It is with great sadness that we have lost a founding member and a great person Duane Larson. He was so good at helping others with tractors and engines. I was at the Fenders show in Sweetwater and everyone had a story to tell about how Duane had helped them with their tractor or engine. How he worked on their magneto and other problems. He was known by our club members and members of other clubs as the one to go to with problems with their tractors or engines. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. He will be missed. He was a wealth of knowledge and a great person to have as a friend.

I am sorry I did not do my part in the last news letter. I put it off until the last minute and then got called back to work so I did not get back in time.

We had a great show at the Museum Of Appalachia June show. We owe a great thanks to all who had a part in making it happen. To all the ones who sold the ads and U.J. Hale for staying watch at night when we were all at home in are beds. Thanks to the ones who worked the gate. Thanks to Carolyn Chesney for the great food. Thanks to the sponsors who bought the ads in our show book and thanks to all who came out in the heat for the show. Special thanks go out to all the ones at the Museum Of Appalachia for letting us have the show in their field.

The Museum's tractor and engine were worked on by some of the club members. David Walker, Ron Hatcher, Bruce Moneymaker, Cecil Moneymaker, Joe Morris, Wayne Kerr, Alco Cox and others worked on the tractor and engine, but the one that worked the most was Ethan Moneymaker. He worked hard to get the engine going changing magneto parts and doing a lot of cranking. The engine on the concrete mixer is running with some small things to do. The tractor and engine will be ongoing and worked on between now and October. Thanks to Alco Cox and all the ones that had a part in the threshing of wheat it was the highlight of the show. Hope we can have a great show next year.

I met with Mr. Larry Suchomski with the Tennessee Valley Fair and we are looking forward to this year's show. We talked about the great shows in the past and how great this year’s show can be. We will include a copy of the form for the fair in this news letter. Please fill it out and get it back to me so I can let Mr. Suchomski how many tickets we need. We hope to see a great turnout for the fair and put on a supper show for the people. The Tennessee Valley Fair is September 11-20.

UT –AG DAY is September 26 we need to show our support for the AG Department.

The Museum Fall Homecoming is October 7-1. If you are planning to attend you will need to send in an application to the museum. If you need an application I have some.

Hope to see everyone at the next meeting. David Walker is lining up a guest speaker for meeting.

Hope to see everyone at the Relay for Life show at the Anderson County High School on 05/30/09. I think it would be nice if we can have a good turnout for the show.

Had a good time at the swap meet at Union County High School. The crowd was small but I did pick up a 1 1/2 hp. Economy Engine. I would like to thank everyone that had a part in the swap meet and to thank Wanda Byerley for helping to raise money for the children's home with her sale. She raised over $100.00 dollars.

We met with the Museum of Appalachia on 05/26/09 to look at their tractor & mixer. The mixer looks like it will not be too hard to get going. The tractor may need more work to get going.

I would like to thank everyone that sold ads for our upcoming June show book. We had 88 ads for the show book. They have been dropped off at C & D Printing. Hope to have them back in time for the Tuesday meeting.

I talked to Scott Suchomski with the Tennessee Valley Fair and he was glad to know that we will be at the fair and I told him that we will be glad to be there.

Look forward to seeing a large turnout for our June show on the 26, 27 & 28 of June at the Museum of Appalachia.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, March the 3rd. I hope the weather is good this time. Jim Miller has lined up Dr. William Hart as our guest speaker and the subject will be carburetors. Hope to see everyone there. We plan to discuss this years upcoming shows: The May 31st show at the Anderson County Vocational School in conjunction with Relay For Life, a June show and an October show at the Museum Of Appalachia. A lot of good thoughts and ideas were discussed at the last two Board Meetings and will be discussed further at the next meeting.

We need to find someone to be the historian.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday February the 3rd.

Jim Miller has lined up Dr. William Hart as our guest speaker and the subject will be carburetors. I hope to see everyone there.

