The engineered wood floor in Wayne and Phyllis Wishart's living room is filling up with farm vehicles.

The North Otter couple and longtime local residents say they have room for more, but not in the immediate future.

There's too much yard work to do this summer.

Wayne and Phyllis have a unique hobby - they convert 1920s-and-30sera sewing machines into miniature model tractors.

The growing collection of cast iron miniatures has evolved quite a bit, thanks in large part to Wayne's pension for perfectionism.

"The first one had no fenders, and I didn't really know what I was doing," Wayne said.

The process is always the same - at the start.

"First of all, you gut it right out, so you've just got the shell," Wayne explained.

The rest of the work is a series of cutting, drilling, welding, and pounding with a ball peen hammer.

Among the features of the tractors are their steel wheels made from pipe, stacks created from stainless steel tubing, and front grills which are mostly made up of scrap stainless steel from an old water filtration system of Phyllis's dad's that had stopped working.

The seats of the tractors are made from such things as soup ladles, fancy metal dishes and an antique soap dish. The lights are from brass plumbing fixtures.

"Anything that we can repurpose from something else- you learn to look at objects that you come across in a different light," Phyllis remarked.

Judging from their affinity for tractors, big and small, you'd assume the couple grew up on farms.

Phyllis was quick to point out, with a chuckle, "No! We're Vancouver kids! We both grew up in Vancouver."

"I came out to Langley in '68, I guess," offered Wayne, a retired gas fitter who worked for Fortis.

Their hobby gained traction two summers ago when the couple spotted a miniature model at a Puget Sound Antique Tractor & Machinery Association tractor show at Berthusen Park in Lynden, Wash.

Wayne had trucked down a 1951 tractor that he had restored for display.

"We saw this old guy had put up this little booth beside the fence, and he had one of these John Deere tractors, in the John Deere colours," Phyllis recalled. "He had it just painted green - no fenders, no stack, no lights, and it just had plastic wheels on it."

The metaphorical light bulb appeared over the Wisharts' heads.

"I looked at [Wayne], he looked at me, and we said , 'Hey, we can do better than that," Phyllis said.

While they are city folks, the couple has become country-fied over their 33 years, and counting, as a married couple.

They bought their first tractor about eight years ago to do work around their home, "because the city doesn't come here to plow snow," Phyllis said.

"We plowed the snow every winter for the neighbours, otherwise they wouldn't be able to get out to work," she said.

Their first tractor, equipped with a front bucket, has become a handy tool.

"We don't know how we got along without it," Wayne said.

Later, a neighbour had an old tractor growing rust in a back bush. It was mossy, dirty, and wasn't running.

Wayne bought it, and three years and countless hours of restoration work later in what the couple affectionately refers to as "Grandpa's Garage," the machine had a new lease on life.

The refurbished large tractor has since been joined on the Wishart property by 15 miniature ones.

Wayne wanted to paint the first model, a Singer, but Phyllis would have nothing of it. She wanted people to know it was a sewing machine.

"The first two he did not paint," Phyllis said.

Last year, Wayne created another 13 models. In their original incarnation, they were either bought at an auction, donated, or were acquired in a trade for something else.

The hobby has taken a new direction, one that may benefit the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. In the spring, Phyllis was diagnosed

with Level 4 melanoma (skin cancer). An operation to take out lymph nodes has Phyllis cancer free.

"It kind of rocked our world," Phyllis said.

Wayne came up with the idea of painting a model pink, for his wife and all those who have battled cancer, past and present.

On its grill, the model is decorated with a metal version of the breast cancer awareness ribbon.

The pink tractor with the breast cancer logo will one day be up for auction to raise money for breast cancer.

"We chose cancer because it's big, especially for women," Phyllis said. "That [model] will eventually be auctioned off."

tlandreville@langleyadvance.com