My cyber-buddy Les is from Woodstock, New Hampshire. His family owns a campground, and last year Les decided to have a little impromptu tractor show. It went so well, he decided to do it again this year. He had a great turnout, beautiful weather, and a very interesting show. Here are some highlights.



This is a Bolens garden tractor from the early 40's. Power from a Wisconsin single cylinder air-cooled engine is fed to a double front wheel. The rider sits over the sulky-type wheels on the rear and steers by turning the powered front wheels. Looks like it'd be just the ticket for cultivating a garden.


Another unusual garden tractor is this David Bradley. The arrangement is the reverse of the Bolens, with the operator sitting over the powered single rear wheel, and steering with a conventional two-wheeled front. Also powered by a air-cooled single.


This is a belt-driven mill planer, belted up to an Allis B. Typically, this would be used in a saw mill or lumber mill, belted to an overhead shaft system. Les's brother Ralph had just picked this up, and after a bit of fiddling with the feed roller tension, it started making chips and turning out some nice lumber!



Here we have an International Harvestor Hay Press, or Stationary Baler. Not sure how old this thing is, but a good guess is between 80 and 100 years. It had sat in a barn for over 60 years, and was discovered recently. The feller that has it hauled it out of the barn, topped off the grease cups, oiled it here and there and drug it to the show. We belted it up to a Farmall H and commenced to make bales with it. After a couple of loose bales while we figured things out, it started making PERFECT bales!



The field in which the show was held had already been mown and raked, but there were some remnants. They hooked up a C to a dump rake and made a few trips to gather up fodder for the haypress. It was a real, old-time haying session there for a few minutes!



This Dearborn (Ford) buzz saw was belted up to an Farmall C and put to work. It made short work of spruce slabs as well as some Birch and Maple firewood.



Here's Les and his Case VAC splitting some wood for the Dearborn buzz saw to munch on.


A nice little Case VAI



There were several old cars at the show as well, including a Model T, a Model A, a 1940 Pontiac that belonged to Les's brother David (who also owns the David Bradley rider shown above) and this Jackson. A short-lived line, it was built in Jackson, Michigan. The grille says 1909, but I'm not sure that's the year of this particular vehicle. It seems pretty advanced for that year.



The original motor for the Jackson had a broken casting that couldn't be repaired, so the owner installed a Minneapolis Moline tractor engine. The cast cylinder, low speed, magneto-ignited, crank started engine matches very well with the car, and if I had not spotted the "MM" cast into the cylinders, I likely would never have suspected a thing.



Left to right, your intrepid host, Bill "Wannabe" and the Tractor Impresario Hisself, Les

Woodstock 2004
Woodstock 2005
Woodstock 2006
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