by 
Field Of Dreams, John Deere Tractor Assembly Plant in Waterloo , Iowa.
First Place Winner Don Campbell of the 1998 National Farm Toy Show scratch Built Toys.
It is hard to believe it has been 15 years now since I entered my first toy building contest.
I only entered one more contest after that and I was lucky both times to win first place. After that I never wanted to compete again.
I did not like how some people acted negative towards me after I won. So that was the end of my entering toy building contests.
But it sure did not stop me from going on and building many more one of a kind models.
The National Farm toy Show in Dyersville starts tomorrow and for 8 years Deb and I would set up a table and be part of the excitement .
Claire Scheibe , owner of Toy Farmer magazine and organizer of the Show stopped at my table and told me that my models were very nice and he wanted me to build him a couple special pieces that he had on the farm when he was young.
I built him 2 special toys for their Toy Farmer Museum and he had a third one in mind but sadly he passed away.
Claire also told me that after my appearance at Dyersville that first year that I would never be able to catch up on toy orders again. I thought that was very exciting and I told him that sounded too hard to believe .
He was right !, to this day I get requests for a special model to build for someone every few weeks. The last few years I rarely take a toy order and instead i just build the machines I like and then people contact me if they like them.
But it all started back in 1998 in Dyersville Iowa.
Deb and I visited the Field Of Dreams baseball field for several years just a couple miles from Dyersville and I guess I could really say That little town brought me my own Field of Dreams (:>)
We have so many fun memories in the little town of Dyersville, Iowa.
The National Farm Toy Museum is also located in Dyersville and I am proud to say two of my models are on display their .
Hope all of you heading to Iowa today for the show have a great time.
I thank God for even giving me the talent to build toys.
Have a great Thurs.
