ILLIANA NEWS

AUGUST 2007                                         ISSUE 8

 

ANNUAL MEETING:

The Annual Meeting for the Illiana Antique Power Assoc.  will be on Monday, August 20., 2007 at 6:30 P.M. at the club house.  Dinner will be served before the meeting, so bring a dish to pass.  Because there will be a big discussion on the show, we will have a 50/50 drawing instead of the usual merchandise drawing.  SEE YOU THERE!!

 

FROM THE PRESIDENT:

Dear Fellow Club Members,

     THANK-YOU!  Thanks goes out to all of you who went the extra mile by showing up and working to make this year’s show such a memory maker.  Each day, everywhere I went, I saw you doing the big and little extra tasks to help make our show one that makes the exhibitors and paying public feel welcome.  We exceeded our goal in numbers for tractors and gas engines.  I really appreciate working with all of you and I heartily welcome all our new members.  The Lord has blessed us in our endeavors.  Hang on to your hats!!  I’ve set some new goals for 2008.  Once again, THANK-YOU!                            Tom Swanson

 

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS:

It’s so nice to add new members to our club.....we hope you’ll feel a part of our extended family!!  Tom Hedrick - Crawfordsville, Sarah Louise Kerney - Lafayette, Jerry L.  Beedle Jr. - Williamsport, Jerry Beedle Sr. - Covington, Jim Keith - Wingate, Richard Serie - Attica, Dominick & Ourania Andrisani - West Lafayette, John Hunter - Oxford, Rex Wright - Wolcott, Maurice & Connie Foster - Attica, James & Melissa Mansfield - Attica, Jim Cunningham - Attica, Shawn Byroad - Monon, Robert B. Folk - Williamsport, Alan & Kathy Moudy - Covington, Lynet Fontiane - West Lafayette, Leroy & Penny Swider - Danville (Il.), Fred & Rhonda VanHook - Lafayette, Dennis Rahn - Kingman, Bill & Shelby Cox - Lafayette, Clark & Cheryl Jones - Crawfordsville, Mike Drayer - Pine Village, Larry & Jane Sims - Veedersburg, David Trobaugh - Kokomo, Michael J.  Jackson - West Lebanon, Tim Orr - Indianapolis, Jeff & Cindy Turner - New Richmond, Greg Eberly - Pine Village, Jason R. Jordan - Star City, Michael & Vickie Schoenhals - Georgetown (Il.).   WELCOME ABOARD!!  NOTE: If we have an e-mail address for you, you’re future newsletter will be e-mailed to you.

 

REMINDER:

We had a large turn-out of campers this year; members, visitors and exhibitors.  Camping fee is $25.00 if hooked up to electricity and/or water.  This fee helps pay for additional expenses during the show and improvements on electrical and water systems.  (No fee is required for tent - primitive camping) If you haven’t paid for this year, just send a check to Doris Manlief, 3618 Donna Dr.,Lafayette, In.  47905.   It was great camping weather!!

 

A SPECIAL NOTE:

     Dear Ladies of the Illiana Antique Power Assoc.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for the over whelming response for our pie sales.  I must admit on Friday night I didn’t think we would ever sell all the pies and goodies we had left Friday.  But Saturday morning brought even more pies, cakes and cookies in.  Would you believe we sold out of about everything Saturday evening and some wonderful ladies went home and baked, and baked more pies and brought in several more pies, even some sugar free pies we needed.  Sunday we had a good day to.  The whole weekend was wonderful.  People would come up and comment on what a friendly club we are.  That means a lot!!  Thank you ladies.  You did a super job again this year.  Thanks also to all the women who worked the pie booth, cutting and serving.  I can’t name them all but you know who you are.  We couldn’t have done it without all your help.  And a last thank you to Jim Lawhorn who donated a big box of forks and napkins.

Thanks again,                      Marie Nickle

 

A LAST FEW “THANK YOU’S”:

This newsletter is full of “thank you’s”, but we can’t forget to add a thank you for ALL the members who worked on the grounds BEFORE the show.   Don Evans brought his bucket truck to help trim trees and Jim Lawhorn had his bob-cat on hand to move the covered bridge.  Then there were those that helped at the Friday night dinner.  Jeremiah Eyrich ran his steam engine to cook the sweet corn and potatoes, Jim McDonald cooked the ham and beans and Kathy Olin’s family shredded cabbage for the cole slaw.  And every one’s favorites: a large selection of yummy desserts!  M - m - m good eating, as usual!   Another thank you to everyone who donated items for the raffle.   We had so many nice prizes this year.  And , didn’t the grounds look pretty with all the flowers scattered everywhere?     Lastly, big thanks to everyone who un-loaded their equipment out side the show grounds and kept the traffic problems inside the grounds to a minimum.

