Michele Decoteau
micheledecoteau@verizon.net
Waters Farm Days
Come visit an old-fashioned fall fair at Waters Farm Days from September 30 – October 1, 2006. Waters Farm is located in Sutton between Purgatory Chasm Park and Douglas State Park. The Farm provides a greenway between the two parks and is steeped in agricultural history. The Farm includes the original farmhouse, barns, a sugar house, a shingle mill, a blacksmith shop, and walking trails. Every fall they celebrate our agricultural heritage at Waters Farm Days.
There are many family activities planned including maple sugar demonstrations at the new sugar house, antique car displays, a petting zoo provided by Southwick Zoo, musical entertainment, blacksmithing demonstrations, farm equipment displays, and farm house tours. And you don’t want to miss the delicious homemade apple crisp.
About 10 years ago, Waters Farm Days added tractor pulls to draw a bigger crowd at their festival. This is one of the most interesting events. Even if you are not a tractor buff this is a lot of fun. As ‘Butch’ Oosterman, tractor guru and 18-year Waters Farm Volunteer adds, “The Tractor Pull is great entertainment. It is fun – like a vacation day.”
Just as the name implies, a tractor pull is a contest of tractors pulling weights. Most tractor pulls are divided in to different weight classes. This means that all the big tractor compete against big tractors and little tractors against little tractors. At Waters Farm Days, this is a “fun pull” so there are no weight classes and everyone who pulls gets a ribbon and trophy.
All sorts, sizes, shapes, and colors of tractors will be there. Most recognizably will be the John Deere green and yellow tractors. There will also be Farmalls, Minneapolis Molines, Allis Chalmers, Olivers, Silver Kings and even a couple of doodlebug tractors. A doodlebug is a tractor made from a rusty old farm truck.
The pull starts at 10:00 AM when all the little tractors begin by pulling the empty stone bolt, or sled, that weighs 1,000 lb. The sled is what the 600 – 1,200 lbs cement weights are placed upon. The sled is chained to each tractor and they have to pull the weight a set distance. As the smaller tractors drop out of competition, the larger tractors join in. In the end, as many as 50 different tractors will have tried their hand at pulling and the weight many go as high as 20,000 lbs.
This is truly a family friendly event, both to watch and to pull. Butch will be at the pull along with his three sons. Butch and his sons all have John Deere tractors; he alone has four. Some of the fun is in the gentle rivalry among tractor enthusiasts. When one gets stuck and cannot pull the weight, often a rival will offer to come “help out”.
As Ralph “Bud” Gurney, president of the Waters Farm Preservation, Inc., says, “Everyone is a little wacky, some people are just devoted to tractors.”
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This article orignally appeared in the August 2006 Blackstone Valley Shopper.
