Wheat threshing reminds participants of olden days

Annual event an 'old-fashioned demonstration'

MOSES LAKE — The steady whistle of the steam engine slowly builds up, until the safety valve releases in a near-deafening roar.

Those unaccustomed to the sound react with a start, while those who have been working a while barely flinch: There's too much work to be done.

Participants use pitchforks to drive the wheat into a stationary threshing machine, and the resulting grain pours into bags while the straw flies fast and furious.

Saturday morning marked the beginning of another threshing time for the Moores, who have been holding a wheat threshing event for about 15 years, letting people come and thresh wheat just as it was done years ago.

"Just an old-fashioned demonstration," said Kevin Moore, coordinator of the event, which took place on the Lustig farm outside of Moses Lake. "How farming used to be."

Moore and his father started the event when they got an old steam engine, which came with a threshing machine.

"We used it until the threshing machine threshed itself, so we got another threshing machine, rebuilt it," he said. "It's been a lot of fun. A lot of folks enjoy that."

The Moores grow the wheat on five acres of a friend's land, and harvest it on the Lustig farm.

Moore said that the number of people in attendance depends, and has gone as high as 100 in the past, although at 10 a.m. Saturday morning many pitchforks were unattended.

"They'll be out later," Moore said. "It's kind of early."

Family member Jeff Moore was one of the people pitching the wheat early Saturday morning.

"I'm gonna sleep good tonight," he exclaimed during a moment of rest. "A lot of people these days don't really appreciate just how much we've got to be thankful for these days. You put somebody up against something like this on the end of a pitchfork or something for a day, they're going to turn around and look at what their grandparents went through with a heck of a lot more appreciation than what they already walk away with."

"There's a lot of old-time history here to see, and it's a good thing to bring the kids out, and show the kids how it used to be done in the old days," Rob Lustig, son of farmer Randy Lustig, said. "It goes until we finish, so they usually start on Saturday and a lot of the time they finish Sunday afternoon."

Rob Lustig said some of the threshed wheat will be ground into flour, while Kevin Moore's father Martin said some of it will be used as feed for hogs.