Not some philosophical question about your existence. \u00a0Just a question that I have asked students during the past 20 years of teaching ag ed in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n
Why are you here?<\/p>\n
Hunh?!<\/p>\n
Why are you in this class?<\/p>\n
I want to learn to weld. \u00a0Or, I want to go to the shop. \u00a0Or, I want to build stuff. \u00a0All of these are very common responses. \u00a0Every ag teacher has heard these replies.<\/p>\n
During the 90s, I learned how to help kids build cool stuff. \u00a0I have a smoker that the kids built my first year in Waynoka. \u00a0The only money spent on this smoker was a jack, some 6011 rod and gas for the torch. \u00a0It ain’t purdy but it is hell-built for stout and is a cooking SOB. \u00a0I still have this smoker. \u00a0It sits on the NW corner of my shop. \u00a0If you have been here, you have seen it. \u00a0Then, we graduated to building trailers and such.<\/p>\n
In 2001, we decided to build a dune buggy. \u00a0I mean, Waynoka, home of the Little Sahara. \u00a0In cooperation with the local dune buggy shop, from scratch, we built a dune buggy. \u00a0Reworked a Volkswagen front end to serve our purposes. \u00a0Bent 1 1\/2″ round tubing and welded the frame together. \u00a0Had the frame powder coated–FFA national blue with gold flake in it. Lots of chrome. \u00a0Bright yellow safety harnesses to go with the blue and gold color combined with that chrome. \u00a0Oh! \u00a0The kids built the engine from the block up. \u00a0And those VW blocks are in two pieces. \u00a0WTH? \u00a0Teacher learning assimilated with the students learning. \u00a0Uh, yeah, I knew that it went together like this!?!?!? \u00a0 We used a VW bus transmission. \u00a0The bus trannys are bigger. \u00a0A girl plumbed the master cylinder and ran the brake lines. \u00a0(Yeah, we later used that part in a state winning speech). \u00a0This thing was BAD ASS! \u00a0I ain’t bragging. \u00a0It was cool. \u00a0Way cool!<\/p>\n
We finished it the first of May. \u00a0The new principal told me that I had to give semester tests. \u00a0What? \u00a0We built an effing dune buggy. \u00a0Tests? \u00a0RUSM? \u00a0I told him that the seniors and I were taking this thing out to the Little Sahara to run it on the dunes. \u00a0That would be our test. \u00a0He winced, \u00a0ducked his head a bit and then said, “Alright, but I’m coming with you all.” \u00a0Come on dude! \u00a0We are still friends. \u00a0This buggy won the Woods County Ag Mechanics contest at the county fair which had some good prizes. \u00a0There was a car show going on in Alva. \u00a0Some locals paid our entry for the car show. \u00a0It won crowd favorite and most unique entry. \u00a0The kids were stoked.<\/p>\n
Then we took it to the State Fair of Oklahoma. \u00a0Kids, we are going to have the grand champion ag mechanics project at the fair. \u00a0Wait? What? \u00a0We didn’t win.<\/p>\n
That dune buggy won it’s division. \u00a0But it got beat by a semi trailer from Elgin and a refurbished\/restored tractor from McCloud. \u00a0I don’t begrudge the semi trailer but I still think we should have beat the tractor. \u00a0Oh well. \u00a0At that time, OKC fair and Tulsa over-lapped. \u00a0So we couldn’t go to both.<\/p>\n
We sold 100 chances for $100 apiece on that dune buggy. \u00a0The local bank financed this project. \u00a0We brought in $10,000. \u00a0We had about $6,000 invested. \u00a0Profitable venture. \u00a0The community pride, the kids pride, school pride and let’s not shit ourselves, my pride–all were invaluable.<\/p>\n
I’ve had kids show the grand steer at OYE, the grand lamb at OYE, the grand goat at OYE, the grand chickens at Tulsa and breed champion pigs at OYE. \u00a0Not to mention my own offspring’s success. \u00a0Throw in some CDE events and speaking winners. \u00a0It’s all just coincidence. \u00a0No matter, that first dune buggy is my all-time favorite project. \u00a0About 20 kids worked on that thing. \u00a0Diverse kids. \u00a0It fit the community. \u00a0We used guidance from community members. \u00a0Learned about finance from the local bank. \u00a0Kind of forced the school to accommodate our schedule. \u00a0Worked after hours. \u00a0Had problems the first night that we fired the engine. \u00a0Had to trouble shoot. \u00a0It made money. (although I wish that I had paid for it and still owned it) \u00a0It actually helped raise more money for the local stock show and ag boosters.<\/p>\n
