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If you would like to email
Nes with any comments,
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My View From The Catbird's Seat!
By Nes Kramer |
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LIAPA meeting, February 10th, 2008 at The Watral's
The February, 2008 meeting of the Long Island Antique Power Association
was held in Paul and Kathy Watral's barn in Hauppauge. Ellen and I started
for Hauppauge at 12:30 for our 2pm meeting. Kathy asked us to get there
early and she would save us a parking spot near the barn.
We got to Hauppauge about 1pm. I told Ellen to drive up a road to the
place. She told me it was the next road over, but I insisted. So we drove
up and down the wrong road twice looking for the address. Finally she drove
up the road where she said we should have gone in the first place. There it
was, right were she said it would be. We were almost late, but the parking
spot was still there. Thank you Kathy.
As we drove up to the barn there was Paul's Expo 2007 Yellow Industrial
John Deere 60, orchard standard, sitting on the barn bridge. It was a
perfectly restored piece. Paul ushered us inside to the top floor of the
fifty foot by eighty foot two story barn. Inside Kathy settled Ellen down
in the meeting area and I went exploring. There were thirty or more John
Deere tractors from 1925 to 1960.
Paul then told me he had about thirty more tractors downstairs. So I
climbed down the spiral staircase into a sea of green. There was enough to
make any collector envious. It sure made my heart skip a beat. Their son,
Rob showed us around the bottom floor. It was an awesome sight.
Paul told us that he had another barn with another sixty tractors in it.
He said his oldest John Deere was a 1925 spoker D. He said he also had a
1928 GP. Most of the pieces in his collection are rare tractors. Many low
number tractors and some one of a kind, like his latest find, a one of a
kind High Seat "60" standard LP John Deere complete this amazing collection.
You can look it up on page 32 of the March/April 2008 two cylinder Magazine.
On the top floor there was a 320 U that Paul displayed in EXPO 2006.
There was also another John Deere that he displayed in EXPO 2005. These
EXPO tractors were restored by the Petermans from the heartland of our
country.
Paul grew up on a dairy farm in Brentwood. He married Kathy right after
high school. In 1961 Paul purchased a dozer and started his excavating
business. Twenty years ago he got a job moving some dirt. Since he had no
place to dump the dirt, he took it to the LaCort farm in Moriches, where he
spread it out and made roads for them. They wanted to pay him, but he said
he was already paid to move the dirt. So the LaCorts gave Paul his first
1940 John Deere B. The collection started building from there.
I asked him what it cost to put a John Deere tractor in EXPO condition.
He said anywhere from $4,000 for a spruce up, paint up job to $40,000 for a
barebones breakdown rebuild and paint.
Thanks again to Paul, Kathy and their son, Rob for their hospitality and
great food.
Also, last but not least, it was our President's birthday. We toasted
him and celebrated with a birthday cake decorated with a red tractor.
I saw it here from the Cat Bird's Seat.
Nes Kramer
Hallockville Fall Festival
September 29th and 30th, 2007
For the first time, the Hallockville Fall Festival was held for
two days this year. The weather was great. I was unseasonably warm, which
made for much better crowds. They came early and stayed late on both days.
Actually, Saturday's crowd was slow coming in but by noon the fields were
filling up pretty go.
We got the garden tractors started late. There were fifteen
signed up to pull. The youngest puller was six year old David Sheppard. He
pulled up to 1500 pounds. The rest of the pullers ages were ranging from
teenagers to men in their thirties. We opened the garden tractors up to all
ages a couple of years ago because the young pullers were getting fewer and
fewer, so we wanted to build this class up. The reason for this is that
there is a big audience for them in the morning. Lately the class has grown
to about fifteen. At about one PM, fifteen to twenty, two to eight years
olds put on a good show in the pedal pull, which is open to the public. We
then had an intermission, followed by the parade of power lead by "Steam
Jeff" on our 1929 Buffalo Springfield steam roller. Last but not least the
big guys pulled right out to thirty thousand pounds. I said not least, by
that I meant a big crowd stood in line all afternoon to go on "John Deere
Joe's" famous hay ride.
