Antique Acres

This year was no exception, with a record crowd attending all
four days of the show. This gave members an extra special outlook,
especially after another dry summer. As dry as it was, there were
still plenty of oats to thresh. The threshing usually comes under
the direction of the Fischel family. They use their 18 HP Wood
Brothers to power their Hummingbird thresher. This rig does a very
nice job. Also threshing, with a Case separator, was Dave FuhLs and
his fine 16 HP Reeves. This is one of the finest running engines
you’ll ever see. Dave is an excellent machinist and had this
engine running as smooth as possible. Unfortunately, the engine was
sold and will no longer be at the show. It will be missed, but we
hope to have at least one more engine to take its place next
year.

The plowing was a great attraction as always. The Smolik’s
40 Reeves and 110 Case performed perfectly as always. As an extra
twist this year, we double headed the Smolik’s and
Bellinger’s 22 HP Advance Rumely on the 14-bottom John Deere
plow. This really seemed to be a crowd favorite, as we had never
done this before at our show. There are plenty of activities to
take in throughout the show grounds, from the many tractors and gas
engines to the museum that also houses the two large stationary
engines. The club has a third stationary engine on the grounds that
we are currently making plans to erect.

We always try to have as much seating and shade as possible.
This makes the eating and entertainment tents very popular. The
parade also always seems to be a big attraction. The parading of
the machinery each day lasted a little over an hour. We had a
special section for the Case equipment; Case was our featured line
this year.

A lot of fun was had on the Prony brake. I think this is the
favorite of many steam men who attend our show. Most of the engines
at the show participate, ranging from Randy Schwerin’s 10 HP
Advance to the big 40 HP Reeves. It is always fun to see who can
get what from their engine.

The sawmill was also kept very busy, caused by a bumper crop of
logs. Providing power were the Advance Rumelys, the 110 Case and a
couple of very nice tractors. We like to switch power on the mill
at least twice a day to give everyone a chance to hear different
sounds of the engines and to spark interest.

Well, that’s a brief summary of our 25th show. We at Antique
Acres would like to invite everyone to help us start our next 25
years. This year’s show will be held on the 23, 24, 25, and 26
of August 1990. We will be featuring Ford and Fordson products.