Harvest Time

When the barley and wheat were ready to cut, a binder was hooked to a flywheel John Deere tractor. Sometimes I rode on the binder raising the blade in between twine tied bundles. After the bundles were tied we would select four and stand them head side up and put another 3 or 4 against them. This allowed them to dry before running them through the thrasher. The really exciting time for me was all the farmers gathering together to thrash each others crops. The thrasher was huge and ran on a flywheel from a tractor. Wagons with wire mesh sides pulled by tractors moved slowly through the fields and people walking beside them would toss up the bundles and the wagons would take them to the thrasher. The thrasher would separate the wheat or barley from the chaff. Results were a truck load of wheat and a stack of straw for cattle bedding. Mom would start butchering chickens several days before harvest. She held down their wings, placed their heads on the chopping block and "Whack!" off with their heads. She tossed them in the yard where they would hop around until they were dead. We would then scald them, pluck them and remove the insides. I think I could still clean a gizzard without breaking the sack. The food prepared for the thrashing crew was fantastic. Platters and Platters of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits and berry and cream pies. All the women worked together and seemed to enjoy every minute. My horse Lucky and I would ride between the house and the field trying not to get in the way. Oh, one thing I remember when we were shocking grain. Mom asked me to go to the house and make sandwiches for everyone. My favorite sandwich as the time was cheese and catsup on white bread. They ate it but it was a long time before they let me forget how horrible those sandwiches were.