By RICK A. RICHARDS
Indiana Correspondent

WANATAH, Ind. — The instant visitors turn into the driveway of Jerry Smoker’s farm, there is no doubt where his allegiance is with farm machinery; virtually everything that moves (and some things that don’t) is painted red.

It’s an homage to International Harvester, the farm equipment manufacturer that went out of business 25 years ago. Smoker grew up on a farm that used IH and he admits he’s logged a lot of seat time in bright red tractors.
He did a lot of thinking behind the wheel of a tractor when he was younger, and he remembers those machines like other people remember their first car. “I’ve been on a tractor since I was old enough to walk,” said Smoker. “I knew when I was a little boy I wanted to be a farmer.”

When he’s not restoring tractors, he farms 2,200 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat and barley in southern LaPorte County.

“I love farming and the freedom it gives me to make my own decisions. I don’t punch a clock. My wife says I do because I’m up at 5 o’clock every day, but when it’s time to work, I work. If it takes 16 to 20 hours a day, I work 16 to 20 hours a day.

“On days like this when it’s hot, I’ll go in the basement and watch old movies. I like to mow the yard and help my wife in the park she’s made in the woods. I don’t think I could work a job if I had to punch a clock.”

When Smoker restores a tractor, it doesn’t just sit in the barn, either. He uses it around the farm to move wagons or other equipment.

“Back in the 1950s, my dad bought his first International Harvester tractor, so I’m partial to red,” he explained. “I started playing around with tractors and that blossomed into this. I can do this in the winter when the snow is flying. I don’t like to sit in the house. I have to be busy.”

Looking back, Smoker guesses he’s restored upwards of 50 tractors. He built a barn where he keeps 15 of his favorite tractors, but the rest he has sold or traded for others to restore. Most recently, he hauled a tractor to Missouri where he traded it for an International Scout that he plans to restore.
“I restore them all, play with them and then move on to something else,” said Smoker.

The one thing all those tractors have had in common is a finishing coat of bright red paint, a color splashed all over his farm. Standing the middle of his barnyard, there is red no matter where one looks: His patio furniture is red and so is his barbecue grill. His pickup truck is red and so is the golf cart he and his wife use on their nightly cruises through a six-acre wood behind their house, that they transformed into a park.

Inside the house, his office is filled with IH knickknacks – a ceiling fan, posters, photos, computer screensavers and magnets – and in his bright red IH family room there are die cast tractors, belt buckles, paintings, books and magazines on IH equipment.

“I restored my first tractor in the mid-1970s, which was a Farmall M,” said Smoker. “I still have that tractor today.”

He and his wife, Kelli, and their Yorkshire terrier, Mitzi, are fixtures on the restored tractor tour. He is deeply involved with the annual Red Power Roundup, a yearly gathering that brings together some 8,000 IH Collector Club members from across the country. When it was in LaPorte County in 2010, Smoker was one of the event’s organizers.

Locally, he is vice president of Chapter 33 of the IH Collectors and a member of the national organization’s board of directors. “I have friends all over the United States because of International Harvester collectors,” said Smoker. “No matter where you go, you’re going to find someone who restores tractors.”

One of his friends is an executive with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois. “He’s a master restorer. You’d never think he’d get his hands dirty doing something like this, but he loves it,” said Smoker.

“There are doctors and lawyers. There are no parameters. They’ve all got that tie to the farm somewhere in previous generations, and restoring tractors is what brings it back.

“My favorite part is making things work and run properly,” he added. “I’m a wrench-turner. If I have little jobs to do around here like moving a wagon, I use them. They need to be exercised. Everything runs at least once every 40 to 60 days.”

Smoker put up a barn at the back of his farmyard that holds 15 of his favorite tractors. They’re the ones he says he’s never getting rid of, and he and Kelli drive them in local parades.

“When I’m done with one tractor, I’m already thinking about the next one,” said Smoker. “Usually there is one in the barn waiting. I get it functional and play with it for a year to get all the oil leaks plugged before I paint it. We have a rule around here that if I can’t get it running in a week, it doesn’t stay.”
One thing he won’t do is keep track of the hours involved in restoring his tractors.

“If you kept track of them, it would drive you crazy,” said Smoker. “The real sense of accomplishment comes when you put that last bolt in or touch up that last little bit of paint. That’s when the pride sets in.”