Threshing with Steam

[Badger08]

Few pics from us this weekend doing some threshing with a Steam Engine we hauled down to a guy's place to thresh oats - rained the weekend before so got it done this last sunday.


 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Uh-Oh! Hey Badger08, my apologies, I just remembered that you were looking for mower parts. Email's open.

Mike

P.S. Great pics!
 

[tjdub]

Hey Badger08, I was one of the suckers who was loading wagons all day for the fun and blisters. Thanks for bringing the steam power down here again. Everyone loves to see (and especially hear) that old girl work. My 1 year-old daughter was mighty impressed. As you can see, she didn't care to see anything else there except for that steam engine running :)






 

[Fergienewbee]

I remember threshers coming to the farm when I was a young kid, early 50s. Lost my Hop Along Cassidy spurs in the straw pile. Never saw them again.

Larry
 

[Dick2]

I did my time shocking, loading bundles and pitching into the feeder. I stay as far away from threshing machines as I can get.
 

[SweetFeet]

Really neat picks, thanks for sharing.

We went to a local show this weekend with four threshers going at once... no steamer there though.

Love the sound of steam engines... the machine that talks softly but carries a big stick.
 

[Badger08]

I have never heard anyone say that before about them, but I like it! And it's true...lot's of torque at work there. It's really fun to hear them on a sawmill when the governor get's a good workout.
 

[Badger08]

Hey, you read the forum to huh? I try to as much as I can but doesn't always happen. You guys loaded many, many, many loads that day, I know we did 5 the weekend before but I am guessing Sunday had to be between 15-18 loads? I got up and unloaded a few loads while Lucas ran the engine and him vice versa, but I gotta outta loading, that's for sure. It was a fun day and glad we got done. Where you there when we were threshing in the dark? Was neat to see the engine throwing up sparks out of the stack, which is does all the time, just can't see it during the day. We will probably be back down there in 2 years I can imagine.
 

[Sid]

Lost your spurs?
Ill bet that aint all you lost

 

[tjdub]

I lost track of how many loads there were, but I was sure glad when the last one was loaded.

I left before they fixed the thresher for those last 2 loads, but I was still there when it got dark. I remember thinking the same thing when watching those cinders in the air with the huge straw pile in the background. "Huh... guess that's why there's such a long drive belt."
 

[Hal/Eastern WA]

Neat! About 100 years ago, my grandfather owned a steam engine and threshing machine. He made a good part of his living by moving it around North Dakota threshing other people"s crops.

I never got to see his machines, since he died when I was a toddler, but my Mom talked about his operation.

My grandfather"s steam engine was usually fueled with straw, at least while they were threshing. He would fill the fire box with straw at night and then sleep for a while with his hand in the fire box. When the fire got close enough to his hand to wake him up, he would fill the fire box again, all night. This had to be done by someone to avoid the long delay heating up the steamer if it ever got cooled down. As fast as straw burns, I would guess that my grandfather got fairly little sleep! I suppose they used wood or coal when they were moving the equipment from place to place.

They must have worked incredibly hard, but a steam powered threshing machine was SO much more efficient than doing all the work by hand or animal power. It was a link in the chain of progress that has led to the combines of today.

Thanks for the photos. We should not lose the memory of how to do things the old ways. We might need that knowledge sometime.
 

[RayP(MI)]

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing.

I"m going to be doing that weekend after next, at the Blanchard, MI steam and oold tractor show. I supply the oats, Other guys bring the steamers, old tractors, thrashers. Have 8 wagons to do, so plenty of smoke and dust!