In the 95-degree heat, Patrick Bush had on a blue jumpsuit with white stripes that covered him from the neck down. He slipped a gleaming white helmet over his head and got on his souped-up John Deere tractor. The tractor wasn’t being used for farming. Few of the tractors at Franklin County Recreation Park were used for farming anymore. And Bush had built his three years ago specifically to compete.
Someone hitched his racing tractor to more than 1,000 pounds of metal. Bush revved the engine, and he was off, flying down the dirt track. The hundreds of people in the crowd erupted in cheers.
The tractor pull at the annual Southwest Virginia Antique Farm Days is often the biggest draw for the throngs of people that come each year. Brian Rutrough, the president of the Antique Farm Days organization, said this year’s event brought about 7,000 people. Blessed with warm weather and clear skies, guests, many from out of town, filled the park Saturday to get a glimpse of the farm equipment of the days of old.
Years before Smith Mountain Lake was around and tractors worked with diesel engines, Franklin County was covered in almost nothing but agriculture, shaping the area’s landscape for years to come.
Even now, Rutrough said, farmers make up a large bulk of the Franklin County populace.
“It’s what I would call the dominant industry of the county, always was,” he said. “That and moonshine.”
Antique Farm Days is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving historical farm machinery. The celebration that began Friday and ended Sunday brings in a huge chunk of its funds.
One of this year’s new pieces and projects was a 1915 steam engine, which the organization is in the process of restoring. Next year, Rutrough said, not only will it be up and running, it will be pulling a saw mill.
Craig Kern of Eagle Rock has come to Farm Days for 10 straight years. Kern sells antique farm tools, from old-fashioned screws to weed sickles, and said he made a killing Saturday.
“It’s a dying trade,” he said.
Younger people who farm today in the electric, diesel-filled world have never had to wield some of the older equipment that used to keep farms running. But selling them as antique pieces has found a niche following in the farming community.
The tractor pulls are often the most popular events. Riders on tractors of all sizes are timed as they pull about 1,000 pounds of weight several hundred yards.
George Peters, 74, of Floyd County started competing in tractor pulls four years ago. He said it was a fun activity for him to take up during retirement. By 3 p.m. Sunday, Peters had come in second place in two pulls on his orange Cub Cadet. His son, Greg, was helping him on the sidelines as his unofficial tractor pit crewman.
Farm Days, which usually coincides with Father’s Day, prides itself on being a good, family-friendly place to take dad. During the tractor pull Sunday there were lots of fathers and grandfathers giving and receiving cheers.
Cody Johnson, 6, had been practicing on his tractor for two months with the encouragement of his grandfather, George Johnson.
And on Sunday, as he lugged his tractor down the dirt path, his grandfather was walking right beside him, urging him over the finish line.
Source: www.roanoke.com
Someone hitched his racing tractor to more than 1,000 pounds of metal. Bush revved the engine, and he was off, flying down the dirt track. The hundreds of people in the crowd erupted in cheers.
The tractor pull at the annual Southwest Virginia Antique Farm Days is often the biggest draw for the throngs of people that come each year. Brian Rutrough, the president of the Antique Farm Days organization, said this year’s event brought about 7,000 people. Blessed with warm weather and clear skies, guests, many from out of town, filled the park Saturday to get a glimpse of the farm equipment of the days of old.
Years before Smith Mountain Lake was around and tractors worked with diesel engines, Franklin County was covered in almost nothing but agriculture, shaping the area’s landscape for years to come.
Even now, Rutrough said, farmers make up a large bulk of the Franklin County populace.
“It’s what I would call the dominant industry of the county, always was,” he said. “That and moonshine.”
Antique Farm Days is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving historical farm machinery. The celebration that began Friday and ended Sunday brings in a huge chunk of its funds.
One of this year’s new pieces and projects was a 1915 steam engine, which the organization is in the process of restoring. Next year, Rutrough said, not only will it be up and running, it will be pulling a saw mill.
Craig Kern of Eagle Rock has come to Farm Days for 10 straight years. Kern sells antique farm tools, from old-fashioned screws to weed sickles, and said he made a killing Saturday.
“It’s a dying trade,” he said.
Younger people who farm today in the electric, diesel-filled world have never had to wield some of the older equipment that used to keep farms running. But selling them as antique pieces has found a niche following in the farming community.
The tractor pulls are often the most popular events. Riders on tractors of all sizes are timed as they pull about 1,000 pounds of weight several hundred yards.
George Peters, 74, of Floyd County started competing in tractor pulls four years ago. He said it was a fun activity for him to take up during retirement. By 3 p.m. Sunday, Peters had come in second place in two pulls on his orange Cub Cadet. His son, Greg, was helping him on the sidelines as his unofficial tractor pit crewman.
Farm Days, which usually coincides with Father’s Day, prides itself on being a good, family-friendly place to take dad. During the tractor pull Sunday there were lots of fathers and grandfathers giving and receiving cheers.
Cody Johnson, 6, had been practicing on his tractor for two months with the encouragement of his grandfather, George Johnson.
And on Sunday, as he lugged his tractor down the dirt path, his grandfather was walking right beside him, urging him over the finish line.
Source: www.roanoke.com