Sunday the thirtieth turned out to be another beautiful day for
fairing. Sunday's crowd was about double that of Saturday. The hay ride
took off where it left off Saturday. "John Deere Joe" picked up passengers
by the Kid's Korner, went out past the pulling track, then passing by the
standing engines, popping and hissing. Some of the engines were shelling
corn, some grinding corn, some pumping water and others doing old time
chores. Then there were some just making lots of noise that attracted
curious spectators, wanting to see how it was done in the early days. Joe
then took them past the potato field, where the field crew dug white and red
potatoes that were kind of small. The crew used our one hundred year old
potato digger, pulled by a 1937 Farmall. The hayride then headed out to the
back fields and around to our new barn, then back past the corn maze, past
the cows, Haley and the calf.
We had the same fifteen garden tractor pullers as we did on
Saturday. They pulled out three thousand pounds. Then the pedal pull
started. There were more than thirty kids from all over the tri state area,
even one from as far away as Washington D.C. The stands filled in for the
parade of power. Then the large tractors started pulling. The pull ended
about five PM, with Gene on his John Deere 830 Wheatlander, pulling thirty
thousand pounds.
The following is a story of interest that happened this season:
The Sheppard family has been involved with the Long Island
Antique Power Association since its inception. Now little Dave Sheppard,
Gene's grandson is starting to pull. Gene's father, Ernest Sheppard, came
to Long Island from Nebraska. He worked for John Deere in Riverhead as a
mechanic until he retired. Great Grandpa, Ernest instilled in his son,
Gene, hard work ethics along with an interest in mechanics and pulling.
Gene passed these attributes to his son, Gene, Jr. Gene, Jr. is now doing
the same with his two sons, seven year old Tyler and six year old David.
Gene, Jr. told me David first got interested in pulling one week before our
summer pull. They took a lawn tractor that was built for Gene, Sr.'s
daughters some twenty years ago. They worked day and night for a one week
preceding the show to get the tractor ready to pull. At that show, David
made a good showing his first time out. This fall, they did more work on
David's garden tractor. What a job they did. The new and improved garden
tractor now resembled Grandpa's John Deere 830. They even numbered the
little tractor with the "830". I've heard if you visit the Sheppard barn
out on Shelter Island, you better put your brakes on real hard. Because if
you don't, when you return to your truck, it might have been pulled to some
other location. Another, "I've heard" is the big boys are now building a
garden tractor for Tyler. This will make next summer's pull a double
threat.
I saw and heard it all up here, in the Cat Bird's Seat.
Nes Kramer
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15th Annual LIAPA Summer Show and Pull
Hallockville, Riverhead, NY
July 7 & 8, 2007
Our 15th annual Long Island Antique Power Association Show and Pull on July 7th and 8th went off without a hitch. To me, from up here in the cat bird’s seat, it was one of the best shows ever. We featured Oliver and all associated tractors and crawlers. There were all kinds of tractors in different conditions, but all were in working order. Some had been restored to perfection, some came in their working clothes and some were complete rust buckets. One Massey Harris 44 was hot-rodded out with a red paint job, 400 cube chevy motor, power glide transmission and big hot-rod tires. The name on the side was “the Outlaw”. One guy hauled in a trailer load of Cletetrak crawlers. I think he had about five of them on it. The crowd traipsed about the grounds and seemed to really enjoy the different displays of power. There were small one-lung standing engines , one horse power hit and miss engine from the 1800’s that powered up mills, pumps, and grinders. There were large standing engines that powered plants, town pumping stations and generators. These were used on the farms and businesses before the advent of electricity.
The Long Island chapter of The American Truck Historical Society had over two dozen antique trucks. There were antique fire engines and even a truck simulator that the kids steered braked and blew the air horn to their heart’s content. The featured truck was Carl Cardo’s antique tow truck. Thank God we had some antique fire trucks and fire personnel there because our own working 1929 steam roller puffed up some sparks that set the Hallockville barn roof on fire. The antique firemen quickly put it out with the nearby garden hose. We all thanked the local Jamesport Fire Department for coming up and checking to make sure all the sparks were put out.
Again this year, we had a large showing of many different make tractors, both large and small, dating from 1929 to the early 60’s. Many were restored to show condition and many were still in field working condition. There were also quite a few that participated in our annual pulling demonstration.
All the hard work put in by the different committees, manned by our club members and families is greatly appreciated. They added to our day by making it very satisfying and enjoyable.
