First Things

Introductions are in order, so here goes. I am the new editor of Farm Collector magazine and my name is Nancy Smith. Many of you already have met me via the telephone or mail – electronic and the old-fashioned sort. And maybe some of you read my piece on vintage poultry equipment in the December issue. I’ve been around the office since August, helping out here and there, and I’m really pleased to move into the editor’s chair.

In the past five months, I’ve learned you Farm Collector readers are a resourceful and good-hearted bunch, filled with enthusiasm for old-time farm equipment and keen to share your experiences with others.

I’m looking forward to meeting many of you in person and hearing your tractor tales. We’re planning to attend several shows in the upcoming months, inspired by all the listings you’ve submitted for the 2002 Steam & Gas Show Directory, which is smokin’ its way through the production process as we speak.

I want you to know a little about me as we begin this new chapter in the magazine’s life. I spent a chunk of my childhood on my grandparents’ farm here in Kansas, ‘helping out’ and riding my pony. Granddad never had a driver’s license; a Ford tractor filled all his transportation needs, and some of mine in time. Granddad is gone now, along with his Ford and his farm, but I remain ‘on the farm,’ having had the presence of mind to marry a farm boy a few years back. My husband, Richard, grew up on our place, as did his Mother and Grandmother before him. He isn’t a full-time farmer, but we do keep horses – four Belgians and two Morgans. No ponies, and don’t offer me any either.

 We make hay each summer to help keep these beasties in winter feed, and use an eclectic ‘collection’ of equipment to do it, including a 1955 Ford 800 that always makes me think of Granddad.

 A few years ago, Richard brought home a ’49 Farmall Cub, and he’s cleaned up several of our family-farm hand-me-downs, including a cultivator, a two-bottom plow and, my favorite, a dump rake. All were horse drawn, then converted for tractor use and finally retired to the fence rows, from which he rescued them. We’re trying to learn more about each one.