Posted on 08/18/2011 7:37:48 AM PDT by stillafreemind
Tractor and Steam Engines- There are literally rows of vintage tractors and the mighty steam engines of the past. Every day when the noon whistle blows, there is a parade of tractors and steam engines in front of the grandstand.
Work horses -- You can find some of the greatest work horses in the country at the Old Threshers Reunion. Watch them work at designated times during the day. They may be threshing, helping drill and much, much more. This link shows you some work horse teams and singles from last year
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I love those events, too. Found one by total accident in the opposite corner of IA at Granite (near Sioux Falls SD). We were just driving around and had to stop.
One display had this moderate-sized spidery old mechanical device that held a block of wood and rocked it side to side as it pushed it back and forth across a circular saw blade. WTH?? Turns out it was a device for making tapered roof shingles. Got a renewed respect for American ingenuity.
Another section had a threshing machine working off a 30'-long leather belt wrapped around a power take off drum on one of the machines. They had this old white-haired Amishman up on the hay cart, with forearms as big as my thighs, casually flipping forkloads of hay into the thresher. He was chewing on a piece of straw and working so effortlessly that he looked like, and probably could, do it all day without breaking into a sweat.
There are 2 large shows about 2hrs and 1hr away that I try to attend every year.
This year I went to the Canandaigua, NY Pagent of Steam which is approx 100 acres of various steam, gas hit an miss engines and many in between but what I was looking for was not exhibited.
I wanted to get up close to a Rider or Rider Ericsson hot air pumping engine. Nice slow running and very quiet but unfortunately none were being shown.
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