Old Threshers Reunion-Iowa

Recently I took the train from Grand Junction, Colorado to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa to visit friends, Karen and George Chapman, former Silvertonians.  While there I had the fun of visiting the annual Old Threshers Reunion, an extravaganza of steam tractors, draft horse demonstrations, and  many other replications of "old time" methods of accomplishing tasks---such a delightful trip back in time for me, as much of what I saw had been used on my family ranch when I was a child.

I saw a horse drilling a well, making patient trips round and round the well-site.

 Next came the threshing machines, driven by great belts attached to steam-powered tractors.
The chaff was flying, the grain was pouring into a wagon and the dinosaur-looking machines
were spewing straw into the breeze!

Another treat was called "The Cavalcade of Power."  It was actually a parade of  over

900 antique cars, trucks, tractors, steam-powered tractors, teams of horses, and other assorted types

of vintage equipment.  They paraded past the grand stand and some were competing by pulling heavy loads in the rather loose soil.  One steam tractor pulled its front wheels right off the ground!  There was even a horse-drawn school bus!  It was delightful watching though dusty.

 

 

Another interesting demonstration was seeing how sorghum (syrup that tastes sort of like

molasses although it seems sweeter) is made from cane.  They had a masher machine that squeezed the juice out of the stocks and then it was cooked down over a wood fire, with someone stirring and skimming the green bits (stalk) off the top.  It takes 18 gallons of cane juice to make one gallon of sorghum syrup.

 

 

Lastly were two bits from my farm/ranch girl history.  I guess the old adage about taking the girl off the farm but never removing the farm from the girl is true.  I discovered a white gasoline powered iron, such as my mother had, at a museum Karen and George took me to.  It was many steps ahead of the flat irons that were heated on the coal stove that our neighbors used.  Mom would pump up the pressure (see small pump in photo) and then I would have to go into the next room when she lit it in case it exploded!  I can still hear the hiss of the burning gas as she ironed...the second bit is that I found a B Model International Harvester tractor (Farmall).  Such a tractor was the first motor vehicle I ever drove (I believe I was eleven).  I would drive and pull a small wagon containing corn silage for our cows in the winter and my dad would stand in the wagon and toss out the food to the cows.  One time he said to go faster so I hit the throttle---kazoom!  Away went the tractor and trailer with me at the wheel and Dad flew right over the back end of the wagon!  (Needless to say we had to have a little visit about gradually increasing the throttle speed!)

 

The Chapmans were wonderful hosts (thanks, good friends) and I had a most enjoyable time visiting some of my roots and learning some new things.  Old Threshers Reunion in Iowa---a good time!