NEILBURG – The grounds of the Manitou Pioneers Museum in Neilburg were bustling on Aug. 17 with a full day of activities and fun for everyone as the museum held their third annual Farmer Olympics and tractor rodeo.
The day started with a total of 17 vendors at the farmer’s market with handcrafted creations such as jewelry, jams, jellies and art alongside well-known home-based business products such as Tupperware and Watkins. The farmer’s market also had museum volunteers cutting and serving pie and drinks throughout the day.
The Farmer Olympics this year had six teams participating. There were three husband and wife teams: Graham and Jen Ricker, Rick and Ruby Flicek, Joey and Kristin Mosher; a father daughter team: Mike and Daelyn Ducherer; and duos Kim Ducherer and Dan Prevost, and Quinton Ryan and Spencer Pallas.
Teams were put through a variety of farm related tasks including making a bale stook, filling a water trough with a pail full of holes, fetching eggs and tossing them, pounding posts into the ground, filling a chicken feeder with grain (using a soup ladle) and an obstacle race – where participants were “woken” from bed by the crowd yelling ‘The cows are out’, jumping through a window, collecting two pails weighed down and getting to the gates and closing them.
The Fliceks were the first champions of the Olympics and had competed each year since. They were knocked off the top spot of the podium this year, landing in third place. Second place went to the Moshers while Kim and Dan took home first place, winning a belt buckle.
Following the Olympics was the tractor rodeo, with seven competitors in the timed races. Races included hooking up a grain auger before backing it up to a post, pulling a post through some pylons without knocking them over and the favourite, don’t drop Tweety – where two tractors work together to keep a Tweety bird toy suspended on a rope tied to the back of each vehicle, then placing the toy into a bin at the end.
Darnell Zweifel was named this year’s champion in the rodeo, followed by Barry Mitchell and David Stazuik. Spectators were asked to pick their favourite tractor on display, which went to Kevin Long of Rosetown with his Allis Chalmers ‘B’. The best restored tractor prize went to Richard Meynberg of Payton with his 1968 John Deere 110 garden tractor while the best original prize was awarded to Barry Mitchell of Waseca for his Farmall M.
One interesting sight to be seen on the grounds was brought in by Darrel Ostrom. He brought three models of the last Massey Harris tractors ever produced to the show. These tractors were a common sight in the area back in the day and Chris Makey, museum board member and organizer, said it is not every day you will see the 555, 444 and 333 together.
The museum was also running two raffles as fundraisers, with the drawings being made at the annual event. The winner of the afghan raffle was Keith Liebelt and the mini-bike raffle winner was Wendy Worman.
Makey said the board was already making plans for next year's event during set up.
“We strive to change and keep it fresh, so people keep coming. Our goal for next year is a two-day event with a parade through town and tractor pulls,” said Makey.
He lost count of how many people came up to give them a pat on the back or say a job well done.
“That sure makes us glad we put it on and that makes us want to do better,” Mackey added.
Mackey said they offered some people the chance to drive a tractor or enter the rodeo with some of the tractors the museum looks after.
“Some smiled and said no thanks, but some were surprised by the offer and took it for a drive. That makes us happy to make others happy,” said Mackey.
The museum board is grateful for all the help they received, including their sponsors.