We plan to discuss this years upcoming shows: The May 31st show at the Anderson County Vocational School in conjunction with Relay For Life, a June show and an October show at the Museum Of Appalachia. A lot of good thoughts and ideas were discussed at the last Board Meeting and will be discussed further at the next meeting.

Congratulations to Carl Chesney for being re-elected as our Chairman Of the Board once again.

If you missed our last meeting, you missed a delightful surprise. Charles Hutson II and Andrea Woodard, two of our scholarship winners, spoke and made excellent presentations. It is always such a delight to hear these young people tell their stories.

The other important thing you missed was the election of three Board Members and new Officers. Jim Bacon, Bruce Moneymaker, and Tom Christman were elected for three year terms on the Board and new Officers as follows: George Hackler, President; Arnold Jones, Vice President; Sara Cloud, Secretary; U. J. Hale, Treasurer. Unfortunately we do not have an Historian yet. If you would like to fulfill this position, please let an Officer or Board Member know.

It is time to have a party. Our next meeting is Saturday December 6th at the Karns Community Center building (same place it has always been). This is our annual Christmas Party where we eat and stuff Christmas bags for Meals on Wheels recipients. This is always a fun time and a good way to end the year. We will eat about 6:00 PM or so. We need some help about 5:00 PM to set up the room. The Club will furnish drinks, plates and utensils. Everyone bring a dish to share. After we eat, we will fill the gift bags.

January brings the start of a new year and a new era for our Club. George Hackler is our new President and leader. I hope everyone will support him as you have me. I have enjoyed being your President the last three years and thank all of you who have helped me so much. I intend to hang around and help where I can.

See you at the Christmas Party.

Our show at the Anderson County Vocational Center turned out pretty well after all. It looked pretty slim at the end of the day Friday, but by 10:00 AM Saturday, the number of exhibits had about doubled. There were nearly fifty tractors, about two dozen engines, about one dozen cars and trucks, and some miscellaneous exhibits. We cleared between four and five hundred dollars for the club. The weather was wonderful, the food was good, but we could have used four or five times as many visitors. This will give us something to work towards for future shows. Yes, we intend to have more shows at the Technical Center. They welcome us there. We will probably go back to having our main show there about the last weekend in June. No final decision yet, but it is looking good.

Our next meeting is very important in that we will have the election of new Officers and Board Members. Last report I heard, I think we have some contested positions, so it is very important that you attend and vote. Also, at the next meeting, we are going to try and have our scholarship winners speak. It is always enjoyable to hear these bright students. We can usually learn a thing or two also.

Our December meeting will be our Christmas Party and the assembly of the gift bags. We need two to four people to shop for the gifts. This usually entails spending an hour or so at Star Sales. If you can do this, please let me know at our next meeting (November).

The Tennessee Valley Fair Show is now history and as far as I know, a good time was had by all. I have to say, the tractor display looked like a who’s who of John Deere. We need to get more color into our tractor display. The engine display drew crowds as always. People are fascinated by these old machines and a lot have never seen them before and do not know what they were used for. Then, there was the dinner Saturday evening—it was wonderful. The ladies really outdid themselves. I think everyone ate to their stomachs content and then some. The food and fellowship was the best. Thanks to everyone who made this show a success.

It is now official. We are going to have a fall show at the Anderson County Vocational School to replace the one at the Museum of Appalachia. The show will be Friday and Saturday, October 17th and 18th. Setup day is Thursday, October 16th. Displays are to be removed by Sunday, October 19th in order to be gone before school on Monday the 20th. Some of our people will stay at night for security. The school building will be open for access to restrooms. Food will be provided by the school students to raise money for their programs. Along with our tractors and engines, there will be an area for antique cars and trucks to create more public interest. The school is giving us the space at no charge but would like us to be in a spring festival they plan to have probably in May. This is a good opportunity for us and it is planned to be an annual event. We need to have every working display possible to make this a valued experience for our guests. We plan to have wagon rides and /or kiddie rides for the little ones. We want to make this show an event people will be waiting for in coming years. More about the show at the meeting.

