{"id":89695,"date":"2017-07-01T07:08:30","date_gmt":"2017-07-01T12:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=89695"},"modified":"2017-07-03T07:28:31","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T12:28:31","slug":"mendon-residents-love-of-tractors-fuels-new-offd-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/07\/01\/mendon-residents-love-of-tractors-fuels-new-offd-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Man’s love of tractors fuels OFFD event"},"content":{"rendered":"

KATE O\u2019CONNELL\/<\/strong>independent feature writer<\/em><\/p>\n

For those who prefer using a wrench over rebooting a computer when it comes to fixing a tractor, there\u2019s a new opportunity at Old Fashioned Farmers Days.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jim Sites of Mendon holds one of the rotary hoe wheels available Friday at the Tractor Part Swap Meet, a new addition to the Old Fashioned Farmers Days festival on the Van Wert County Fairgrounds. Sites said many people pick up parts to restore antique tractors or repurpose items for home d\u00e9cor and landscaping.<\/strong> Kate O\u2019Connell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

D\u2019Wight Sheets, president of the Old Fashioned Farmers Association, said the addition of the Tractor Part Swap Meet is another reason for someone to visit the annual event, now in its 41st year, on the Van Wert County Fairgrounds.<\/p>\n

Vendor and exhibitor Jim Sites of Mendon said he was born and raised on a dairy farm and loving tractors is \u201cin his blood.\u201d He is always looking to swap parts.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know what you are going to find when you go to a swap meet,\u201d Sites said.<\/p>\n

Items displayed on tables at the north end of the fairgrounds on Friday would be of no use to an owner of a modern John Deere, but for those looking to restore an antique — a machine built before 1959 — finding that carburetor, tractor seat or rotary hoe wheel can be essential for a successful project.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can go out to these old tractors and all you have to know is gas, spark, and battery and you can usually get them running,\u201d Sites said. It practically takes a computer technician to work on tractors built after the mid-1990s, he added.<\/p>\n

Sites said someone who has the opportunity to own an antique tractor should have the philosophy of trying to fix it first, and then — only if it isn\u2019t fixable — part it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome guys are parting out old tractors but I love to see those old tractors out there. I think they are as beautiful now as they were new,\u201d Sites said as he nodded toward rows of Oliver, John Deere, and Allis-Chalmers tractors — the featured brand of this year\u2019s celebration.<\/p>\n

And those restored machines need to have the original paint, Sheets added.<\/p>\n

Stiles brought his grandchildren and wife to the show with him and hopes the younger generation will \u201ccatch the bug\u201d when it comes to restoring farm implements.<\/p>\n

Sheets said his children have an appreciation for restoration. His son, Mark, bought a 1952 John Deere R model from Stiles a couple years ago. It caused a stir during the event because D\u2019Wight Sheets had always been an Oliver guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt created a big buzz out here on the grounds,\u201d Sheets said, laughing. \u201cHe bought it on Friday and he won the tractor pull on Saturday. Jim was sitting alongside the track and I don\u2019t know which one was more excited, Mark or Jim. Jim said he had never pulled with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sites and Sheets said events like Farmers Days will hopefully help get others interested in their passion. A new event designed to entice novice and women tractor drivers to get behind the wheel — a powder puff tractor pull — was scheduled on Friday morning, but the event was canceled due to rain. Sheets said that event will be on next year\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

About 25 members of the Van Wert Old Fashioned Farmers Association plan the event. Anyone can become a member of the group for a $7 fee for a family.<\/p>\n

Farmers Days is designed to have something for everyone, Sheets said. Saturday events include an antique tractor pull; chainsaw sculpting; kids pedal tractor pull; kids games; the fiddler, banjo, and harmonica contest; kids\u2019 old fashioned cow milking; and several bands throughout the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a whole lot of things to do. We got the animal land, thrashing and corn shelling demonstrations and the sawmill is in operation,\u201d he said. \u201cSome young people come out and a lot of the old people like to come out and sit down in the thrashing area and reminisce on the way we used to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KATE O\u2019CONNELL\/independent feature writer For those who prefer using a wrench over rebooting a computer when it comes to fixing a tractor, there\u2019s a new opportunity at Old Fashioned Farmers Days. D\u2019Wight Sheets, president of the Old Fashioned Farmers Association, said the addition of the Tractor Part Swap Meet is another reason for someone to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 22:13:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}