Branch 158 is a member of the Early Day Gas Engine and Tractor Assn., Inc.

Individual dues for principal members are $20.00 per year. Dues for auxiliary members are $12.00 each per year. Spouses and dependent children from 12 to 18 years old of principal members are considered auxiliary members. New members joining during each membership period will be considered members through the end of that period. Those with membership in a different EDGE & TA branch, may join Branch 158 with full membership privileges for $12.00 per year along with proof of membership (i.e., photocopy of card) in the other branch. Dues become due and payable on January 1st and are delinquent if not paid by April 15th.

Dues may be paid by mailing a check payable to EDGE&TA, Branch 158 along with a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Secretary-Treasurer Sue Esdaile, 310 Cross St., Woodland, CA 95695.

Branch 158 Rules:
1. Keep it Simple.
2. Keep it Fun.
3. Keep it from becoming an Old Man’s RV Camping Club.

The Baling Wire is the official newsletter of Branch 158. It provides members with reports of past events, calendar of coming events, letters, ads, club information, and tips for the restoration and preservation of vintage farm, mining, construction, and related machinery. There is no charge for ads in the Baling Wire. All ads must be related to antique engines/tractors. For sale ads will be accepted from anyone, regardless of EDGE & TA membership. Wanted ads will be accepted only from EDGE & TA members. Your input for the Baling Wire is most welcome. Send to John Boehm, Editor, 14151 County Road 98A, Woodland, CA 95695-9134; Fax 530-661-6744, e-mail: rustyacres@yahoo.com.

Coming Events

Colusa Casino Endurance Run

Dates: Saturday and Sunday, April 26 and 27, 2008. We plan to bring along a porta-potty and support trailer with tools, extra gas, tow straps, and so on. There will be room for your personal items or tractor supplies.

Route: Our starting point will be Ramos Oil at I-5 and East St. in Woodland. There will be a parking area where you can leave your trucks and trailers until our return. Be ready to start by 7:30 am as we have a lot of miles to cover. If you are coming from a distance and plan to spend Friday night in Woodland, there are two motels just across the street from Ramos Oil, the Best Western Shadow Inn (530-666-1251) or Valley Oaks Inn (530-666-5511). On Saturday, we will parallel I-5 to Maxwell, then east on Maxwell Road to Highway 45 and the Casino. Sunday we will htravel along the east side of the Sacramento River, through Meridian and Knights Landing, then back to Ramos Oil in Woodland

Lunches on Saturday and Sunday: Branch 158 will provide lunch fixings (lunch meat and cheese for sandwiches, chips, salad, soft drinks, etc.) This worked so well on Sunday of last year’s ride that we decided to make a roadside lunch stop on both days of the ride. Anticipated cost per rider is $10 for both lunches.

Lodging and Dinner at the Casino: We have reserved a block of 15 rooms for the night of April 26 at the Colusa Casino. The room rate is $79 this year (still much less than the regular $139 rate). You must make your own reservations by calling the casino reservation desk at 877-869-7829. Make sure you let them know that you are in the “Tractor Ride” group to get the special rate. This year we plan to meet for dinner at the casino’s buffet restaurant, rather than the steakhouse. Probable dinnertime around 6 to 6:30 pm. Many riders like to get together beforehand in the bar to review the day’s activities. We will meet again in the buffer restaurant Sunday morning for breakfast before the ride.

Requirements: This event is sponsored by Branch 158. All drivers must have a valid driver’s license and show proof of membership in any branch of EDGE&TA in order to participate. All tractors are subject to a safety inspection and must have a kill switch, working brakes, a slow moving vehicle safety triangle, a fire extinguisher, and a minimum speed of 9 miles per hour. NO riders unless they are in a seat designed for a second person AND approved by the Branch 158 safety committee. Additionally, our new safety rules will require loading and unloading on ramps securely attached, three ramps for tricycle tractors, and encourage the use of winches and/or spotters.

