Excursions:  Riverhead's Annual Tractor Show

Great day out on the North Fork last weekend at the Long Island Antique Power Association's 23rd annual Tractor Show.

This is your chance to see the real North Fork, or at least what it used to look like. Farmers, tractors, steam engines and trucks as far as you can see.

Not my usual cup of tea, but the hubby is a member so I packed up the family (my father-in-law and mosied on over.

LIAPA is a group of machinery enthusiasts, a bunch of guys who have collected and restored vintage tractors and other farm machinery for the last quarter century. Much of what they have saved and restored make up the remnants of the East End's agricultural history.




"Preserve the past for the future" is their motto. LIAPA does plan at some point to build and house their collection in a full time working farm museum, but for now they just take them out once or twice a year to play with them. Their summer show features lots of heavy metal like tractor pulls and puffing steam engines.




For the first time this year they showcased a working antique sawmill they spent the last several months restoring. It's a 1928 Enterprise from Western Pennsylvania. It takes four people to operate the 40-foot long machine that features the five-foot in diameter saw blade. 



A scary tool if you ask me, but very impressive. Watch your fingers around that thing. It was in full operation last weekend as it cut through log after log. The group is currently building a barn to house the sawmill, made from lumber milled by the sawmill itself. 


        LIAPA President Bill Pfeffer operating the sawmill


LIAPA's tractor shows have been popular events on the North Fork for years, with lots of food and families in abundance. 
You would almost swear you were in midwest farm country if not for the winery across the road. This is where you see real farmers and their sons or daughters driving real tractors and farm equipment, tons of kids running around in the grass and everyone helping out at the bbq stand. No fancy food here, just hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad and watermelon. A classic scene right out of vintage Americana.

For more information about the Long Island Antique Power Authority or LIAPA go to www.LIAPA.com