Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Just Stuff
I haven't been posting clips as often as I wanted to. I need to get a different hook up to get the clips off the camera. I am still planning to get this going so be looking for it!!!
Friday, November 14, 2008
In the NEWS
The Los Angeles Times
Farming history lives in heart, barn
By Lisa Rathke
December 09, 2007 in print edition A-22
Fred Webster fears that when he dies his 1,500-piece collection of antique farm equipment will die with him – that it will be parceled up and auctioned off. So he’s asking the state to help preserve it. “When I go, what’s going to happen?” Webster, 86, says of his old tractors, carriages, sleighs, wheels and saws. “Then the buildings will start to fall in.” Webster, a former vocational agriculture instructor, started collecting artifacts of rural life when he retired 21 years ago. His aim was to show how machinery had evolved, a phenomenon he witnessed growing up on the family farm, where he still lives. “I wanted something to do when I retired,” he said. “So I started collecting.” His collection, which is housed in 80,000 square feet of old barns and ramshackle buildings on his property, includes an 1896 single-horsepower machine, a horse-drawn hearse and hordes of old maple taps. His son helped him record more than 300 hours of video documentation about the artifacts so he could pass on what he knows. Still nimble, he ambles around the vast collection, stepping over and around the equipment, across rickety barn floors and planks and up and down stairs. He points to a carriage he used to take to school and a sleigh he said his father used for courting. Nearby on the upper floor of the vast barn are stacks of wooden wheels and 60 old-fashioned washing machines. Last spring, heavy snow toppled a roof covering his prized single-horsepower drag saw. The 1896 device, now covered in plastic, is powered by a horse running on a treadmill. The collection draws attention – sometimes from unlikely people. When the rock band Phish played its farewell concert at a nearby farm in 2004, the organizers turned to Webster for props. He liked talking to the artists and hearing their ideas and was happy to oblige. “They saw my horsepower drag saw and they said, ‘Oh, boy. We can use that to saw watermelons.’ Saw watermelons with a drag saw? I said, ‘You guys are out of your mind.’ ” They ended up renting 10 vehicle-type artifacts from Webster to show the agricultural heritage of the area, he said. The drag saw did in fact cut watermelons, powered by people operating the treadmill. “They treated us really, really good,” he said. “It was a tremendous event – the best thing that ever happened to the future of Coventry.” Webster hasn’t sought publicity but now hopes that the state will find a way to preserve his treasures. He doesn’t want to pass them on to his children because he fears it’s a burden. He’d prefer to have the pieces stay on his land. He called state Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, who contacted state officials, who eventually put him in touch with Sylvia Jensen, a land-use planner for the state Agency of Agriculture. “Personality-wise, he’s an incredible resource and individual,” Jensen said. “His life story is one of hardship and humor. He sees the glass half full all the time.” She envisions a learning center with exhibits and demonstrations and possibly carriage rides throughout the summer. She thinks some combination of grants, state aid and private donations could help Webster achieve his dream. She’s contacting historical societies, the Vermont Trust for Historic Preservation, the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and the Vermont Land Trust in hopes of drumming up interest. “Have I created a monster which I’m begging to help me preserve, or am I just a nuisance to people?” Webster said. “It’s a big question.”
