 | Sometimes the need for a break coincides with an item of interest. So we found ourselves in the tiny town of Austin. Home of the Manitoba Agricultural Museum. |  |
This
was a truly amazing place spread over several acres with sheds of old farm
implements in various stages of restoration. There must have been well over 150
tractors of all ages and makes. They had more different John Deere tractors than
they had in the John Deere museum. Most of them are still running although they
are only run once a year at the Austin Threshermen's show.
We found the wheels and tyres most interesting since there were many
variations dating from before the use of pneumatic tyres. Although many makes were
represented most seemed to have come from the Quad Cities region on the
Iowa/Illinois border where we had visited John Deere. They were all in long
sheds which had boards to go over the doorways to protect them in the winter.
As we progressed we found some really old tractors much more akin to the
original traction engines. Some of these were quite massive and must have played
their part in the original cultivation of the prairies. There were even examples
of engines which had been imported from Lincolnshire.
 | We also
found a shed of over two dozen different threshing machines. These looked to
be extremely complex and were almost completely made from wood. These were
quite massive pieces of engineering and stood over 15ft high. |  |
 | There were also
true traction engines which would have powered the threshing machines. You
can see a shed in the background which stored over 30 of these beasts.. |  |
 | After the threshing
came the mill. This was the Souris Mill engine which provided 185hp to drive
the mill from 1899 to the 1920s. It was restored and rebuilt here in 1975.
The belt is made from 52 cowhides and is three layers thick. |
| A number of buildings had been re-erected on this site to portray
life in the days of the pioneers. The contents were quite eclectic. This was
truly a 'general' store. Clocks, hats, books, china, medicines, ironmongery,
gramophones etc. |  |
 | There were several
houses portraying the lives of families at different levels of the social
scale. This was from a quite 'well-to-do' family and they had this wonderful
range in the kitchen which also provided heating for the house. A true
forebear of the Aga.. |
| Next door was the dining room and it is obvious they lived in
some comfort although this was by no means a mansion but was a simple three
bedroomed wooden house of the period. |  |
 | The bedrooms were
simple but they all had homemade furnishings in the style of the period.
Quilting is very popular here still but was a common leisure occupation of
the women of the time. |
| More strange was the presence on the site of Canada's only museum
of Amateur Radio. This had hundreds of radio transmitters from all periods
including what I think must have been a complete collection of Heathkit
products. For those into such things this would have been absolutely
fascinating. |  |
 | There was a
complete shed of period vehicles but it was very dark and they were just
crammed in. So this fire ladder is our representative vehicle. This was not
a museum of pristine items but a collection of period items just kept as
memorabilia. Even though most are owned by private individuals and loaned to
the museum, they will never restore most of the items on this site. There
just isn't enough expertise around. |
 | Some of the items
are quite exotic like these early snowmobiles with aircraft engines (and
propellers) on the back. They were used for mail delivery amongst other
things.. |  |
| There were some odd items like this collection of seeds which
were obviously used for some educational purpose at one time. Just
interesting. We could have spent days there but we had to move on. I think
we were probably the only visitors that day. One of the best $5 we have
spent. I did buy some videos of this so we will be able to look at some of
the bits we missed. |  |
 | The presence of sun
and the absence of people brings out the animals to enjoy the warmth. We
were lucky to spot this garter snake although I gather they are quite common
here - and not poisonous although they can bite. |
|