message board

[Log Skidder]

Hi Blake,
  how did you come to create cletrac.org and this cool message board?  I have never created a website before or anything, how much does it cost to run this thing?  Another hobby of mine is growing mushrooms.  I would like to talk somebody who already has a website to host a discussion board like this one.  A good place to go for wild mushroom hunters, amateur growers, commercial growers, mycologists, etc.

-Paul Bock
Log Skidder

[Blake Malkamaki]

Well that's a good question. As far as my interest in Cletrac, my gramps Howard van Driest was Experimental Engineer there for years and worked on designing and testing of the tractors and engines. He loved his job there and worked until the plant closed in 1961.

Several other members of my family worked at Cletrac at one time or another. My great grandfather Harry Rein was a tool maker there.

I grew up with Cletracs all over the farm. Some running and some not. In fact I inherited a lifetime of restoration projects - if I ever have that much time!

I started Cletrac.org to bring Cletrac and Oliver crawler owners together. A place to share stories, pictures, questions, advice, etc with one another. And a place to buy and sell. I kinda feel it's my duty to carry on what my gramps did. Plus I like the tractors and the company (in Cleveland) that made them.

To host the site, it cost me $200 one time, and then $70 a year thereafter. They raise it now and then. Plus, of course, my time. But I find it fun to run. I would like to recoup some of my expenses by getting some business card ads on the site, but interest has been slow in coming. I think my price is fair as it goes to a targeted audience. But, like I say, it's just for fun.

I just taught myself to design web sites and I'm learning all the time. I have some print publishing layout experience, so I use that in web design too.

Growing mushrooms sounds interesting. I have always wanted to try some wild ones, but have been afraid of them.

Where do you live in Western New York?

Take care,'
Blake

[Log Skidder]

I sent you a u2u, I don't know if I did it right.