Thrashing Bee at the Farm

On Saturday, we picked up Bob's parents and his Mom's older sister, and went to an extended family reunion on my mother-in-law's side of the family. Bob's other aunts and uncles {his mom's siblings} where among the many who attended, so at least I knew some people there. This wasn't just any reunion, though, as they also held an old fashioned threshing bee among other things. This large farm is still going strong and fully functioning with several head of beef cattle and many horses.This farm is where Bob's maternal grandmother was raised. Now it is owned and run by her nephew. He'd be Bob's 2nd cousin.(Shown here with his black team of horses). When we got there, They had the old threshing rig all set up and with the help of many they had those old tractors and four teams of horses well on their way to getting the threshing job done. They also had the horse giving several kinds of hay rides, buggy rides and other rigs to give someone a view of the large farm.They rent their horses to the Amish families nearby for them to use in the fields, in return, the Amish lent them this buggy to give rides at the reunion.There was plenty of food that accompanied the hog roast, and a bonfire and dance were going to be held later in the evening. We didn't stay for that, as Dad was getting pretty tired out. Of course, Bob was in his element here...and it brought the farmboy in him to the fore, what with the tractors, the threshing rig in action, extensive land including the pastures for all of the animals.This summer season was not their best for rain, in fact they were near record drought conditions and to add insult to injury, they experienced damage from the recent, violent hail storms, so the corn fields were in terrible shape. The corn stalks were not only dried out and stunted, but now stripped from the hail,which was so sad to see.But despite the poor crops, the farmers will prevail and you'd never know of their troubles by meeting and talking to them at this gathering, where the food was plenty, and the visiting/getting reacquainted with extended family was, indeed, priceless. Bob's mom and siblings haven't been with many of these cousins in a very long time, so it was fun to witness their joy in seeing each other. The current owner, has 12 siblings and they are all still alive and most of them were at this reunion. Bob's aunt said it best, "Anytime you can be with extended family outside of a funeral, is a good thing!" We all agreed and were glad we made the effort to come.