My favorite tractor

While no one thinks twice about learning of anothers favorite singer or color is it strange to have a favorite tractor? Hope not because for me it isn't even close. I pick the Fordson F every day and twice on Sunday. I'm even the first to admit it isn't all that flashy and it had a bit of a bad reputation. A common piece of advice the old farmers used to pass on was "let it just run over lunch because that will be easier than trying to start it again". Still there is something about that tractor that is just primal cool.
The model F was the first tractor that Henry Ford made for production. That's right, the same guy who made the world famous model T car and basically invented the assembly line. Ford was a farmer at heart and wanted to revolutionize farming with an inexpensive tractor. Ford did not invent the tractor and his weren't the most common ones in the field. Still I think he should be credited with making a monumental change in farming because the rest of the pack had to follow his lead. They too had to make a machine that was powerful, useful and affordable(At the time, a Fordson would sell for about $750) for the farmers.
Yesterday one of our great friends brought us a like new 1927 Fordson for the Wagner collection. David Sniader of Winnetka has helped us with everything from loaning us a threshing machine and baler to helping with ag. research and exhibits. Dave and I had been talking for a while and he said that he had a Fordson that would work real good at the farm. With next weeks Springman/Attea field trips we needed a period tractor and Dave was happy to supply one. Thanks a million for the loan! I'm sure I'll have another blog post or two about my favorite tractor so prepare yourself.

School fieldtrips are here again!

As school gets back in session and kids resume their homework schedule, the farm begins their school fieldtrip season. Everyday we get kids from all over the Chicagoland area who come to work with our animals and learn about farming in the 1920's. The kids shown in this picture came all the way from Chicago to take part in our Milking Cows Pulling Plows program. They had the chance to milk a cow, groom horses, and learn about poultry care.

More Good Stories and Good Food from Saturday

Harvest Bonfire

Nothing kicks off the fall season better than campfires and s'mores-at least that's how we like to do it at Wagner Farm. Saturday was a beautifully crisp evening and many people came out to enjoy our annual bonfire event. People roasted gooey marshmallows, listened to spooky story's by The StorySpinners, and marveled at the gigantic fire. A great time was had by all!

Hmmmm, s'mores! Join us this Saturday!

Outreach to Alexander Graham Bell School

We just got back from doing one of my favorite programs, History Hits the Road. Being the Fall version we talk about harvest time and how crops were used to make the foods we know. There is also a section where we take the kids on a tractor/wagon ride and introduce the concepts of mechanical advancement in farming. Bell School is a few blocks west of Wrigley Field in Chicago. Great kids!

Des Plaines Fall Fest-a couple more photos

Dairy Cows in Des Plaines

One of the goals of our History Hits the Road Outreach is to use the program as an educational tool at other facilities besides schools. We had this opportunity at the Des Plaines Fall Fest over the weekend. Todd, Lindsay and Sarah loaded up Buttercup, a couple of hens and roosters and some broomcorn to take to the festival. We spent the afternoon teaching folks about Midwestern farming and did some hands on activities- Buttercup was the hit of the day! Everyone had a great time, and many thanks to the town of Des Plaines for being such wonderful hosts!

Pumpkins

This week we got our shipments of pumpkins, gourds and cornstalks in. Come shopping at Wagner Farm for all your Fall decorating goodies. Jeff also got a new shipment of great looking mums in too.

A Late Summer View, Bees Working Hard

Everyone Loves Ice Cream

This weekend the Farm hosted our annual Barn Dance and Ice Cream Social. The morning brought a heavy downpour of rain so we were worried what the afternoon would bring. By three o'clock we had a beautiful day on our hands. This is still one of my favorite events because of the fun families seem to be having. The Chicago Barn Dance Company came through again with their mix of great music and easy to follow calls for dancing. This would have to go down as one of the most dancing groups we have had. I also want to thank Homers Ice Cream for their generous sponsorship.
Next event is the Harvest Bonfire on September
25th from 5-8.

More Barn Dance pictures

New Exhibit

For the last couple years we have kept Jim busy building our next attractions. These days he's working on a new wagon for another museum, The Grove National Historic Landmark. The Grove staff came up with a terrific idea for a new program in which the wagon will play a central part. The program is called "Load Your Wagon" and it will put school kids in the place of early pioneers. When our forefathers were heading west they would have to make some really important decisions on what to take and what to leave behind. "Should we pack the wood stove or extra grain for the oxen?" These kinds of choice could literally mean the difference between life and death. The wagon that Jim is building is an exact replica of they type of wagon that many of the pioneers used on their westward journey. Just imagine fitting everything you were going to take in basically the area of a modern mini-van!