Contact: John Boehm at 530-668-9410 or rustyacres@yahoo.com

Best Show on Tracks (previously Family Farm Festival)

Dates: June 20-22, 2008 from 9 am to 3 pm.

Location: Dan Best Ranch, north of Woodland, at Road 14 and Road 101 (between Highway 113 and Road 102)

What:The Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owner’s Club will be having their national show at this event. It will be a huge show, with many Cats from out of the area. Bring your gas engines, tractors, and implements, any make or model to go along with the crawlers, threshing machines, and harvesters as we demonstrate old time binding, threshing, harvesting, plowing, and disking.

Admission: Preregistered exhibitors will receive two complimentary passes for the weekend. General admission is $10 per day. No hookup camping fees are $75 for up to one week stay.

Contact: Heidrick Ag History Center at 530-666-9700 or www.aghistory.org or Rich Cleland at RCLE9898@aol.com or 530-662-3560.


Yolo County Fair

The Yolo County Fair will be held from Wednesday August 13 through Sunday August 17, 2008. Exhibitors should be set up before the 6 pm Wednesday opening of the fair to the public (Tuesday set up is preferable). Exhibits should not be removed until after the fair closes on Sunday evening (Monday preferred). For setup, enter the fairgrounds from the East St. entrance near the Fair office. A forklift is available. Contact Rich Cleland at 530-662-3560 or RCLE9898@aol.com for information.

Show Reports

Colusa Casino
Endurance Run 2007
by John Boehm

For the third time, tractor drivers covered 110+ miles in two days! Our second Colusa Casino Endurance Run was a great Branch 158 success with thirteen tractors making the circuit, up from nine tractors a year ago. The event took place on April 28 and 29, 2007. We started out Saturday from Ramos Oil in Woodland, traveling on old Highway 99 to Maxwell, then over to the Colusa Casino north of Colusa. On Sunday, we tried a new route, down State Highway 45 along the west side of the Sacramento River, going through Colusa and Grimes on our way back to Woodland. The weather was great. Many of the blooming spring flowers made the drive very enjoyable.

Mechanical problems seemed the order of the day on Saturday. Janice Reil’s Super C’s front wheel was pitched at an ungainly angle making it hard to steer. Replacement of the broken wheel bearing in Arbuckle solved the problem. John Boehm and his Oliver 60 had to be towed from Dunnigan to Arbuckle because of a fan belt that worked its way off. A replacement could not be found, so a repair was attempted that lasted about five more miles, before he had to be towed again, this time to our lunch break in Williams. Jerry Percival was able to find a belt in Williams; the tractor performed flawlessly once the new belt was in place. But then just outside Williams, Floyd Percival’s Oliver lost its coolant and a lot of oil. He and the tractor needed to be towed to the casino. The fan belt was loose and slipping, so it may not be too bad, but Floyd plans to remove the head and check the head gasket to make sure there are not more serious problems, such as a blown head gasket. Finally, by the time we got to the casino, Sue Esdaile noticed that the front tire on her Case VAO had lost its tread. Her hubby, Phil, brought another tire to Colusa and changed it while we had dinner. I am not sure if Phil ever got to eat. Jerry Percival brought Floyd’s JD 40 up to the casino on Sunday morning, so Floyd could continue the ride. This shows the great family support behind many of the drivers. We had an uneventful day Sunday as far as breakdowns, with no problems noted by any of the drivers.

