Packed barn leads to selling

When does a buyer turn into a seller?
When his barn is so full he no longer has room for new treasures.
Such is the case for Dave Baird, who for the first time this week is offering items for sale at the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Association Swap and Sell Meet. The event began Thursday and runs through Saturday at the Tri-State grounds on Morton Street, with a corresponding flea market across the street at Jay County Fairgrounds.
“My problem is, I don’t have room to bring anymore home. So I’m getting rid of it,” said Baird, an Upland resident who is set up just west of Millers Branch and north of the main road. “You see, normally I’d be here shopping. I couldn’t shop today.”
While most of the items on display or for sale at the meet involve gas-powered machinery, as the association’s name would suggest, Baird’s favorite items are of another variety.

The main pieces of his collection are walk-behind farm tools, predominantly plows and planters.
The cultivators are mostly of the horse-pulled variety, although he has a few that are human-powered.
And, as is the case with many of the vendors at the meet, he has a couple of tables full of parts.
Baird at one time restored tractors, but he sold the four he had when the market for them dropped about 15 years ago.
They left a void.
“I got bored, because I didn’t have anything to do,” he said. “Being the size of these — they don’t take up much room and they don’t cost a lot — so that’s how I got into this.”
Now he has about 40 hanging in his barn, with some of those on sale at the meet for about $100 apiece in an effort to make room for more.
A former homebuilder for about 20 years, Baird focuses on the planters and plows with wood handles. He generally buys them old and rusty and tries to bring them back to life.
He’s got them in all shapes and colors — if he knows the original color based on the brand, such as green for John Deere or red for International Harvester, he matches it.
“Of course when you find it, it’s rust color,” said Baird, an Eastbrook High School graduate who for the last nine years has worked for American Electric Power. “And you don’t know what the color is until you start taking apart something that’s never been apart.
“I want to keep it around. They don’t make this stuff anymore.”
His interest in farm equipment comes naturally as both his grandparents and parents were in the business.
His father, Ronald, and brother, Daniel, still work the land his grandparents owned in Morocco, a small town along the Illinois border about 75 miles south of Chicago.
Baird’s family moved to Grant County in his youth, and though he isn’t a farmer, he still feels the lifestyle is in his blood. Like so many others who attend the Tri-State shows, he said one of the things he enjoys most about coming to Jay County is the chance to share and hear stories.
“That’s why I like these people,” said Baird, who has been coming to the Tri-State shows for about 15 years. “They’re really, in general, it’s just a good bunch of people.
“You’re the descendents of a farm community. The friendliness is still there. I enjoy it.”