Babjak 2

1 (VZh)       [Do you still thresh this way now?]

2 (b) [0:01]      [Yes,] we use the threshing field now [too]. Now

3 (b) [0:03]      when we go to the threshing field, we use it [the same way] now.

4 (b) [0:04]      And even now, when we reap what we've sown on [our] private land –

5 (b) [0:07]      barley, oats, and rye – we thresh it with horses. We spread the sheaves

6 (b) [0:13]      around on the ground, we rope up two horses – or three or four,

7 (b) [0:17]      depending on how many sheaves we've spread out over the threshing floor.

8 (b) [0:21]      We gather together, women and men – three, four, five, six people,

9 (b) [0:24]      and we thresh all day long. We finish the threshing, and we separate it,

10 (b) [0:27]      the straw is on one side, and we gather the grain up into a single stack.

11 (b) [0:30]      After that, we winnow it with a shovel. You toss the grain up in the air,

12 (b) [0:33]      and the wheat falls to the si- in one area, because it's heavier. And the chaff

13 (b) [0:36]      flies away, [because] the wind is blowing from the side. And that's [how]

14 (b) [0:39]      it's winnowed. We thresh it, and winnow it, and put it into sacks,

15 (b) [0:41]      and then we grind it. In the old days we ate it as bread,

16 (b) [0:44]      but now we feed it to the livestock, as fodder.

17 (VZh)       [What do you make bread from?]

18 (b) [0:47]      [Now] we buy bread ready-made from the [large bakery] ovens. But earlier,

19 (b) [0:49]      we used to grind this grain at the mill. We would grind [it], and the women would sift [it],

20 (b) [0:52]      they would make bread and we'd eat [it].

21 (VZh)       [What did you use to thresh with?]

22 (b) [0:57]      When people here didn't have horses for threshing – [of course,]

23 (b) [0:59]      with horses, it's easier because horses run and break things up –

24 (b) [1:02]      but when people do the threshing with cows or with oxen,

25 (b) [1:06]      they harness the oxen into a yoke, or if it's cows they harness them

26 (b) [1:09]      into a yoke and in back there's this thing like – like – a harrow.

27 (b) [1:13]      And underneath there are these planks nailed to it, boards, and below

28 (b) [1:16]      on the boards you hammer on ox shoes. And then because the oxen

29 (b) [1:20]      walk slowly, they break it up as much as they can.

30 (b) [1:24]      But [then] the harrow behind, with these horse ( = ox) shoes,

31 (b) [1:26]      gets pulled along through the straw on the threshing field

32 (b) [1:27]      as [the oxen] go round, and the [ox] shoes cut the straw up into tiny pieces,

33 (b) [1:30]      [so that it's] faster to do the threshing [that way].