Hobby Becomes Personal Journey for Sean Weed

​By Luann Dart
Note: This feature is in the Dec. TF 2020 issue

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Sean Weed invests a piece of his heart and soul into each 1/16 scale customized model pulling tractor that he builds, as he finds solace in a hobby that has bittersweet memories for him.
Living in Harriston, Ontario, Canada, with his wife, Raechel, Sean grew up in southwestern Ontario, where both sets of his grandparents farmed. A neighbor who farmed near his paternal grandparents competed with an unlimited modified pulling tractor, and Sean often tagged along with his father when his father went to help with the tractor.
Sean remembers playing in the farm shop, surrounded by the smells of grease and diesel and the sounds of ringing metal and roaring engines. There, Sean also became friends with the neighbor's son, Billy Douglas Jr., who as 12 years older than Sean. Sean also vaguely remembers accompanying his father and the crew to tractor pulls.
But tragedy struck the family when Sean was 8 years old and his father committed suicide.
The grief-stricken family moved closer to Sean's maternal grandparents and Sean began working at a young age, including milking cows on his uncle's farm by the time he was 12 years old.
Sean attended college and pursued a career as a diesel mechanic, now working on motorhomes at an RV dealership in Harriston.
Through the years, Sean also collected farm toys, first getting toys as childhood gifts, then starting to collect them as an adult. His collection totaled about 500 pieces at one point, but he has let most of them go. He now focuses his collection on resin Gottman Toys built by SpecCast, with a collection of about 120 now.

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