Grab your sunglasses, get your most comfortable pair of shoes
and a nice cool outfit and get going to the Reunions they are
coming into their own about this time of year.
After such a long, long winter we are having some beautiful
weather these last few days and yesterday our youngest grandson,
Ryan, was a big one year old. He and his Mommie and our Tommie and
I journeyed about twenty miles down to Hershey where they have a
real nice zoo for free admission you don’t find many places
like that nowadays. Even though the birthday boy was only one he
really enjoyed the animals, as did Uncle Tommie. They don’t
have a lot of the larger jungle animals there, but they do have a
bison, and llamas and goats, wolves, etc. and quite a few of the
domesticated animals. One of ‘those good to be alive days’
and long to be remembered in my book of memories. The two little
ones conked out for ‘forty winks’ on the way home.
I had a letter awhile back from DAVE BAKER, 735 North Van Dyke,
Bad Axe, Michigan, who wrote: ‘I have a lead. A local scrap
dealer just hauled in two good, always shedded, grain separators.
One is a New Huber, all steel on original hard rubber tires, in
excellent shape. The other is almost as good. It is a small Nichols
& Shepard, all steel on steel!’
I don’t know if they are still available or not, but if you
are interested write to Dave. He would like to see these machines
have as good a home as they had previously.
Since we have so many ads and show reports in this issue, I
won’t be putting in a LOST IN THE FILES page, but I had one
letter from THOMAS HATCHER, 128 E. Maple Ave., New Concord, Ohio,
who wrote ‘In May-June 1969 issue page 37, picture 11M69 is a
picture of my great Uncle Douglas Hatcher with new Garr-Scott
engine and thresher 1901 as it came into be unloaded at Belmont,
Ohio, in 1901. My uncle is on the engine.’
JACK K. WILLIAMS, 1121 Hilltop Lane, Modesto, California, had
written to say he had left out a few things from his last report.
He goes on to tell us ‘Loren M. Wade of Tracy, California, had
a very interesting experience last year. All of the steam men know
of the 110 Case steam traction engine that was owned by the late
Chris M. Busch that he had never hauled home to Col-ton from near
Darcy, Saskatchewan, Canada.
‘After his death, it was sold to Mr. John Hall of Cape
Giradeau, Missouri. Mr. Hall and Loren arranged to meet at
Loren’s brothers near where this engine was standing near
Darcy-had stood there for 40 years after its last threshing in
October of 1928, pulling a large Advance-Rumely separator if I
remember correctly what Loren told me and it was parked along with
rest of rig consisting of water wagon and some bundle racks. The
engine was all that was left and Loren’s 25 Reeves engine is
located on his brother’s farm near here. They met about July
1st and Loren said after soaking up all moving parts with diesel
oil and removing handhole plates and washing boiler, the rest of
engine was in excellent condition. After putting the handhole
plates back in and giving engine a hydrostatic test, boiler was
found to be in excellent condition. The engine was then steamed up
and firebox was nice and dry.
‘After taking in the Saskatoon Annual Show, he steamed up
the engine and moved it three miles, crossed a highway near his
brother’s farm and loaded the engine on a flatcar spotted on a
spur of the Canadian Pacific railroad. That same day it moved out
on a local freight and was seen moving east in a train on the way
to a new home in Missouri. Loren said he saw the engine last fall
and it is being restored. Perhaps Mr. Hall will tell us what has
been done with this engine after it arrived at the new home.
‘Last summer, my nephew and one of my twin boys, who was
then 16 years of age, cut 250 acres of heavy barley on the Ducot
ranch with a 1951 16-foot cut side-hill Harris pull combine and
pulling it with a D7 Caterpillar tractor. I wonder how many other
such rigs were in operation last harvest season? These two boys,
and it was my boys first season to drive a tractor on farm work,
cut a heavy crop of barley and did a fine job the old Harris cut
around some steep slopes and did a cleaner job of threshing and
cleaning the grain than a modern, self-propelled Case side-hill
model combine. The grain was hauled from the combine with a grain
truck and then elevated into storage bins with an elevator, powered
with a 2C 3 hp. Fairbanks-Morse gasoline engine that I had restored
a few years ago. The same rig will be in operation again this
year.’
Many of the GEM subscribers already know that Elmer is not up to
par and is spending the weeks from Sunday night until Friday
evening in a convalescent home – Blue Ridge Haven West, 770 Poplar
Church Road, Camp Hill Penna. 17011. He would be glad to hear from
you good folks. His steam is down a bit
Courtesy of Harold J. Gay, 633 Cleveland Street, Decatur,
Indiana 46733.
and he’s in the shops for a tune-up. His family visits him
daily and when possible he comes home on weekends. He is still TOP
MAN at the home office and has the final say on our decisions
we’re happy to say. We all run down and try to perk him up a
bit when we can. If he is not too down he perks us up just like our
good ole Elmer always did have that touch.
Bye Bye, do have a good summer and enjoy those vacations and
remember: ‘In planning a vacation the rule is to take along
half as much baggage and twice as much money’. AND’ The
best place to spend your vacation is just inside your
income.’
