Peter Behrens's Blog, page 64

1953 International Harvester L-130. Saskatchewan

 

From Alex Emond: "This Harvester was sitting across from a garage in Lafleche, Saskatchewan. These old grainers are quite common. They never go very far or very fast, so they last forever....

"These days grain is hauled to the nearest elevator in big trucks with two trailers. Elevators have changed too--they are concrete silos with larger capacity than the old wooden elevators that once were common on the Prairies. The wooden elevators are disappearing; sometimes the Douglas Fir wood is salvaged. Here's a typical 'old school' elevator in Ponteix...

"...owned by a local family but not used much lately. There's one down in Val Marie that was spruced up recently and is now a kind of museum...  

"There is a great National Film Board documentary about an elevator down at Wood Mountain. For no good reason that I know of, the elevator was erased about 7 years ago. Disappointing. The film survives and so does a painting that I did, on site. While I'm down this Wood Mountain rabbithole, here are Kacy and Clayton . They are from ranches close by Wood Mountain. Good stuff...an English folk vibe with maybe olde timey country. Good picking–and she has a fine, unique voice. Kacy's dad grazes cattle in the East Block of the Prairie Grasslands National Park . He has a huge ranch and is considered a fine steward of the land."

PB's short story, "Vulcan" published in Atlantic Monthly, is set on a wheat farm in Alberta during harvest season.

1948 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. Cambridge MA

A  livery car in Boston. Wedding machine. Start in style. Kind of gorgeous. Not sure if it is on its original chassis---check the rear wheel position. The bodywork isn't entirely straight either. Gorgeous interior. Don't know much about these cars. We posted on the Rolls Royce Spectre EV last year. And of course on this blog everything sooner or later comes back to Saskatchewan, even Rolls.














 

c. 1976 Chevrolet Malibu. Harvard Square.

  We posted a while back on the Ow Canada! Malibu. Here's  a clean and basic 1971 Malibu in Denver, and a 1965 Malibu SS down in Pueblo, Colorado.

Fiat 500 Cambridge October

Outstanding in the Field: 1948 GMC 9100 Grainer

 

From Alex Emond: "This 'hired hand' was posing alongside the highway, near the turnoff to Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan. The 9100 was a Canadian 1 1/2-ton but the cab is no bigger than your average pickup of today. Body looks to be in perfect shape and would probably fit onto a modern truck chassis without much trouble...if you were a master mechanic, that is. Anyway, nice to see."  

AL: Here's another Gravelbourg grainer.

1983: Toby Clark and AL down the Rocky Mountain front from Banff to the Big Bend in a 1952 Chevrolet grainer. 

We admire the genre, and have posted lots of grainers, mostly from... Saskatchewan. Like this 1947 International.

AL working the grain harvest. Olds, Alberta. September-October 1976.

1978 Ford F-250 Camper Special. New Jersey.

From Jonathan Welsh: We drove past this handsome rig in White House Station, N.J., a few times before stopping for a closer look. My favorite F-series body style. This one is a four-speed. My wife, Alexa, really wants this one.

1965 Thunderbird. Vermont.

 

Derek VanBever caught the 'Bird in Williston, Vermont en route to Mo Ray al.

1956 Dodge Custom Royale D-500. California.

Before there were pony cars or muscle cars, there were big sedans with fins and chrome and plenty of glass...and Dodge's D-500 hemi powerplant. Caught up with this one in Santa Barbara.

1959 Chevrolet Apache 38. Saskatchewan.

 

From Alex Emond: Here's a one-ton truck that is being restored. Oak boards needed to finish the bed; everything else looks dialed. Outside a shop in Lafleche, Saskatchewan. One of the better-looking trucks ever made, in my humble opinion.AL: Alex caught a 3/4 -ton 1958 Apache in Piapot, Saskatchewan a while back. "Piapot, Payipwât, or Payipwat (Hole in the Sioux or One Who Knows the Secrets of the Sioux), born as Kisikawasan (Flash in the Sky), known by his Assiniboine allies as Maȟpíya owáde hókši(Lightning In The Sky Boy) (c. 1816–April 1908) was a Native Canadian chief of the Cree-Assiniboine / Young Dogs Band, a mighty band and division of the Downstream People (Māmihkiyiniwak) of the Plains Cree.[1] He was one of the five major leaders of the Plains Cree after 1860."

Speaking of Apaches, did you catch our post on Women Who Weld? 

1975 Datsun 620 Wheelbarrow

 

You know our thing for wheelbarrow trucks, the simple functional units that arrived here from Japan, starting in the early 1970s and redefined useful? This one lives in Santa Barbara. I think of wheelbarrows, fondly, whenever another supersized, chromish mega-truck piloted by a loner male blasts past me on I-95.