Antique Acres 1987 Show Report

show grounds. The first thing you will see upon arrival from the
parking lot will be one of our big engines performing duties on the
Prony Brake, being operated by Mr. Ray Smolik of Osage, Iowa. Today
Ray is going to put the 140 horse Reeves to the test. Firing this
old giant is Graham Sellers, pulling the throttle, and letting the
ol girl do her thing is Randy Scherwin from Sumner, Iowa. Boy what
a pair to draw to. Well the ol girl put on a nice show, pulling 165
horses. Who said they get older, they get tired. Not so in this
case. By the way, mentioning Case, here comes the 110 up to do her
stuff owned by Ed and Ray Smolik from Osage, Iowa. Well, they get
the belt tight, or at least they think they have it tight. She
starts talking real nice. Yes, you guessed it she just spits the
belt off! Well, John Schrock from Mason, Michigan, has to get down
from the perch and do it all over again. This time he gets it
fiddle string tight. They start turning her down and she begins to
put out the black smoke and puts out some real nice music. You
steam fans will know what I’m talking about. Well, she pulls
155 horse. Boy the old girl put on a nice show today. Coming along
with the Coach from Michigan is that daredevil, Harry Wood manse.
Everybody has heard about his daredevil stunts from climbing the
famous ramp to seeing what he could do daring with the various
makes of engines. We have a great time with these guys from
Michigan. Someday I have to visit them and get even. From the brake
you will see many engines trying to do their thing for our fans and
also our gas tractor people get involved pulling the fans too. From
there you will walk up through the main drag to our museum where
you will see our big stationary engines operated by Rick Witte.
Rick has them really humming today. Everything is cooking real
good. You will wander through the museum looking at the various old
pieces of equipment on display there. At about this time, you will
see our souvenir booth but, something else catches your eye. After
that long ride mother nature calls. You will be surprised to know
that we have clean modern rest-rooms with nice warm shower, for you
people who will be camping with us. Now that we have that detail
taken care of, on back to our tour. You stop and browse through our
amply stocked souvenir booth. Come back later before going
home.

You walk across our special feature island where a nice motor
home sits that John Deere builds the chassis for. From there the
sawmill should be humming if the sawyer has not gotten careless and
hit a nail and is supposedly sharpening up. I have not figured out
yet how you can sharpen a saw from the shade tree. Someday I am
going to get him to show me. Today we have Smoliks 22 HP
Advance-Rumely powering it. Charlie had the oP girl all hot and
popping off, come on Fritz, the saw-men is finally ready. Frita and
Cleta are from Ohio originally, but now call Arizona home. Thanks
to them for helping. Well they get sawing again. On the odd days
the Bellinger 20 horse Advance-Rumely powers it. Just out of the
corner of my eye comes Dave Fowls little 16 horse Reeves. Boy, talk
about a nice quiet engine. You have to watch it run to believe it
is moving, not a click. Sure wished mine was that quiet.

From the sawmill through the large gas engine alley set up by
John Ruth who also takes care of our PA system, you will find
Stewart Fenton and his complete display of Rumely Oil Pulls, of
which my favorite is that ever-popular Bump Bump 30-60. What a
piece of machinery! From there to our tractor display area. This
year we are lucky enough to have the M & M Collectors with us.
Seeing all that yellow makes you wonder if you had bad coffee for
breakfast or was it the night before. Anyway they had a very nice
display along with our featured tractor, Oliver. A big thanks to
the people who lined this all up. By now the antique tractor pull
is getting under way. Boy, do those old girls cackle, I sure do
enjoy hearing them talk.

By now your tummy is telling you it is dinner-time. Well, after
a delicious meal from our food people it is time for our parade to
begin.

Mr. Art Robinson whom we call, or as he calls himself, the motor
mouth of the north, because he and his wife Hulda are from Sioux
Falls, South Dakota. Thanks for your help. By now, it is parade
time, starting off the parade is our caretakers the Millers. They
dress in old time costumes. Molly always had to poke Venice in the
seat of the pants with the old time wooden pitch fork, as he always
wants to hold up the parade by talking to all the pretty ladies in
the crowd. Anyway, we get him going and the rest follow through.
Rich Stavely coming along with his beautiful Belgian horses pulling
a 4-bottom plow which he plows with. Talk about horse power, there
you have it! The engines come through but I cannot believe my eyes.
I think the big Reeves has had a little Reeves. Then I find it is
Mr. Mike Parker from Fairfield, Iowa, with his scale model of the
big Reeves. What a beautiful model. Thanks, Mike, for coming up to
see us.

After the parade the two big engines do their thing. The Reeves
taking her turn pulling the 14-bottom plow. Both engines do a
beautiful job pulling the big plow. After plowing we start
threshing. Today it is a complete outfit made in Des Moines, Iowa.
This is the 18 horse Wood Brothers engine and separator owned by
the Fischels family. Ray journeys all the way from Jersey along
with his wife, Betty. Nice to have you both here. Bob takes the
easy end, he is the separator-man. Seems we always have ample
bundle pitchers, everyone enjoys pitching one more time. I think
they just want to see if they can slug the machine. Not so today as
the Wood Brothers just keeps on puffing away. As I turn around from
there right behind me is the Smoliks big logger engine. This has 4
engines, 2 on each side of the smoke box. I have often wondered
what the old girl sounded like up in Canada pulling those loads of
logs in the wintertime. You will find Mr. Ed Smolik pulling the
throttle. Do not be afraid to take the time to get him to tell you
about getting hold of all 3 of their engines, but be ready to spend
a little time because it is a lengthy but very interesting story.
It is hard to get him to slow down though as I have heard through
the grapevine that he had been known to go about 90 miles an hour.
Pretty fast for an 80 year old man, I would say.

After you have come up from the threshing you walk into our
feature building displaying our feature equipment. This year it was
Galloway. The old piano is putting out the prettiest music, and
would you believe, Mr. Miller has taken time out from talking to
all the pretty ladies to entertaining them now. Boy, talk about a
guy!

From there to the toy feature building and seeing all the nice
toy displays. If I just had a fat pocket book I could relive all my
boyhood dreams of having all those nice toys. Next you go through
part of our vast flea market display. You’ll find everything
from soup to nuts. One last visit to the pottie before going home.
On the way to the car you see more flea markets. ‘Must be
something out there that the guy wants to get rid of at a bargain
price. Well, you make your way through the area thinking no, I
really don’t need this, but maybe I can talk him out of it at a
good price. It takes you longer than you thought as it was bigger
than you had anticipated, but you feel you have to go back and take
that special item home that you’ve been looking for. You make
it back only to find that someone has already come along and bought
your bargain. If only I had bought it when I saw it. Well, there
will be another one and I will not pass that one up.

I would like to take this time to thank each and everyone who
helps put on our show. Without all the armchair supervisors right
down to the little ones who also participate with all of us,
without you we would not have a show. We would also like to invite
you to stop by and enjoy our campgrounds if you need a place to
hang your hat for a day or two or, maybe even longer. Remember, we
are on Highway 218 North of Cedar Falls, Iowa. Only 4 miles
north.

We always have the welcome mat out. Please feel free to enjoy
our hospitality. Next year’s show dates are August 25, 26, 27,
28. I hope I have not bored you too much and hope you have enjoyed
the 50 tour. We would rather have you take it in person as you
would really enjoy it. Stop in and tell us, HELLO!