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         The life and times of Mark and Paula Persons
Monday, September 5, 2011:  Mark and Paula stopped at the Oliver Kelly Farm near Elk River, Minnesota.  It was on the annual threshing weekend where grain is separated from the rest of the plant.  For thousands of years, one of the methods used oxen walking over the harvested plants.  These animals weigh-in at 2000 pounds each and drink 40 to 50 gallons of water a day.  These are two were named Kobe and Coulter. 
Threshing by flailing using a wooden rod with another rod attached at the end was the way to separate grain from the stalk of a plant.  A very labor intensive job.   
The hand-cranked threshing machine was invented 150 years ago to help speed up the process.
Here you can see the grain that was separated.  
Later, horses were used on a tread mill to run much larger threshing machines.  You can see a farmer feeding the machine and an audience watching the separated grain come out.

The horses are named Bill and Beth. 

The threshing machine was doing a very good job.
As with any farm, there were chickens and other animals all around.
The kitchen has a wood stove and had apples cooking that day.
Rides around the farm were given by volunteer Alan.  The horses were Jim and Jack.   
Quote of the day:  The farm is an informative look into the past.  Mark < Back to previous story Ahead to next story >

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page last edited 09/12/2011