Visitors to the Southwest Kansas Antique Engine and Thresher Show will get to see how farming was done in the good old days when headers were short, more work was done by hand and tractors had a different type of air conditioning.
The show is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Aug. 27 and 28 in Haviland. To reach the site drive to Haviland on U.S. 54 and turn north on Main Street then follow the signs to 501 East Walnut, said Thresher Association Secretary and Parade Chairman Rodney Hannan.
Admission is $3 and children under 12 are free.
The event is a way to show the old time methods and tools and keep the memory of the activity and struggle of farming in the past.
“We need to maintain the history of the past,” Hannan said. “Too much of our history has gone by the way side.”
Activities will start at 3 p.m. on Friday with an antiques auction inside a tent at the site on the former Konkel residence. The Konkel family gave the property to the Thresher Association 30 years ago as a permanent home for the event that was first held in 1965, Hannan said.
Both days will feature citywide garage sales. All exhibitors, flea marketers, arts and crafts and vendors are welcome.
Set up is Friday morning and afternoon before the auction that will feature many antique items including old engine parts, wagon rims and numerous other items. A ham and bean feed will follow the auction from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Both days will feature many activities for both adults and children. Among the activities is a live display of old time wheat harvest including binding wheat with an antique binder then threshing it in an antique thresher. Participants will be able to use a pitchfork and pitch bundles into the thresher and watch how wheat was threshed before the modern day combine came into being.
Other agriculture displays include hay bailing, rock crushing, saw milling, buzz sawing, antique tractor activities, antique tractor and vehicle displays, antique garden tractors, old gasoline engines, baker fan testing plus quilting activities.
Scheduled among the tractors are an Avery Side Mount from the 1920s and a Model R John Deere.
Adults will have a new attraction with a rolling pin contest for men, women and couples as they throw the rolling pen and try to hit a dummy. Special activities planned for children include a fresh egg toss, coins in a corn tank, tug of war, water fight using Haviland Fire Department hoses and a 30 gallon barrel suspended on a cable and a Farm Bureau sanctioned kids pedal pull with winners eligible to compete at the State Fair, Hannan said.