Wilbur Reil led the way with his McCormick-Deering OS-4, followed by Janice Reil on her Farmall Super C. Houston Percival drove Floyd’s JD M and Mike Hilton drove Jerry Percival’s Ford 8N. Stan Foraker once again drove all the way from San Diego just to participate with his Farmall H! Erwin Graves had his Case VAC, Sue Esdaile her Case O, and John Boehm brought his Oliver 60. As previously noted, Floyd Percival started on his Oliver 60, but finished with his JD 40S. John Paur returned with the John Deere BW that he drove last year. The Coppin family joined us with Lowell on his Harris Power Horse and Scott on a Minneapolis-Moline ZTS. Bob Hinds made the trip for the first year with a newly acquired John Deere MT. Jerry and Carol Percival accompanied us the entire trip and made the whole tractor ride possible by supplying and maintaining the porta-potty and supply trailer, by chasing down needed parts at the parts stores, by putting together the Sunday afternoon lunch, by supplying a tractor for Mike, and for bringing up a new tractor for Floyd and hauling the broken down one home. We are indebted to them for all their hard work to keep us going along
the route. We would also like to thank Wilbur Reil and Floyd Percival for scouting out the route beforehand and to John Boehm for making the arrangements with the casino.

Lunch on Saturday found us at Louis Cairo’s restaurant in Williams, same as last year’s run. We pulled into the Colusa Casino parking lot around 4:30 pm (after a 7:30 am start). Rich Cleland, Stan Gladney, Mike, Roberta, and David Cristler, Lowell Coppin’s wife, Erwin Graves wife, and Bob Hind’s friend, Avis, joined us for drinks and dinner at the casino steakhouse. Sunday, it was up early for a buffet breakfast, then it was time to hit the road through Colusa, Grimes and the back roads of Colusa and Yolo counties back to Woodland. All of us were glad to have made the 110 mile run and felt a real sense of accomplishment. You seem to find out a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of your tractor after driving it for two days straight! We had a great time and hope that more of you will be able to join us next spring!

Family Farm Festival 2007
by John Boehm

The Heidrick Ag History Center’s Family Farm Festival was Branch 158’s second show event of 2007. It was held on May 19 and 20. The engine display area included Stan Gladney, Rich Cleland, Richard Hunt, Wilbur and Janice Reil, Mike Hilton, Jerry and Carol Percival, Mike and David Cristler, and the Azevedo family (Manuel, Nick, and Brett). Lots of tractors were shown both by both Branch 158 and Branch 13 members, including Ed Koelker, Janice Reil, Floyd Percival, Jerry Percival, Mike Hilton, Rich Cleland, John Paur, Bob Hinds, the Coppin family (Lloyd, Steve, and Scott), the Dills family (Greg, Ellen, and Evan), Sue Esdaile, and John Boehm. Thanks to Frank Weckman for delivering the Branch 13 water wagon.

The museum’s Case thresher was run by Rusty Luchessi and powered by Bill Braun’s Case steamer. Fred Heidrick, Jr’s IHC binder was used to cut some of the barley. A new addition this year was John Boehm’s 1948 John Deere grain binder powered by his Oliver 60 (ably operated by Houston Percival) and his 1920 Case thresher powered by Floyd Percival’s Rumely or Bob Hinds’ JD G. Both of my machines broke down, but I learned a lot about being a “thresherman” by the school of hard knocks. The Caterpillar people were itching to do some plowing and it didn’t take long until the whole barley field was worked over. My JD 820 and four bottom JD plow joined the Cats, and it was also operated by John Paur and Cliff Backhaus. Bob Hinds did some plowing with his new JD G.

Next year’s Family Farm Festival will be larger than ever. In addition to our regular grain harvesting and plowing, it will also be the 2008 ACMOC (Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owner’s Club) Annual Show. Caterpillar, Holt, and Best owners from around the world will attend, with many rare and one of a kind machines on display. The show dates will be June 20-22, 2008 and the location will be the Dan Best Ranch, just a few miles north of Woodland. Mark your calendars now!!

SILVERBEND 2006
by Richard Hunt

This show was a bunch of fun and Bob Kirtlan couldn’t have been a better host. Those of you that missed this one, really missed out, big time. Instead of setting up along the big oak trees as previously discussed, Bob wanted us to use the old barn and the grounds around it to show our engines and park the tractors. Now this old barn is a classic with board sides, shake roof and three bays to use how we wanted. We used one bay to set our “camp” up and the other two bays were dedicated to parking the tractors.

