Old-Fashioned fun on the farm

The threshing machine chews up an oat bundle, separating the oats from the straw. Photo courtesy of Tammy Orr.

Life on the farm: Norris family centers celebration around vintage threshing machine

[caption id="attachment_36807" align="alignleft" width="270"] Five generations of the Norris family were on hand for threshing fun. Pictured L-R: Lyla Behr, Katie (Cash) Behr, Ruth Norris, Jennifer (Norris) Cash, Abel Behr and Charlie Norris.-Submitted photo.[/caption]

The old ways of doing things may not be the most efficient, but they are often the most fun.

Each year the Norris family combines a love of vintage farm equipment with an opportunity to get friends and family together for an oat threshing.  The event, held on a family farm just north east of Clear Lake, allows everyone— from farmers to city folk and young to old— to try their hand at some farming the way it used to be done.

The celebration started six years ago when Charlie Norris received a rather unusual birthday gift from his father, Chuck. It was a 1941 Oliver Red River Special threshing machine.  The machine, which originally belonged to Ruth Norris’ uncle, had largely been stored in a farm building until recently.  Charlie knew he wanted to put the machine in action, so he planted a few acres of oats in the spring to be harvested in the fall.

“We didn’t know a whole lot about the threshing machine, but the owner’s manual was still inside,” explained Louise Norris, Charlie’s wife.

As they learned more about the threshing machine they discovered that the belt system which runs the

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machine from the power provided by a tractor also has other uses.  For example, it can operate an ice-cream churn.  Louise noted that the ice-cream machine is sometimes “hit or miss,” but threshing oats is a must.

“It seems like everyone gets a kick out of it,” said the Norris’.  Those attending jump up on the hay rack at will to try their hands at pitching oat bundles, harvested from the Norris farm with a cutter and binder, into the thresher.  It spins and sputters, depositing the oats into a grain wagon and spewing the waste onto the ground, where it was gathered up by a baler.  The straw will eventually be bedding for cattle.  The roughly 200 bushels of oats are taken to the local co-op.

A hand-crank corn sheller, kiddie corn pool and antique tractors add even more fun to the day.

“Farmer’s used to share machines like this because it took so many workers to do all the threshing,” said Louise.  “They would use the threshing machine at four or five farms and take turns helping each other because it is so much work.  We do it all for fun, and with so many hands pitching in it’s a lot of fun.”

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