Schley County local hosts an annual harvest day the old-fashioned way

The smell of sugar cane filled the air as the juice boiled in the syrup kettle at Billy Lightner’s annual harvest day in Ellaville, where he showed folks how to make cane syrup and corn mill and how to harvest peanuts the old-fashioned way.

Lightner, 73, said he started the harvest day eight years ago by harvesting peanuts after he acquired the old peanut picker that belonged to his father, Willie Lightner, in the 1940s.

“It turned out to be a pretty good crowd pleaser, so we started expanding it, and basically we did it because I grew up doing it. I did all of this when I was a child,” Lightner said.

Lightner said they started making cane syrup five years ago and added making corn mill along the way.

But the kids are the reason they keep doing the harvest every year, he said.

“That’s what we do it for,” Lightner said. “They get to see something that most of their parents have never seen before.”

Alice Lightner, Billy’s wife of 21 years, said she’s glad the children will have the memory of her husband teaching them how he used to do things when he was a kid.

“I’m really glad to see the children interested,” she said. “It’s just a blessing to us.”

Blayne Horn, 10, said her favorite part of the day was making cane syrup.

“I liked beating on the piece of wood to knock the juice out of the strainer because you get to beat on it as hard as you want,” she said.

Blayne said she also enjoyed getting to take home as many boiled peanuts as she wanted.

But Lightner said this is the last year they are going to pick peanuts because it is a lot of work to prepare the peanuts for harvest.

“I tell people, ‘We’re gonna retire Mr. Willie again, the peanut picker,’ so it was retired for 60 years, and we brought it out for eight years, and we’re gonna let him retire again,” he said.

Lightner said he retired from Mulcoa, a mineral mining company, eight years ago and went to work on his garden.

“I tell people, ‘If you wanna go to work, retire,’ ” he said with a laugh.

Lightner’s son Todd said one way to describe his father is that he is a hard worker.

“Dad has been a very hard worker all his life, and he did retire a few years ago from Mulcoa, but it hadn’t slowed him down,” Todd said.

He said his father has enjoyed his retirement working with his garden.

“Sometimes this is work, but it’s mostly love,” Todd Lightner said.

Billy Lightner said he doesn’t know what they are going to do next year, but he hopes they will do most of the same activities.

“Most people say I’m crazy, but I enjoy it,” Lightner said. “It’s not for profit. We do it because we love it.”

This story was originally published December 4, 2017 at 8:35 PM with the headline "Schley County local hosts an annual harvest day the old-fashioned way."