The November/December 2022 issue of Antique Power magazine is available in our gift shop and will be available in subscriber mailboxes and on newsstands soon. This marks our 35th anniversary and we are excited to share this magazine with the great tractor enthusiasts that we appreciate so much! We trust you will enjoy this issue as we continue to “Keep History Alive!”

The background shows the runway lined with ready-to-harvest soybeans.

Setting up the tractors was a community affair.

The tractor crew on “picture day” included, from left to right, Ron Poeppelman, Bob Rhoades, John Berger, Nelson Ashbaugh, and Don Marchal. Wendell Kelch is on the tractor.

We’ve Got This Covered.

text by Peggy Shank • photos by Brad Bowling

The ambitious plan for the cover of Antique Power’s 35th Anniversary issue—bringing five tractors built in different decades together for one stunning photograph—was put into action by Brad Bowling, co-owner of Ertel Publishing and photographer for its two magazines, Antique Power and Vintage Truck.

The photo session was scheduled for the last two days of August 2021 on Wendell Kelch’s property in Bethel, Ohio, not far from Antique Power’s office. The site offered wide open spaces, an elevated platform for an aerial view, and a field of soybeans lining the sides of a grass runway.

Organizing five tractors for a day-long photo session in late summer was no easy matter. The pandemic had created an atmosphere of uncertainty and reduced the number of candidates that could be available for the event, a logistical challenge in its own right. Would the weather cooperate? Would clouds arrive to soften the sun’s harsh glare? Would the crops offer a lush, beautiful background?

Ohio has spawned many jokes related to its unpredictable weather that will quickly fluctuate from one extreme to another. True to form, with no advance warning, a storm with high winds and heavy rain materialized out of thin air shortly before the event and canceled the effort.

The opportunity to assemble all five tractors was diminishing. Some of the tractor owners had plans to attend fall shows, an early harvest meant brown crusty soybeans, not green leaves as a backdrop, and the days were getting shorter. It appeared that we would have to wait until the spring of 2022 to finish the job. That’s right, spring, when it rains every time you plan something outdoors. Editor Rick Mannen, however, suggested trying one more time to hold a shoot in autumn, and thanks to the extremely accommodating tractor owners, a second date was set for Oct. 13, 2021.

Models on the Runway

Tractors, owners, drivers, and friends congregated at the appointed hour, except for one poor driver whose directions took him deep into narrow, twisting roadways far from the actual location for a while. In plenty of time, however, each of the five tractors arrived, drivers backed them off the trailers, and the tractors roared to life and lumbered onto the sun-drenched runway.

Setting up the tractors was not so different from playing with toy tractors in a sandbox. Fun! Arranging them until they were just right, of course, was not as easy, but many hands lightened the task, and with everything going rather smoothly, the mood was festive.

But where were the clouds? Everyone except the photographer broke for lunch on a shady deck and told tractor stories for an hour or more. Lots of interesting anecdotes filled the time while Bowling sweated in his crow’s nest, high above the ground, waiting for a cloud.

Later in the afternoon, clouds formed overhead before the soybean harvesters arrived with their giant modern equipment that would kick up clouds of dust. An excellent window of perfect photographic conditions prevailed long enough for some great pictures.

Thanks to Everyone!

Antique Power would not exist without its readers, followers, advertisers, but most of all its subscribers. They keep the wheels turning not only by providing a financial base for operation, but also through their tremendous support in many other ways: writing letters to the editor; buying the products, skills, and services offered by our advertisers; sharing their tractors with our readership; allowing our photographers and writers into their lives; sending us stories about and pictures of their tractors and equipment or their antique power experiences from back in the day right up to the present; correcting us when we get it wrong in a pleasant, respectful manner; praising us when we get it right; and telling other people about the magazine. All this support is priceless.

The amazing photograph for the cover of our 35th Anniversary issue is a tribute that shows the gracious generosity the magazine enjoys from its supporters. The owners, drivers, and friends of the five tractors representing five decades for the cover photograph spent time, money, and effort above and beyond normal expectations to create this special image to celebrate 35 years of publishing the kind of magazine that is worthy of the incredibly fine tractor-collecting, -owning, -restoring, -showing hobby. We owe special thanks to Wendell Kelch for being so accommodating with his property and time, and for offering a tractor to replace one that was unable to attend the photo session.

If you meet one of these special people, thank him for us. They made the all-day shoot fun, entertaining, and gratifying. The road leading up to the day twisted and turned with detours, wrong directions, and moments of stress, but in the end, all these obstacles fell away, and the experience evolved into another great day dedicated to “Keeping History Alive.”

Pick up a copy of the November/December 2022 issue of Antique Power magazine!

Home

November/December 2022 Antique Power

We’ve Got This Covered.

Other articles in this issue include:

Antique Power