The Threshing Has Begun

When the Flower Child was a Young Iowa Farm Boy he often participated in such a scene as you are viewing above. We grew a field of oats each year. When the crop was ripe it was cut with a McCormick Grain Binder and bundles were tied. We shocked the oats to help it cure and soon the Threshing Machine, pulled by a steam engine would appear. My Dad was part of a Threshing Ring, where all the local Farmers participated in threshing the oats from the straw as you see above.

While modern combines now thresh oats, wheat and corn for the Farmers in our United States, the threshing of candidates for the office of President of the United States of America has begun. The good grain is being separated from the chaff. With the Iowa Caucuses now behind us the focus will now be New Hampshire. It will be interesting to observe how this Threshing Process evolves over the next few weeks.