I really enjoy your magazine. I am a city dweller who moved out to the farm. I always wanted a tractor, but living in town I didn’t have a place for one.
When we lived in town, I collected Cushman scooters, Schwinn bicycles, bowling items, clocks, pay phones, pop machines and jukeboxes. I was looking for a tractor. Something unique. One day at the International dealership I saw this M with a comfort cab. It was on a trailer getting read to be unloaded. I fell in love instantly. She has an AM/FM radio, cigarette lighter, chrome ashtray, inside light and now an oogah horn.
I took my wife to look at it. She thought it was ugly. So I had to tell her that I already owned it and that she was just dropping me off. I rode that M to work. Next I bought a 1948 Allis G. One trip around the yard and the scooters, bikes and the rest of the stuff was sold at auction. Now to the good stuff.
My wife has a row of horse-drawn farm equipment. Our collection includes about 100 steel wheels, four slop carts and three wooden wagons.
This summer we redid a 2-story home to look like a barn. It has a haymow door but no hinges, fake barn windows, a lightning rod, a cupola from a 1918 barn and an antique weather vane. To celebrate, we thought we would have a barn dance. I have been in the food business for 25 years and thought I would like to have all my kitchen equipment in one place. So why not have an outdoor kitchen? I would need a tractor to put in it. My wife said I could have her 1928 10-20 McCormick-Deering. I didn’t want that, so I looked on the Internet and found a 1918 Ford Model T tractor. I had the kitchen built to the tractor size. When was the last time you had dinner with a 1918 Model T in the kitchen?
I named our kitchen “Jerry and Doraine’s Tractor Barnyard Paradise.” The sign above the door has a steel-wheeled tractor on it. We have a fire ring and 1,600 bricks for a patio. This little spot is our paradise.
I enjoy driving my tractors to town, shows and parades. Tractor fever: I think this is what happens when a city dude moves to the country. I also have a 1928 10-20 McCormick-Deering, an International M and H, an Oliver 60, Cockshutt 30, an Allis G, a Bohlens Ride Master, a John Deere 60 Orchard tractor, a Bohlens 1477 Garden tractor, and a John Deere 5230 for work on the farm.
The kitchen is always open. Stop by and say, “Hi.” We really enjoy the stories in Farm Collector. Be careful of that tractor fever.
Jerry Whipple, Pipestone, Minn.; (507) 825-3022