Friday, April 29, 2011

Heaven For An Old Farm Kid

Good afternoon,

We're staying in Salina Kansas with a little truck problem that kept us here a day longer than we planned.  So with a good part of an afternoon on my hands a visit to the museum across the road was a no brainer.

It's called the Central Kansas Flywheels Museum and was it ever worth the trip.  You can visit their webpage at http://yesteryearmuseum.com/default.aspx


Bernie and I wandered around the outside exhibits yesterday but today I got to spend some time inside.  For anyone with an agricultural heritage it's an unbelievable exhibit.  To a "City Kid" it's a bunch of old iron and steel that should be melted down for some new I Pods or computer cases.

The highlight of their exhibit is an old old old Reeves steam tractor that dates to the early 1900's and still runs.  They have a show here in the fall where they fire up the Reeves along with other old equipment and actually thrash grain with it.  The pictures don't do it justice but to give you an idea of scale I have to reach as hard as I can to touch the top of the drive wheels.  My grandfather had one of these and although I can't confirm the make, I know it was the same size.  After he homesteaded his land he bought one of these and used it to "break" (the original plowing of the land) his land and the land of many of his neighbours at Birsay Sakatchewan.




The displays cover everything from the old steam tractors, to old switchboards some of us remember in the 40's or 50's.  There are old trucks, a bit of old construction equipment, a fabulous selection of old wash machines, old printing presses, ribbon typewriters that have to date to the 1930's, and it goes on and on.  I'm going to post a few pictures here just for fun.  If you're one of the aforementioned "City Kids" forgive me. 








And finally, two pictures to challenge our grandchildren.









Did you recognize them?  I did, in fact I can remember strapping them on.

For the construction guys that may be here, that "Yellow Iron" is a fully restored Model 22 Cat.  Boy I wanted to fire that baby up - real bad.

You can tell I really enjoyed my visit here, and I hope that one day you may stop in on your way through Salina Kansas.

Tomorrow we head N. again and into Winnipeg in a couple of days.  This trip has been just a great experience, we visited friends, saw some great things, had some fun, got the ________ scared out of us with the tornado, had a bit of truck trouble, but nothing we couldn't handle, met some really neat new people, but most of all we just enjoyed being together.  We are so blessed and so happy to be living our dream.

Thanks for stopping by, stay well, stay HAPPY, and please leave a comment when you can.

Neal & Bernie

1 comment:

  1. Hi Neal,--It's amazing what you find on the byways,--good for you to take the time to discover and experience some of them,-even if this one was a result of truck problems,-sounds like they were finally resolved--must have been a real"clustrfcuk'-to have been"dead in the water" at the boarder.-man would'nt you like to ram that battery up the wazzo of the mechanic that worked on it.-anyhow I guess It's all part of the journey/memories--HEY-stil looking forward to seeing you and Bernie,whenever you can make it--let me know.--
    Stay well--Glenn.

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