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Thrashing Oats in Grant Township


Thrashing oats
All the neighborhood assembled to thresh oats on individual farms, one by one. The men were so covered with chaff and dirt, even in their ears, it felt so good to "wash up" out side with water that warmed up in the sun, in the cattle/horse tank. One man is washing in a basin on the car running board.  Their washcloth is their hands lathered with soap.  I used to watch them with soap bubbles every where, even trying to clean out their ears with the bubbles and fingers. This is in Grant Township, Ida County.   Their water containers for drinking were bottles wrapped in gunny sacks to keep the water cool.

 

gristmill
The steam engine was providing power for that leather belt which was turning a corn stalk chopper to blow the little chopped pieces up into the silo. Corn had been cut & tied into bundles, the bundles had been pitched onto a hayrack and brought into the farm yard.  Then the bundles were pitched into that corn stalk chopper.