Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 123, Number 36, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 6 September 2000 — Page 3

Bourbon farm site for annual tractor, engine show, exhibit

by Karen Rettinger il* The 13th annual Bourbon "■ Antique Tractor and Engine Show ' will take place Saturday and Sunday, September 9-10, on the Jim Bates, Jr. farm, located three ' miles south of Bourbon, on • The show is not all about tractors, engines and farm equipment. It is not all about reminiscing nos- ■ talgically over “the way th'ings v used to be.” At the heart of the .show are the people who pull it together year after year, and what li they mean to one another, i f Family and friends of the 11- , member board of directors pitch in ‘year-round, to prepare for the twoday event. Plans and arrangements for this year’s show began at the I .close of the 1999 exhibition. , The steam engines are sent home. Antique equipment is put away until the following year. Trash is picked up, the show office ‘-Is moved and fencing, extra light- • ing and tents are taken down. Jim Bates, Jr. chisel plows the hardjpacked parking lot ground. The show is held on 12 acres of the Bates farm. Bates and his parents, Jim Sr. and Margaret, are all io actively involved year-round with J ; ithe show. Jim Jr.’s sisters, Jo Bates J ‘ t and Judy Weissert, spend the "* whole weekend with the show. t “We have a follow-up meeting.” j(j says Duane Zentz, who has helped .Jwith the show for seven or eight w years. “We get together and make ~ ice cream and decide whether to ..have another show. That’s the , t , main reason we get together—the ' s jce cream.” Zentz, his wife, his ‘ son-in-law and his son have all helped with the weekend at one time or another. Over the course of the year, logs are found to cut on the sawmill. The logs are cut into boards on the 1930 s American Sawmill, using power generated by the steam engines to turn the giant blade. Com is cut, bundled and i-j shocked, to dry on the stalk. Midi; "winter, the shocks are brought out the field and stored on a wagon under a tarp. This com is used by Ernie Redinger, Argos, and his - Mike and Dave, to demon-‘-'Strate a 1940 s Minneapolis-Moline ~^heller. v, (i Kenny Boyd’s 1950 s com ,-jgfindei; turtle shsllsd t !?ocn;intQ< . olj qornmeal,, The dried .com stalks.. 3V yviJJ be run .through ,th& BiatesifamShredder. Bates said his dad , ‘.“bought the machine for a case of . tjeer. He liked it so well, he bought 7,.him (the seller) two cases.” Spring oats are planted, in order ‘to have a small grain for the rIJ threshing machine. An acre of the ',oats are cut and bundled. Many 21 years the men have gathered to -. shock the oats. This year, the grain was so dry it was gathered and stored on wagons the third week of July. The crop did not need extra time in the sun to finish drying. As the show approaches, it is

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time for more meetings (and more ice cream). “Marc Weissert lines the sawmill up—he’s the head sawyer. He adjusts it for plumb and level. We run some logs to be sure they run right,” says Jim, Sr. Weissert, who is president of the board this year, protests the head sawyer title. Quips Zentz, “He was only picked because no one else will do it.” Weissert explains that his grandfather, Carl Weissert (now 90) taught the group how to run the sawmill after they bought the vintage piece. The Weissert family is well-represented at the show, with Marc’s wife, Judy Bates, their two daughters, Megan and Stacy, his brother, Steve, his nephew, Jeremy and hts mother, Joan Weissert, all involved. Marc’s father, the late Ernie Weissert, was a charter member of the group and enjoyed bringing his collection of Minneapolis-Moline tractors to the

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READY FOR SHOW—This 1917 Nichols and Shepard steam engine will be a featured source of power at the annual Bourbon Antique Tractor and Engine Show, September 9-10, at the Jim Bates, Jr. farm, SR33I, three miles south of Bourbon.

B I R T H S

Jesse and Mellissa Saulsgiver, daughter, August 26, Memorial Hospital of South Bend.

show. The last week before the event, the grounds are set back up. The office is pulled out, lights are hung, signs are put up and fencing for the parking is set in place. ‘Two loader buckets of fence posts are hand-driven into the pasture field,” said Zentz. Portable toilets and tents are delivered to the site. The farm equipment is taken back out of storage and fired up, to be sure it works. The weekend demonstrations include a separator, three com shellers, two com shredders, com binder, oat binder, silage chopper, feed grinder, 10-20 tractors, the sawmill, a buzz saw, two or three steam engines and an oil-pull Rumely. Friends and engine enthusiasts are welcome to bring their collections for display and demonstrations. Others who help, assist or in some way participate, are local

Along with the antique tractor show will be a tour of homes from l-sp.m. Pictured is the Yankovltch home in Bourbon. (Photo provided)

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historian and collector of just about everything. Dale Stockman (a cousin to Ernie Weissert); Eldon Greer; Skeeter Daugherty and his mother, his wife, two sisters, two daughters and nephew, Tucker;

Celebrate Hispanic heritage

The Nappanee Public Library will kick off its celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month on Friday, September 15, with a fiesta featuring live entertainment, authentic Mexican food, games and more. Music will be provided by Raices, a group of musicians from Goshen College, representing five Latin American countries. Guests at the fiesta will also have the opportunity to take a tour of the library in Spanish, enjoy a performance of folk dancing, browse the library’s newly-expanded collec-

Nuppuncc Advance News Wednesday, September 6, 2000

Skeeter’s father. Bob; Bob Beck and his wife, Janet; Kenny Boyd’s wife. Barb, who runs a booth; Fred Miner—the man in charge of horses and Lyle Harman and sons, Dave and Dan, who bring the fam-

tion of materials in Spanish and take a swing at the traditional pinata. The fiesta is just one event included in the month-long celebration which has been designed to make the community more aware of the contributions Hispanics have made to the melting pot of American culture, and to make the library more accessible to the Spanish-speaking members of the community. Library Director Linda Yoder states, “We serve more and more Spanish-speaking patrons every

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ily’s two steam engines and run them both days, powering the sawmill and threshing machine. The public is invited to come share the fun of the big two-day event.

day, and this is one way we want to help welcome them to the community and introduce them to the library. It’s also a great way for residents to become familiar with the Hispanic culture and get to know their neighbors, too!” Other program events will include English as a second language classes, bilingual story times, contests and more. For more information and a complete list of events, call the library, 773-7919.

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