Our field committee had little to do because our potatoes were still too small for digging and the grain was not ripe enough to combine. With no field work going on, the hay ride was not very popular. However, the crowd enjoyed all the other shows, demonstrations and events. Our most popular events are always the parade and pulls. The spectators filled the stands early for the lawn tractor pulls. We had ten lawn tractors on Saturday. They made fifty-one pulls with a total weight of 3,350 pounds. Sunday the track was heavy. We had thirteen lawn tractors that made seventeen pulls, but only pulled a maximum of 2,800 pounds. One puller with a sears heavy-duty lawn tractor broke on the track and needed to be towed. If Bob Villa had been there, he probably would have given him a new Craftsman, twenty-five horse power, lawn tractor. “Just Kidding”. Saturday at noon, as always, we had our very popular pedal pull for toddlers and up. There were seventeen eager kids from all over the Island and Connecticut who made full pulls. Sunday we more than doubled the participants. Thirty-five kids made thirty-five full pulls to a roaring crowd.
One o’clock, after a short intermission for refreshments, we had the parade of power. Bruce Young did his professional, experienced and entertaining broadcasting of the different trucks and tractors running through the parade. Sunday’s parade had even more machines participating.
Following the parade, the event that filled the stands, was our large tractor pull. Saturday there were thirty-two tractors. They made 125 pulls, starting with the Ford 9N’s, pulling up to 4,300 pounds and ending with the John Deere 830’s, pulling up to 29,200 pounds. Sunday there were thirty-six assorted make tractors making 165 pulls, ending with pulling a maximum of 28,500 pounds. The large pull was not without excitement. On Saturday one Super Massey Harris, 44 (“The Outlaw”) blew a hub at 12,300 pounds. Then on Sunday, the same Super 44 blew his hub again at 12,300 pounds. The other Massey Harris, 44, hot-rod tractor took 13,000 pounds out the back in five seconds. He had eight pulls to 18,000 pounds. He had the crowd off their seats and cheering loudly. There always seems to a lot of excitement right up to the last pull.
A good time had by all.
I saw it all, up here in the Cat Bird’s seat.
Nes Kramer,
A Scribbler
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Riverhead, NY
May 13, 2007
After a few attempts, spring finally arrived May 6th. The Long Island Antique Power Association finally got our big day. As soon as the time changes every year, we start planning to get our old trusty and dusty tractors ready for some kind of pulling action. In the spring we usually start with a day of plowing either one of our members or a friend’s field.
This year I unwrapped my 1944 John Deer B, washed it, checked the oil and greased the bearings, gassed it up and took a spin around the neighborhood giving rides to my nieces, Lauren Kate and Jennifer. They love to stand up and steer the Johnny. I then drove it up to Hallockville for the first plow scheduled for Sunday, April 29th. However, the weather didn’t cooperate. It was raining and cold, so the plow date was cancelled. I left the Johnny in the fence row. It fit in real well with the old plows, disks, planters, tractors and trucks.
The following Sunday, May 6th started out with a drizzle. We gathered in the field behind Hallockville for some B S-ing while waiting for the wind to dry the field. Around 10:00am we cranked up our tractors, hooked up our plows and headed out across Mudds Vinyard to Tuccio’s farm, east of Hallockville.
Twenty members and ten assorted antique tractors of every color including rust, hooked to their antique plows proceeded to plow thirty-five acres of corn stubble into nice brown dirt ready for planting. This took about four hours. We also plowed an additional eight acres of field grass and weeds. While ten of us plowed under the watchful eyes of our president, Dave. Ollie and Stanley disked up our mistakes with a new four wheel drive John Deere with an insulated cap.
Bruce and Marvin and their crew plowed at Hallockville. They planted potatoes for the July Pull. Then they planted a corn maze for the Hallockville fall festival. All in all it was a great day. There were just a couple of breakdowns, but none serious. Just one guy had to be towed back home. Personally my 44 B popped off all day without a miss.
After the plowing and planting we were treated to a delicious lunch which included three six foot heros, potato salads, macaroni salad, some relishes, beans, wine, soda and water. There was also lots of bragging.
Our first spring plow for 2007 is in the books. Our next one will be at Foster’s Farm, which will also be our next club meeting on May 20th. This is always a good time. See you there.
I saw it all up here in the cat bird seat.