Rich Cleland set up his granddad’s 2.5 hp Rawleigh-Schryer on the old wind mill and pumped water every day while I had my 10 hp Fairbanks running a line shaft in the blacksmith shop. We had a 2 hp Stover running a two piston water pump, a 1.5 hp Fairbanks Z on a cement mixer and a 4 hp Associated running the corn grinder. Other engines included a 9 hp Alamo, 6 hp IHC M, 4 hp IHC Nonpareil, 2 hp Sparta and 1.5 hp Headless Fairbanks.

Wilbur Reil brought his usual bunch of engines and water pumps. The kids took special interest in the old walnut huller mated up to the 5 HP Economy, and I think Wilbur really enjoyed telling them about how it worked. At one point, I counted 46 kids and three adults listening to Wilbur explaining the evolution of the walnut through the huller. Most weekdays, kids from the local school district came out to see the pumpkin patch, ride the train, have some lunch and discover a little something about old farm power. As usual, the corn grinder was a big hit. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but the kids really get a kick out of seeing corn ground into corn meal. They also like sticking their hands into a bucket of fresh ground corn meal and wiggling their fingers around. Most want to try
a little bite just to make sure it’s really corn. The second most popular item is a water pump, any water pump. Moving water always seems to attract both big people and little people. We spend a lot of time around pumps and such so it seems normal to us. When we have a show that caters to the public, their questions remind me that most people really don’t think about where the water comes from when they open the tap in the kitchen at home. This is a good reality check for me and reminds me why I am a custodian of this old stuff.

Every day resulted in two or more tractor rides around the show grounds, out through the pumpkin patch and over to watch a train hold-up. The old train at Silver Bend clanks its way around a 2 mile loop of track past the root beer float stand, past the pumpkin bread bakery, beside the grub shack and train depot and out through the pasture land. On its way back through the old town, the engineer gets jumped by some tough hombres and is forced to stop the train. As the strong box lock is shot open, the local sheriff breaks the party up and shoots the bad guys. I even got shot once while sitting on my Farmall, just no respect these days for tractor drives I guess.

The group tractor ride down through the vineyards, along the levee and across the ferry boat was more fun than should be allowed. We were out in the big open delta, with all of its charm and rich farm history. The ride was long, almost 42 miles, and the lunch stop at Hog Back County Park on the river was more than refreshing. During the lunch break, we sat on the banks of the Sacramento River and talked about old delta life, race cars, ferry boats and tug boats. There were 6 tractors and a 1928 Ford AA truck and safety truck and trailer that made
the 8 hour ride.

Thanks to everyone that brought equipment and tractors to the show, and special thanks to Bob Kirtlan and his family for being excellent hosts and making us feel right at home.

Yolo Tractor Rides 2006

CLARKSBURG RIDE

The 2006 Third Annual Branch 158 Yolo Tractor Ride was really two different tractor rides on consecutive October weekends. The first ride occurred on October 14, 2006. The group tractor ride down through the vineyards, along the levees, and across the ferry boat was more fun than should be allowed. We were out in the big open delta, with all of its charm and rich farm history. We started and ended at Silverbend Farm in Clarksburg. The ride was long, almost 42 miles round trip, and the lunch stop at Hog Back County Park on the river was more than refreshing. During the lunch break, we sat on the banks of the Sacramento River and talked about old delta life, race cars, ferry boats and tug boats. There were 6 tractors and a 1928 Ford AA truck and safety truck and trailer that made the 8 hour ride. Participants were Wilbur Reiul, Richard Hunt, the Cristler family (Mike, Roberta, and David), Floyd Percival, Wayne Jamison, Johnny Lucas, Rich Cleland, John Boehm,
and the two Farmall drivers from Santa Rosa.


