PLOWING UP THE PAST : FARMER SHOWS VINTAGE EQUIPMENT.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer Back in a far corner of the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley Fairgrounds n. pl. 1. same as fairground. , standing next to a horse-drawn plow and four stalls filled with mules, Freddy Valentino will tell you about the way things used to be. Back then, big breweries used hundreds of horse-drawn wagons instead of trucks, and a man walked behind a plow pulled by a horse or mule to break up the earth for planting, and neighbors got together to thresh thresh v. threshed, thresh·ing, thresh·es v.tr. 1. a. To beat the stems and husks of (grain or cereal plants) with a machine or flail to separate the grains or seeds from the straw. each man's wheat, going from farm to farm in turn with a horse-powered threshing threshing or thrashing, separation of grain from the stalk on which it grows and from the chaff or pod that covers it. The first known method was by striking the reaped ears of grain with a flail. machine. Valentino, general manager of Antelope Valley Rubbish in Palmdale, has been collecting old-fashioned tools and antique farm equipment for some 20 years. He even farms with mule power, using his team to plow and harvest about 20 acres of wheat, barley, oats oats, cereal plants of the genus Avena of the family Gramineae (grass family). Most species are annuals of moist temperate regions. The early history of oats is obscure, but domestication is considered to be recent compared to that of the other and alfalfa alfalfa (ălfăl`fə) or lucern (l  sûn`), perennial leguminous plant (Medicago sativa around his home east of Lancaster. He enters his team in the annual Mule Days driving contests in Bishop. At the fair, Valentino's got a John Deere walking plow, a sulky plow See Buggy plow , a Meadowbrook cart crafted from beautiful stained oak, a mule-powered device for compacting hay into bales, a chuck wagon, a mule drawn road grader, antique farm equipment, and four hefty mules to pull them. ``I started with little stuff - a stove, then a team of mules and a farm wagon, and then it snowballed,'' said Valentino, a stocky stock·y adj. stock·i·er, stock·i·est 1. Solidly built; sturdy. 2. Chubby; plump. stock  i·ly adv. man with an unruly gray beard and red, white and blue suspenders holding up denim trousers. To Valentino, his collection - of which the machinery on display at the fair is just a part - is an attempt to re-create farm life of his boyhood at the tail end of the Great Depression, when much of the pulling and plowing work was still done by horses and mules. ``Actually, all this equipment I was raised with, in a farm up in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of ,'' Valentino, 57, said. ``We farmed and logged and sugared, milked dairy cattle. I came to California, and I laid low for 15 years and then kind of came back to my roots Back to My Roots was the fourth single (and second major label single) released by singer and drag queen RuPaul. The track continued to boost RuPaul's popularity with a gay audience and in dance clubs, but failed to chart in the Billboard Hot 100. .'' At his display in the fairground's northwest corner, behind the livestock barns, Valentino will explain to visitors how a farmer guided a walking plow as it was pulled by a mule or horse, or rode atop a spike-tooth harrow. ``Was that hard work?'' a visitor asked. ``Oh yes, everything was hard work,'' Valentino said. Valentino and his mules and farm equipment have been regulars at the fair for several years, but this is his biggest display. In coming fairs, he hopes to expand to include demonstrations, such as hitching a mule to the hay baler hay baler, farm machine that packs and ties (or wraps in plastic) field-dried hay into bundles, called bales, for convenient handling, storage, and shipping. and showing how it works. His most high-profile fair endeavor is emptying the trash. Three times a day, he hitches his mules to a rubber-tired garbage wagon and tours the fairground's trash bins. Helpers go along to help keep the curious out from underneath the hoofs. ``People just love it,'' Valentino said. ``They want to stop and pet my mules.'' Some of his machinery he has found in auctions, like the big one every two years in Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley Noun 1. San Joaquin Valley - a vast valley in central California known for its rich farmland Calif., California, Golden State, CA - a state in the western United States on the Pacific; the 3rd largest state; known for earthquakes . Some - like a water wagon - he has fabricated from parts found here and there. ``A lot of this stuff found me. If somebody found something unique, it's call Freddy,'' he said. ``I can get a lot of parts still back in the East. I deal a lot with the Amish. They're still using horses, blacksmithing. . . . All my harness work is done by the Amish.'' Valentino's goal is to turn his east Lancaster ranch into a working museum of farm equipment such as was used 50 to 100 years ago. He already takes youth groups around his place and gives them wagon rides. ``I like to pass it on to the younger generation,'' he said. ``All this stuff is what got us here today.'' Antelope Valley Fair The Antelope Valley Fair and Alfalfa Festival will continue through Sept. 2. WHERE: 155 E. Ave. I, Lancaster. ADMISSION: $5 for adults, $3 for seniors and children ages 6 to 12. Children under 6 and uniformed military personnel enter free. Parking: $2. PHONE: (805) 948-6060. TODAY SHOWS AND EVENTS: Point of Grace, 8 p.m. Kiwanis Junior livestock auction, 8 a.m. Disabled people and a guest are admitted free, starting at 2 p.m. HOURS: 5 p.m. to midnight. WEDNESDAY SHOWS AND EVENTS: Rodeo Queen contest, 6 p.m. Les Brown Les Brown may refer to:
HOURS: 5 p.m. to midnight. CAPTION(S): 3 Photos, Box Photo: (1--Color only in AV edition) Freddy Valenti no chats at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds with visitors about the horse-drawn carriage he had built for himself in Canada. (2--Color only in AV edition) ALaura Hembd of Lancaster feeds one of Freddy Valentino's mules. (3--Ran in AV edition only) Freddy Valentino, who farms 20 acres outside Lancaster, shows some youngsters his equipment made to be pulled by mules or plow horses. John Lazar/Special to the Daily News Box: Antelope Valley Fair (See text) |
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