 

ROCKY FORGE BLACKSMITH GUILD:

(News clip for IBA Forge Fire)

The Rocky Forge group entertained visitors to the Illiana Steam Power Show for three days July 20, 21 and 22nd.  We had the best show ever, excellent weather, good exhibits and many tractors and small engines (over 150 of each). Best of all we had more blacksmiths than we had equipment.  There were up to 14 smiths with 8 forges and anvils.  One of our new guys, Greg Searcy made roses and other items, Gene Hollingsworth made tongs, Dominick Andrasini made a very nice shell bench with the back being patterned after spiral of a conch shell.  One of our big attractions is Rob Durrett giving his talk and demonstrations of the Lewis and Clark expedition.  He portrayed Captain William Bratton, blacksmith for the original expedition.  Also very popular is the blacksmith encampment set up by Jim Bolen.  He literally lives black smithing for three days, a very nice display for the crowd.  We appreciate Gary Leeman of the Rural Smiths of Mid America for his effort during the show.  Traveling from Tipton, he and his wife spent the whole weekend at the show doing some creative black smithing.  Parts were made for a Silver Cane tractor and many other things of interest were fabricated.  All the members worked very hard and had a good time.  We all missed Charley Terril and hope he makes a speedy recovery.  As forge master, I am very proud of this group.  Due to working at the Indianapolis State Fair and other commitments, we will be taking the month of August off and will resume our normal meetings starting September 8th.                             Ted Stout

 

A WORK OF ART!

We hope everyone had a chance to view the blacksmith’s new “Rocky Forge” sign.  It was made by all the members of their group.  Each blacksmith designed and made his own square to form the finished product.  As this group travels to different shows and events, it will not only help the public know who they are, but also see how talented each and everyone of them is.  It is truly “A WORK OF ART”!!

 

REQUEST:

Terry Bodine has repaired and replaced electrical boxes through out the show grounds.  He would like everyone who has a spare 5-gal.  plastic bucket  (buckets) with a handle, to donate to the club so he can cover the outlets for the winter.  Please bring them to the meeting.   Thanks.

 

SYMPATHY AND GET WELL:

Club member, Brad Ellis of Veedersburg died July 25th after an extended battle with cancer.  Sympathy goes to his wife Cindi and family.  Get well wishes goes to Charley Terril....he was missed by all during the show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2007 ILLIANA SHOW

 

 

Here we are, just finished the 2007 show and we are starting to plan the 2008 show, that seems so far away, but we must get the new show on the road!

 

I was so impressed with the way the show went this year, everything seemed to run like it had been oiled and we just needed a little push.  There were a few glitches, but that will be worked on for the next show.

 

The grounds looked so good with all the tractors and gas engines.  I was beginning to wonder what Tom was going to do if a few more came.  I don’t know how the rest of you feel, but I think the layout of the grounds was about as good as it can get.  I even went out and looked at all the tractors.  When the tractors had all been scrutinized  I went out to see the Studebakers, Fords and the Roosevelt cars; what a show they put on for us!  The car club people really enjoyed being out under the trees where they can show off their cars and trucks.

 

Then there were the blacksmiths, I am a little prejudiced, but they were working all the time and had fourteen smiths going at one time, and that is a record!  The bench that Dominick made was a wonderful piece of art.  It will sure look great on his front porch.  Greg Searcy, one of the newer smiths worked all three days and kept the audience entertained with his newly learned skills.  Ted enjoys working at fixing the broken equipment that the men bring around.  And Jim Bolins’ encampment was enjoyed by everyone that came around, we have had so many good reports about how neat it was and hope to see it again next year.  Rob Durrett entertained all who took the time to listen to his explanation of the trip done by the Lewis and Clark expedition.  He is a wonderful addition to our show. 

 

The train as usual was a big hit with the kids and adults and it was a lot safer after the train gang did all their hard work.  The new paint on the depot and the little barn sure did make things look good.  Terry, Dave, and Finny painted and painted, nothing was safe from their brushes.  They also redid the off load area of the train layout, that took a lot more than just paint, but when they were finished it looked like new.  We are so fortunate to have the train layout for our show and also to be able to play with the trains other times of the year.

