Jon and Sharyl Engelhardt transformed their basement into a boxcar bonanza. What started as one couple’s vision of a toy train set looping their Christmas tree — they figured it would impress their grandkids — has grown into a two-room locomotive exhibition delighting onlookers from all walks of life. How
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Posted April 01, 2020in Collections & Hobbies
Snapping together models based on space robots, Iowa Gundam Builders has gone from zero to 300 members in two years. As a kid, Dylan Black didn’t care for putting models together. His experience with the hobby had been a tedious one, and it ended with a disappointing and gluey mess.
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Posted March 04, 2020in Collections & Hobbies
The planes buzzing by mesmerized the youthful eyes of the small girl perched atop the fence post of her family’s 1950s farm in rural southeast Iowa. During these formative years, Christine Stevenson frequently positioned herself in this spot to gaze at the horizon and imagine where the final destinations for
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Posted February 05, 2020in Collections & Hobbies
Matt Ouverson won last year’s Steak Cooking Association Points Championship and will vie for a world title later this year. Last year’s steak grilling national points championship cost Norwalk’s Matt Ouverson’s odometer 63,000 miles in a single calendar year. “I cooked 17 states this year,” says Ouverson, who entered out-of-town
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Posted January 01, 2020in Collections & Hobbies
A grandpa’s legacy: “The Moraine Collection” Mr. Harry Pittman, Jr. knew beans about baseball cards, but the bubblegum card collecting craze was peaking in 1988, and his 8-year-old grandson, Adam Moraine, needed a hobby. As such, along with his wife, Alberta, Pittman and his grandson began a grand bonding endeavor,
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Posted December 04, 2019in Collections & Hobbies
LaVerne Sanders enjoys the challenge of making things fly. Tucked in the basement of LaVerne Sanders’ Urbandale home are three unique looking machines. Sanders combines these apparatuses — a laser, a CNC machine and a 3-D printer — along with his computer and a steaming mug of coffee to make
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Posted November 06, 2019in Collections & Hobbies
Big or small, fair condition or dismal, Bruce Youde enjoys collecting tractors, working on tractors and using tractors. Replacing the rivets. Sandblasting. Painting. Cleaning. Repairing. Doing whatever is necessary. As a young boy, Bruce Youde, of Polk City, acquired a miniature Ford tractor to use as a toy. That was
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Posted October 02, 2019in Collections & Hobbies
Radio-controlled model airplanes cruise the Iowa skies. Ray Pick stands alone. It’s early evening, and his gaze is firmly trained on something floating high above. As his eyes labor to track the object in the distance, his hands expertly manipulate the 6-inch by 6-inch black box he is holding, and
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Posted September 04, 2019in Collections & Hobbies
VHS is happiness for video junkie Nate Phillips and his massive collection of tapes. Watching films via digital streaming has largely destroyed the once mighty video store industry, but within the basement of Nate Phillips’ home is an epic collection of old-school, at-home, movie-viewing options. At last count, he possessed 3,000
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Posted July 31, 2019in Collections & Hobbies
Interpreting history while living history and volunteering at Living History Farms. “Well, this is as close as I’m ever going to get to a time machine,” says Barb Raife, an interpreter at Living History Farms. “It’s my way to travel back in time.” Living history can be a good way
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