We received thank you letters from our 2008 scholarship recipients. They are Charles E. Hutson,II and Andrea Woodard. Charles is from Sunbright and is in his final semester at UT and is employed as a summer intern with John Deere. Andrea did not say where she is from, but did sound extremely appreciative in her letter. We also received a letter from Rhodes Logan, Campaign Director and Director of Development, thanking us for our continued support with our scholarship program. We also receive a thank you every month from the Smoky Mountain Children’s Home for our support.

The next meeting will be at the UT campus not the Museum of Appalachia since we are not showing there this year. We will meet in Room 128 of the Ellington Plant Sciences Building. This is the building before our normal one on the same side of the street. See you there October 7th.

We had another good program at our August meeting. Dr. Gary Lessman gave a good talk on soil fertility and sampling and fertilizer application to be efficient and cost effective. He gave us some little known ideas on taking a good soil sample. All in all, it was a very informative presentation. Tim and the University of Tennessee Ag Department have really come through this year giving us exceptional programs. Let’s be sure and thank them every chance we get.

Some correspondence is still going on with the Museum of Appalachia. Maybe all is not lost yet. Time will tell.

There is still time if you would like to be an Officer or Board Member. Get in touch with Steve Gould. It would be great to have a real election, and you don’t even have to declare a party affiliation.

It is that time again—Tennessee Valley Fair—and our next meeting will be on the hill where we always meet on the fairgrounds. You may bring your display any day that week up to the morning of the fair opening. We will have engines on the lower level and tractors on the upper level. If there are not enough engines to fill the lower level, we will fill with tractors. Remember to bring enough scotches for your tractor or trailer because there is not much flat and level ground there. We will again have the Saturday evening potluck dinner. Please bring enough for you and yours and a little extra. The Club will provide drinks, plates and utensils. We will probably eat between 5:00 and 6:00 PM.

I guess I have all the pass requests that are coming, especially since it is a week after the August 15th cutoff. If I have no request from you, I consider you are not coming. I will have the passes at our meeting at the fairgrounds September 2nd.

See you at the meeting.

Our program last month was very interesting. Dr. Joanne Logan gave a very informative discussion about drought conditions and how to find all you ever wanted to know about the weather and trends on the internet. Several questions were raised and discussed and I think everyone went away with a better understanding of how climatic conditions affect our everyday lives. Thank you Dr. Logan, and thank you Tim Prather for getting her.

Our program for our next meeting is being arranged by David Walker. He is getting Gary Lessman Ph.D., Associate Professor Emeritus, UT Soil Science program. He is going to talk about soil fertility, soil sampling, and fertilizer application to be efficient and cost effective. This should be a very informative program. I hope everyone can come and socialize a little and learn something at the same time.

We are moving forward at trying to have a Fall Show at the Anderson County High School. They seem to be receptive to the idea. The timing is the biggest concern. No definite answer as of this writing, but maybe by meeting time.

Steve Gould is actively looking for candidates for Officers and Board Members. If you are interested in serving in any position, contact Steve and let him know.

Our show on May 31st at the Anderson County Tech School turned out very well. Participation was great for such short notice. Those that got there early got the best spots, the ones in the shade. We had several tractors, some old cars and trucks and one chrome plated plow. We haven’t had a chrome plated plow before. Thank you for the display Arnold, have you plowed any ground yet? Myself, I had my Allis G and D17 there and my Hudson Hornet. I believe the car got more attention than the tractors. Anyway, several people came and enjoyed the displays. It was a nice and relaxing day with hot dogs and hamburgers and Don’s special ice cream. Things don’t get much better. Next year, if things work out, we may try to combine our show with the Relay for Life. Several people seem excited about the possibility and it would be another chance for us to raise money for a good cause. This is all pie in the sky now, but I believe it can be worked out to benefit the Relay for Life program and us at the same time.

The letter Duane drafted has been sent to Elaine and other board members of the Museum of Appalachia, but I don’t think there has been time for a response. Maybe by the August meeting, we will have an answer. If the answer from the Museum of Appalachia is no, then we are going to try and work out a show at the Anderson County High School on October 10th through the 12th.

