Saturday, April 1, 2023 | Country Acres • Page 1
Country Acres Saturday, April 1, 2023
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Volume 10, Edition 04
Sheds of
TREASURES Gottschalks collect mechanical magic
two project tractors. We used the money we got at the 4-H auction from our steers to pay for them.” They were a 39B and a 44B John Deere. John Lair became a close friend and mentor to Trevor and Travis and watched their talents blossom for many years. Both of the tractors stand among the Gottschalks’ collection of rare John Deere PHOTO BY GRACE tractors that now numbers over 60 piecJEURISSEN Bombardier es of equipment ranging from a horse drawn Velie carriage to a road scraper Ski-Doo snowmobiles are with a serial No.1 that was part of the national highway system construction among hundreds of diffrom when President Eisenhower was ferent types of in office. antiques in the They also collect memorabilia and Gottschalks’ other things manufactured by John collection. Deere and John Deere’s family members, including the only complete collection of all the bicycles John Deere companies made, including the only known courting tandem bicycle that never made it into production and a
BY GRACE JEURISSEN STAFF WRITER
K
PHOTO BY GRACE JEURISSEN
Travis Gottschalk sits on the first tractor he restored when he was 10 years old March 26 near Kingston. He purchased the tractor with the money he received from the 4-H Livestock Auction. PHOTO SUBMITTED
(Top)The Gottschalk family – (front from left) Jared, Henry, Molly, Astrid, Scott, Hiltina, Stella, Rosalynn and Cruz (back from left) Trevor, Theresa, RaeLynn and Travis – have a museum of snowmobiles, bicycles, John Deere tractors and motorcyles near Kingston. The family started their endeavor when Trevor and Travis were 12 and 10-yearsold.
ST R
Publications bli ti The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
INGSTON – The sound of tinkering and power tools can be heard nearly every day of the week at the Gottschalk residences in Meeker County. Around 28 years ago, Scott Gottschalk arrived at the county fair to find his boys, Trevor and Travis, hadn’t been keeping their cattle clean and watered properly. While Scott was seeing red and trying to find his two boys around the fairgrounds, Trevor and Travis were seeing green, John Deere green to be exact. “I showed up; those cattle were a mess. I was fuming,” Scott said. “Then I find the two of them with their hands all over a few John Deere tractors, making conversation with the man that owned them.” Scott was a dairy farmer for many years before selling his herd, but the dairy cattle wasn’t anything his two boys took an interest in. Instead they wanted to wrench away at antique tractors, a hobby that has gone far beyond what they ever expected. “Trevor and I sat at those tractors, talking to John Lair for four hours that day,” Travis said. “He sold us our first
ThIs mOnTh iN ThE
COUNTRY: Watch for the next edition of Country Acres on April 15, 2023
Gottschalks page 2
7
The milkman Grace Jeurissen column
9
Nurturing a business Garfield
25 Country cooking Sauk Centre
8
Losing the chainsaw Nancy Packard Leasman column
15 Dairy Princess Section
26 Blooming with brightness Sartell
8
FFA student
22 Gratitude for their cows Brooten