A retired carpenter with a penchant for collecting tools is putting his life’s work for up for sale.
During the last years of a marriage that brought them five children and 10 grandchildren, Jacob Spyker and his wife, Rita spent their weekends cruising garage sales, picking up wood planes and adzes, grease guns, jerry cans, drill bits, levels, socket sets, crescent wrenches and even a variety of blacksmith tools.
He didn’t need them. How many files and saws could one person possibly use and what would a guy with no horse do with six sets of hoof nippers?
But there was lots of space in the massive workshop on the Spykers’ acreage and he could never pass up a bargain.
Spyker, 78, has kept his collection meticulously organized, using the smaller rooms off the main shop for specific purposes. One room is filled to the rafters with planes, levels, saws and tape measures. Walls in another are lined with grease guns, oil cans, funnels, shop manuals and old magazines — including every edition of Alberta Report.
Spyker came to Canada from his home near Amsterdam at the age 21, joining his two brothers in Ontario before heading to Calgary, where he met Rita. The married in 1960 and, in the early 1970s, moved to the Delburne area where they had purchased two quarter sections of farmland.
Finding that his knack for carpentry didn’t extend to farm work, Spyker leased the land out and worked on converting an old barn into livable accommodations for his family.
He and Rita eventually sold the farm, purchasing a 28-acre parcel and house northwest of Penhold, with frontage along the C&E Trail and backing onto the Red Deer River.
After decades of living with sawdust and construction, Rita wanted a new home, says Spyker. They subdivided a parcel off their acreage and, in 2005 moved into the new home he had built on the remaining 23 acres.
The collecting stopped last spring when Rita died, leaving Spyker alone with his house, his yard and his collections.
Recognizing that 23 acres of land and a big house with massive lawns and flower gardens add up to too much work for one person, Spyker decided to move into Red Deer and put it all up for sale.
For the past two months, with help from his teenaged granddaughter, Tansy, and an assortment of others, Spyker has been working his through the collections, adding price stickers.
The plan is to hold a four-day garage sale, starting on Thursday, with a portion of the proceeds to be donated to the Children’s Wish Foundation. Prices have been set with help from experts, including Calgary-based estate evaluator Brian Lehman.
Spyker wants to share some of the wealth he has accumulated with a charity, choosing Children’s Wish because he likes the work they do for children who may never see their teens.
Everything has to go, says Spyker, who admits to feeling only a twinge of regret at parting with the things he and Rita had collected and built during the years they shared.
He says that, with Rita gone, it’s just no fun any more.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com