THELEAVEN.ORG | VOL. 44, NO. 18 | DECEMBER 16, 2022
LEAVEN PHOTO BY JAY SOLDNER
Rodney Burdiek, a member of St. James Parish in Wetmore, displays some wrenches up for bid at the St. James consignment auction on Dec. 3.
ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING Parish auction has something for everyone
By Joe Bollig joe.bollig@theleaven.org
W
ETMORE — If you always wanted to bid on a Vermeer, then St. James Parish here on Dec. 3 was the place
to be. No, not THAT Vermeer. A painting by the 17th-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer WAS NOT sold at the annual St. James consignment auction. Rather, it was another genuine Vermeer — a Vermeer WR22 10-wheel hay rake. The Vermeer and a lot of farm, farm-related and construction equipment were sold at the auction, which is the major annual fundraiser for this small, rural parish of about 30 families in Nemaha County. This was a great, although cold, time for an auction according to Tim Rowland, St. James parishioner and auction volunteer. “We have a big agriculture draw, and we feel this is a good time,” he said. “It’s
LEAVEN PHOTO BY JAY SOLDNER
Allen Baker with his boys Ethan, 3 — on the dirt bike — and Bryce, 6 — on the lawn mower — have fun on the auction offerings. They are parishioners of St. Bede, Kelly. not planting, it’s not harvesting, it’s not haying season. Hopefully, people are coming in with end-of-year money to spend. And we have really good pies.”
Ah, yes, there is the fundraising breakfast and dinner in the warm parish hall. They had locally produced pork for the breakfast of biscuits and
gravy, and locally produced beef for the hamburgers. The pies were homemade. “The pecan pies were made with pecans from southeast Kansas,” said Rowland. Smaller items were sold from big, gooseneck trailers in the church parking lot. Larger items were sold from two vacant lots near the church. There was the big stuff: combines, mowers, several pickup trucks, a semitruck, tractors and trailers. There was a brush auger, no-till seed drills, plows, rotary cutters and squeeze chutes. Need an ambulance? One was for sale. There were no baroque paintings but there was art at the auction — a statue of the Three Stooges playing golf. There were a lot of other smaller things for sale, too: chairs, doors, bolts, an antique buffet, buckets of belts and bolts, cassette tapes, CDs, air compressors, fence posts, filing cabinets, firewood, hay, nails, a saxophone, a talking Teddy Ruxpin, a typewriter, windows and more. And there were tools, tools >> See “PROCEEDS” on page 7