I even got the opportunity to co-author an article with an OSU ag ed professor in a professional journal about this project. \u00a0Over the years, I have kept a few pictures. \u00a0I still have the picture of the group that built that thing with the people that guided my dumb ass and the buggy. \u00a0I guess I ought to digitize it and post it some time.<\/p>\n
We built two more of those things. \u00a0In 2005, my last spring at Waynoka, we finished the last one. \u00a0A girl welded the entire frame. \u00a0She didn’t trust the boys to weld as good as she could. \u00a0That girl was a heckuva stick showing Hereford cattle but she could also run a MIG. \u00a0That chick is now our accountant. \u00a0It was a candy apple red with silver fleck powder coat. \u00a0Even more chrome. \u00a0Louder engine. \u00a0A student and I \u00a0drove that thing through the streets of Waynoka. \u00a0Cops were called. \u00a0They turned their lights on and escorted us back to the school. \u00a0Small town living. \u00a0I then drove it right by the grade school and middle school class rooms. \u00a0I shifted down and racked that thing out. \u00a0Teachers were pissed. \u00a0The principal, superintendent and most importantly, the school secretary were proud. \u00a0I was real proud. \u00a0Poe Cat took over as the Waynoka ag teacher and they won some plaques with that thing.<\/p>\n
I write this for my own memory. \u00a0And because until now, Oklahoma has not always had a proper place to exhibit these kind of projects. \u00a0Even though ag mech projects appeal to more students than livestock showing. \u00a0We have shown at the state fairs but it was for bragging rights. \u00a0No real prizes. \u00a0A plaque and $25 for grand overall. \u00a0Duke had the grand in 2016 and 2018 at the State Fair of OK. \u00a0Reserve grand at Tulsa in 2018. \u00a0We liked the shows. \u00a0But it could be better.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0Phoenix added an ag mech show a couple of years ago. \u00a0I highly recommend it. \u00a0We added an ag mech show to Woodward District this year. \u00a0It went over real, real good! \u00a0Good enough that others took notice. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Like\u00a0other things, Texas does the FFA ag mechanics project shows to the highest level in the nation. \u00a0Ft. Worth, San Antonio, San Angelo, Houston and others shows all have large ag mech shows. \u00a0Huge sponsors and prizes. \u00a0Some chapters are so good at winning welders, plasma cutters and torches, they have a waiting list of people to buy the prizes. \u00a0Kids have outfitted their own shops with tools won at these events. \u00a0It is awesome. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Getting the Ag Mech show added to Woodward District took some doing, but it went over well. \u00a0Now, guess what? \u00a0YES!!!! \u00a0There will be an Ag Mechanics project show at OYE this year. \u00a0The show staff is on board. \u00a0Really good group of directors. \u00a0Jerry Renshaw is the head of the Ag Mech show. \u00a0Yeah, he was the ag teacher from Elgin that had the semi trailer that beat the dune buggy, several years ago. \u00a0There are sponsors in line. \u00a0It will take time to grow it. \u00a0But\u2026.but\u2026but\u2026 hell yeah! \u00a0We have an ag mech show at OYE in 2020! \u00a0Yes!<\/p>\n This is one post that I don’t want to hit publish. \u00a0I haven’t been on the dunes in a decade but I still wonder. \u00a0Why do I not own that first buggy? \u00a0I was piss-broke and a dumb ass is why.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Funky cold medina.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Not some philosophical question about your existence. \u00a0Just a question that I have asked students during the past 20 years of teaching ag ed in Oklahoma. Why are you here? Hunh?! Why are you in this class? I want to learn to weld. \u00a0Or, I want to go to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3017"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3017"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3020,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3017\/revisions\/3020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}