Anamoose, ND

I had heard that Matt Rudnick had a lot of miniature wooden replicas, but I was surprised

   
when I saw his large collection.  The 4 wheel drive tractor has 875 custom made peices. 

Matt has only been making wooden replicas for 6 years.  He said he was holding a hammer one day and thought “I can make one like that”.  He took a 2×6 and within a few hours, he had a wooden hammer replica.  “When I took it to the cafe to show they asked ‘what’s next’.  He made his oun blueprints for the wind generator and oil pump that “carry out a ND theme”.  They operate on electric motors. 

All of Matt’s toys are operational.  He gave an example that his scissor and tim snipes can cut paper. 

My neighbor, Emanuel Kesler, likes to collect lots of things like radios (over 100), toy cars, 3 restored Studebaker cars, approximately 50 bikes from the 30s to the 50s, and other smaller collections. 

Emanuel has been restoring a 1928 Whippet car.  He has had to get parts all over the US.  Matt Rudnick and Emanuel made the steering wheel out of wood. 

My husband, Vernon, is another big time collector, but he collects John Deere toys.  He has a room just for his precision toys and collectibles, plus some smaller ones in our basement.  He likes everything John Deere from toy tractors to puzzles, planes, sun catchers, pens, belt buckles, plates, and on and on.