When you come to the meeting, be sure and get your parking pass. We don’t want to upset the UT officials.

Thanks to Tim Prather again for getting us a speaker to present a program. This time we will hear Dr. Joanne Coogan. She is going to be talking about droughts and how they affect agriculture. I’m sure it will be a little more than, if there is no water, there is no crop.

This month I have good news and not-so-good news. I will do the not-so-good first.

The Museum of Appalachia does not want us as a club in their homecoming show anymore. They want more engines and not so many tractors. All green tractors are the same to them, all red tractors are the same, and etc. I asked three times but never got an answer as to how many tractors they wanted. I’m not sure what they are going to do, but something like sending letters out to clubs and/or individuals inviting them to be in their show and then they will pick and choose who gets to come. Anyone who goes does so at their own expense. I presume you do get passes to the show.

Now for the good news. The Board is talking to Randy Sawyer at the Anderson County Technical Center about having shows there. We are having a show there Saturday May 31st as a kind of practice to see how it goes. Everyone is invited and encouraged to bring your engines, tractors, cars, trucks or whatever you may have. The school will have food and drinks for sale so they can raise some money for their programs. The show will be one day. You can bring your equipment that morning and unload. There is plenty of parking for trucks or trailers. This show is to be a fun-filled get to know you social event so let’s support it to the fullest.

If this goes well, and I don’t see why it shouldn’t, we are hoping to have our June Show there in October. We hope to do this the same time as the Museum of Appalachia Homecoming so we can take advantage of the extra traffic.

I’m sure these few words have created some questions, so come to the May 6th meeting and I or someone will answer them for you. Tim Prather is doing our program next meeting and I’m sure it will be interesting also. Tim will be talking about changes in agriculture and agricultural engineering.

I want to thank June Morris for accepting and fulfilling this term as our Historian. Also, thank you June for all those delicious homemade cookies you bring to the meetings.

Our March 4th program was very fact filled and enjoyable. Dr. David West the "Professor of Corn" from the Plant Sciences Department filled in for Neal Eash. Dr. West explained how corn production has increased through time with the use of fertilizers and genetic engineering. He expects genetic engineering to take us to even greater heights in plant production. One interesting tidbit of information he presented was about the production of ethanol from corn. It seems that if all the land in the United States that now produces corn, some forty plus million acres, was used to grow corn for ethanol, none used for animal feed or corn flakes, it would only make about twelve percent of our fuel demand. I find it more than a little disconcerting that our government pours so much money into this seemingly black hole. I have also heard from other sources that it takes more energy to produce the ethanol from corn than it delivers, another black hole. It seems that ethanol for the United States cannot be the answer for our fuel supply. Anyhow, Dr. West made an excellent presentation and left you wanting more.

Our program for April is to be by our last scholarship winners. I understand one of them has worked some for John Deere. I am sure both of these people will have some interesting words to say.

It saddens me to announce that Glenda Robison (June Morris' daughter) passed away Monday the 17th. This has to be a very hard time for June. Let's give her a little extra support. Also, on Wednesday the 19th, Elizabeth Irwin, matriarch of the Museum of Appalachia, died. I know she will be sorely missed. John Rice and Elaine need our support also.

Among other business the Board concluded at the March 17th meeting, which I will let Carl present, those members with unpaid dues were dropped. If you have a friend in this category, you might want to give them a call.

The meeting planned with the management of the Museum of Appalachia was postponed because Elaine had to take her mother to the hospital that day. She promised to call me and set a date in the near future.

Little known fact: You get about 72 one pound loaves of bread from a 60 pound bushel of wheat.

If you did not come to the February meeting, you missed an interesting program put on by David Walker. He had films of different operations done by the Westinghouse Company in the early 1900’s. It is amazing the massive machinery they used and made at that time. It seemed every man had a job to do and did it with precision with no slackers. Today’s workforce could learn a lot from those workers. Thank you David for an interesting look at one aspect that made our country great.