Farming history lives in heart, barn
By Lisa Rathke
December 09, 2007 in print edition A-22
Fred Webster fears that when he dies his 1,500-piece collection of antique farm equipment will die with him – that it will be parceled up and auctioned off. So he’s asking the state to help preserve it. “When I go, what’s going to happen?” Webster, 86, says of his old tractors, carriages, sleighs, wheels and saws. “Then the buildings will start to fall in.” Webster, a former vocational agriculture instructor, started collecting artifacts of rural life when he retired 21 years ago. His aim was to show how machinery had evolved, a phenomenon he witnessed growing up on the family farm, where he still lives. “I wanted something to do when I retired,” he said. “So I started collecting.” His collection, which is housed in 80,000 square feet of old barns and ramshackle buildings on his property, includes an 1896 single-horsepower machine, a horse-drawn hearse and hordes of old maple taps. His son helped him record more than 300 hours of video documentation about the artifacts so he could pass on what he knows. Still nimble, he ambles around the vast collection, stepping over and around the equipment, across rickety barn floors and planks and up and down stairs. He points to a carriage he used to take to school and a sleigh he said his father used for courting. Nearby on the upper floor of the vast barn are stacks of wooden wheels and 60 old-fashioned washing machines. Last spring, heavy snow toppled a roof covering his prized single-horsepower drag saw. The 1896 device, now covered in plastic, is powered by a horse running on a treadmill. The collection draws attention – sometimes from unlikely people. When the rock band Phish played its farewell concert at a nearby farm in 2004, the organizers turned to Webster for props. He liked talking to the artists and hearing their ideas and was happy to oblige. “They saw my horsepower drag saw and they said, ‘Oh, boy. We can use that to saw watermelons.’ Saw watermelons with a drag saw? I said, ‘You guys are out of your mind.’ ” They ended up renting 10 vehicle-type artifacts from Webster to show the agricultural heritage of the area, he said. The drag saw did in fact cut watermelons, powered by people operating the treadmill. “They treated us really, really good,” he said. “It was a tremendous event – the best thing that ever happened to the future of Coventry.” Webster hasn’t sought publicity but now hopes that the state will find a way to preserve his treasures. He doesn’t want to pass them on to his children because he fears it’s a burden. He’d prefer to have the pieces stay on his land. He called state Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, who contacted state officials, who eventually put him in touch with Sylvia Jensen, a land-use planner for the state Agency of Agriculture. “Personality-wise, he’s an incredible resource and individual,” Jensen said. “His life story is one of hardship and humor. He sees the glass half full all the time.” She envisions a learning center with exhibits and demonstrations and possibly carriage rides throughout the summer. She thinks some combination of grants, state aid and private donations could help Webster achieve his dream. She’s contacting historical societies, the Vermont Trust for Historic Preservation, the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and the Vermont Land Trust in hopes of drumming up interest. “Have I created a monster which I’m begging to help me preserve, or am I just a nuisance to people?” Webster said. “It’s a big question.”
Sunday, November 2, 2008
The Farm
Thought I'd tell you a little about our farm, the Webster farm. It's located on Webster Rd., Coventry (Orleans County), VT. It's been in the family for nearly 100 years. My dad will talk about that on the videos. It's about 300 acres. My great grandparents, grandparents and dad milked cows there. My dad still hays the land every summer - in his late 80's at that! He raised eight of his nine children on the farm (I had a brother who passed away at seven months old). He and his wife of almost 20 years, Vivian, still live in the farmhouse where my dad was born. Many years ago, Dad starting tearing down old barns. People just gave them to him. We kids would help, at times. My brother Daniel mostly worked with him. Then, he would use that lumber to build housing for his "stuff". He now had a few buildings on about four acres. One is an old school house he moved in sections. Can you believe it. Another came from down the road - part of the original farm house. One is the "glass house" - a two story structure, the bottom which he uses as his workshop and the top of which is all-around glass windows. Two buildings are HUGE, two-story structures. He does the best he can to keep them "up". He has everything one could imagine. I've been home visiting when someone has come buy to check an "oddity" out. Lots of times because they've bought something similar and now need to know how it works! I'll try to add more pictures as time goes on so you can get a real good look at things. I promise you'll never see anything like it - ever. Everything is out in the open and people are free to feel, try, take pictures, ride in, ect.
Return Home Farm
I'm still working with the video output, but am going to try to add another segment.
Just Stuff
I should explain. I'm Fred's daughter. The computer is more my thing. I'm working with my dad to get information out about the "stuff", as I often call it. We want this blog to be an open forum for people to ask questions about what they see and/or hear on the videos we post. My dad can answer just about anything. So I'll check in with him when someone emails me. Have fun seeing what what my and my brother have done!
Introduction
I will be posting video segments, hopefully daily. I have a complete set of DVDs, but can't post them as they are, so am redoing the original tapes and splitting them up to useable segments. It will take AWHILE to get them all on, as there are hundred of hours of taping that my dad and my brother did. But we'll just get started. This first one was posted on my original blog. I'm repeating it here so there will be a complete record. It's only a minute, but I needed to learn the process. Others will be several minutes.
Return Home Farm
My dad, Fred Webster, has a FANTASTIC collection of farm tools, machines, wagons, ect. He has been collecting for a generation. A couple of years ago he and my brother Daniel began taping all that he has. There are thousands of items. I've copied their taping onto disks and want to share them here. It's not QUITE genealogy, but it IS part of MY family history. It is also something else to see! I will be putting a tape a week onto my blog. I have NOT edited these tapes in ANY way. What you see is what you get. BUT, listen well and learn things you cannot learn anywhere else! The "Official" name for his collection is "Return Home Farm Resource for Vermont Rural History".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)