Thursday, August 13, 2009

Times past


Before steel bins became available and affordable for farmers they built wooden bins to store the grain before shipping. The bins were often built in or near the grain fields so as to cut down on transportation time during the harvest. The risk, of course, was that the bins were vulnerable to thievery of the grain by unscrupulous farmers who wanted to meet their quota. The main disadvantage of these square-cornered buildings was in loading the grain. Someone had to crawl inside the bin and shovel the grain to the auger. I remember the dust and the hard work of moving the heavy grain by shovel. If I didn't put a handkerchief over my nose and mouth I would suffer from inhaling the dust. The worst grain for nasty dust was oats.
These bins I photographed a few years back near Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan. I've "colored" the photo to make it look like it was taken much longer ago to try to recreate the times.
I enjoy the progressive falling of the bins all in a row--symbolic of time passing.