CARRINGTON (AP) -The Rev. Lawrence Haas found himself in a priestly predicament back in 2001.

"I thought if I restored an antique tractor, people would think I'd lost my mind and they'd never believe another word I said," he said.

Five years later, Haas still has his congregation's attention - and six immaculately kept International Harvester tractors from the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Haas, a priest for the last 10 years at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Carrington, and Virgil Zink, a retired grain and cattle farmer, bought and restored the tractors and now enter them in area parades.

For Haas, the tractors serve as a link to his farming past and his family's long connection to International tractors.

His grandfather was a binding expert for International for 40 years. His uncle owned an International dealership in Lidgerwood, and two of his brothers ran another dealership in Bismarck.

"All red," Haas said of his family.

"He won't even wear a John Deere cap," Zink added.

After high school, Haas farmed with his dad for three years before entering the seminary. He served as priest for 15 years at the Newman Center on the University of North Dakota campus in Grand Forks and for 12 years at St. Joseph's in Devils Lake.

But he never strayed too far from farming.

"Around harvest time, I'd go out to the fields and sometimes run combines for guys," he said.

While watching a parade several years ago in Devils Lake, Haas said, he noticed the lineup lacked the popular International M and H models and John Deere A and B models from his childhood.

"I said, 'Hey, we've got to save some of these. They are living history,'" he recalled.

The local Case IH dealer in Carrington tipped him off to a 1952 International Super M for sale. Haas and Zink bought the tractor in early June 2001 and had it painted and ready to run in Carrington's July Fourth parade.

The following year they bought an International model H at an auction in Courtenay, then a Super C from a dealer in Lidgerwood, a model B from a Carrington farmer, a Cub from a dealer in Oakes, and a model A from the Carrington golf course.

"Of this particular vintage, this is the whole Farmall line," Haas said, talking about the tractors as though they were bottles of fine wine.

Bent on perfection, Haas and Zink had each tractor cleaned, sandblasted to the bare metal and professionally painted with two coats of primer and two or three coats of red. The tractors required some engine and body work, most of which the 73-year-old men did themselves.

"These are easy tractors to work on," Zink said. "And if we got stuck, we knew a good mechanic."

Rolling in shiny red unison, the tractors turn a lot of heads on the highway, Haas said. People often stop to comment about how their parents or grandparents owned one, or how they learned to drive tractor on one of the models.

"They're a wonderful conversation starter," he said.