucky to be alive at your age 100 years ago and so would all of your 12 kids. And I'll bet they wouldn't be milking 70 cows either....
Things were smaller and slower all that time go.
Ms Soup
Thanks for the history lesson. I hope it went well today.
Knock Knock.
Who's There?
Orange.
Orange you glad it's not a hundred years ago?
Wow, you just made my whole day! Just this afternoon hubby and I saw one of those big machines (I now know it's a thresher) sitting at the corner of a field, and I was like, "I have to find out what those are! I always see them sitting around like some sort of decoration, but I never see them being used!" We thought that maybe they made the small bales of hay, but now I not only know what they are, but I have seen a video of one in use! Thanks for adding to my midwest education!
I remember threshing day, where all the women folk would cook the big meal for the men. I was just a youngster then so never had to help with the cooking, just the eating....
"While man may work from sun to sun, Woman's work is never done." ... or something like that! Just wore me out reading your list of old-time chores. I guess driving the baler is just one *more* thing on your list of being the female half of a farming team. Thank goodness you have neighbors with proper equipment to help out.
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