I have probably misjudged the intentions of the management of the Museum of Appalachia. They had not returned my three phone calls over nearly a months time, and I was concerned that there was a problem. The Irwin family has had a very rough time in the last few weeks. Elaine had the flu a week or more, John Rice has been in the hospital, and Elizabeth is extremely sick. I’m sure Elaine is about beside herself. We need to keep this family in our thoughts and prayers.

As of this writing, our club roster consists of approximately 220 names of which 81 percent are current in regard to dues. I don’t want to mention names, but I hope the other 19 percent will come through this month.

The program at our March 4th meeting should be very interesting to several people. Mr. Neal Eash from the College of Agriculture at the University of Tennessee is going to talk about soil fertility and how improvements have been made over the years. I am not sure what Mr. Eash is going to say exactly, but I’m sure it will center around improving agriculture through science. I’m sure we will all learn something and come away with a better appreciation of the work done by the College of Agriculture at the University of Tennessee.

As a final thought: The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends, if they’re okay, then it’s you.

I hope everyone had a good holiday season. The new year of 2008 is here and it is time to buckle down again and get to work. Spring will be here before you know it, so it’s time to get out some rusty iron to get it ready to show. If you are like me, you only get to work on a project thirty minutes at a time, so it takes a long time to get one completed.

Attendance at our January meeting was pretty strong and we had a few new faces which is always good. Thanks to Duane Larson, we had a good program about an experimental high compression engine developed by Oliver. I called Duane the Monday before the meeting and asked him if he had a tape or something for a program, and like the trooper he is, he came through again. Thank you Duane.

I think our February meeting program will be interesting also. David Walker is bringing a tape produced by Westinghouse about forge welding in the early 1900’s. I’m sure we can all learn something from this film, especially those who do their own welding.

Our first official meet for the year will be our Swap Meet. Again this year we are joining with the Flywheelers. The meet is going to be at the Mascot Stock Yards May 16th and 17th. If you do not know where that is, directions or a map will be forthcoming. Knock some of the dust off the stuff you want to sell or trade and get it ready for the Swap Meet.

The new year also brings up another thought—money. Dues are due the first of the year. It can’t be put any simpler or clearer than that. It is time to pay your dues. If dues are not paid by the end of February, membership and benefits thereof are lost.

As of this writing, we still need a Historian. If you would like to fulfill this position, please let me or any officer or board member know. I have never done this job, but I don’t think it should be too time consuming, but it is important for the perpetuation of our club.

As a final thought, life isn’t always fair, but it is still good.

The money is all in, the bills are all paid, the Christmas Party was great and for the Smoky Mountain Antique Engine and Tractor Association, the year is over. It has been a good year for our club. We had several informative programs at our meetings and hope to do more in 2008. We had a Swap Meet with bargains galore. We gave two deserving UT Ag students $1000 scholarships. Our June Show at the Museum of Appalachia was very well attended and better than those of recent years. The shows at the Tennessee Valley Fair and the Museum of Appalachia were the usual fun time. Our Christmas Party gave us time to relax and enjoy and partake of some delicious food.

I want to thank everyone who worked and who helped make the year a success. That would be a long list, so I say, THANK YOU ALL. Our success shows what happens when everyone helps just a little.

Again, I want to thank you for voting me as President for another year. I appreciate your confidence in me, and since this is my third year, I will try to get it right this time.

There is one person I want to name because all of us owe him a big thank you. He keeps our roster current and puts this newsletter out every month. This has to be the hardest and most time consuming job in our club. I’m sure Sara helps in this too, so THANK YOU Sara and Estle Cloud.


James R. Miller

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of friends and family to share it with. When we get this close to the end of the year, things really get moving fast. Preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas is always a hectic time, and it is that way with our Club also.

December 1st will be our last meeting for the year and our Christmas Party. The Christmas Party will be where it has been for the last several years. Our Party is always the first Saturday in December and this year it is December 1st. It will be at the Karns Community Youth Center which is behind the fire hall in Karns about one mile towards Knoxville, on the right, from the traffic light in downtown Karns.

