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By MIKE JESSE Photos by TOM WILLIAMSThe first thing the passing motorist would probably notice about the Troike farm in northern Townsend Township is the giant American flags painted on two sides of an otherwise white bam.Of course, flags are rather popular these days, even if they aren't generally so large.So the mildly interested motorist drives on past the patriotic bam and immediatly sees two wooden men methodically sawing an imaginary log next to a miniature windmill in the Troike front yard.A closer look at that unusual sight leads the curious intruder close enough to see a five-foot wooden airplane furiously whirling its three propellers into the wind while it is safely held in place, six feet above the ground, by an iron post bolted to its underbelly.Nine old thread spools, painted black, are attachedTinkering comes naturally to Luther Troike, and the yard around his farm shows it.Troike planned his flags for the Bicentennial, but it didn't work out that way. Instead he got around to painting them on the side of his barn several years later.around each propeller and “Troike Airlines” is always looked for ways to keep his busy hands painted on the plane’s sides. occupied during the slow winter months on the farm.A smaller plane buzzes along futily nearby while a Apparently there were only so many fences to mend pint-sized covered wagon, miniature steam engine and tractors to repair to keep the amiable farmer and assorted other unusual objects dot the lawn occupied.around the two houses on the Troike homestead. Troike’s energies found their release late in 195*There is more, of course (like the Troike just after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the“Airmail” box tacked twenty feet up on wooden first man-made satellite, in orbit around Earth, pole), but this all is probably enough to get the Troike responded by constructing, from assorted picture. en(*s an(* odds he found around the farm, his ownThe source of all of this creative woodworking is version of a space vehicle — with a Santa L lausLuther Troike, now retired from running the farm, riding on it.but clearly not idle. He has a small shop set up in a corner of hisTroike often still works the fields with his son, basement and has outfitted it, over the years, with Don, who is now the head of the farm. And when the used woodworking tools he picked up at auctions orelder Troike isn’t working, he’s usually down in his yard sales.basement workshop building a scale replica of As for materials, Troike is just as thrifty, makingpractically anything that catches his interest.Evidently a bom tinkerer, Troike said he has • Please turn to page B-3It's propellers whirling merrily in the wind, the flagship of Troike Airlines draws curious glances from passing motorists.
Newspaper Details
Sandusky Sunday Register
Sandusky, Ohio, US
Sun, May 25, 1980
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Clevnet
OH, USA 09 May 2020
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