DECATUR — Charlie Lacykeeps farming traditions alive, using antique farm equipment to grow and harvest wheat the old-fashioned way on his farm in the Logan Community east of Siloam Springs.

Lacy uses the wheat to give threshing demonstrations at the Tired Iron of the Ozarks tractor shows with his restored 1939model McCormick-Deering threshing machine.

Lacy grew about three acres of wheat this year to thresh at the tractor show this weekend. In June, 10 club members came out to help cut and bind the wheat using antique farm equipment. They left the wheat in the field until August, then a few weeks ago they used a wagon to haul it into the barn.

“At one time I grew a lot more, but it turned into work instead of play,” Lacy said with a laugh.

In times past, grain was cut and bound into bundles, then a threshing machine was used to separate the grain from the stalk and the husk, Lacy explained. Now combines are used to do all three steps at once.

Lacy and his wife Helen have owned the McCormick-Deering threshing machine for about 15 years. Lacy said the old machine was in sad shape when he found it. It had been kept in a shed which had blown down around it, allowing water to damage the machine.

Lacy worked one winter tearing down the old threshing machine and rebuilding it. He had to replace most of the wood parts because of the water damage.

Lacy found a company to make a belt and pulleys for the threshing machine and hired a sign company to repaint the lettering on the logo.

“For its age, it's probably as good as any you can find,” he said.

The threshing machine brings back boyhood memories for Lacy, who is 76 years old.

The thresher would go from farm to farm and the operation took quite a crew of men and women, Lacy said. While the men were hard at work in the field, the women would put together a big spread of food.

It was at one such gathering that Lacy first tried iced tea, made with a big block of ice in a tub.

“I thought it was the best thing I had ever tasted,” he said.

Because he was too young to work on the threshing crew, he was assigned the job of hauling water to the workmen. Another man, who was too old to work on the crew, helped Lacy bring the thirsty men water in gallon jars wrapped in wet toe sacks to keep them cool.

Lacy remembers the men who owned the threshing machine had just bought a new Jeep and they trusted him to drive it. Up to that point, he had driven a few farm trucks around the fields but never a new Jeep.

“I was in tall cotton,” he said.

In addition to the threshing machine, Lacy has restored eight John Deere tractors, as well as an old Volkswagen Beetle for his daughter. He likes to spend time in the shop working with old engines, according to his wife Helen.

“There’s just something about getting an old engine to run,” he said with a smile.

The 21st Annual Tired Iron of the Ozarks fall show will be held Sept. 7-9 at the club’s show grounds southwest of Gentry, on Taylor Orchard Road. Lacy will be giving threshing demonstrations twice daily, from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. More details can be found online at www.tiredironoftheozarks.org.

News, Pages 1 on 09/05/2012