2024 Current News
BELOW ARE THE EVENT REPORTS THAT ARE EMAILED TO OUR MEMBERS AS WE MOVE THROUGH THE SEASON. WE ALSO POST THEM HERE ON OUR WEBSITE FOR VISITORS TO ENJOY. THE FIRST REPORT YOU READ BELOW IS MOST RECENT.
East 50 Final Farm Report 2024
Our 2024 farming efforts at our East 50 lease have pretty much wrapped up for the year. Swathing of 50 acres of wheat that was seeded back in May started on Sunday, September 22 followed by harvesting of the crop with 3 combines .... one of our JD 95's, our Massey Ferguson 550, plus a "new to us" 1970 International 503 that we recently purchased. We fought our way through the regular array of minor mechanical issues, adjustments and straw jamming, but we finished it up and our crop was in the bins by late afternoon on Wednesday, September 25.
On Tuesday, we put our 8' John Deere power binder to work on a couple of acres of the wheat crop. The crop was dry enough standing that we were able to load the bundles directly onto our wagons without stooking. We then towed the wagons back to the quonset at the Bremner site for winter storage. We'll put them through the threshing machine at next August's tractor pull and show, our visitors always enjoy those demonstrations.
We dealt with the wheat straw by putting a New Holland 268 and a John Deere 24T baler to work after the combines finished up. When all the dust settled, we counted 1570 small square straw bales along with an estimated 1500 bushels of wheat. Still to happen is some additional field preparation in October back at our North Field site at Bremner. We've disked the land once since the pull weekend and will complete one more pass before the snow flies. We plan to seed some grass ground cover and hay next spring if things go according to schedule with the county's new Ag facility at the North Field. Thanks to all of our members who pitched in for another successful season of vintage farming.
SVTA Year End Lunch Social - September 21
This year for our "year end" get together we decided to hold it earlier than usual with a new format and in a different location. Saturday, September 21 arrived and the weather couldn't have been better for a fall afternoon lunch social with our fellow club members. We held it at Wes and Gloria Kreamer's farmsite "Thee Ark" just outside of Sherwood Park on Range Road 223 south of the Wye Road.
It's a beautiful location with a rustic central barn and a variety of smaller outbuildings as well. The farm yard area made one feel like they had stepped back in time many years. Outside are a variety of visiting areas and a grassy meadow, walking trails, horseshoe pits, vintage farm equipment sheds, chicken coops and even some pheasants. Everywhere you looked inside and out you could see interesting farm and rural collectibles and memorabilia to browse at your leisure.
And of course, every stop inspired several stories from members remembering years back when their families used similar items everyday.
The lunch was tasty and everyone went home with a full belly and little need to worry about supper later. Sid Lyle planned and organized the event for us and the 50 individuals who showed up had a great time. Things wrapped up late in the afternoon. In closing, a big thank you is passed along to Sid as well as those who helped out with set up and clean up duties.
SVTA's 19th Annual Tractor Pull & Show - August 24 & 25
This year marked our club's 19th annual Tractor Pull and Show, and our first at the new "North Field" site. First off we'll pass along a huge thank you to our club members and others who were involved with the move north a few weeks back and then the preparation of the new site. To get that done in such a short time frame was quite a feat. The weekend weather was favourable other than Saturday being quite windy and then some heavy rain overnight and into Sunday morning was a big concern since the track was in very bad condition early Sunday. We managed to skim off about 10 cm of slick and sticky clay mud thanks to our on-site grader and the pulling sled's pullback tractor.
Once things got rolling on Saturday after the driver safety meeting, the pulling moved along quite well. On Saturday we started with the Ultra-Flyweights (one of our ten weight classes) and that was reversed for Sunday pulling when the Class 6 heavyweights were first up. We registered and weighed a total of 130 tractors on Friday evening and Saturday morning. Eighty of our club members participated in the pulling (including 8 new ones who signed up), that's almost half of our total club membership. Each day had about 150 pulls being completed (our most ever) so things finished up a bit later than usual. Then on Saturday evening, our supper in the silent auction tent was delicious. This year's menu was a chicken souvlaki main course with all the trimmings.
We counted a total of 2700 paid admissions through the gate. The total on site was much larger of course since those 14 and under are admitted free, and there were lots of youngsters in attendance. In addition to the pulling, we had three big tents set up for our silent auction, garage sale, and outside vendors. A number of food trucks kept everyone well fed and the kids were kept busy with our sand pile and toys, face painting, mini train rides, and the bouncy castle.
Our "demonstration" area had a crew threshing grain from last year's barley crop, an operating sawmill, and stationary engines running pumps, etc. Visitors enjoyed the wagon rides around the site along with the welcome transport they provided back and forth between the parking area and the action at the track. Static displays of cars, trucks, agricultural equipment and other items of interest were enjoyed by visitors. Things wrapped up late Sunday afternoon with trophies awarded to the first three finishers in each of our classes.
One of the weekend highlites was the dedication of our new "McLaren People Mover" wagon for transporting visitors in attendance. It is in memory of club member Gord McLaren who passed away in 2020. Gord was a tireless worker for our club and was our first site maintenance worker and was a big part of making sure things always looked nice & well kept. On hand for the dedication were Gord's wife Fran and his daughter-in-law Susan McLaren. The inscription on the wagon signs say, "Gord taught us the value of hard work by working hard". It was an emotional time for the McLarens as well as for many of us who worked alongside Gord in years past.
Next year our event will be even better once we get a more permanent ground cover seeded so we're looking forward to that. And let's not forget to thank all the many volunteers who worked so hard over the weekend, and also the pull committee members who organized everything starting in early spring.
Strathcona Vintage Tractor Association