2024 Current News
BELOW ARE THE EVENT REPORTS THAT ARE EMAILED TO OUR MEMBERS AS WE MOVE THROUGH THE SEASON. WE ALSO POST THEM HERE ON OUR WEBSITE FOR VISITORS TO ENJOY. THE FIRST REPORT YOU READ BELOW IS MOST RECENT.
Canada Day Parade Fort Saskatchewan - July 1
Canada Day 2024 looked a bit iffy for weather but that didn't dampen the spirits of our club members who made their way to Fort Saskatchewan on Canada Day. Nor did the weather discourage the many thousands of people who lined the streets all along the parade route. It seemed that most of Fort Saskatchewan plus many others turned out.
We experienced periods of showers on and off but eventually it cleared by the time the parade wrapped up and the rest of the day had comfortable weather conditions.
Tom Speedie put the whole thing together for us again while Rae MacMillan was first in line this year towing the Northrup Express wagon with our August pull banners on display and a handful of passengers. We had 16 members participate with their old iron including 6 John Deeres, 3 Olivers, 3 Fords, and one each of a Cockshutt, Case, Massey Harris and a Ferguson. A big thank you goes out to all for representing our club at another Canada Day parade. It is through events like this one that our club gains exposure and good will in the community.
Pointe aux Pins Field Work - June 30
On the last day of June we finished up our field preparations at our new north site at Pointe aux Pins Acres. About a dozen members showed up along with tractors and necessary equipment to pitch in and help pick rocks and then harrow, seed and finally roll flat the 18 or so acres. Since our August pull is happening in 8 weeks and we'd like to have some semblance of grass for the event, we have decided to plant a temporary ground cover of donated wheat seed that will germinate quickly and be ready for cutting just before pull weekend. Some overnight rain that continued on into Cnada Day helped get things off to a good start.
Meanwhile, Bird Construction has completed some preliminary work for us on a new clay pulling track. somewhat wider and longer than our old one. Hopefully our electronic scale along with the scale shack, ramps and announcer's booth will be in place and ready to go in time for the weekend of August 24 & 25.
Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village Display - June 23
The weatherman was our friend on Sunday, June 23 when we showed up at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village's annual "Vintage Days" event. Almost 150 entries were registered in their "Show and Shine" with a wide variety of classic and collectible cars, trucks, and of course our club's vintage tractors. A lot of farming memories and stories always seem to surface when chatting with visitors.
Our display featured five "retired" red tractors including Bob Beveridge's Cockshutt 20, Sten Brosbol's Massey Harris 333, Laurie Ebenal's Massey Harris 81, Steve William's Farmall A, and Val Shillinglaw's Massey Harris 50. Three of the four remaining spots were filled with John Deeres including Don Tauber's model 40, Leo Bilodeau's vintage BR, and Rae MacMillan's 1010. Patrick Givogue's prairie gold Minneapolis Moline Z rounded out our tractor roster.
Ardrossan Parade & Picnic - June 15
After a rather damp week with some heavy rain at times, the skies cleared and we had a taste of summer weather on Saturday, June 15 for the annual Ardrossan Parade and Picnic event. The Ardrossan Recreation & Ag Society started up in 1945 and this was the 70th time they hosted their parade. Our club is always happy to show up for the celebration.
Afterwards, we set up a tractor display as well as providing kids mini-train rides around the parking lot area.
We had 15 tractors in the parade and a big thank you goes out to our members who showed up with their vintage iron. Visitors enjoyed the old tractors while the youngsters lined up for their chance to ride in the train cars. Rae MacMillan organized the event for us again and towed the Northrup Express wagon which displayed our August tractor pull banners. Sten Nielsen's Kubota yard tractor saw duty as the train locomotive through the day while Sten and Ray shared engineer duties at the front end of the train.
East 50 Farming 2024
Our 2024 farming operations were limited to grain farming at our East 50 lease on Range Road 221 due to all the construction and happenings at the Pointe aux Pins (Bremner farm) location. On the second weekend in May, a total of 18 members showed up for rock picking duties. When that was happening, some of the crew serviced and made ready our three seeders and set them up for this year's wheat crop. A pizza lunch was served and then the serious business of seeding the 50 hilly acres was finished up in the afternoon. The following day, the land was compressed with a heavy roller. We had some rain during the next ten days so we expected good results from this year's crop.