We will arrive about 4:00 PM to set up and get ready. We need several to come and help with this. We will eat about 6:00 PM. Everyone should bring a dish to share. If your dish needs a serving spoon or tongs, you should bring that also. The Club will furnish plates, utensils and drinks.

After we eat, we will assemble the Christmas gifts. We will do approximately one hundred and twenty gifts this year. We did one hundred last year. Bring along a little extra money for the collection for the Sevier County Children’s Home. The Club will match whatever is collected for the Home up to five hundred dollars. These charities and two one thousand dollar scholarships to U T Ag students are our primary charities and what we do with the money we raise throughout the year.

The Christmas Party is also a good time to pay your next years dues of fifteen dollars. The new calendars should be there also and you can get them too.

It has been a good year for the Club and I have enjoyed serving as your President. I enjoyed it so much, I agreed to do it one more time this year. This year will be my third and “last” year – maybe I will get it right this time. Seriously, I appreciate your confidence in me.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you at the Christmas Party.

James R. Miller

I missed the whole show at the fair but I have it on good authority that things went well and people had a good time. I guess that is all we can ask.

As I said, I missed the show because my wife and I were in Germany. I saw a lot of pretty countryside and a lot of tractors. The tractors were ones we don’t see much around here. There was of course Deutz but also Fendt, Lan, Porsche and several names I never heard of. I went to the Mercedes-Bentz Museum one day and saw two old Mercedes-Bentz monsters. We went to a man’s house who had a collection of about fifteen tractors with other stuff like a potato digger and things I have never seen before. I saw a guy restoring a tractor. He didn’t have a steam cleaner or sand blaster. He was doing it the old fashion way with steel brushes and scrapers. Most of the tractors there are small compared to ours with narrow tread and are used a lot to pull wagons up and down the roads and through the towns. In fact, you could not get my 75 HP John Deere through the towns. Anyway, I bet I had just as good an experience as you did at the fair.

Our next meeting will be at the Museum of Appalachia Tuesday the 9th about 6:00 PM. You may bring your exhibits that afternoon or even starting Monday the 8th. Do not bring them before Monday. THERE WILL BE NO MORE THAN TWO PASSES PER EXHIBIT THIS YEAR-NO EXCEPTIONS. The museum management says the passes cost them $20000. This really is not so and they have not thought it through. It would only be true if all of you bought the passes. I don’t think any of you would buy a pass, I know I wouldn’t. I don’t like the inference coming from the museum management and I am about ready to recommend we not show at the museum anymore. I sure want to hear from all of you on this.

See you at the meeting Tuesday the 9th.

James R Miller

I want to recapitulate just a little on our June Show. I have heard several positive comments since the show and no negative ones. Everything went well and folks had a good experience. We were able to pay all expenses and have a little bit left over. Although the profit was a little less than one hundred dollars, it was positive and that is a good thing. I hope we can continue to have our June Show at the Museum of Appalachia.

Our next club adventure will be the Tennessee Valley Fair in Knoxville, September 7th—16th. I met Larry and Scott at the Anderson County Fair and talked to them some about the upcoming event. It seems everything will be as in previous years. We will show and park in the same areas under the same guidelines. In order to have passes (show and parking) foreveryone, we need the form with this newsletter filled out and returned to me within two weeks (by August 17th). The form may be returned by fax, mail or E-mail. Return forms to:

Fax 865-494-0340
Mail Jim Miller
3224 Hinds Creek Road
Heiskell, Tn 37754
E-mail jim@millerequipment.com

As you know, space is a little bit at a premium at the fair, therefore we need to know how many to expect to have enough space and passes. As always, the free passes are not for all your friends and in-laws to get into the fair. They are for people who bring exhibits and work at the exhibit. This little create seems to cause a problem with someone every year and there is no reason for it. It is as simple as this, if you are working at the exhibit , you should have a pass. You know what is right, just do it. Remember, get the forms to me by August 17th so I can get enough passes.

James R. Miller