Made to last...

[Ty Korrigan]

I'm away cycling in the Anti-Atlas mountains and coastal hills of Atlantique Morocco.

Here, in the villages of my wifes ancestors they still harvest wheat by hand using a sickle (not sythe)

The wheat is then carried on a cart drawn by donkeys or mules to a central place where it is threshed using this machine and others like it.

I've not yet managed to get close enough to one working to be able to film it in action though I have watched across the fields. 

The machines used for separating corn from the husk look just like a road tow pto chipper made by the 'A' team in a scrapyard challenge.

My new Garmin GPS has opened up enormous possibilities for cycling routes there being no paper maps available.

Next trip I'll cross the Atlas via one of the most stunning passes towards Ouarzazate to Zagora and into the Sahara to the town of M'hamid where family of family live.

I think once I have had enough of trying to run a business in France, I will retire here, grow veg, run cycle tours and plant trees.

  Stuart

 

 

 

[Vespasian]

Very interesting pics, looks like something out the american prairies turn of the last century.

 

Just curious, are they Berbers round there or Arabs?..  

[Squaredy]

2 hours ago, Ty Korrigan said:

My new Garmin GPS has opened up enormous possibilities for cycling routes there being no paper maps available.

Sounds awesome.  I just hope your Garmin GPS is more reliable than my Garmin satnav.....!

[Khriss]

Amazing to see it operating within sight of a new mobile phone mast ! K

[ABtrees]

I notice that to speed things up (if they need to replace any of the belts), they’ve done a bit of forward planning and removed all the guards – can’t help wondering if the death and injury rates are sky high or whether people learn (from a very young age) to be careful, manage risk and take responsibility for their own actions?!!!    

[Mark J]

43 minutes ago, ABtrees said:

I notice that to speed things up (if they need to replace any of the belts), they’ve done a bit of forward planning and removed all the guards – can’t help wondering if the death and injury rates are sky high or whether people learn (from a very young age) to be careful, manage risk and take responsibility for their own actions?!!!    

To be honest mate, I'm not sure it really needs a warning label. You'd have to be tapped to mess with one of those.

 

I've noticed when I've been on travels, that you don't always have a sign warning of deep excavations etc.  I think it's just accepted alot of places, that if you're daft enough to fail to see a hole or you bang your head on something, you deserve to...

Edited July 2, 2018 by Mark J

[difflock]

Yup!

Darwin is allowed to do his work unfettered.

Regardless the bloke standing on top feeding the sheafs of wheat/corn in, is always at risk, standing above the infeed roller thingies, from watching vintage film of British threashing operations, never mind the workings of the Jones baler.

[Little Al]

It's an early 20th century Stationary Threshing machine usually driven by a long flat belt from traction engine/tractor to the flat pulley in the last photo have no idea if it has some form of drive from being towed ( Fred Flintstone)mobile thresher or if the sheaves are tossed in with it stationary ,it possibly takes2 sacks to catch the grain had to be swapped when full & the straw /waste was ejected from the drooping down part at the right hand end in photo 2 My uncle used to do contract threshing after WW2 till around the mid 60's The belts were always exposed not much ("Elfin safety) in those days he towed thresher /baler /& living van around with a  horizontal single cylinder semi diesel Field Marshall tractor His father did the same before & during WW2 with steam traction engine power he also had a 2 steam engine wire rope pulled ploughing set up,I went with my uncle on occasions when in my teens The dust is wghat i remember as the pain in the butt

Edited July 2, 2018 by Little Al

[openspaceman]

8 minutes ago, Little Al said:

My uncle used to do contract threshing after WW2 till around the mid 60's

These were still in use for threshing long straw for thatching well into the 70s

[Little Al]

6 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

These were still in use for threshing long straw for thatching well into the 70s

They were indeed he had a heart attack in 66/67 & the gear was sold on not sure how long it continued as I left the area