It's harvest season.
Time for a story about another harvest.
In another era . . .
How it was done under normal circumstances. You can see the Bundle Rack in the background... |
First, a bit of background . . .
Well into the 1940s, the Berg family ran a threshing machine
fed by bundles (sheaves) of grain transported by bundle ‘racks’ pulled by a
team of horses.
Bundle racks were trailers usually 14 to 16 feet long and 8
feet wide, with a 5-foot wood barrier front and back. The rack was mounted on a
four-wheeled running gear with the two front wheels attached to the tongue—a long
wooden pole where the horses were attached and which acted as a steering
apparatus for the front wheels.
The driverless team pulling the rack was controlled by the man doing
the loading of the sheaves and directed by the commands, “Get up” or “Whoa”.
The reins were tied to a ‘V’ notched in the top board of the front of the rack
and the horses were steered next to the stooks (sheaves of grain gathered and
standing together) by the man as he walked alongside. With his pitchfork, he could reach out and put pressure on either rein,
depending on where he wanted the team to go.
Normally, it was a calm, peaceful and surprisingly quiet operation. At
least until they reached the threshing machine.
Now on to my story . . .
The brothers were threshing a field of wheat on the South
Farm, just across the irrigation canal from the home place. All had gone well
to this moment. Carlo, their hired man, had his rack partly filled and Don, with
a full load was heading toward the thresher. Bern, the second eldest son, and
his team, Maud and Dick were stopped across the field while Bern answered a
call of nature.
Suddenly, a pheasant burst out of the undergrowth, startling
Bern’s team.
You have to know that horses have one response to everything
out of the ordinary. Run!
They took off like a shot.
Bern got his pants into running position and sprinted after
them.
But before he could affect any form of control, they spooked
Carlo’s team, who joined in the race.
Carlo managed to grab the front of his rack and began
climbing up toward the reins.
That was the last view either of the brothers had of him.
The team had been heading for the canal, but made a sharp
turn, dumping Carlo, the rack and the load into the canal.
Carlo was on the side of the rack that turned over and,
fearing for his safety, Don left his team and ran to see if he was all right. But
Carlo’s head appeared suddenly above the bank. He was still waving his hands
and yelling, “Whoa! Whoa!”
Meanwhile, Carlo’s team, minus the rack but still pulling
the empty running gear, circled back toward Don’s team. Who now joined the stampede.
Don ran back to where he had left them to find a large pile
of sheaves, but no horses.
Or rack.
When they finally caught their respective teams, they
surveyed the damage.
Then silently agreed it was time for lunch.
"Bern got his pants into running position" made me grin :) You do have a way with words!
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, though, there was definitely danger and hard work in farming in those days. All that work, lost. (And there's still a lot of hard work in farming these days, even with so much mechanized, I think.)
Farming is still hard and dangerous work but some of the dangers have been reduced. I suspect new ones have been introduced as well though.
ReplyDeleteToo bad cel phones with video capacity weren't invented yet....that would have gone viral for sure lol.
ReplyDelete