ZAMORA RIDE
by Sue Esdaile

There were the usual sights this time before the October tractor run: the friendly faces at the Zamora Mini-Mart sandwich counter, Wilbur Reil with his clipboard, a tractor being pull-started, last minute Branch 158 sign-ups, and the essential portable toilet on Floyd Percival’s comfort trailer. There was a new sight this time: a group of pristine fire-engine red Farmalls from Petaluma, parked almost as if ready for a calendar picture.

With Wilbur in the lead, we drove north up the frontage road and west over I-5, entering the charred hills of Yolo County. The burnt fence posts, blackened soil, and dead and injured sheep were reminders of the firestorm that swept over more than 10,000 acres of Yolo County only a few weeks earlier. The evidence of the devastation continued until we emerged at the top of the hill next to a recently harvested vineyard.

The wind was blowing hard there when we stopped for a break to talk and ok over the tractors. While admiring my “high speed shimmy damper,” a large spring connected to the steering arms of my Case VAO, someone pointed out the screw stuck in my front tire, and recommended that I remove it before it punctured the tube. With my pliers, and a small crowd now gathered closely around, I gently unscrewed the fastener, making a rather convincing hissing noise through my teeth at the same time, generating a great deal of frantic hand waving and excitement. When everyone caught up we departed and continued west, with part of the trip on a length of rough washboard road. The road rattled the hardware out of one of the wheels, and replacement bolts had to be located before we continued north towards the winery.

The line of seventeen tractors pulled in the olive tree lined RH Philips parking lot. The tractors and drivers included Adella Backhaus, MM RT; Cliff Backhaus, Case LA; Ed Beoshanz, Ford 4000; Lowell Coppin, Harris 40; Sue Esdaile, Case VAO; Joe Garcia, Ford 2N; Joseph Freitas, Ford 8N; Wayne Jamison, John Deere 60; Ken Marty, Mark Baldes, driver, Farmall Super M; Ken Marty Farmall Super MTA; Ken Marty, John Sanches, driver, McCormick OS4; Ken Marty, Joe Baldes, driver, Farmall Super H; Floyd Percival, John Deere; John Paur and Max Paur drivers, Farmall B; Floyd Percival, Houston Percival, driver, John Deere; Jerry Percival, Mike Hilton, driver, John Deere 420U; Wilbur Reil, Farmall Super C; and Frank Sauers, Ford NAA.

The smell of fermenting wine was in the air as we ate our lunches on the patio overlooking the vineyard and the waning summer vegetable garden. After lunch, we started east through the hills for home. We took a slightly different path than last year, keeping to the paved roads and avoiding the dust of last year’s route. Around 3:00 we arrived back at the Zamora Mini-Mart to load up and head for home. Thanks to everyone who came out to the tractor drive and made it such a success!

President’s Message
November 2007
Issue 9

Hello Branch Members,

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.

2007 is about a memory. It was fun and there were some nice show and tractor rides. We had a safe year and there were no serious injuries to any of our members. That record is directly related to your efforts to keep things safe and watching out for others. Thank you for your good work.

2008 is just around the corner and will be a fun year for our Branch. We will be hosting the engine portion of the big Caterpillar show that will be held at the Best ranch. I'm sure there will be plenty to see. I hope we, as a branch, will be able to help make this a very special show for not only ourselves, but the public that comes to see the show. We also have two tractor rides as well as the Yolo County Fair. As usual, everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate. Even if your project is not ready, please come and visit.

This years potluck will have a different feel that the last few years. The branch will be sponsoring a meal and there will be a tour of the Wallace tractor collection. We are also looking for members to run as officers. Let's change it up a little this year and get some new blood for new ideas............any takers? It's really not a hard job, look at me, I barley do anything....

Thanks for your support of the branch and I hope to see you at the coming year’s events,

Richard Hunt
President, EDGETA, Branch 158