Old Time Threshing Day in Borden celebrates the harvest and the importance of the land to Saskatchewan communities. Here, a thresherman stands atop his threshing machine. (Photo by Norm Beaver/Vacay.ca Contest Winner)
Photo by Norm Beaver
Vacay.ca Prize Winner
Vacay.ca reader Norm Beaver of Toronto reminds us that Thanksgiving Day is about the farm. Norm was recently at the annual Old Time Threshing Day in Borden, Saskatchewan, and submitted this photograph to Vacay.ca’s Photo of the Week Contest. He also provided an outstanding report on what that harvesting event — which took place on September 28 this year — is all about.
Norm writes: “Borden, Saskatchewan is a tiny, close-knit farming community 30 minutes outside Saskatoon‘s northern outskirts. For almost 30 years friends, neighbours and city folk are invited to experience what farm life was like 100 years ago. Spectators come from miles to watch this free, community-sponsored event. The September event celebrates some of Saskatchewan’s most revered farming families; families whose history to the land dates back to before Canada was a country.
“We arrived just in time to see vintage tractors, horse-drawn plows and binders. There’s a wagon parade that circles around a field of wheat sheaves stooked (stacked to dry) and ready for threshing. A stagecoach (with bullet holes!) gallops around offering free, wild rides. A field cook car sells homemade soup and bread — all for $1.
“Visitors are invited to pitch sheaves, stook, and pull the plow. When a few of the elderly farmers overhear my farm equipment ignorance, I’m escorted around and educated about what I’m seeing, hearing and smelling. I know I’m making an impression when one man asks if I’ve ever been on a farm before. Later, fat and full, I horseback ride around the field with a local rancher, waving at locals who stare and smile. Only later am I told the ride is for children, which might explain how my rugged rancher knew I wasn’t much of country boy.”
Norm’s photograph of one of the Borden threshermen wins the Photo of the Week Contest and he receives a prize from Magellan’s, one of the world’s leading travel gear companies. The photo was taken with a Panasonic DMC-ZS1, with the following settings: F stop, 4; shutter speed, 1/400; ISO, 200; 25 mm wide-angle Leica DC VARIO-ELMAR.
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