Restoration of the Garage

This fall we are starting a project that has been a long time coming, the restoration of the Wagner garage. When the Glenview Park District purchased the farm there wasn't much that didn't need major repair. The buildings that were in the worst shape got priority so the barn and the house were first to get attention. Then we reworked all the fencing and outbuildings. Over the last couple years we have been putting effort into infrastructure and grading. After almost a decade we can finally put a little attention to the last building on the site to be restored, the garage. Built at the same time as the farmhouse the two buildings tell us a lot about the Wagner family and the times in which they were living. If you went back to 1920 the idea of building a new farmhouse in the Prairie style with brick would have seemed pretty trendy and a would have definitely been a mark of prosperity. Add in the house features of electricity, indoor plumbing and closets in all the bedrooms and you have what would have been "state of the art" for that time period. The garage itself also helps us learn a little bit about the family. While today a house isn't considered complete without a garage that was not the case 90 years ago. When a farm laborer would make about $500 a year and a car cost over $1,000 cars were not something that every family had. However, it interesting that cars and telephones were some of the most eagerly adopted new technologies on the farm. In 1921 the census shows that in Illinois 53% of farms reported owning a car. Compared with only 9% owning tractors it is interesting to think of the conversations that were going on around the dinner table regarding these purchases. At the time, the Wagners were a fairly well off family and they too owned a car. However, there's wasn't a common old Ford but a Maxwell. Like much of the mechanical and implement purchases of the era, cars were expensive and a farmer wanted to take care of them. For farm items like tractors this often meant adding on a shed to the old barn. For automobiles this meant building a garage. Of course, you wanted the garage close to the house so that during bad weather there wasn't so much ground to cover. From the little data that we have it looks like the Wagners may have owned 5 different cars during their time at this property. For those interested, the last car they bought was a 1954 Chrysler Windsor Deluxe.
Our next step in the restoration of the garage is to finish rebuilding and painting the three windows and install the new bi-fold garage doors. Jeff, Beth and Andy have been hard at work to get this project off the list. Once we are done I'll post some more pictures of job.

Take a spin around the farm this Saturday!

Rock River show

This past weekend I got a real treat in getting to attend the Rock River Thresheree in Wisconsin. As someone who is really into both history and ag this was awesome. The surprising part for me was in the first 15 minutes there I saw three things I had never seen before.
Tobacco Harvest - It really is interesting to learn how farmers read the land to find the crops that it would be well suited to grow. I actually was very surprised to learn that tobacco was a somewhat serious crop in Wisconsin since I usually think of the upper south as it's home. According to some of the folks I was talking to tobacco grows well in the sandy soils that are plentiful in certain parts of the state. The type of tobacco they grew is used as the wrapper in cigars. The other thing that was interesting is that the seed for tobacco is tiny, almost like a radish seed.
Sorghum pressing - What I'm about to say will certify me as a true "Yankee" but I like maple syrup so much better than molasses on my pancakes. If you are one of those who really like molasses, like my mom (she can't help it she grew up in Missouri)then you would have really liked the sorghum exhibit. Sorghum looks a lot like corn but from the top it has a shoot that the seed pods fan out from. To harvest the crop you cut the stock at the base and then strip off all the leaves and press it to make a green liquid that can be cooked down. The process is just like making maple syrup and the cookers look the same too. After stirring the mixture over low heat for a few hours the sugars in the sorghum caramelize and give you rich, dark molasses. At the end of the tour they gave everyone samples. While I did give it a try it didn't sway me to leave my maple syrup.
Steam plowing - Plowing is one of those tasks that surely broke many a pioneer. If you have never worked a walking plow behind a team of horses or oxen I can tell you that few things seem so unnatural. When we watching the plowing demonstration we got to talking and came up with an astounding thought. Barring an error in our math it would seem that if you were to plow a 50 acre plot with a one bottom walking plow you would have walked a distance equal to plodding from Chicago to St. Louis. It is easy to see why the advent of tractors was so popular. In fact most of the early tractors only saw work in the field when it came to plowing because their wheels were too wide to travel the rows that the crops were planted in. At the Thresheree they had one of the earliest examples of traction plowing, a steam engine pulling a multi-bottom plow. Generally this wasn't used too much in the eastern Midwest where our fields were too small for these mammoths. They were much more common in the western wheat fields where the scale was much bigger.
Next year if you find yourself with a little extra time on Labor Day weekend I would suggest you make a trip to the Thresheree. I think you too will likely see something that you have never seen before.

More pictures from Rock River

"Tweeting" Farm Style

Happy Labor Day to all

Monster Machines Event

This past weekend we hosted a special event with our friends up in Lake County called Monster Machines. How can you go wrong with tons of big machines and kids?! Thanks to all those who sponsored and supported the event.