Tulare--Great News

[Tom Madden]

Garlic Pete, Glen and our gang have been successful in working with Tulare to have a dirt moving demonstration at the Tulare Antique Farm Equipment Show in 2 weeks. Pete will move my post from yesterday over to this new thread.

[Garlic Pete]

Below is Tom's announcement from the other thread.

Pete and Glen have been busting their humps to get this Tulare dirt moving adventure from idea to reality. Pete had a very productive meeting with the powers that be at Tulare this morning and as soon as some small details are worked out we should be a go. The "contract" with Tulare is nearing completion and a bond and insurance will hopefully be finalized soon.

Assuming all of the above is completed, there will be strings attached this year to test out the entire dirt digging concept. The rules right now are as follows:

1. Glen Ghilotti is the boss. What Glen says goes. Glen will speak with each operator before they are allowed to move dirt and will have the authority to shut down any operator or the entire operation in his sole and absolute discretion.
2. Each operator and rider on a piece of equipment (only if the equipment is set up to accomodate a passenger) will be required to sign a waiver that holds the International Agri-Center, Antique Farm Show, ACMOC, Chapter 5, officers, directors, organizers etc.. harmless. No sign then no play!! After the waiver is signed a ribbon will be given to the person signing and the ribbon must be displayed with the show button so we can quickly observe if all are in compliance with this requirement.
3. There will be no going back and forth from the show grounds to the digging area during the day. Equipment is to be taken out in the morning as a group and brought back in the late afternoon. We are working on an exception for the parade so that the equipment can go through the parade and then out to the digging area.
4. We must dig in a very tightly defined location that will be clearly marked. We are required to return the ground to its current grade so the less we disturb the less we need to restore.
5. This will be a limited dig. We will see how it goes for future years and Tulare will determine if we will be incorporated into the show for future years.

We will post more as we know it and plans are finalized. When you see Pete and Glen at the show, please thank them for their countless hours of devotion and expenditure of $$ to make this a reality.

And my follow up:

Tom's got it spot on. We're just working out the small details now.

I hope all who can will bring their diggers and pullers and have fun with us.

We'll have some suitable small discs, plows and cultivators to play with. This being an ACMOC Chapter 5 sponsored event it would be nice if those who want to play might join Chapter 5 and help defray some of the costs. I believe annual dues are $20.00 and I also believe all dues paid members are welcome at Tuesday Cat nights in Petaluma, which is an event not to be missed.

I'd like to acknowledge and thank Glen and Tom for their hard work and support to make this happen.

Pete.

[Tom Madden]

If any one in the Tulare area has a reliable water truck and/or a sheep's foot available please let Glen, Pete or me know. We need these tools to return the digging area to previous compaction and grade at the end of the show.

[Tractorboy1]

Great job guys...... finally moving forward. Watching the earthmoving equipment should be exciting! Can't wait!
thanks again.....
Mike

[Deas Plant.]

Hi, Folks.
Great stuff. My heartiest congratulations to all who played a part in getting this off the ground. I just wish I could be there. Just have enough fun for me too, please.

[jfirebaugh]

Administrator,

Would it be a good idea to make this thread a temp. "Sticky", so it will stay on the first 'Discussion" page and easier to see by all?

[7upuller]

Hey Gang,

Garlic Pete and Tom Madden have been putting in a lot of hours getting the Tulare Dig a real event. Garlic has done way more than people know. He has written and sent many of documents to the Tulare people. He has been to meetings, done monitary donations, and hauling rigs to play with, many not his. Tom has spent many of hours keeping us in line and doing things legally. He has also done monitary donations along with networking for us. These Guys make it happen. I am proud to work along side them. Pete has done a good job, being a medic, after the battleship landed some artillary. 16" guns were necessary, but they soon showed the white flag, and I have been working the back of the line staying low. Things are coming around well, and we should be playing next week. Thank You Garlic and Tom.-Big Guns-glen

[B4D2]

Stuck the thread. Good luck and have fun

[Garlic Pete]

Don't let Glen fool you, he got the ball rolling, and has kept it rolling during some rough spots. We're coming down the home stretch now.

Here's the latest update:

Last weekend, MikeMc and I made some more preparations for digging in Tulare.

We trucked from Bakersfield to Sacramento after work Friday night. We had a nice Harris Ranch dinner, and stayed the night at Garlic Uncle’s house.

Saturday morning, we had a nice breakfast at Carol’s coffee shop in West Sacramento, then headed over to Wallace’s to pick up our D7 9G and LeTourneau LS scraper. Upon arrival, we discovered that I had forgotten to bring any pony engine gasoline. The D7 pony drips, Mike’s D8 pony drips, so we had no gas. We got ready to truck back into Woodland to buy some gas, but Garlic Uncle showed up right on cue to give us a ride in his pickup.

