Ernie Pellerin hauls stooks as part of an old-fashioned harvest near Grovedale September 30. Photo by Gordon Frentz.

By Curtis Galbraith

TURNING BACK THE CLOCK

Old-time harvest held near Grovedale

Oct 6, 2020 | 1:29 PM

A big crew came out to a farm west of Grovedale on September 30 for an old-fashioned harvest.

Stooks from 10 acres of oats grown on the Jim and Diane Lofstrom farm were gathered and hauled with a horse-drawn wagon and put through an antique threshing machine. The binding and stooking took three days to finish.

This came after 22 acres were seeded by horse-drawn machinery in the spring. A horse-drawn binder was used to cut and stook ten of those acres.

“This spring, we were sitting around visiting with some of our friends (who also have draft horses) when someone asked if I had anything we could seed with the horses this spring. With Covid, any events with our horses had been cancelled, so we were looking for something to do with our teams. I had 22 acres that we sowed in early June with our horses. Well, this literally planted the “seed” to continue on with plans for an old-fashioned harvest. Our friends and neighbors thought this would be really neat to see done in our community,” say the Lofstroms in an email to EverythingGP.

The harvest had been delayed a couple of times by rain and by a break-down on the machine.

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“We had a clutch go out on the infeed chain and bundle beaters. Of course, we couldn’t find repairs so had to improvise. We used a baler belt and cut it in a circle and used it as a clutch. It did the job for us. We were thankful that we had some very knowledgeable friends on hand to help us get the thrashing machine going again. It made for a late evening, but all the bundles were gathered up and our harvest was done,” the Lofstroms add in that same email.

By comparison, the rest of the original 22 acres was combined with modern equipment in two hours. The clutch will be taken re-built this winter. Repairs will have to be fabricated somewhere.

They had bought the threshing machine at a farm auction. The binder and a tractor with a pulley were borrowed. Around 100 people had come out to help or watch the cutting and threshing. The Lofstroms say because they were out in a field, there was lots of room for everyone to spread out. They told us in that email about one helper in particular.

“Ernie Pellerin, 92 years young, was given the day off combining on the family farm so he could come out to our thrashing. The first thing he wanted to do was grab a fork and start pitching bundles! Gordon Frentz wouldn’t let him, so he asked if he’d like to drive the team instead. Ernie had a great time. He told me that the horses he used to drive many years ago were old plugs – Gord’s team had a lot more spunk. ”

The email adds they hope to sell these oats for seed. That will depend on the results of a germination test.

More pictures can be seen at the Peace Draft Horse Club Facebook page.

They also add that most people in their area finished harvest over the weekend and the neighbors they talked to said their crops were not as good as hoped as yields came in below average.