Ever wake up on a Saturday morning and think, “what are we going to do today?”
EVERY day is a good day for a pick so we decided to line one up.
A few weeks earlier, Dave had answered an online ad for tools and met an 80 year old, retired contractor in Laingsburg. The man, also named Dave, seemed to take a liking to my Dave and he invited him to come back another time, bring the Mrs. and spend a few hours picking through all the barns and storage buildings.
With good weather and MSU playing on the road, we decided to give ol’ Dave a call and try to fill up our day. Sure enough he was home and said to come on by. We quickly loaded the truck with tools, flashlights and extra coffee, and off we went. We stopped at Dave’s house first and then proceeded to follow him to his 10 acre property down the road.
As we pulled in the driveway it was like entering the pearly gates crossed with the biggest junk yard I’d ever seen. I never could have imagined the tonnage we would find! A huge pole barn, several outbuildings, a house trailer and semi-trailers all PACKED FULL. There were tools and equipment, but some really unique industrial items too. We literally had to climb in and out of buildings because they were so full the doors were barricaded shut.
Dave was the nicest man and really seemed to enjoy the company. He got a little cold and had some trouble getting around, so most of the time he sat in his van with the heat on. Every half hour or so, he’d check on us to see where we were digging around and of course to look over what we were finding.
There was only one item we wanted that ol’ Dave said no to. It was a wooden trunk toolbox, very vintage looking and sitting on castors – would have made a great coffee table. “Not for sale,” he said. He had made it in high school as his very first toolbox while taking carpentry classes. He seemed so sentimental about that box and told us that he would really like his grandson to have it. “Of COURSE!” we said. “That’s exactly where that toolbox belongs.”
Driving home we regretted that we hadn’t made an American Pickers style video about that visit. Not to document what we found or our adventure, but to interview Dave and archive his stories. He told us about his many businesses over the years, the old methods of doing construction and where many of the items came from (including an entire building full of gas cans) seriously! What a wonderful man and gracious host.
We always seem to learn something when we go picking whether it be how something was built, or what an old tool was used for. But today was more about life lessons and the value of listening.
You can buy and sell things, collect things or hoard things, but you can never hear enough stories or meet too many people.
We had to end our day after about four hours because Dave needed to get to dinner (his neighbor was making him smoked ribs) but he invited us to come back again soon. He’s headed to Florida for the winter but when he comes back this spring we’ll probably be waiting in the driveway…
And as a side note – if you want the best tasting olive burger on a homemade bun, stop by Twilliger’s Tavern in Laingsburg. It was the perfect ending to a great day.
Kauffman Family Farm 