The Best Show on Tracks

This weekend we went to Sacramento, we started in Woodland at the Best Ranch for "The Best Show on Tracks". This event has been 3 years in the plannings and was huge!  It was an exhibition of antique tractors and farming equipment, with the main focus on Holt, Best and Caterpillar( which Holt and Best co-founded) equipment. We have been interested in joining the Draft Horse and Mule Club which was meeting at this event so went with some friends to meet the club and see what they do. There were quite a few teams there and one of the attractions of the event was a hitch of 27 mules pulling an old harvester (links to pictures of them below). That was really impressive! For more about the event visit their website. (And if you watch the slide show you will see a picture of Crescent and Gibbous, my friends' team") (Oh and we forgot to bring my camera so had to pick up a cheap one at Wal-mart so the pictures are really awful!) Click on the pictures for a bigger view.

And here they are, Crescent is on the Right and Gibbous on the Left. They are Suffolk Punches which were bred specifically for working in the furrow. They are shorter in height, but still very strong. We had just finished harnessing them and they were just waiting to go to work. 


Hitching the Boys to a plow, the teams were doing demos of how the different horse drawn farming equipment worked. 


Getting ready to start plowing

Taking a break with another team, A 3 up of Shires also pulling a plow. It was about 102 degrees so the horses got to take frequent breaks. 

Stan taught Jarrett how to drive the Boys, it was his first time behind a team so he was really excited! He started with the boys on a Harrow, which breaks up the clods of dirt after it is plowed. It just drags on the ground and then you walk behind it.  Then he also go to drive them hitched to a wagon (same one as in the next picture). I don't have any of those pics yet, the new camera was full but I will put them up once I get them. 

And I got to drive a team of Shires for awhile. This is Max and Prince. I got to drive them for quite awhile, they were very good boys, it was a blast!

There are a ton of pictures from the event on their website, Here are a few of our favorites:

Stan & Jarrett hitching the boys to the wagon:  #1  #2

Max & Prince pulling a grader: #1  #2

A 4 up of Shires pulling a wagon: #1

The 27up of mules pulling the Harvester: #1 (use the navigation arrows above the picture to see more, there are a ton!)

And there are lots of other great pictures, just navigate through some of them from those links. 

We also found out that the people we got the Girls from are members of the Club and were there so I got to update them on how they are doing! And it also looks like we will be getting a covered wagon, which we are very excited about!  

Sunday we got to go fishing on the Sacramento River for Stripers. I caught 2 catfish...  Oh well, It was still a blast, and nice to be out on the water in that heat! Driving home late Sunday night, there was a ton of smoke from all of the fires, from the time we turned onto Hwy36 until we hit the house the sky was full of smoke, and we stopped and watched the Telephone Fire (Near the Hwy 36 & Hwy 3 Junction)  for awhile. This morning driving back to the coast there was thick smoke all the way past Bridgeville. There are about 900 acres on fire near Jarrett's place (no danger in coming down though), the Telephone fire that we watched is sitting on the ridge less than 1/4 mile from our friends' Ranch, they have not had to evacuate but crews are working hard on it to keep it from coming closer. 

And Serina is still holding out, I'm just going to ignore her for awhile... She is still developing a bag, and the baby makes her very uncomfortable at times pushing on stuff, but it isn't dropping into position yet, so who knows, she will have it when she has it...