Rain put a damper on Monday's small harvest at the Palouse Empire Threshing Bee, but that didn't stop local farmers and spectators from trudging through wheat stubble to examine the historic machinery that once dominated here on the Palouse.
Jacob Lyle got in a few tractor rides on his Allis-Chalmers Model C earlier in the day, but by early afternoon, he was cranking his arm like a flywheel in tireless anticipation for the steam-powered threshing of wheat on several acres rented out by the Palouse Empire Threshing Bee Association. The 8-year-old Pullman boy stared at a decommissioned steam engine in the distance and made a quick assessment.
"It doesn't work anymore," he said. "It doesn't have those pipes that go up the exhaust. The chug might still work."
Shutterbugs ambled up the largest hill they could find for a good landscape shot, while Gene and Jen Arnold said they liked the view at low altitude. Gene Arnold is a flight instructor from Spokane.
"We fly over this area all the time," he said, "so it's fun to see it this low."
Their younger son, Andrew, 11, said he doesn't see many wheat fields or old harvest equipment in the city of Spokane, but appreciates that fields like the ones in Colfax are the starting point for a lot of food he eats.
"It's pretty cool to think that it just comes out of the ground not too far away," he said, "and I'm eating it."
Derek Repp, 8, of Colfax was done harvesting - he'd helped his family earlier this season - and took it easy as he spent the day with his grandfather, who helped lift him up to inspect an old Allis-Chalmers Gleaner combine Monday.
"I got to help drive the truck. I didn't get to drive by myself," Repp said, "but I got to help. We got a new combine, and harvest was short for us." As for the outside museum of antiquated farm equipment, "I don't know which one's my favorite. I think all of them are cool."
That could be welcome news to hobby farmers like Mike Schwartz, who brought out his 1967 International 403 combine and spends most threshing bees helping with the separator on the big steam-engine-powered threshing machine that works on a belt pulley system.
"Other than a small group of us, it's just scrap iron to most people," he said of old-fashioned farm equipment. "You can't afford to save them all. My wife says I've done too many."
Repp's grandfather looked back at the combine as the two walked away in search of another exhibit.
"I use to run one of those," Norm Erickson said. "There are actually a few of them still going."
Stan Riebold with the Palouse Empire Threshing Bee Association held out hope the weather would change in favor of a harvest of about 5 acres of wheat, and worked with other volunteers on the equipment in the hopes that it would.
"Never say die 'til you're dead, they say." Riebold looked at the old thresher. "We've been working on this thing for a week. This thing fell apart on us last year." Luckily, there are several others from which to borrow parts, "so, we're robbing Peter to feed Paul."
Brandon Macz can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to bmacz@dnews.com.