Nes Kramer,
A Scribbler
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Spring 2007
March 22nd and spring has sprung on Long Island. It’s time again to dust off our old tractors, check the oil and gas, fill up the radiators, shine the hood, grease the bearings, check the air in the tires and turn those sweet sounding motors over. We are all itching to find a field and drop a few bottoms in the rich soil and see if these precious treasures can still get it done.
Every spring we also look around our membership and see who retired and went south or west. We also seem to loose someone to that great pull in the sky. This year we lost one of our long time members, Philip Swotkewicz. Philly as many of us knew him was an old farmer from way back, a gentle man and a great father and grandfather. He will be surely missed. Our sympathy to his family. As for Ellen and me, we lost another dear friend and old time Calverton farmer. Alex Anasky, Jr. died on March 18th, 2007. He was predeceased by his wife Theresa in July of 2003. The Anaskys farmed in Calverton for many years. They retired a few years ago. The family farm ended with their retirement. This has been the way of many local family farms here on Long Island. The local farm community is getting smaller as the years progress
When I think of the Anasky farm, I am reminded of the Anasky Barn on Route 25 in Calverton, one half mile west of the traffic light at Edwards Avenue. The “Anasky Farms” sign on the barn was kind of a landmark. Years ago before the Long Island Expressway came east, you knw you were close to Riverhead when you saw the sign of the Anasky barn.
Now Alex is gone, and the sign has faded and has been painted over. Another family farm has faded. Rest in peace Philly and Alex.
I saw it all up here in the cat bird seat.
Nes Kramer.
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We Had a Great Year
November 23, 2006
It’s Thanksgiving, 2006. We have a lot to be thankful for.
Still to come will be the East Hampton Santa Claus Parade on Saturday December 2nd, then the Riverhead Santa Claus Parade on Sunday the 3rd. Last will be our annual Christmas party at Cliff Foster’s in Sagaponak.
We have had a most successful year. We were able to celebrate the acquisition of our land. We almost had our first building up, then down, then up, then down. The ground was broken then closed, but progress is still being made thanks to our club officers. Most would have been discouraged dealing with the town officials, but not ours. President Dave Young, Vice President, Skip Bucher, Secretary, Steve Barker, Treasurer, Marvin Warner and our group of committee men keep staying the course. God bless them.
We started in the spring by plowing different farms. We had a most safe and successful summer at Hallockville. Our shows and pulls were just great. The different groups, garden tractors, peddle tractors, large tractors, small standing engines, large engines, shirt and hat tent group (mostly tended by the ladies), food tent and last but not least the field boys gave their all to make this year so wonderful.
We traveled to different shows and displays. We showed and pulled, maybe for the last time in Bridgehampton. Some of us went to Kinser and other places. All our members pitched in and made our appearances and shows safe and successful events. God bless them everyone.
Lastly I would like to take this time to remember all the loved ones that have passed. I would like to dedicate this year to our dear friend and fellow member Phil Bucher who passed on to the big engine run in Heaven.
Thanks for a wonderful and safe year.
I saw it all up here in the cat bird seat.
Nes Kramer.
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Hallockville 2006 Ends With a Bang! Our 14th annual Hallockville Fall Festival was held on Saturday, September 30th and Sunday, October 1st. This is the first year Hallockville asked us to help do a two day show. Past years it was just a Saturday show with a rain date on Sunday. The weather this year on Saturday was beautiful. The sky was clear blue with bright sun all day, though it was a bit brisk (45 degrees) early morning. As the day went on the temperature rose to about 70 degrees. Towards the evening the clouds came in with threats of rain.
Each group set up their tents. The field crew put up the fences. The tractors and standing engines were trucked in and set up in orderly groups. The front area was filled up by the craft vendors. There was a kid’s corner with old time games, including a treasure hunt. Thanks to Riverhead’s ROTC for their help in the kid’s corner.
The standing engine group brought in about 24 standing engines, lawn mowers, a 1920 15 HP Fairbanks, Morse. There were two Dentz engines, a six HP Norse Winch, a 1905 9 HP Alamo, a 1916 10 HP Ottowa with water pump. Then came a 1939 6M, 175 Diesel motor, a Barco 1940 tamper, a 1920 Ottowa log saw, a couple of Water Loo Boy motors, an International motor, and of course our own 1929 Buffalo Springfield Steam roller, driven by engineer Jeff, blowing off the whistle every hour.
