Not everyone in the Spallumcheen Pioneer Power Club was once a farmer, but all have a respect and fondness for the machines and engines that were so crucial to their pioneering forefathers. Many have been intimate with equipment all their lives because, as President Allan Moore said, "If you don't fix your own equipment as a farmer you don't farm for long."
Moore's job as maintenance man for O'Keefe Ranch dovetails well with his involvement with the Power Club, which has been based at the Ranch since it's inception in 1991. His office is next to the clubroom and two bay garage where members work on their current projects.
In the shop because it is Wednesday are a handful of busy men, including 81-year-old Rae Scott, bending over his 1954 Massey Harris 33, Jake Reimer, also 81, who is working on his 1952 John Deere AR and Whitey Davison, who is lovingly restoring a 1953 Fargo truck. Scott has three tractors, two of which are already restored. "My father was a grain buyer on the prairies. I was an implement dealer at one time, working on them. I'm interested in old stuff - something that looks like it would never run again can be made to go. It's simple mechanics - gas and a spark and away you go," he said.
Moore comes from Innisfail, Alberta, where he grew up on a farm and went into construction as an adult. He was 25 when his grandfather retired and gave him his old tractor. "I let it sit ten years then I hauled it out to BC," he said. "I had seen these guys at the fair and I joined the club in 1994. I started working on it and then my wife got one. Now I've got ten of them - three are completely restored. I'm in the process of building a big shop at my house for when I retire."
Not that he's in any hurry to retire - Moore loves his job. "I just love it here. Every day is something different. I can farm. I can build. It's what I love doing," he said, adding that the club has a great rapport with the farm. Last year the members volunteered over 300 hours for them.
Moore's wife Debra, originally a "city girl" according to her husband, is one of five or six women in the club. She got interested while helping him, then bought a John Deere BR. Now she is secretary of the club and instrumental in raising money with the concession unit the club purchased, which they take to events at the ranch and to the IPE.
The biggest annual event for the club is the IPE, when they take "everything they have" and set it up there, including a thrashing machine that visitors get to run, and a wire tie baler. Members also put on a display in which they fire up some of the tractors and engines for O'Keefe Ranch events such as the Miatta day this spring, when 201 cars showed up for lunch. They also enter the antique division of the plowing match in Armstrong each year and they drive in the Lumby and Winter Carnival parades.
The collection on display at the ranch includes a two and a half ton 1946 International that was restored last year with a grain box on its back, a 5 HP Stickney engine, a 1952 John Deere R, a 1921 three quarter ton IHC truck, a John Deere D, a 1911 stationary engine for pumping water, a rolled oat machine, a flour grinder, a potato digger and some construction equipment. A 1918 Waterloo Boy, the first John Deere built, was restored in the shop and on display for a few years before being sold and moved to Germany. Their restored 1938 John Deere D has steel wheels and is started by hand. "More of them were made than any other tractor," said Moore. "Everyone had one on the prairies."
He had to saw down trees that were growing through the floorboards once when he picked up a 1920 Waterloo boy in Prince George. Tomorrow he's leaving for Edmonton to pick up a 1951 John Deere R diesel from his uncle. "When something comes up that's old you go get it," he said. Lynn Dewing |
