The grain 5

performed nicely each year with practically no maintenance.

Planted in late May, the fields were watched with interest and within a few days the grain was up with the young blades blowing in the wind, r0w upon row. By August the grain fields were shooting out all over and a month later were golden ripe for the harvest. This four-cycle pattern of grain growing, so aptly observed by Jesus, was one of nature’s finest ways of teaching us about human life itself.

Grain harvesting was surely one of the fondest of all farm chores. Centered mainly around the month of September, it ushered in a kind of calm after the bustle of summer and the drudgery of haying. Handling the grain was quite a solemn affair on the O’Shea farm each year. Having no harvester of our own, we always counted on the use of J immy’s binder which had been purchased new around 1918 and neatly stored each winter in the Valley machine shed called “the dingle”.

The four-mile trek by team from the Valley homestead to ours was slow and shaky. The generous supply of flint stones along that road made for rough going as these came in contact with the small metal wheels. Once landed, the binder was lowered onto its cutting wheels and the others removed. The binder in action was powered by three horses, two on the pole and the third usually referred to as the outside horse. An enormous whip standing like a flagpole gave the driver an added air of superiority with an extra edge on control as he sat high up on the strong metal seat surveying the landscape below.

With few exceptions this driver was always Jimmy who seemed the only one licensed for such a delicate undertaking. The younger folk were considered completely unskilled for such a task and even Dad was generally viewed as a risky bet. Maybe it was best that way for Jimmy did the job extremely well and the binder remained in excellent shape during its more than forty years of service.

When seen on the road or sitting in a farm yard, the binder had an awkward and unfinished appearance. But once in motion in a grain field it was seen as a noble and intricate machine. The turning reels, cutter, sprocket wheels and chains, canvas rollers, twine box, knotter and three-pronged sheaf thrower were only part of this many-sided machine. Only rarely would a sheaf be tossed out untied. When that happened someone would quickly bind it by hand using two small bunches of the loose grain roughly knotted together. The sight of a binder led by three horses and moving through a golden field of grain was truly a