"When I was young that's how we did it," said Bill Jackson, a retired farmer from Wyoming.

He has a steam engine and thresher that were built in the John Goodison Thresher Company factory on Mitton Street in Sarnia.

With the engine, supplying the power, the thresher literally separates the wheat from the chaff. But it also took a 15-man crew to keep the operation running.

Jackson was one of the "kids that did the work" like forking sheaves into the thresher.

Today, a highly mechanized combine and driver can finish in an hour what it would have taken the two machines and the 15-man crew all day to accomplish.

The increasing power and efficiency of new machines turned the steam machines into antiques.

With an seemingly confusing array of levers and whirling parts, the steam engine appears to be beyond contemporary understanding. But Jack-son said it's quite simple once you know what you're doing. "It's like driving a car," he said.

He's owned and operated his current steam engine for 32 years and has attended every one of the Western Ontario Steam Threshers Association annual events in Lambton.

He smiles when he says the government recently decided a license was needed to operate steam engines that have always been part of his life.

"I did it for 32 years with nothing. Then the government decided I needed a $350 license," he said with a laugh.

Past threshers association president Darryl Searson of Watford agrees there's nothing complex about a steam engine.

"There's three levers to run it. After being shown for about 10 minutes, you could handle it," he said.

There's little chance of a steam engine running amok even under the control of a newcomer. Jackson said his engine can only muster a top speed of about four miles per hour.

It wasn't meant to handle the same work as a contemporary tractor. It was most commonly a stationary power source for machines like the thresher. But it could also be harnessed to run things like a saw mill.

"I still like them," said a smiling Jackson who took a moment to brush some dirt away from his old friend.

In addition, there will be contests in startups, tractor pulls, slow races and other events. On top of that, there will be entertainment from the grandstand.