[AT] Borden Threshing Bee - long...

[Grant Weir]

Good morning all!  (or afternoon is my ISP is being lazy :-)

   Some of you may remember that several years ago I aquired a 1927 Red 
River Special threshing machine.  It was discovered on an old farm site when 
a local Cat operator was pushing over some old buildings and found that the 
one shed did not want to fall.  Inside the building was a threshing machine 
(the one I now have) along with a Massey-Harris #21 self-propelled combine 
from aprox 1940.  Both of these machines had always been shedded and were 
pretty much in operating condition but I could only find room for the 
seperator, so the old combine went out to the junk pile.  That was hard for 
me to watch but I guess you can't save everything....

   Anyway, yesterday I drifted on out to a small, local threshing event and 
what should be sitting there ready to cut wheat?  That's right - the old 
Massey!  I damn near cryed.  It was so nice to see that someone had fixed it 
up enough to cut wheat again.  The only new things on it were a couple of 
belts and new wooden reel bats.  Watching (and hearing) that thing going 
over the field was something that few will ever experience and I felt truly 
fortunate to have lived it.  I guess it that sounds kind of weird but I was 
sure thrilled.

   The show is a small local deal with mostly the same equipment each year 
but it's great to just get out and see old pals and such.  I like this event 
as it's the only one I know of where they thresh with two seperators at the 
same time and keep them both going for at least two hours.  It's much nicer 
to watch threshing for more than the usual 15 minutes or so.  :-)  Lot's or 
horses out too.  I'm not much of a horse fellow, but you've got to have them 
at a threshing event.

   Tractors attending were:  1927 Case 18-32, 1938 Case L, a nice little 
"barn-fresh" John Deere AR, a Case S, a Field Marshal, a Farmall M, and a 
McCormick-Deering WD-9.  Not many, but all running and in use doing 
something.  Everything from chopping straw and sawing cordwood, to rolling 
oats and pumping water.

    Sorry - not pictures this time.  Got to get another camera!

Grant Weir
Saskatoon, SK.
Canada

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