More blue smoke than usual emanated from the motor as it warmed up on this sunny afternoon. After the smoke cleared some battery powered Christmas tree lights were attached to the dump body with a staple gun to open the festmas celebration. We ascended to the turnaround via the main trail and continued over the other side of Mount Tractor. Old tractor prints aided navigation through the woods and over a stonewall where Gavin got ejected from his shotgun position. More baja brought us to the network of bumpy trails that lead to the country cupboard. Apparently the trails had been marked and maintained since the last time we fested them in January. Some of the trails were still difficult to navigate and the tractor got stuck briefly on a couple of trees. We eventually reached our destination, parked the tractor in front of the store, and went inside to do some festmas shopping. Among the purchases was a cylinder of pringles and a bag of tortilla chips which sparked a debate about which was better. Graeme bought a fun saver camera to capture the moment because his festcam had malfunctioned. Once the debate subsided, we jetted down the street to the full service Mobil. Motorists looked on with curiosity while the tractor was topped off with 55 cents worth of gas. While departing, a customer was so distracted by the tractor that he left a set of house keys on his car roof. If it weren't for the quick thinking Mike Stevenson the keys would have been lost forever. Then we traveled against traffic briefly, cut through the parking lot, and journeyed back into the woods. While tractoring some single track we encountered a guy in the woods so we stopped to chat for a few minutes. He warned us not to go into the nearby scout camp because "the ranger can be a real jerk". I briefly described the specifications of the festing apparatus and the guy in the woods greatly approved of what he thought was a "low impact vehicle". George got his picture for the web site and we continued our journey. After a while we came upon a barrel and ran it over. Then we found some junk that included an abandoned ski-boose which we plan to retrieve later for tractor sledding type activities. Some road tractoring brought us back to the yard where Matt Vitale was waiting for us. We ascended the main trail and went trail blazing through some small pine. Then we bajaed to the stonewall crossing and Mike rode the bull. After a short neutral drop we returned to the barn to conclude the first day of festmas '98.
12/19 John Allison, Andy Jones, Brian Jones, Dave Lipman, Shannon Paul, Gavin Robinson, Graeme Robinson
Tonight was the first night fest this year and we opened the festivities by removing Christmas lights from the tractor and installing more battery powered festmas lights. Once the motor warmed up and the smoke cleared we set off into the woods. The mission: retrieve the abandoned ski-boose that was found last week. Baja by flashlight between the turnaround and the guy in the woods trail (G.W.T.) was challenging. The tractor got stuck a few times as we zig-zagged our way through the dark woods, but not bad enough to use the come-along. The stone wall crossing bounced the front wheels into the air and ejected the shotgun passenger one of many times during tonight's fest. The GWT led us to another trail which brought us to the ski-boose. The ski-boose was hooked to the tractor with a short chain to drag it home. John and first time tractorfest participant Dave occupied the (fest)-boose as we towed it to the GWT. Along the way we spotted a pair of green eyes in the woods. Dave gave chase and we saw that they were deer. John tried stuffing a barrel under the fest-boose's skis but it wouldn't go under. The ascent to the turnaround was labor intensive as we bajaed uphill in the dark while pulling a now empty -boose. The -boose's skis got caught on logs which increased the difficulty of the journey. By the time we reached the turnaround the belts were hot and smelling of burnt rubber and the -boose's skis had been bent a few times. The descent of the main trail was slower than usual while towing the reoccupied fest-boose but was enjoyed by all and Dave was ejected during his first time riding shotgun. The -boose was parked at the barn and we paused to cool the belts. A sacrificial toilet donated by John was loaded into the dump body and stashed in the woods to conclude festmas '98.