| Neukirch was the birthplace of Great-great grandfather Peter P. Warkentin.
He married and moved to Crimea, and his father, Peter Warkentin,
moved years later to Sagrodowka Colony, to the west.  The Mennonites of
the 19th century threshed wheat by pulling the threshing stone over piles of wheat to
loosen the grain from the head. By the turn of the century, this practice had
largely been supplanted by threshing machines.
The threshing stones in this picture form the basis of a fine bench, and who knows, the
stones could very well go back to 3-Great grandfather Peter's day.
 We gaze
down the street of Neukirch, now Udarnik. Geese wander where Mennonite wagons once plied
the road.
I'd like to try the Neukirch thresher-bench myself, imagining it to be Warkentin threshing
stones.
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