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Way OT: The shocking truth!

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Rauville

11-23-2004 08:37:30

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Just because I'm an old antique dealer, people seem to think I should know everything from the beginning of time. Point in case: This morning a local artist called, wanting to know how many grain bundles it takes to make a shock. She wants to do a painting of a harvest scene with grain shocks.
My answer was 7 bundles...2 upright on each side, 1 upright on each end, 1 laying over the top for a roof. After I said that, then I began to question it myself. Anybody out there old enough to remember?

PS: Speaking of art, here's looking out our east window this morning...life is good on the plains!

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Crem

11-23-2004 22:28:45

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Re: Way OT: The shocking truth! in reply to Rauville, 11-23-2004 08:37:30

When we shocked oats in MN, we usually used seven bundles with the seventh one being the cap. If we had extra bundles in a row we would add two more at the outside center so that we wouldn't have to carry the extra's to the next row. We would then have nine bundles including the cap. I did a lot of shocking back in the late fifties. It could be very hot and miserable. When we loaded the bundles on the wagon for threshing, We were supposed to put each bundle on the wagon individually with a pitch fork with the head end to the inside of the wagon to protedt the heads. We had crews of wagons loading the bundles to go to the thresher. Sometimes we would race to get a wagon full first and two of us would hoist the whole shock into the wagon, one pitchfork on each side of the shock. The only problem was that dad better not catch us doing that. We had a Red River Special threshing machine and I can still remember how all of the flat belts went on that machine. It was a fun time.

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Mike in Wi

11-23-2004 12:57:15

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Re: Way OT: The shocking truth! in reply to Rauville, 11-23-2004 08:37:30

The discrepencies are not just about how shocks were made, but how they were placed as well....

As I remember it, farms of Germans, French, and English and their decendants always placed shocks neatly in rows facing north/south, whereas Russians and Scandanavians always placed them in rows facing east/west. The reasons for the difference was the varying amount and direction of prevelant sunlight in those countries.

To further muck up the issue, the Amish didn"t put shocks in any rows at all...they just put them up any old way that was convienient.

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Jet9N

11-23-2004 17:23:46

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Re: Way OT: The shocking truth! in reply to Mike in Wi, 11-23-2004 12:57:15

Being in a German community ours were north and south. Typically two people worked together and
faced each other and set the first 4 bundles. Then
added 2 pair each end for a total of 12 bundles.
Only exception was sometimes when the wheat was
real tall the third pair was put on the sided
covering the "seam" beween the 1st and 2nd from each end. This made them more stable.Still six pair.

Jet

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David from Kansas

11-23-2004 12:47:52

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Re: Way OT: The shocking truth! in reply to Rauville, 11-23-2004 08:37:30

When I was very young (7-8) I helped my father shock oats. I also drove the tractor when binding them. Since we had a bundle carrier on the binder, it seems like we would put two bundles in a shock. I don't recall putting bundles on top of the shocks. The limiting factor was usually the distance to the bundles. Later, during threshing, I drove a tractor on the wagons picking up the bundles. This all took place in central Kansas about 1950. Wish we had a camera and had taken pictures back then.

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johnpop

11-23-2004 11:44:51

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Re: Way OT: The shocking truth! in reply to Rauville, 11-23-2004 08:37:30

When I was growing up, we always used a reaper and my father and uncle would put the oats in shocks. Never, did they put any bundles of oats on the top of the shocks. They would just put a convenient number of bundles to make a sturdy shock of oats for air drying of the oats before they were brought in from the field a week or so later and run through the threshing machine.

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Sam#3

11-23-2004 11:13:33

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Re: Way OT: The shocking truth! in reply to Rauville, 11-23-2004 08:37:30

I was taught ten. Four to make a cross, four to fill the corners and two for the cap. Sorghums were done the same way except no cap.

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Buckeye

11-23-2004 09:42:06

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Re: Way OT: The shocking truth! in reply to Rauville, 11-23-2004 08:37:30

I've talked to a lot of older fellows in years past when we were shocking wheat. It seems that there is no real answer. People just did it differently. The way I was taught was to lean two bundles together. Place one on each end so you would have a line of four. Then place one on each side in the middle(Have I lost you yet?) This should look like a cross(+). Then place four on each corner of the +. I was taught to cap with two bundles. Bend them over and place the heads toward the prevaling wind. My area would be one North and one West. That makes 12 bundles to a shock. Like I said, when you talked to some of the old timers, you almost always got a different theory. The way I do it makes it easy to set a shock up by yourself.

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Sloroll

11-23-2004 09:17:57

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Re: Way OT: The shocking truth! in reply to Rauville, 11-23-2004 08:37:30

That is how I made mine.

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cockshuttguy

11-23-2004 09:08:38

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Re: Way OT: The shocking truth! in reply to Rauville, 11-23-2004 08:37:30

I remember the beautiful smell of the grain, the heavy bundles when I was smaller, working side by side with my Dad; we put only six and occasionally one on the top. Oats was more fun, but the thistles sometimes caused a bit of consternation. Loved the thrashing machine and the fun working with all the neighbors and especially the raspberry or blackberry pies made by a favorite farm homemaker. Mother always had lots of food for the fellars and Jersey/Guernsey cream for the pies/cakes. The combines came in the picture before I left the farm and the world changed forever.

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Allan in NE

11-23-2004 08:54:02

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Re: Way OT: The shocking truth! in reply to Rauville, 11-23-2004 08:37:30

Rau,

Can't remember the count, but I can sure remember the bloody ankles from the stubble and those darned snakes that got abruptly woke up! :>)

Allan

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Jon H

11-23-2004 12:37:26

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Re: Way OT: The shocking truth! in reply to Allan in NE, 11-23-2004 08:54:02

I am old enough to have done it,but too old to remember the number. Seems to me,it was whatever it took to make a stable,weather tight shock and sometimes determined by how many bundles were near the shock. If she has the wrong number,who would know or care? Whatever makes it look nice.

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Bob - MI

11-23-2004 08:46:19

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Re: Way OT: The shocking truth! in reply to Rauville, 11-23-2004 08:37:30

Nice photo. Here in west Michigan we have gotten only 1.5 hours of sunshine in the last 3 weeks. Good to see that somewhere it still pokes through.

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