He’s got five tractors, and five grandchildren, and it’s tough to say which of them makes Jim Richter of Fall City happiest. He loves that the grandchildren have each picked out their favorite tractors already, the ones they plan to inherit some day. He’s also pretty proud of the four classic tractors he put on display, along with himself as Mr. December, in the 2012 Snoqualmie Valley Tractor Men calendar.

That’s right, there’s room for 64 year-old grandfathers, too, in the pinup calendar created by Valley photographer Robin Woelz.

“The deal is that I am so good-looking,” Richter  begins, but he starts laughing before he can even finish the joke.

The calendar does feature a few undeniably sexy photos of local men at work on the farm – women are the target market, after all – but in the end, the calendar is about family, fun, and maybe even a little farming.

Family focus

Family is where it all started for Woelz, whose niece inadvertently gave her the idea for the calendar watching the parade of tractors at the Carnation 4th of July celebration. Another niece, Karisa Beerbower, helped her with all the photography. The photos all ultimately had to pass a family test, too.

“It’ll be sexy, but nothing you’ll be embarrassed to give your grandma,” Woelz said when she first started planning the calendar.

The Tractor Men are family-focused, too. Jim Doran says he wanted to be in the calendar (he’s Mr. March) to serve as a role model for his 8- and 10-year-old sons.

“I kind of wanted to make a statement to them that it’s OK to be proud of the gifts that have been given to you by DNA, or God, or whoever you call it,” he said. Right. He also suspects that years from now, “My kids and grandchildren can look at it, and laugh at it.”

Richter hopes his grandchildren get a kick out of the calendar, but it’s doubtful they’ll have as much fun as he did.

“I had a ball with it, and if it happens again, I’ll definitely volunteer,” he says.

He also appreciates that part of the calendar’s proceeds will be donated to other farming programs, specifically 4-H, Future Farmers of America, and Sno-Valley Tilth (www.snovalleytilth.net).

Richter grew up farming, and had planned to be a farmer himself since about age 7.

“I was more or less born on a tractor,” he explained. “My dad kind of got me hooked.” His father, who farmed with his uncle on the same farm where Richter and his wife Peggy now live, hired young Jim to help him in the field one day, steering a “cultipack” behind the tractor, which Dad drove. He got paid 25 cents an hour, he said “and boy, then I was hooked. I was going to be a tractor driver!”

Doran, originally from Georgia, has always been a gardener, but on a fairly large scale, growing up to five acres of crops on his Duvall farm in recent years. He downsized last year to balance his full-time job at Microsoft with his responsibilities as a single parent, but he hopes to expand again soon. He is excited that his 8- and 10-year-old sons are planning their own gardens for next spring, too.

They are all from the Valley, but not all of these calendar guys spend much time on a tractor. Jim Jones, aka Mr. February, confessed “The’ farm’ was all tongue in cheek…. I don’t even have a vegetable garden!” He does, however, have a window box with a few herbs growing in it, which became, for publicity purposes, the Jones Family Herb Farm.

Jones first learned about the Tractor Man auditions in August from the Valley Record article (http://www.valleyrecord.com/entertainment/126420883.html) and decided, with the OK of his two teenage daughters, to audition because “I loved the idea of promoting the Valley,” he said.

He’s lived in Fall City for the last 15 years, and found that “The kind of people who live in the Valley are the kind of people that I can respect… they’re more interested in fundamental values, helping out the neighbors, supporting America.”

There was also a touch of “why not?” in his approach to the calendar.

“I certainly don’t mind people poking fun at me for doing a wacky thing,” he said. “I enjoy doing things that are out of the ordinary.”

His appearance with Woelz and a handful of the other Tractor Men to promote the calendar on King 5’s New Day Northwest October 24 was definitely in that category (replays at http://www.king5.com/new-day-northwest/Tractor-Men-of-Snoqualmie-Valley-Calendar-132453878.html). The show’s audience surprised everyone with their enthusiasm, and would have seemed equally in place at a rock concert or playoff game.

“I’ve never had anyone scream at me like that before, so it was a little unnerving,” Doran admitted.

Jones and Richter, also in awe of the audience reaction, lapped it all up.

“Did you see those ladies in front?” Richter asked. “These older ladies about 75 to 80, they just started screaming, and clapping. I guess they thought they had a chance with me.”

Sorry ladies, Mr. December has been happily married to his best friend, Peggy, for 42 years.

A few of the other Tractor Men are available, though, and Richter is the first to announce they are all calendar material.

“There was 11 beautiful guys and one ugly guy, and the ugly guy was me!” he laughed.

Several of the men were photographed at his farm, with his old tractors, and Richter thoroughly enjoyed finding month-appropriate settings for each of his subjects.

Woelz and Beerbower shot all of the photos in about a six-week window in September and October, setting all of the scenes on Valley farms. It was an ambitious schedule, but Woelz must have shared a little of Jones’ “why not?” philosophy.

Like he said, “It’s not like it’s a huge life-changing thing, so we’re just having fun with it.”

The 2012 Snoqualmie Valley Tractor Men calendar is available for sale at Duvall Drug and Rockin’ E Feed in Duvall, Sliders Café, Carnation Market IGA, and Carnation Laundry in Carnation, and True Value in Snoqualmie. Woelz is lining up sales points in Fall City and North Bend, too.

For more information, visit the Tractor Men Facebook page.