MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM — The 52nd Threshing Bee is set to show how farming was done in the early days of settlement.
“I think we will put on a decent show,’’ said Gord Ross, president of the Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum.
There was one hitch to the show but that has been overcome.
“Our oats crop is short with lots of weeds,’’ he said. “We didn't have enough to thresh.
“Lucky for us, Norbert Fries who farms just west of the museum donated two and one-half acres of oats to us.’’
Museum volunteers used a reaper and binder to make sheaves of the oats and stooked it for transport to the museum.
“We will have enough to thresh. We will only use one thresher and the steam tractor.’’
The Stanley-Jones hand thresher will also operate.
There is enough museum crop to do some reaping and binding demonstrations.
This is one of the few times in over 50 years when the museum oats crop wasn’t high enough to make stooks.
The threshing bee will be held Saturday, Sept. 9 and Sunday, Sept. 10 at the museum 13 km south of Moose Jaw on Highway Two and will have the usual displays.
Pancake breakfasts start at 8 a.m. each day with a full concession throughout the day. It will be cash only at the concessions.
A tractor parade will be done each morning with a car-truck parade daily after lunch and a vintage tractor pull to end the days.
This year a new demonstration will use the dynamometer across from the grandstand. The machine tells how many horsepower a tractor can put out.
“I think this is the first time we have ever used it.”
The Bruce Family will bring a steam tractor to run a threshing machine and for a wood cutting demonstration.
Ploughing, reaping and binding demonstrations will take place each day. Rope making and blacksmithing demos are also part of activities
The museum’s 40 buildings will be open for people to view the artifacts, cars, trucks and tractors.
Visitors can ride on the people movers and kids can ride on the barrel train.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
