The Hetland Brothers, Krist, Rasmus and Alfred acquired a threshing rig run by a steam engine.  During the threshing season, they took the machine and threshed for neighbors.  These brothers could spend hours talking of this adventure.

A cook car drawn by horses accompanied the rig.  In this small house on wheels, a woman or two cooked meals for the entire crew, at least 20 men.  They often moved at night so one person had to walk ahead with lanterns to guide the way.  In later years, the cook car was abandoned and the farmers had to feed the crew.  The farmer's wives tried to out do each other by making the best and biggest meals.  The men enjoyed these wonderful meals with much talk and laughter.  The children of course, loved everything about threshing time.  It was an exciting time and also one of neighboring sociability.  Both the men and women worked hard.  The women usually did the milking after the men took the horses from the barns in the morning.  They also made sure the cows were milked before the men came home in the evening as the many teams of horses took all the barn room.  Sometimes the cows would have to be milked in the yard.  If the cow decided she wanted to eat while being milked, the person milking would just have to follow her around the yard until the milking was done.

During threshing time, the schedule was breakfast at 6:00 a.m.; morning coffee, 9:30 a.m.; noon meal, 12 noon; lunch again at 4:00 p.m.; and supper at 6:30 p.m.  The women carried the lunches to the field and served the men.  Some dinners were taken out to the crew who kept the machines going.  These men kept the work going while the others were home to eat as there was so much work to be done.  One man was kept busy hauling water for the steam engine.  At 5:00 a.m., this steam engine sounded off to get the crew going for the day.

The men took great pride in making a straw pile which would stand graceful and shed snow and rain.  It became a great art in accomplishing this.  The grain would go in the horse drawn wagon, pulled from the field and stored on the farm.  It would have to be unloaded with a scoop shovel.

The grain was cut by binders and the grain would fall to the ground in twine tied bundles.  These bundles were picked off the ground by hand and made into shocks, 10 to 12 bundles to a shock.  The shocking was done by the family or men who drifted in on box cars.  They would come up from the south looking for harvest work.  They were usually found hanging around the streets or the stockyards, where they slept and cooked their meals.  They often said they tasted the farmers spring chicken and new potatoes before the farmers did.  The farmer or boss of the machine would make a trip into town and secure as many workers as needed.

Many times the same men would come back to the same area year after year.  At night the workers would sleep in the haymows.  A wash basin and clean towels were placed in a shed or outside for the men to clean up.

When it rained, the whole crew stayed at the farm where they were threshing.  This would really deplete the potato patch and the oats for the horses.  Incidentally, it was the oats they usually threshed first, so they would have feed for their horses.

It was so exciting to see the men pitching the shocks of grain into the separator.  When the horse drawn hayracks were emptied, they would dash back to the field again for another load.  There was usually competition for the largest load.  These loads would have to be loaded evenly or they would tip.  Sometimes the horses would decide that they were not going up to the separator and then there would be a runaway.

Alfred's son, Charles, continued threshing until the combines, which are far superior in efficiency, took over.  But to those of us who remember, a great deal has been lost.  It is now an operation that seems nothing more than getting the grain harvested in the shortest possible time.  All the tense, exhilarating excitement of threshing is a thing of the past.

Source:  Hannaford Area History North Dakota Centennial 1889 - 1989 Page 263