RAMA, SASK.- “This is awesome!” said Sean Wilson, Canora-Pelly MLA as he enjoyed the lives music and the antique farm equipment in action at the PALS (Performing Arts and Leisure Society) Draft Horse Field Days, held in Rama on Aug. 22-23, later adding, “I love seeing the old farm equipment and the live music, this is Saskatchewan!”
Saturday provided near-perfect weather for the activities, but Sunday turned cloudy with periodic light rain. Nevertheless, the live music carried on and the field work continued, except for the threshing demonstration; conditions were just too wet.
Judy Johnson of Preeceville, one of the organizers, said they were pleased with the attendance on Saturday, which totaled about 60. Numbers were understandably less on Sunday, but there was still a lively crowd.
Teamsters who brought their horses for one, or both days of the event included:
- Lloyd Smith of Pelly with two teams of Percherons;
- Rod Abrahamson of Pelly with one team of quarter horses;
- Cameron Last of Lintlaw with one team of Clydesdales;
- Jillian Just of Yorkton with one team of Clydesdales; and
- Kristina Just of Yorkton with two teams of Norwegian Fjord horses.
Darren Shewchuk of Rama, PALS president, said it’s important for people of all ages to understand how agriculture was established in this region in the early part of the 20th century.
“People enjoy coming out and watching the old equipment work,” said Shewchuk. “On Saturday we had some here all the way from Russell, Man.”
Spectators had the opportunity to see a variety of field work, including Jillian Just of Yorkton discing with her team of Clydesdales, Andy and Duke.
When working with vintage equipment, it always seems like something needs some tinkering, and in this case it was the PALS John Deere binder. At Rama, Shewchuk received valuable assistance of Charles Douglas of Douglas Ag & Auto at Invermay, who, when asked about his business, explained, “I fix everything from deep fryers to D8 Cats.”
“I enjoy the mental and physical challenge of the old stuff and working with it,” added Shewchuk. “The binder was built with a wooden roller, but someone had the idea to a steel sleeve over it, and the wood wasn’t grabbing the steel any more.”
Shewchuk and Douglas managed to deal with that issue, but there was also a problem with the cutterbar.
“The cutting blade wasn’t going far enough, so we modified it to get the full stroke and get it working properly,” said Shewchuk.
Thanks to the wet conditions, they were only able to do a limited amount of cutting with the binder. But they made enough stooks of the plentiful winter wheat crop that volunteers were needed to load and haul the stooks away. Jillian Just and her mom Kristina of Yorkton grabbed a couple of pitchforks and loaded up a rack driven by Duncan Arthur of Preeceville, pulled by Kristina’s four Norwegian Fjord Horses: Ranger, Chuck, Chance and Buddy.
“I’m wondering if I had a big enough breakfast to do this,” said Kristina with a smile.
Duncan Arthur said he was unable to bring his horses to Rama this year, but still wanted to attend, “I enjoy the social aspect of this event.”
He still has a Percheron/Haflinger team at home, and has brought them to Rama in the past.
“I like the Haflinger because it’s a good worker but smaller than the Percheron, so they’re a bit easier to work with. They’re similar to the Norwegian Fjord in that way.”
Like many farmers, PALS organizers had to think fast when the wet weather forced them to change their plans. When it became too wet for the threshing demonstration, Daren Shewchuk made a quick call to Rama area farmer Gavin Swiderski, who quickly showed up with his CLAAS 8700 Lexion combine equipped with a 45-foot MacDon header, and harvested the remainder of the PALS winter wheat crop in a matter of minutes.
This gave spectators the opportunity to see both the early harvesting technology represented by the binder, and how far harvesting equipment has developed and evolved since then.
Of course, a big part of PALS Draft Horse Field Days is the live music. For this year’s event, three groups provided the musical entertainment.
The Rama Rednecks performed gospel music for Cowboy Church.
Following the outdoor church service, Hillbilly Hiway of St. Front took over the stage. The husband/wife duet is made up of Laura Moffatt and Mike Shumate. For the Rama performance they were joined by Russ Baldwin of Yorkton.
The third and final musical group of the day was the Forget-Me-Nots, who made the trip from Yorkton. Their lineup includes husband and wife Rob and Jerri Kennedy, along with third group member Pearl Malyk.
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