{"id":6792,"date":"2020-12-07T12:45:05","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T17:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6792"},"modified":"2020-12-07T12:50:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T17:50:04","slug":"episode-189-new-hamburg-threshing-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6792","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 189 NEW HAMBURG THRESHING MACHINE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE  189    NEW HAMBURG THRESHING MACHINE\u2026FINDING A HOME WAS DIFFICULT<\/div>\n

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alan  skeoch<\/div>\n
Dec.\/ 2020<\/div>\n

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Thirty or forty years ago I bought 4 threshing machines at the Thompson Auction  sale near Kichener.<\/div>\n
I was alone.   Marjorie would likely have put the brakes on my enthusiasm.  Maybe not.  When impulsive<\/div>\n
decisions are necessary, I often make them.  <\/div>\n

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Some readers may  not even know what a threshing machine looks like.  They were \u2018dinosaurs’ of the <\/div>\n
grain fields up until the modern combine harvesters rendered them obsolete.  If asked to cut to the<\/div>\n
quick . Make it simple.  My answer?   \u201cThreshing machine are  big, big,big.\u201d<\/div>\n

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This story is about one of those four machines.  The New  Hamburg Threshing Machine as pictured<\/div>\n
below.<\/div>\n

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At the Thompson sale no one except for me seemed interested.  I cannot remember how much I paid for this beauty but<\/div>\n
it was around $100.   The other three  were about the same price give or take a bit.  When I drove home from the sale<\/div>\n
I had one thought.  What was I going to do with these machines.  First off, how could  I move them from the sale.  Then<\/div>\n
where would I take them?  Then how could I care for them?<\/div>\n

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Let me put this in modern terms.  Imagine you bought four tractor trailers at a sale.  What would you do with them.  Write a  list of<\/div>\n
all your friends  who  would  gladly take a threshing machine in their back yard and then build a driveshed around it.  The list is likely<\/div>\n
very short.<\/div>\n

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This machine is the most stunning and enigmatic of the four I bought.  Painted with unusual images\u2026a crocodile,  a lion, a bouquet <\/div>\n
of tulips.  At the close of the 19th century it was the custom to paint machines as if they were Christmas presents.   A kind  of<\/div>\n
advertising.   But this New  Hamburg Machine was really made to appear unusual.   What is the significance  of the crocodile?<\/div>\n
The  answer?   Threshing machines had  teeth that chopped up wheat sheaves like a crocodile did with dogs, cats or people<\/div>\n
if they inadvertently got in the animals mouth.    The lion?  Stood for courage, perhaps endurance.   The tulips?  Now the bouquet of<\/div>\n
tulips is hard to explain.<\/div>\n

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What was I to do?   At the time we were involved with Riverdale Farm which  is located in the centre  of the  City of Toronto then managed<\/div>\n
by Judy and Mark Spurr.  Both of them were enthusiastic about my donation.  So I hired Gordon Hume to load the machine on his<\/div>\n
flat bed truck and take it to Riverdale farm where it sat majestically on the threshing floor for a decade or so. <\/div>\n

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 En route to the farm Gordon Hume drove along the Gardiner and up  Parliament Street startling anyone walking.  At the time there<\/div>\n
was a CBC radio station on Parliament Street and by chance David Shatsky or Christopher Thomas, hosts of Radio  Noon, were  out for a walk.<\/div>\n
Think ti was  David.<\/div>\n
He gawked at the machine.  He knew there was a story on the move and  eventually traced  the story to me.  That led to my<\/div>\n
career on CBC Radio for several years.  <\/div>\n

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Story telling about rural Ontario or anything else that touched my fancy.  Several years<\/div>\n
doing stories every Friday until one day I was told, \u201cWe don\u2019t need  you anymore.\u201d   Not a nice ending to my radio career but<\/div>\n
I had  been prepared for that when another radio journalist told me privately that \u201cwe all have a shelf life, Alan, be prepared.\u201d<\/div>\n
On air personalities get the chop often.<\/div>\n

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It was  not just me that got the  chop a  few years later.  The New Hamburg Threshing machine also got the chop when some opinion laden bureaucrat<\/div>\n
decided he or she did not like the thresher.  I got a call  from someone.  \u201cAlan, the Thresher has been moved out of the barn and is sitting<\/div>\n
exposed to the weather.   It will not last long that way.  Will you take it back?\u201d<\/div>\n

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Of course I said  I would come and get it. But where could it go?   Someone suggested Doon Pioneer Village just outside of the City of Kitchener.<\/div>\n
The thresher was made in  New Hamberg\u2026close to Kitchener.  The Village manager was receptive.  \u201cYes, I think this machine would be a <\/div>\n
star in our exhibit hall\u201d, he said (something like that).   <\/div>\n

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How could  I get the machine from Toronto to Kitchener.  As luck  would have it our son Andrew and his partner Nick had  just set up<\/div>\n
a creative landscaping business.  Working with huge boulders\u2026making gardens look like mountain streams\u2026big scale stuff.  They<\/div>\n
had a flat bed truck and  one day the thresher was  loaded and hauled to Down Pioneer Village where it sits today.  (I hope it still<\/div>\n
sits there\u2026I have heard  nothing about it for decades.)<\/div>\n

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Did I hear you ask, \u201cAlan what happened to the other three threshers?\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
They make a good story as well.  I still have two of them.  I did  have all three<\/div>\n
for a year or so  but put one small , flat to the floor,  thresher in an auction and  it<\/div>\n
is now somewhere up near Goderich being cared  for \u2026I hope.<\/div>\n

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I heard that comment!   Who said \u201cIs Alan nuts?\u201d<\/div>\n

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Wait until I tell you the story of the other New Hamburg thresher.  It is a story with no ending yet.  It is a story which reflects<\/div>\n
badly on museum curators.   No, not quite true.  Museums are loss leaders.  They do  not make profits  and they are constantly<\/div>\n
squeezed by cost cutting people who have no imagination.  The kind of people who rolled their eyes when I bought<\/div>\n
those four threshing machines years ago.   Yes, I am a  bit nuts.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
dec.  2020<\/div>\n

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EPISODE  189    NEW HAMBURG THRESHING MACHINE\u2026FINDING A HOME WAS DIFFICULT alan  skeoch Dec.\/ 2020 Thirty or forty years ago I bought 4 threshing machines at the Thompson Auction  sale near Kichener. I was alone.   Marjorie would likely have put the brakes on my enthusiasm.  Maybe not.  When impulsive decisions are necessary, I often […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}