Monday, September 20, 2010

Oat Thrashing

This weekend I was supposed to run a half marathon, however my husband's family planned our yearly oat thrashing on the same date...so, this is what I did this past weekend!








I know the pics aren't great, I took them with my Blackberry. Basically, they bind the oats into little bundles in the field. Then, the draft horses or old tractors pull the wagons with people out to the fields to load the oats. The oats are brought back and fed into this old fashioned thrashing machine powered by an old fashioned steam engine. The thrashing machine then separates the oat tops and shoots them out into an old fashioned truck, while the straw is shot out onto the ground (where the kids generally jump in it). I love that they still do this the old way, plus, it's a great reason to get together. We roast a pig, everyone brings a dish, everyone works, everyone plays.  I love that my community still gathers for such things...things most haven't even heard of! So...I didn't run 13.1 on Sunday, but I had a pretty great day anyway.

3 comments:

  1. That looks like a crazy thing to watch! The whole farm world, to this east coast city and suburban beach kid, a like a far off land. I have never experienced it haha.

    So you didn't get to do your half, but you had a great family time, sometimes thats more important :)

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  2. Get lost! This is soooo cooool!

    There will be other halfs this year - but this is SO COOL!

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  3. Wow. That is really cool :) Who else gets to say that's what they did this weekend? :)

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