it took forever to p-- it seems to plough a field of fourteen or fifteen acres. And w-- when you ah- hear the little hummingbird. And when you ah harvested the crop, it was cut with a binder and it was put in stooks in the field and you had a threshing machine. Then you put the s-- sheaves on the wagon and you haul 'em into the barn and- and then you had a big threshing-bee and the neighbours came and you threshed the grain

Um, everything was fixed, made do, he had the oldest working binder that I ever knew. He had a neig-- Well, the neighbour had a threshing machine that worked as good as any I ever saw before or since and they still used it until I was probably sixteen, seventeen years old? They were still using it.

Um, yeah, I've had the threshing machine, I worked the threshing machine, throwing the sheaves. Worked- did all the farm work, same as he did, worked, helped him ploughed and-so-on, all summer long.

All the neighbourhood men there for lunch and she'd have to put on this big spread for lunch and, of course, um, she always had to have pies and the men raved about her pies and her- her cooking, but, ah, yeah, it was- it- the one farmer had the threshing machine and he would bring it over and then all the other farmers would come with their wagons and- and- tractors and- and we'd go out to the fields and throw on all the stooks of grain and bring them back and throw them into the threshing.

No, it- no, it run the thresh machine. There's a pulley on it and you attach that to the pulley on the threshing machine and pulley on that and you attach the- the belt, the big long, it's a hundred foot belt so it would be like fifty, sixty feet away from the thresh machine

There's a pulley on it and you attach that to the pulley on the threshing machine and pulley on that and you attach the- the belt, the big long, it's a hundred foot belt so it would be like fifty, sixty feet away from the thresh machine

And this- and this- it was the steam. Into threshing machine and this ran the threshing machine. Speaker 13: It went around all the farms. They went- they had threshing- threshing beams that all the farmers around the- local farmers all cam

Ah- there was an eccentric on the back and you had different- different sieves for wheat or, ah, rye or oats or- and you put them in there and, ah, they- this took all the weeds out of, ah, the, ah- the, ah, grain. Then of course they got the big threshing mill and they cleaned the grain and, ah, first they were steam power, then they were diesel and, ah, then today we have the combine. They cut the grain and thresh it and, ah, bag it and- all in one process.

Speaker: We'd have the s-- we'd have the threshing mill and all the straw and then they unchaffed it out in there. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: But, ah, we didn't- the- the place above- above the cattle for the- for the mow. But now the hay, somebody called them- I forget what you called them. Lofts.

Interviewer: When you- when you grew the oats, what ah- what- after- after you'd cut it, what would you do? Speaker: Well, it went into stooks and then we had to get a threshing mill and thresh it.

Stooped them 'til they dried out well, and then we u-- they usually drew them in, stored them in the barn 'til the threshing mill came. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Tell me, ah, how the threshing mill worked and what happened there.

Interviewer: Mm-hm. Tell me, ah, how the threshing mill worked and what happened there. Speaker: Well, the threshing mill, it took about ah, fifteen, twelve-fifteen, we usually had quite a few men, sometimes seventeen or eighteen, because Dad neighboured with quite a few other farmers around, and he didn't want to be scarce of help.

, then there was feeding the mill the sheaves, and ah, carrying the grain to the granary. And I think that covers most of them. [0:20:35.1 ] Interviewer: Mm-hm. What, ah, what ah mode of power ran the um- Speaker: It was a steam engine we had most of the time, while we had the threshing mill. It was heated wood and um put in the engine and then the water warmed or boiled and the steam ran the engine. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Some of the crew would be special. Speaker: Look after- Yes. Usually the man, whoever owned the threshing mill, had the two.

Ploughing-Match in Lanark County in um, two-thousand-and-three about five miles across country from here and we had sixteen live tractors over there. Fifteen of them would be what you'd call collectors and the other one was for a demonstration they wanted one. And we took a threshing-mill over which my dad custom threshed for about forty years.

Well, all the antique machinery was in motion, like it was working and Kevin had a- a nineteen-fourteen threshing mill that ah he had bought at ah ... Up at Calebogie, on the other road.

Speaker: And then, ah, in September you had the threshing mill. That was the best life of us. Interviewer: Yeah? Speaker: Mommy made, ah, pies and cakes and- 'cause we all- like all these people came when we were threshing the- Interviewer: Oh okay. Speaker: The grain, eh?

So we had a lot of fun playing together, we go across the road. Of course you'd have your little tiffs and- and you'd have your- your good times and we had a lot of fun.

Yeah, he's- anyways, we were- I was mixing and he got mad because he wanted to mix for Alan. I said "No, it's my equipment, I'm mixing." So we got a little tiff and we had to get Alan to come and settle it for us, so. I won. I- I got to mix for him. Todd ran away pouting.

Interviewer: ...everybody in town ah so sorry- in Swastika knew each other and then was there any- any fights, any disagreements or just- Speaker: Oh well same as always. Just little tiffs and-thing-like-that.

I've been- I've been to like, you-know, eighties parties obviously and um I've been do like tight-and-bright where you wear like neon colours. I've been to- what else did we do?