Last night was Ferndale’s Lighted Tractor Parade, one of my favorite Ferndale events. Lot of entries this year and it was nice to see the Leonardi’s back in the fray after a year’s absence. Bansen’s brought their train back to town and once again won best of show. My favorite was a skidder that carried a sign on the front, “You’re a mean one… Mr. Grinch”. A skidder is a specialized tractor that is used to drag logs out of the forest. Dragging behind this skidder though was a lit Christmas tree. I would have put a photo of it but it was impossible to show the sign and the tree in one photo, so you’ll just have to imagine it, or check out the gallery on the Aesthetic Design & Photography site when I get them up there.

There were two film crews in town videoing the parade, one from PBS and one from the Learning Channel. Both shows will be on later next year some time. I almost thought we were going to have a fire call in the middle of the parade because one cameraman repeatedly kept getting wacked by floats and tractors as he was trying to film closeups. It also ended up being a very cold night for the parade. The parade goes through town in both directions and in previous years I’ve seen the crowd hang out in pouring rain to watch both passes. This year though after the first pass was completed, the streets cleared. That’s Ferndale for you, we can take the rain, but those temperature extremes will get us every time.