NORTH BATTLEFORD — Bruce Kemmer may only be in his 60s, but he has a passion for farming techniques used in the olden days, dating back to the early 1900s.
He was one of many volunteers involved in the threshing demonstration at History in Motion at the Western Development Museum in North Battleford on the weekend.
"I guess it brings back the memories of days gone by," Kemmer said. "I never experienced it because my grandparents already had modern equipment, but they always talked about the good old days."
Threshing is a farming technique used to separate the wheat from the chaff.
"The way farming started out in western Canada, they would grow the grain and cut it with a binder," Kemmer said. "And it would be cut into sheaves. The sheaves would sit out in the field. People would have to stook them [bundle and stack them so they could air dry]."
Crews would then bring the wheat to the separator to thrash it, separating the grain from the straw.
Kemmer learned the art of threshing when he was just 18 years old. That’s when he started running steam engines.
What he enjoys most about threshing is the camaraderie.
"It's a lot of fellowship with other people," he said. "It [threshing] helps demonstrate to some younger people what it was like in the old days when farming started out in western Canada."
Visitors to History in Motion also had a chance to see a variety of other practices from days gone by, such as blacksmithing.
Volunteer Carry Grant has been a blacksmith for 20 years.
He said what he likes about the craft is making things and "seeing the look on somebody's face when you give them what you made, what they asked for."
Some of the items he has made include knives, hand banisters and handrails.
Grant, who is from Wilkie, currently lives in the Swift Current area.
He first learned blacksmithing from a friend in Swift Current.
"I just picked up a forge and started forging," he said.