After returning with gasoline, the D7 pony fired right up, as did Mike’s HO pony. We hooked up the LS to the D7, with a little help from Mike’s HO D8. Those scraper tongues are heavy! The eye on the tongue had mushroomed a bit, needing a minor adjustment from our fourteen pound sledge to fit into the D7 drawbar. Good thing Mike and I were there with the necessary muscle!





Many of you may remember Bill Glenn’s Reggie, who recently passed on. Mike has Wienie, who rides along and supervises our activities. Here is Wienie edging the D8 forward to make the final lineup of the pin.



Wienie really enjoys riding in the big KW and pouts and gives Mike the silent treatment for a week if he doesn’t take her on a trip. The only part she doesn’t like is the rough patches of I-5. Since she sits on the air seat, on the rough patches she bounces up and down, which doesn’t agree with her stomach. After five or ten minutes of rough road, poor Wienie’s eyes roll around in opposite directions and she needs to stop for a while.

My original idea was to load the D7 and scraper on Mike’s trailer. We put them next to each other, and determined that even if we pushed the scraper tongue up under the D7, we were short about five feet. Ever notice how trailers are always about ten feet shorter than they look?









After establishing that we had to pick one or the other, we chose to back the LS onto the trailer for this trip, then bring the D7 on the next trip.

Here’s what my windshield view looked like for the next 250 miles. Since I was carrying the C-Pull, we looked like a couple of iron covered wagons heading South.



We arrived at the show grounds about 7:30 pm and unloaded the C-Pull and LS without any trouble.








The next day was Easter Sunday. Garlic Mom put on a great spread, including all the standards, ham, potato salad, asparagus, deviled eggs, the works. Garlic Allison and Garlic Emily also had a nice visit from the Easter Bunny. After all eggs were found and tummies were full, Garlic Mom turned her attention to the upcoming show.

Since she had been snookered out of her star Two Ton deep ripping and contracting tool, she was concerned about marketing at the show. After surveying the options, she decreed that poor Gary’s D4C needed to have its toolbar reinstalled and a test run was in order.

After some work with the forklift, bars and more fourteen pound sledge work, along with some head scratching about connecting the hydraulics, things were in order to her satisfaction. (Did you know if you hook the hydraulics up properly, you can rip side hills, because when one arm goes up, the other goes down? Me neither.)

Garlic Mom and Garlic Allison took the D4C out to the back forty to make sure she would perform as advertised.













Garlic Mom enlisted Garlic Emily to check out poor Gary’s D6C, too, since she deemed that it would be an important part of the marketing effort at the show.










Finally, all the Garlic girls were satisfied that all equipment was up to snuff and Garlic Mom directed that they be loaded and transported to the show, as soon as possible.

Here’s a couple of pictures of the Cox Grading and Excavating outfit, ready to pull out for the show.




Here are some pictures from the Monday after Easter, when I delivered the D4C and D6C. Garlic Allison tagged along, so she took some video of unloading the D6C and starting the C-Pull.









Tuesday, I brought the load with the RD6, D4 and D2 up. Glen’s guys had delivered some of their stuff, too.









This weekend we’ll be bringing down a dragline, our D7 9G, the 966 loader, which now steers, and our DW10.

Next week, we have loads containing all the discs and plows, another D7 9G with LS scraper, two high crop John Deere, a 3020 and a 4050, our water truck and 12G grader. That should all be in by Thursday around lunch time.

If anyone was on the fence about coming to Tulare, I’d recommend that you come. There will be lots of action and lots of things to play with this year.

Pete.

[7upuller]

Hey Garlic,

I love the pics you post. I'm a loser, been busy and haven't snapped any. Ed Ponte and Matt Demartin have been teaming up and hauled the D4-7u, DW-6, and 435-e scraper as you noted. Then they brought down a 70 scraper and a 14-a D8. We have a D7-3T Dozer, D7-17a scraper cat, D2-5u Dozer, and a D4-7u scraper cat with a 40 scraper coming down on Monday and Tuesday. On Thursday we will convoy down with a D6-9u and 60 scraper, Herb's freshly done rebuilt D4-7u, Wes's D4-7u with dozer & rippers, Bud's JD, a 1922 AutoCar on my B-Model Mack, and our support grease rig. OH YEA and LITTLE-CAT-MECH is going to follow bringing up the rear, no better yet we will keep him in the middle playing bumper pool on the way down so he don't get lost. LOL See you guys there. Walt, I brought a Cat for Ya'.-glen