Thursday 31 August 2017

Reaping Oats.


We took these photographs the other day.  The Combine Harvester cut a circuit round a field of Oats.  To allow for a David Brown Tractor and Reaper to come into the field and reap the Oats.







Its a two man operation.  One to drive the tractor and one to release the sheaves.  They will be threshed later.  These threshing events show people how crops were harvested before the Leviathian machines of today were invented.  The threshing events also raise money for charities.  Do you have any vintage threshing events near you?

12 comments:

  1. The Leviathan machines of today are seen everywhere. The trucks too big for the roads. A huge crane to build a small house. Fat cars blocking the tram lines. A massive Bibby Line ship burning off the Canary Islands. Jet planes carrying 800 people. Natures nemesis. What fate awaits us? It cannot go well.

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    1. And it isn't going well. Breaking now. Chemical plant explosions and black smoke at flood devastated city of Houston. This was predicted.

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    2. The news seems full of natural disaster stories Gwil. It makes you wonder if global warming is playing a part in these disasters, not forgetting the forest fires in Portugal. Thanks!

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  2. We dont have anything like that here. Just the vintage steam show. I havent a clue about where we are going. I am hoping to do Obby Oss in Padstow next year. I have wanted to go to that for years. Obviously that isnt a machinery show.

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  3. Hi Sol. There are lots of great places to visit in Cornwall and you could go to the Dorset Steam Fair every August. Have you been to The Lost Gardens Of Heligan, yet?

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  4. Lovely to see the old binder (that's what we call them here). I still remember doing the oats with the binder on our farm in the late 50s and early 60s and then later the threshing machine would come to thrash the corn out of the stalks. The oat straw was used for thatching the straw stacks. My youngest brother would have time off school for this, being the only one still at school.

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  5. You're right Rachel, its a binder. I would love to see thatching again. You see so little of it these days. Thanks!

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  6. Good to see the old stuff being kept alive.

    Never seen a thresher working but it must be an awesome sight.

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    1. It is. It was a big occasion when the thresher came, all hands to the deck, hence the reason why my brother was allowed to take the day off school to help. I had to go to school as normal though, not considered girls work. The rats would run out of the stack too.

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    2. We often see the threshing events in Cork and Kerry Cumbrian. I love reading about when they would go to different farms threshing. In Somerset they would always choose to harvest first at the farms with the best cider. Often they would have to sleep in the outbuildings for a day or two while they threshed. Thanks!

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    3. Hi Rachel, You have some great farm memories. I bet the farm dogs enjoyed chasing the rats. No doubt it was not considered girls work because of the men using industrial language and cursing. Even today in Ireland, farm children in some rural West Cork schools start at 9.30 so they can help around the farm. Thanks for the farm nostalgia Rachel!

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Onion Set Planting.

I still managed to plant up two of the new planters/raised beds with onion sets in the rain yesterday. Notice the white root sock in the com...