Parade And Threshing

Continuing hot and dry in Sask. so what better to do than take the day off , take a vintage tractor to a parade and run a threshing machine. Surprisingly the heat didn't bother me much. Not seeing a thermometer I can only guess it was 90 degrees or better. Keeping busy sometimes helps me to ignore the heat. The old Cockshutt 50 handled it ok without boiling over or running out of oil. Parade was easy enough but requires a lot of attention to not run into the vehicle in front or the people running out to pick up the treats thrown out by the leading vehicles.
In contrast to my usual parade videos, this one will be a view of the crowds sitting and parked along the way, watching us go by. Different anyway. One drawback, you don't get to see much of what else is in the parade when you are driving in it yourself.
Threshing demo right after dinner and that was what the old 50 had been requested for. Few tractors have a belt pulley anymore and you can't run a threshing machine without one. I'd never run a thresher before but no problem. Being the "engineer" I only had to line up and tighten the tractor into the belt , keeping an eye on the gauges and making sure my end of the operation is ok. They had a thresher man or two watching the separator (thresher) and they had to signal me to shut down once when the grain elevator belt threw off.
Then I initiated a brief shut down when I remembered I had not checked the engine oil in the tractor. Knowing the 50's appetite for oil and leakage problem I figured it would be good insurance to throw in a litre of engine oil.
There were enough interested by standers to man the pitchforks and feed the sheaves into the separator.
That starter drive on the tractor took a beating. Always temperamental, it takes quite a few tries (and grinding) before the starter actually engages. Although it only takes a turn or two to start the engine.
I had a few comments on how smooth and quiet the 50 was but in reality it has a rough idle and top end speed that I can't iron out to my satisfaction.
The sheaves had been in storage in a barn for about 13 years so were well aged. The wheat looked surprisingly good for colour although a little frost damage (2004 crop).
Video coming up when I get it edited and uploaded.