AgNow | Aug 2025

STEINBACH, MAN. THE CARILLON n C3

www.thecarillon.com n

THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2025

Agriculture Now

Chaff shoots out of the threshing machine while it works.

MATTHEW FRANK THE CARILLON

The steam engine’s piston and wheel spinning as it powers the threshing machine.

Bob Giesbrecht inspects the wood hopper.

“This was the first step after horses. So, this is the first crack at power that people had,” Giesbrecht said. Having the steam engine, threshing ma- chine and sawmill helps tell the story of the first years when Mennonites arrived in Mani- toba in the 1870s, said Robert Goertzen, exec- utive director for Mennonite Heritage Village. “Knowing where the community came from is really important in setting a good founda- tion for understanding how we’ve developed as a local community,” he said. Keeping the machinery running and main- taining those traditions is necessary because it can explain why things are done a certain way now, Goertzen said. Without that, people can lose perspective if they only focus on the pres- ent and future, he added. He’s encouraged when the younger genera- tion show interests in continuing the legacy of those traditions because many of those skills aren’t commonly known. “There are all sorts of work and home-re- lated activities that for many of us are either a memory or something from a story book,” Go- ertzen said. “This is a wonderful way to make those experiences live.”

day it was delivered. Since he was the smallest out of the group, Giesbrecht was tasked with the grimy job of crawling into the belly of the engine’s boiler and scrubbing it clean. He never thought he’d be the operator of it. Now, Giesbrecht is the only surviving mem- ber of that core group when the engine arrived. After being one of two main operators, he wants to leave some of the harder work for those who have more energy. While there was a honeymoon period at first when he started operating it, it quickly wore off when the real work set in. “I’m going to be 70 years old in three months. I’m getting older, and I can feel it,” Giesbrecht said. “In a day’s run, you’ve put through a cord of wood, and it all has to be fired into that hole. Somebody’s got to do it to keep it going.” Giesbrecht said their engine must be pro- vincially inspected and certified every year to run. The engine is run three times a year, and it takes two hours of prep work before it’s ready to work. He believes running the steam engine is his- tory “in its purest form.”

wants to get to work,” said Giesbrecht. When the steam pressure reaches its maxi- mum level, it “blows its top” to let that pres- sure loose, he said. With a chug, clank and hiss, the engine is finally let loose to power the threshing ma- chine’s teeth as it chews through the bushels of grain thrown into it. The whirring of metal and steam of the en- gine settles into a low rumbling hum as the threshing machine separates the grain from the chaff. Giesbrecht would usually be on the plat- form, stoking the engine’s fire or massaging its throttle. But not on Saturday. Instead, he stepped back to let younger people learn the ropes — or in this case levers. That’s how he was taught. “It’s a bit of a learning game. You learn as you go,” he said, while keeping a watchful eye on the crew as they tensioned the belts. “The (more experienced) guys will just give you little bits and pieces.” His father was one of 12 Steinbach men who purchased the engine in 1971 for the Menno- nite Heritage Village’s steam collection. Gies- brecht was 16 at the time and remembers the

Conrad followed his son into the hobby when he watched him fall in love with steam engines. While Conrad didn’t have any experi- ence with those machines, he looked for a way to do something together with his son. When he first arrived to see the engine, the 59-year-old was put to work helping operate the threshing machine and pitching hay into its churning teeth. Whenever he stands beside the engine, Con- rad said he can feel its heartbeat. “You can close your eyes, and it’s just some- thing that’s alive,” he said. “Each engine has its own sound and its own rhythm.” He’s still amazed watching the threshing machine every time it runs. The fact that it’s a belt on a main pulley where the main source of power comes from shows the ingenuity from people at the time, he said. “There’s no separate motor, no hydraulic hoses. That just blows me away,” he said. Bob Giesbrecht, 69, stands behind the trac- tor as Dylan Peters rolls the mass of steel and iron to the waiting threshing machine. While the engine sits at the ready, a rush of white-hot steam bursts from one of the valves. “The engine is a little excited right now. It

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MATTHEW FRANK THE CARILLON Conrad Peters puts his thumbs up after inspecting the belted connected to the threshing machine.