On a very chilly fall weekend, we headed out to Makoti. And I’m so thankful we did! How did we end up in Makoti, a town I’ve never been to or somehow don’t remember even hearing of despite it being near my hometown of Garrison? Dog sitting! Last summer we babysat a very funny pug named Ed, and we hit it off with his owners! They’re a little younger than we are, but age doesn’t matter - we have a great time! And visiting Makoti was the beginning of all that. So all thanks to Shelby and Luke for the invitation and for showing us such a great time at the threshing show!
Here we go...
Makoti is a cute little town (very little) north of Lake Sakakawea. It’s way out on the prairie not close to really any city. And we didn't even see main street or any of the town itself - we went right to the edge of town where they have the threshing show! And we had the corgis with us - and they were welcomed! Murphy was just a puppy so he got a lot of love. At one point we popped into that old church in the first photo and a bunch of old ladies were sitting around chatting and eating popcorn and they all just adored him and begged me to let them feed him popcorn. I said sure - just a little - and he cleaned up! He was showered with popcorn. It was mutual heaven for them all.
Anyway, Makoti has this great assortment of very old buildings they’ve hauled into the threshing show area - I wish I had taken more photos but we were busy meeting a lot of people! One place we stopped was a blacksmith shop where Shelby’s brother was helping some other local boys do blacksmithing things. Shelby said it used to be run by a very old man who made tiny horseshoes for the kids. She had the best stories of growing up on a farm near Makoti - what a great childhood! I can see why she and her husband stuck around.
Makoti also had a big building where they were milling logs the very old fashioned way - and branding wood too. There was so much to see! And food to eat. And fun stuff for kids to do. What a day! And I found out later that apparently my dad and his friend Ted ventured up to the threshing show in the early 90s when we were living in Garrison. The moms stayed with the kids and the dads went to look at the tractors at the show. They had fun.
We saw a truck pulling thing where a bunch of trucks from various years pulled a lot of weight. It was very loud and I had to take Murphy away. Poor baby’s ears were hurting. But what was the highlight of the threshing show for us??? Something that we’d been hearing about all day. The lawnmower obstacle course.
Shelby and her wonderful family had many hilarious stories of this event from years past but this would be the first year she participated with Luke and she was apprehensive about it due to the fact that you end up shouting at your partner a lot haha! You can’t not! You see, your partner drives blindfolded and you have to direct them around the cones. It was quite the time and many people veered off a) almost into the crowd b) almost into the buildings c) almost into the rows of cars and tractors...it was hilarious! Rarely have I laughed so hard in my life! I took photos the whole time - thank you Shelby and Luke for being my models! (Oh and you can see the log milling operation in the background.)
Here we go!!! Time for the blindfold!
Get that blindfold on, Luke! (He was such a good sport!)
Here we have the moderator straightening cones that have been knocked over.
Aaaand they’re OFF!
Knocking over cones all the way while Shelby yells and Luke is confused and the crowd is dying of laughter!
And here they come back!
There goes another cone!
Go Luke and Shelby!
Everybody, including the participants, were laughing by this point.
Good job guys!
And we’re done! You two are my heroes! What a fantastic event!
Honestly, if you want a real North Dakota experience - go to the Makoti threshing show. If you want fun events and good food and amazing people - go to the threshing show! And if you want a real life “Lake Wobegone” experience - go to that threshing show! It’s worth every second!
p.s. there was threshing at the threshing show! they get incredibly ancient machines up and going - and Shelby’s dad helped with it! But we just observed from afar - it’s a bit loud!
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