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Harvest time was a busy time on the farms. After the grain was cut with the binder, the sheaves were staked into stooks and allowed to dry and cure in the weather. Depending on the man power available for the threshing, the stooks were either loaded onto racks and fed directly into the threshing machine or unloaded into stacks to be threshed when the threshing crew was available to visit the farm. Large threshing gangs were created and traveled from farm to farm setting up for a day or several to thresh the farmers' grain. Wives were called upon to cook for the harvest crew of fifteen to twenty five workers. Early in the morning she would get up and get the fire going for the bread, buns and pies that would be baked. Four hearty meals were prepared each day. Meat, mashed potatoes, gravy, turnips or carrots were on the menu for the afternoon meals. It seemed that everyone had to have two pieces of pie along with lots of strong coffee. Even if the weather or a breakdown prevented threshing, the work crews still had to be fed.

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Threshing the sheaf stacks-grain goes into the wagon, the straw makes another stack
Rural Municipality of North Norfolk, Manitoba, Canada

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Grain in the wagon is bagged
Rural Municipality of North Norfolk, Manitoba, Canada

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1895 Wind stacker and automatic bagger
19th Century, Circa 1895
Rural Municipality of North Norfolk, Manitoba, Canada

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Threshing scene
Rural Municipality of North Norfolk, Manitoba, Canada

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Coffee break for the threshing crew
Rural Municipality of North Norfolk, Manitoba, Canada

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Binder in operation with men stooking sheaves
Rural Municipality of North Norfolk, Manitoba, Canada
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Cutting with a binder
Rural Municipality of North Norfolk, Manitoba, Canada

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Picking up sheaves from the field
Rural Municipality of North Norfolk, Manitoba, Canada

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Picking up stooks from the field
Rural Municipality of North Norfolk, Manitoba, Canada

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Field of stooks
Rural Municipality of North Norfolk, Manitoba, Canada

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Field of stooks
Rural Municipality of North Norfolk, Manitoba, Canada

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Both men and women worked in the fields during the harvest
Rural Municipality of North Norfolk, Manitoba, Canada

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An example of a stook created at the Museum is shown in one of the pictures and threshing demonstrations take place throughout the summer on scheduled activity days.