Some of the tractors came in Friday night. The rest where trucked in on Saturday. I counted one Minneapolis Moline, two Cases, three Olivers, twenty-nine John Deeres, Nineteen Farmalls, four Fords, one Cat, one Oliver crawler, one Cletrac. Al Kielor and Carl Cardo each had their own row of restored John Deere tractors. Last but not least, Kenny Edwards’s Massey Harris hot rod 44.
About ten a.m. the field crew started plowing two fields. The hay was baled; potatoes were dug with our one hundred year old potato digger.
The garden tractors started pulling. Seven pullers made thirty-three pulls to a maximum of 1625 pounds. The track was dry and pulled hard. We forwent the kids’ pull for lack of kids. Not many people showed up in the morning. I think most of the people were out picking pumpkins and getting their corn stalks early this year. Then the crowd started piling in. They filled up the grand stands for the start of our parade of power. Then the little big boys started pulling the small tractors. As they started spinning out, the bigger tractors pulled in. Again the track was tough. Most pulled two or three blocks less.
The hay ride ran full most of the day. Potato picking was slow. The day ended after twenty-three tractors made ninety-nine pulls with Gene’s 830 John Deere pulling 32,600 pounds, fuel only by recycled vegetable cooking oil. As I said before, by the end of the day we closed up to a cloudy evening.
Sunday we came back and set up in a drizzle. However, everything went on like normal. We got ten garden tractors. They made sixty-seven pulls ending with J. Rice pulling 3,250 pound with a beautiful restored 1960 dual wheel Economy. Twenty-seven large tractors made one hundred and six pulls. All the pulling came to a halt at 4:30 p.m. That’s when the rains came pouring down and then KA BANG, the clap of thunder put a cap on the shindig.
Thanks again for a good safe pull!
I saw it up here in the cat bird seat.
Nes Kramer
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July 2006 Show
July 8th. and 9th. was our 14th. Annual Long Island Antique Power Associations Tractor Pull and Show. The show was held at the Hallockville Historical Farm on Sound Avenue in Riverhead. Our feature this year was "Old Trucks", both farm and commericial. The Long Island Chapter of American Truck Historical Society was also featured with us.
We had our monthly meeting at Hallockville the evening of July 5th. We cleaned up the area, cut the grass and put up fences ( to keep our members in ).
Saturday was our normal controlled confusion. Everything goes on at once. Exhibitors coming in to set up, standing engines to put up and get running, antique trucks to be parked, tractor displays to line up, hayrides to get started, spectators coming in, potatoes to dig with the 100 year old converted horse drawn potato digger, (pulled with a 1937 Farmall Tractor) and a kids play area to set up with twenty old time games, the ladies of the club had to set up a souvenir tent and lastly a refreshment tent to serve good eats and cold drinks to our hard working members.
The track was dry and the lawn tractors were spinning out early. Even the more experienced young pullers had a tough time with the sled.
The kids peddle pull went better with seventeen little pullers from all over Long Island able to pull the entire load.
Next up we had a parade of power, starting with the featured antique trucks. Then came a mixture of lawn tractors, medium tractors and large tractors. Last on the list was our own beautifully restored steam roller.
We took a half hour intermission to get ourselves refueled and watered for the long afternoon of tough pulling of the 2200 pound sled. The first pullers could hardly pull the sled and two 800 pound blocks. The next size tractors experienced the same tough time. Most pulled two blocks, less then normal. As the block pile grew, the sled dug into the heavy track making it harder to pull. The next size tractors pulled in taking on 16 blocks and up. Some tractors took a long time getting to the end of the track. One Massey Harris Super 44, with a 454 Chevy in it, hauled the blocks out in eight seconds, until his left hub exploded ending his day. the last to pull were the two John Deere 830's owned by Carl Cardo and Gene Sheppard. They both pulled out all the blocks, ending the pull day at six pm. After that a quick cleanup and then we had our annual bar-b-que for our members. Yum Yum... What a great way to end the day.
Sunday was all of the same. However, the men go together and wetted down the pulling track and rerigged the chain hooks on the big sled, which improved the pulling. Most pullers were pulling back to their normal weight again. The Super 44 got fixed and came back to wow the crowd. All pulled well with Gene Sheppard pulling the most.
Thanks again to our track crews for a fun and safe pulls.
I saw it all from up here in my catbird seat.
Sincerely,
Nes Kramer
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