Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Field Day

The local Antique Tractor and Engine Club had their Field Days over the weekend. Far Guy and I decided that we would give it a whirl. They were supposed to have lots of demonstrations, and a giant swap meet/flea market area..and good food.

The only demonstration they had was threshing..

They had a very nice collection of Case tractors.

In typical small town fashion..the hype was just that.. the giant swap meet was three individuals..one that was selling CDs. The bratwurst that I ordered for lunch was inedible. Far Guy tried a bite of it too..it was prepared fine..boiled..it just tasted really bad, disgustingly bad. I was going to take it back to the kitchen, Far Guy asked me not too. So I didn't ..I told him FINE..I will just blog about it then. I told him, that obviously no one in the kitchen had tasted the brats. Quality control was dead and gone..probably due to bad brats. There was some um-pa-pa music at the lunch stand. A few silver hairs without canes or walkers were dancing..one lady must have had a bad foot as she had two different kinds of shoes on..either that or she wore the other same exact pair out. One black shoe, one brown and tan. I should have taken a photo.

This Tractor Club doesn't quite have their act together. Far Guy says their focus is the Tractors and Engines. I say fine and dandy..but without demonstrations and good food ..how do you expect to draw a crowd from year to year. I can only look at tractors for so long.. and I do appreciate tractors..I can only imagine that a true citified gal would be bored to tears. I asked why the demonstrations were not ongoing.. I was told that the Tractor Parade was more important. I didn't get to see the corn shelling machine shell corn.. I think that is what it does.

I would have liked to have seen the gas powered washing machine work.. I did get to hear that one run out on the front porch of the Farm House. I am sure in it's day it was an improvement..but it was really noisy. I went into the Mercantile Store where there was supposed to be ladies crafts and found a bad garage sale. BUT I could have purchased leftover Field Day buttons from the past sixteen years, just in case i was a collector. I see so many possibilities to improve these Field Days.. so many ways to improve their attendance, they have beautiful grounds and pretty good looking buildings. Their advertising is top notch..and kids twelve and under could attend free..so it is a bargain in the making for a day out if you have a number of children. They had a petting zoo..but there was no petting allowed if the animals owners weren't there.. I was reckless and petted and scratched the goats and the miniature horses anyway. I didn't see a woodshed out back:)

16 comments:

hayseed said...

Our neighbouring town had a tractor show this weekend too! I just drove by though, all of the tractors were the same colour (orange)-maybe if they were painted diffent colours?...it didn't look too busy either.

Anonymous said...

wow now I know i've arrived... 5 years ago i would have looked at something like this and said "HUH!?!?" .. now it's fascinating...

thanx for bringing out my country spirit just a bit more :)
gp

L. D. said...

As a kid I remember the corn sheller but my step Grandfather's was hand cranked. That sure made a lot of noise when we threw and ear of corn in there. I bet we would have gotten in trouble that we were even in there messing with it.
It looks like that could be a lot of fun. We have an Old Settlers Reunion in Iowa and they have a daily parade of old steam engine tractors and such. It has almost gone the other way and become too commercial.

The Retired One said...

The best way to get a bad situation better is to join the organizers of this event to personally help make it better.
You might be able to make it the way you think it should be!

Anonymous said...

That's a shame to have such a great opportunity and nice space and then disappoint everyone. I would think with times as hard as they are, that food vendors, crafters would jump at the chance for such a show and various organizations would volunteer to play music, dance, clog etc.

Emma Rose said...

I agree with The Retired One - you should take over the planning and make it a really fun day :) Ok, ok, I know, that's a LOT of work....
Too much for my lazy self! Ha! Maybe you have more energy than I do????? I KNOW you are more creative!

The Duchess
Kisses from Emma Rose

Becca's Dirt said...

Funny Connie. You guessed it the lady wore out the other pair of shoes. That is funny. I have gone to work in house shoes before - not on purpose. Maybe next year they might let you do some planning and preparing for a better sale/show.

DayPhoto said...

I think you should join and help them out! Food and demos really are a huge selling point. Now on DH's part he goes for the tractor pull. To be honest with you, I think I would like the food and more demonstrations, and less tractors. OHHHHHHHHHHHHH you didn't hear that! Not from me. SHHHHHHHHH

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/

Rae said...

Were you here in my town over the weekend? Sounds just like most events that happen here in my area. Lots of hype followed by a boring event.
Well I don't think I have seen the shoe lady before.
You sure do like living dangerously - petting the goats and miniature horses. LOL I have to agree with everyone else. Maybe you should become an organizer and make this a better event.

Maery Rose said...

Reminds me of the Threshing Show in our area, which will be later in August. It's kind of fun just gawking at the people that attend. And I love the tractors. Some people get really decked out for the parade. They have an oxen plowing demo that's kind of interesting too.

Sandra said...

They are probably very happy with it as it was. They are a bunch of
guys with their tractors. I don't think they care about anything else. : )

Anonymous said...

Kids would love this kind of day... Sorry that it wasn't as great as the hype said it would be!

lisa said...

Boy, would my husband like to be there, we miss the old antique tractor pulls and threshing shows!! They don't have those out here in New York very often. We used to go to them alot when we lived in Illinois!! Thanks for sharing!!

Leah said...

Thanks for the update -- this has been on my "wanting to do list" but I'm usually tired from the county fair. I always thought it would be better than Rollag since I'm not ready for something as big as Rollag. But.....I think I'll cross this off my list and add Rollag Days! I wonder if everybody was at "Dorset Days" just down the street where there was a lot to eat! (that is also on my list)...

Karen Anne said...

I would like to have seen that, especially if the corn shelling machine were working.

Around here there would have been a bunch of people selling food, preserves, crafts. Plus the local humane society or food pantry would have had a table for donations. Maybe they just need an organizer.

Pamela said...

you're giving me the giggles. we should put you in charge.