Wanted: Good home for 1980 Massey Ferguson 860 combine with 7,300 engine hours and 7,000 road miles. Answers to the name of Prairie Belle.
As reported in this space on Nov. 16, Nick Parsons of Farmington, B.C., plans to give away his famous combine, the machine that he drove first in the field, then to Victoria and then across Canada to create public awareness of farmers’ financial difficulties.
Saskatchewan’s Western Development Museum was his first choice as the combine’s new home but that hasn’t panned out. Though interested in Belle, the museum doesn’t have available display space.
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“It was a matter of the physical limitations of our plant,” says WDM collections curator Ruth Bitner. “We are the logical place but we’ve got this huge issue of where to put things. It was with a great deal of regret that we couldn’t accept it.”
Parsons, the farm crusader, favours a Saskatchewan location for his agricultural batmobile because of the warm reception he was given there during his trek to Ottawa.
“Saskatchewan farmers paid for her when I crossed this country. She belongs to them as much as me.”
Parsons says he will give Belle away if a charitable group is interested. Anyone else will pay a price because the vintage combine is still in working order.
Parsons can be contacted at 250-843-7617 in Dawson Creek, B.C.
In another update on the activities of crusaders and rebels, the Metric Martyrs of Great Britain, first reported upon here in March 2002, are celebrating success. The European Commission and the British government have decided to allow marketing of goods in both metric and imperial measurements rather than demand full metric conversion. Further, they’ve abandoned plans to abolish imperial measures after 2009, according to a Martyrs News release
news.
The group began its protest in 2000, when two produce sellers refused to convert their vegetable and fruit weigh scales to metric. They and several others who protested the move were convicted of a criminal offence and lost a subsequent appeal.
But as of earlier this month, “the pound, ounce, yard, foot, the mile and the pint have been saved!” exclaims a News release
news.
Martyr and former fishmonger Neil Herron says that while some government officials claim responsibility for the change in laws, he thinks his group was really at the heart of the matter.
Though their reason for being has evaporated, the Martyrs have one piece of outstanding business. They want a pardon for Steve Thoburn, one of their number who died in 2004 with the related criminal conviction on his record.