 

We sure did have a lot of small engines.  I think Tom got his wish to get as many engines as the field could contain.  When they were all running, they made a tremendous noise that could not be imitated any where else.  Thanks guys for taking the time to make it out to Rainsville in the shade of trees. 

 

As I walked around I realized that we have a very unique show, there were a lot of cars in the parking lot, but there was plenty for everyone to do and because our activities are spread out there were no crowd bottle necks.

 

The quilt ladies had a great display and really enjoy the work they are doing.   I love to look at their display and really appreciate how much work it takes to put together a large quilt, guilt it, and have it turn out like a piece of art.  I don’t have this talent and didn’t realize how long and how intense they work to get a finished product.

 

We are so fortunate to have so many fine people within our club, another one is Kathy Olin, she is always coming up with new and great food items to prepare for all to enjoy.  I hope in the future we will be able to come up with a better place for her to cook.

 

Denny Olin had old fashioned cracklins for all to enjoy, there were a few races to see who could get there and eat the most.  I am sure there are some heart doctors who would be very unhappy to see what some of the heart patients consumed.

 

Tom had a big consignment sale at the top of the hill.  I am sure glad Ted sold a lot of his “junk” so we wouldn’t have to haul it home!

 

John Carrell was busy running the corn grinder, it always had a group of people gathered around watching how it used to be done. 

 

Deb Dillman was up under the shade trees working on making bowls; she also made us appreciate the work that goes into making of a beautiful bowl.  Ruth Scott was next to her with a lovely display of antique sewing machines and items she had made.

 

Wayburn, Kenny and Tom sure kept the people mover going all over the grounds; that is such a big help for some of the older people, as well as the ones who just want to look over the show grounds.

 

Kenny Short also needs a big thank you.  He was always around to step in when we needed im.  He was everywhere!!  Kim Short was so helpful selling raffle tickets so the rest of us could do our jobs.  She was there most of the three days and kept the raffle box humming

 

Up in the club house was our wonderful Doris, selling, giving orders, checking in tractors and vendors and counting all the money.   She also works a lot “after hours “ when we all go home; counting money, getting numbers together, so we can all know how we did this year.  This is sometimes a thankless job. Thanks Doris and Jim for an excellent job!!

 

Out in the field was the crew running the threshing machine, baling straw and running the sawmill, they were also working in the field plowing.  I won’t mention any names because I don’t want to miss anyone, but I heard great reports about what was going on out there.   I think this is what our show is all about, being able to work on the projects that we feel passionate about and being able to present them to the public.

 

Joan comes up with wonderful ideas and the authors table is one of them.  If you didn’t get over there you really missed a great addition to our show.  Ted took one of his books and had the author sign it for him and also bought two more.  We need to look around and see if there are other people for Joan to add to her selection and help her out.

 

Then there was the pie tent.  I have seen a lot of pies at our show before, but I don’t think they disappeared as fast as they did this year.  Marie Nickle did a wonderful job of coordinating this activity and so many people helped.  The people who helped know who you are and a great thank you goes to each one because this was a big undertaking.  I do want to thank the Fontaine clan for baking and baking and baking, without them we would have run out of fresh baked goods a lot earlier.  Where else could you go and get a piece of pie for one dollar, what a deal!

 

There was a cute little “bucket calf” in the barn lot.  It had plenty of attention as everyone was trying to coax a “pat” from the fence.

 

It was nice to see Roy Bryant at Saturdays’s show.  He did a “super job” as usual announcing the parade.

 

And last but not least, we give a great big thank you to Tom Swanson.  He did such a great job of leading the club for the 2007 show.  Tom is at the top, but all the members that worked, put in long hours, painted, cleaned, hauled, brought tractors and  baked must be proud of the show that we presented this year, a big THANK YOU to each and every one of you!

 

Carol Stout........the wandering reporter.

 

 

DING - DONG, DING - DONG!

We have two new additions on the show grounds.......Ed Grubb installed a dinner bell outside the club house door and Joe Fry placed a “huge” bell along the driveway.  He’ll have to tell us it’s history at the meeting.  It was predicted that everyone during the show would be ringing both bells and bets were being made on how long it would be before Doris would go “crazy”!  (Do you suppose that’s why the pretty flowers were hanging from the big bell’s clapper??)

Thanks guys for the nice bells.

 

ALWAYS CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITE: illianaantiquepower.com