For months there was a question mark beside the threshing bee event on the Sukanen Ship Museum website.
Not any more.
The directors decided to proceed with the annual two day festival celebrating pioneer threshing and farming on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12.
“Since the government relaxed the restrictions, we see no reason why we can’t have the threshing bee,” said President Gord Ross.
“I've had lots of inquiries about it. People are interested and want to know.”
Plans are for the same demonstrations as in past years and some new ones.
“We usually have three threshing machines operating” with one run by steam-powered tractor, one by a gasoline tractor and one stationary hand-fed unit.
“We hope to operate a reaper (binder) and the small Allis-Chalmers three-one-half foot pull behind the combine.“
The stationary baler should be up and running with a possibility of a mill grinding wheat into flour as new demonstration.
Vintage car/truck and tractor parades are planned each day as well as the pancake breakfasts.
”We did seed a crop this year anticipating we would have the threshing bee.”
The oats crop looks good. “The rain came at the right time and it had a rest last year” lying fallow.
“I think we can get a good crowd. It’s hard to say. We might have bigger crowds due to the fact that there isn’t a lot of stuff going on.”
There is one possible hitch — volunteer numbers.
“I’m a little concerned whether we’ll have enough volunteers show up. We’ve had a noticeable drop in members and that might be due to the fact people just haven’t been out and around” during the pandemic.
“I’m optimistic we can pull it off.”
Anyone interested in volunteering to prepare for the show and during the show should contact the museum at 306-693-7315.
Response has been strong since the museum opened for four days a week in June.
“We're getting lots of inquiries on hours of opening.
“Since we’ve been open we’ve actually had some pretty decent weekends — actually made a profit on gates” something not always happening.
The museum will keep June hours for the rest of the summer — Thursday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
