that which rolls

We went to the “Pageant of Steam” this weekend. It was really awesome. I can’t believe that I have lived within 20 miles of this event my whole life and never bothered to check it out before this weekend. I went into it thinking well, we’ll go check it out, have a quick look around and then go do something really fun. Seven hours later we left.

When we first got there I saw all the crazy old machines from the road and called my folks to tell them they had to come check it out. They didn’t really believe me until I called them a couple more times.

I can’t really explain what appeals to me so much about it all, except that I’ve been surrounded by old broken down farm equipment for most of my life, and have a strange fondness for rusty old iron. We were talking about it a bit and I guess the other thing is that these machines were all designed to be maintained by the owner… not taken in to the shop. So they’re designed to be sort of transparent. I don’t know much about engines but I can look at these machines and basically see how they work. I was completely impressed by the ingenuity of some of these things. I suppose the way my car engine works is also very impressive but it’s complexity is sheilded from me so I don’t often take the time to realize it.

Someone brought the same kind of threshing machine that has been sitting, broken down, next to our springhouse for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid we used it as a fort. Many cruel plots and battle plans were crafted in it’s belly. The machine at the show was still in working condition… and they even threshed wheat with it.

I took 144 photos. They’re not all good & I haven’t bothered to sort them or caption them yet. If you look at them all, it will be almost as though you were there.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 13th, 2006 at 9:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.