• Antique and classic tractors, trucks, and cars
• Antique hit-and-miss engines
• Old time domestic-agricultural-industrial machines
• Chinese auction
• Pancake breakfast
• Outdoor church service Sunday
• Tractor parade Sunday at 1PM
• Tractor rodeo, food, and drink

You will also find plenty of crafts and demonstrations, a bake sale, and more, all in the beautiful countryside along Cherry Valley Creek.

Here’s a Google map to help you find your way.

View Larger Map
We hope you can make it!

Tired of hearing politicians and government bureacrats talk about satellite broadband, Cobb decided “to create a document that establishes the fact that satellite Internet, while it is a miracle of technology, is NOT broadband.”

An information technology professional with more than 30 years experience in computer audit and security, Cobb feels that rural communities are being “tricked” into thinking satellite Internet services lke HughesNet and WildBlue are their only option for broadband. “It is both disingenous and insulting to tell rural residents, particularly those who live right next to a fiber optic cable, that they should be happy with satellite Internet service,” says Cobb.

“Satellite will never offer the sort of bandwidth you can get with cable, fiber, DSL, or WiMax, and everyone knows that…if you can’t use it to host a website or watch Netflix movies, it’s not broadband.”

Cobb says communities like Roseboom should be wired to the Internet just like cities and suburbs. “Why should we settle for less, after all, we allow fiber to pass right through here?” Cobb believes that when the federal government gave $100 million worth of Recovery funds to satellite companies it made a mistake. ”That money would have been much better spent connecting places like Roseboom and Pleasant Brook with fiber or cable…there are people who would love to move here, work here, build businesses here, but cannot do so because we are not wired”

The 22-page report that Cobb put together was recently published as a white paper by the Rural Mobile and Broadband Alliance, a non-profit rural advocacy group that goes by the acronym “RuMBA.” Over 500 people have already downloaded the white paper and it has been featured on a wide range of websites, including the following:

• Ag Professional
• Western Farm Press
• Stop the Cap!
• Connected Planet
• Fierce Telecom
• TelecomLead
• The Street
• AgriMarketing
• Politic 365

Anyone who has enough bandwidth can download the whitepaper here (it is a 1.9 megabte PDF file)

Right in the village you will find rows and rows of equipment, tractors, displays, and food stands. Look for Stirling engines and threshers and contraptions invented in by-gone days to help the day go by quicker (shuck those corn cobs maybe).

Be sure to come on Saturday and order one of the world’s best subs from Bob’s Country Store. Come by on Sunday and watch the parade.

Makes for a great family outing. Or turn it into a mini-vacation, with a side trip to Cooperstown; we hear some baseball stuff goes on there. Enjoy a great coffee at the StageCoach and wander down to the edge of beautiful and historic Glimmerglass Lake (we assume you  know that Cooperstown was founded by the father of James Fenimore Cooper, author of Last of the Mohicans–and around these parts are parts of the world that Hawkeye roamed?).

Hope to see you around!

Items that I did not blog and about which I feel particularly guilty include the huge snow storm, the aforementioned flooding, and the Maple Weekends in March. The weather was particularly kind to the sugar-off celebration after a nasty storm at the end of February.

Looking ahead, the 2011 Antique Power Days have been scheduled for the weekend of August 21-22. To get an idea of what this event has in store, here is a great slide show of photos that Barney22 was kind enough to share with us on YouTube.

• Induction Weekend at the Baseball Hall of Fame
• The Great American Irish Fair in Herkimer

Of course, if the crowds get too much, take a break and swing through Cherry Valley and Roseboom. And if you find you need some good sandwiches for the road, stop in at Bob’s Country Store at junction of 165 and 166. Great subs made to order (just remember they’re closed on Sunday).

Anyone should be able to view them.

Only took me 11 months to get round to it! Will try to add more soon.

Next up? Some short video clips on YouTube (although video of an automatic corn shucker is somehow not as exciting as seeing it for real). And somehow that reminds me of when a young Bill Gates was interviewed on the BBC about computers in education. He enthused: “Imagine kids in a classroom being able to click on a picture of a violin and hearing the sound it makes.” At which point the interviewer said “Why not just show them a real violin?”

P.S. Mark your calendar for this year’s Power Days and download the handy program in .pdf format.

(And there I was last week thinking it was about time I put up my photos from last year’s event–I guess Tempus has Fugit big time.)

The 2009 event looks to be bigger and better than ever. And this year there is a handy program you can download in .pdf format. Here’s a quick overview:

• Antique & Classic Tractors – Trucks – Cars
• Antique Hit & Miss Engines – Domestic – Agricultural – Industrial
• Chinese Auction Sunday, August 16.
• Pancake Breakfast 8-12 Sat. & Sun, August 15/16
• Outdoor Church Service – Sunday, August 16, at 10:00 Am
• Tractor Parade – Sunday, August 16, at 1:00 Pm
• Followed by Tractor Rodeo

A big turnout of tractors is expected, but also some very rare farm machines, the sort of contraptions that can shuck corm by the bushel loads or automatically cut roof shingles from rough lumber. More tractors in one place than you are ever likely to see anywhere else, and the great folks who take care of them.

This year’s event is sponsored in part by: Napa Auto Parts Cooperstown, Springfield Tractor, Jim’s Tractor Service, and Pitcher’s Trucking and General Repair.

If you would like to help spread the word about this event you can download the program in .pdf format then print it out and hand it out (in accordance with all no-bill-posting laws and ordinances, etc. of course.)