Moving North (part 1) - May 4&5
In preparation for our eventual move to the north field at Pointe aux Pins Acres (formerly the Bremner Farm), a dozen club members showed up on the weekend of May 4&5 to tackle the job. Once we arrived, we realized that we had a big job ahead of us. With the help of member-owned skid steers, a loader tractor and several trailers and pickup trucks, the job wrapped up on Sunday afternoon. All of our harvest equipment, machinery, and miscellaneous items were moved to the north end of the Bremner mansion orchard for temporary storage until the final layout of the north field is planned. Also moved to the orchard area were the announcers shack, gate shack, sea can, tent shelter, cattle shed, several tractors, the scale deck, scale ramp frames, and a variety of odds and ends. The scale shack and 2 grain bins were moved to the north border of the north field location. As usual, a solid effort by all of us who helped out. A huge thank you goes out to those club members involved for getting the job done.
Intelliflex Facility Tour - March 2
Attendance for the CES Intelliflex trip on March 2 was down to only a dozen members, but those of us who showed up certainly had our eyes opened with regards to the high level of technology that a local company is involved with from design to finished product. The company manufactures IMDC (Immersion Modular Data Center) units. The units provide liquid immersion cooling for computer systems that because of their massive electrical usage, produce tremendous amounts of heat. And of course, heat tends to destroy things both mechanical and electrical so sophisticated and efficient cooling systems are required. Intelliflex's advanced design features result in their products being somewhat smaller-sized yet more efficient than those of their competitors.
The specific computer systems that Intelliflex deals with are those involved with "Bitcoin Mining", the day-to-day computer operations involved with the Bitcoin cryptocurrency marketplace. Bitcoin is one of many different cryptocurrencies in use worldwide. At this time, CES Intelliflex in Acheson has a workforce of 50 but that can approach 150 when things are running full steam ahead. The shop workforce is completely made up of journeymen electricians who piece together the wide variety of componets in their 76,000 square foot facility in Acheson Industrial Park. You could expect to see Intelliflex IMDC's almost anywhere on the planet.
DFI Piling Field Trip - February 25
Our club's first outing of the year was on Sunday, February 25 when we organized a field trip to the DFI Piling facility in SE Edmonton. Club member Chris Whitford hosted the tour and 32 club members and guests showed up on what ended up being a rather wintery day. DFI is a privately owned company founded in 1969 which operates in Canada, Australia, and the USA. The Edmonton facility is located on 54 acres with 200,000 square feet of shop space. They employ 350 staff worldwide. DFI is a foundation supply and installation company that specializes in the manufacture and repair of their own scratch-built crawler cranes, picker trucks and piling equipment. In the first of two shop buildings, we toured their welding, machining, painting, automation, and final assembly areas.
We then walked over to a separate steel pipe rolling mill which uses 50,000 tons of steel each year in the manufacture of pipe ranging from 5.5" to 16" in diameter. Screwpile manufacturing is their specialty and their products can be found world wide. One interesting fact is that they actually design and fabricate most of their own manufacturing equipment that is on site. The scale and diversity of the operation can only be appreciated in person and we all had a great afternoon.
Final Farm Report 2023
In mid-August, we square-baled the hay at the "Pointe aux Pins" (PaP) site .... formerly referred to as the Bremner Farm. In early September, we turned our attention to our fall grain harvest duties at PaP and our East 50 lease alongside Rg Rd 221. At the PaP site, we had about 12 acres of oats seeded near the west end of the pulling track. We put about two acres of it through our binder and the bundles were eventually loaded into our two hay wagons for storage. We will thresh those at next year's pull event.
In mid-September we swathed 50 acres of barley at the East 50 location and then in early October we harvested that crop and stored the grain in the on-site bins. Then we harvested the remaining 10 acres of oats at PaP and trailered the grain over to the East 50 for storage. Our 2023 grain crops will be sold at a date yet to be determined.
The farm crews finished up by square-baling the straw at the two sites. In early November, the field at the East 50 was cultivated and will be ready for disking and harrowing next spring before seeding. Sales and loading of this year's grain crops will be arranged later at a time to be determined. A big thank you goes out to the members who put in so much time and work this year with our farming efforts.
Strathcona Vintage Tractor Association