Couple turned yard into a showpiece of flower beds before starting to create art out of rusty equipment found in the bush
Don Engbrecht is into heavy metal, just not the music.
The former farmer, agricultural salesperson and community association executive transforms old farm machinery into yard art.
A dozen pieces are nestled between the flowers at the International Peace Garden in southern Manitoba, a massive piece is installed at an assisted living facility in Boissevain, Man., and dozens of pieces are placed throughout small towns and farmyards across the Prairies.
Transforming old agricultural equipment into art is a nod to Engbrecht’s farming background and his belief in reusing and repurposing machinery, despite its rust and age. The art isn’t just plunked down in the middle of a flowerbed — Engbrecht ponders the piece and the flowers before starting construction.
“I have very strong feelings about that. The gardens have to complement the sculpture and the sculpture has to complement the gardens,” said Engbrecht of Boissevain.
When Engbrecht created an art piece for Cherry Creek Place, an assisted living facility, it took two years of thinking, reading, meditating, collecting the material and building the metres-high statue.
“I am a serious thinker when it comes to life’s things. Everything has to have some meaning to it.”
The Cherry Creek Place sculpture, made from old equipment, including a caterpillar tractor track, is titled Life’s Journey. It consists of several pieces of different shapes and sizes connected to represent a person’s life journey from birth to death. Together, Don and his wife, Betty, transformed their yard and gardens. Betty now has dementia and lives in an assisted living facility.
Engbrecht’s life started on the farm with his parents and five other siblings feeding chickens, milking cows and growing grain.
In 1969, he graduated from the University of Manitoba with a diploma in agriculture and returned to farm with his family. Together they farmed until 1982 when 24 percent interest rates and debt pushed the family into bankruptcy and ended his farming career.
“The recession came and blew everything up for all of us. We tried to hang on for a bit. That was so devastating when we did lose the farm in 1982. The recession was bad enough that we couldn’t find buyers for our land to pay debt. We had to auction our land, plus have a farm sale. It was so devastating. That changed our lifestyle big time, but we managed and held onto our faith. Losing the farm was terrible, but we knew we had to go forward and we never let ourselves down into that dark spot,” he said.
Betty took an off-farm job and Don worked in agricultural sales for the next eight years. Later, Don worked for a community association. As part of the bankruptcy, they were able to subdivide the farmyard so they could raise their two children in the country.
The farmyard was full of junk and falling-down buildings. The couple slowly transformed the yard into a showpiece of art with 27 multiple-themed flower beds and sites. In 1995, using old bits of farm machinery found in the bush, Don began creating art to complement the flowers, shrubs and trees.
The Journey of Life tours of their yard began in 2000 and the couple opened their doors for tours through the yard to the themed gardens.
“We made it our goal to renovate the yard and it took a lifetime.”
A sculpture called Global Agriculture was made from buggy rims turned into a sphere with all sorts of agriculture parts inside the wheels.
“It is fun with older visitors who all know where the interior parts were.”
His father’s old tractor and seeder from 1938 was one stop and inspired conversation from the visitors.
“We did it all with two principles. We do all this with recycled materials because we didn’t have a lot of extra cash and they had to have an agriculture accent.”
In 2012, they built a secret garden for meditation. Inside the secluded areas were sculptures and scriptures written on sheets of metal.
“We had a number of people suffering from cancer who came to meditate there.”
More than 2,500 people took the Anchorage Garden tour over 15 years. At $5 for an hour and a half tour, it was a labour of love, not money.
“We told our story and why we were doing what we were doing and then came their stories.”
The art tours also sparked commission pieces from visitors. Engbrecht is often invited to collect pieces of junk from a person’s yard and a piece of art is returned. Where people see junk, Engbrecht sees shapes and possibility.
“I always try to find those things that are beautiful, wonderful nuggets in life. With Betty, I see her every other night and we walk. That is all we have left is walking. The conversation is gone. I think for me the bottom line is I am grateful that I am grateful.”
