By Deb Kroon
Review staff writer
Set up at the Nobles County Fair, was the culmination of years of labor for twin brothers, Jerry and Jimmy DeKam, lifelong members of the farming community near Ruthton, MN. They brought their hobby to proudly display at the fair. Set up on a table that was at least eight feet long was a replica of a farm totally built by these two men as a hobby.
“When we were 12 or 13 years old, we were each given a 1/25 scale model car kit. That was the beginning of this forty-two year hobby,” Jerry explained. Over the years the two brothers began collecting different model car kits and when in 1976, Ertl came out with the first tractor model kit, they began to collect them as well, starting to build for the display they have today.
Carpenters by trade, the brothers earn their living by light construction work-building cabinets, doing remodels and even working on new homes. At night and on weekends, they spend hours working on what is a passion for them, the farm replica. The attention to detail in their work shows the love they have for working with wood.
The table was set up to look like the grassy areas and roads that you would find on any farm place. On one end, they have built a couple of houses that were furnished inside and out, complete with paint on the walls. Cabinets and furniture were in their respective rooms — dining room table and chairs, bed and dressers, even a model car in the garage. All of this is built at 1/25 scale. Each house was complete and the roofs were removed so you could see the detail inside. Parked outside one of the houses was the family camper, completely furnished, built totally from wood.
Moving on down the farm yard, there were several machine sheds full of tractors, pickup trucks, combines, all of the machinery needed to farm. All of the vehicles were model kits that Jerry and Jimmy had put together. The roofs were removed from the sheds so you could view the detail on the walls and on the roofs themselves. It was really indescribable. Outside of one of the sheds was a combine that had recently been built by Jerry, again totally from wood. “I don’t have it painted yet,” Jerry said, “but I wanted to include it here at the fair.”
On the opposite end of the farmyard from the houses were the fields and crops that had been raised. There stood a bin full of corn that was actually toothpicks cut in about 1/4 inch pieces and painted yellow. It was amazing. It was hard to imagine the amount of time it took to cut and paint all those toothpicks. There were flat beds full of corn stalk bales, round hay bales lined up for winter storage and trailers full of corn to be sold. There were fences and animals-probably the only items on the whole scene that were not made by hand.
For me, the most outstanding piece on the farm was the large barn — complete with silos. Half of the roof of the barn had been removed for you to view the intricate work inside. This piece was the newest added by Jimmy, who had been pretty quiet up to now. “I spent about 900 hours on this barn,” Jimmy stated. “We saw this style of barn in Wisconsin and knew it was the one to build.” There are 3,570 pieces in the barn. The detail is unbelievable, from the tresses to the flooring, but the roof is what was completely mind boggling. In between each rafter were hundreds of tiny pieces of wood that completed the inside of the roof. The siding on the barn and the soffit was hand cut and painted 1/25 of the normal size of the barn. You had to see it to believe it. Even the cases that Jerry and Jimmy carry the pieces in were just as detailed. They showed me the trays that were lined in styrofoam and labeled as to what piece went where, and to what building it belonged. Even in packing, attention was given to the slightest detail.
The brothers have put over 13,000 hours of work into this labor of love. “We’ve been taking it to area fairs for the last six years,” Jerry said. “Before that we just had it displayed in our basement. People would invite themselves over to see our farm.” As I sat and watched people look at this awesome display, some understood the intensity and precision of this hobby while others just breezed by. I for one am glad they have decided to share it with the rest of us.
