Three generations were on hand as the Alex MacKenzie family of Blackie helped out at 15th annual Threshing Bee at Sheppard Family Park  on September 9th.

It is a chance to take in a real life history lesson which shows how harvest was done in the past.

"For me it brings back a lot of old times," said Alex. "I was young enough to be involved in thrashing this way."

As a young man he was often stuck shovelling the grain during the harvest, and his goal was to always have his own rack.

"I finally did. Boy I will tell you that was a long day. When it finally came to shut down for supper the reins just slide out of my hands. I was totally tired."

Alex adds a threshing machine like the one used at the bee would handle seven racks in a day, which is not very much compared to what a combine can do today.

However farm operations are much larger today than they were in the threshing days.

He has had his family involved in the event every year including his granddaughter Carleigh who said all three generations of the family were kicking around at the event.

"We have to remember where it came from, where it started, this is one way to keep it going. Now we all have big machines and technology kind of ruins the fun of it at times."

Volunteer John Lockhart adds this is the heritage of Western Canada, adding this is the way the county was opened and the way the country was developed.

"We are fortunate that Ruth McCoy donated the land on the condition that it be maintained as a family park."

And the park is trying to do their part by providing agriculture history for town people who have never seen the original operations.