![\"800IMAG0839\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/800IMAG0839.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOn the north side of the tracks was a small depot for the Nowthen Railroad and behind it, across the track for the Parade of Power (any older farm machinery that moved on its own) was a blacksmith’s shop with three forges and older men with younger apprentices working metal. \u00a0This building also had a woman spinning thread. \u00a0A craft building had hooked rugs, quilts, knick-knacks and a bit of pottery.<\/p>\n There was a letterpress building with an old Heidelberg letterpress, a small press version As Kate and I wandered among the buildings, the Parade of Power was underway on the My favorite exhibit was the old saw mill which had this huge mobile engine driving it. These, too, are my people. \u00a0Political radicals, docents, environmentalists, scholars, poets and writers, and farm folk are the milieus where I feel comfortable. \u00a0As we left the parking lot later in the day, a man signaled I could come into the exit lane with the familiar flick of the right index finger above the steering wheel. \u00a0I signaled thanks the same way.<\/p>\n Of course, these kind of things have to interest you, but if they do, every third week of August tiny Nowthen becomes a happening place for motorheads, old farmers and folks curious about how things used to be done.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lughnasa \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Honey Moon The Nowthen Threshing Show. \u00a0I’ve seen the notices for this event since we moved up here 20 years ago, … Continue reading Back Then in Nowthen<\/span> <\/a>The Nowthen Threshing Show<\/a>. \u00a0I’ve seen the notices for this event since we moved up here 20 years ago, but never got around to going. \u00a0This year Kate and I drove over. \u00a0It’s only a few miles away. \u00a0I imagined a few steam driven machines, maybe some old tractors. \u00a0Boy was I off. \u00a0This event had acres of cars parked east of a huge exhibit area with a track for the Parade of Power that ran around a circular railroad track for the small gauge Nowthen Railroad. \u00a0On the south side of the tracks sat food trucks with “walking <\/a>tacos” and “BLT tacos.” \u00a0Behind them, further south, was a large flea market. \u00a0I remarked to Kate that it would have been interesting in Ecuador, here not so much.<\/p>\n<\/a> of the giant Heidelberg that printed the Alexandria Times-Tribune in my youth. \u00a0Behind the press was a building labeled Steam Machines. \u00a0In it were several steam pumps, all working, a large piston driven wheel that worked a generator in a long ago electricity generating plant and a crowded table about 10 feet long full of miniature steam engines powering miniature machines.<\/p>\n<\/a>track which ran between two rows of buildings. \u00a0The announcer would give the name of the equipment, its age and the owner who had restored it and, probably, drove it. \u00a0I say probably because as you can see in this photo one of the traditions of farm life was underway on this old tractor, a young girl drives it.<\/p>\n<\/a>The tree trunks passed through the saw shown here. \u00a0This was dangerous work, as you can see by the open saw blade, but equally dangerous were the power belts that connected the steam engines to the threshers, sawmills, silage grinders, or hay balers.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n