DELL RAPIDS, S.D. (KELO) — A South Dakota couple’s one-of-a-kind collection displays an appreciation for farming, both past and present.

Jim Lacey collects something most others do not.

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“I put this together with my wife. I had a dream years ago that I would like to do this,” Lacey said.

His dream quickly turned into a collection of barns, and lots of them, too.

“I think 12 or 13,” Lacey said. “Two we built. The rest came in.”

The 84-year-old collector and his wife, Joan, have turned the once empty lot into a whole lot of history, building and moving barns of all kinds to the property.

“He looked at it and said if you can figure out how to lift it, I can move it. I made the bracing inside, so we could pick this round egg carton up, which was really tippy, and we got it here,” Lacey said.

Now, just a few miles west of Trent, South Dakota, sits Little Village Farm. Barns are only a piece of the collection, because more history awaits to be delivered on the inside.

From decades-old washing machines to cylinder-shaped tin mailboxes to farming tractors, both big and small, Lacey collects it all.

His collecting days started when he was a little boy.

“When you go to an auction sale with mom and a box of bottles would sell for $0.25… Well, the guy wanted something out of the box, so he goes here, kid, you can have the box and sort of like that,” Lacey said. “I started gathering as a little boy with a little locomotive.”

That one little engine is all it took to spark the start of this special sight.

Some of the items here at the Little Village Farm museum were purchased at sales by Lacey. A handful were donated. Others were discovered by pure luck.

And then, there’s the cluster of baseball caps that hang from barn ceilings.

“Between three buildings, there’s ten thousand hats around here,” Lacey said.

The hats were gifted to his wife, Joan who also helps out with the museum and has been battling Lupus.

“She’s just a tough lady,” Lacey said. “She lost her hair once, so people gave her hats, and then the hair came back, but the hats kept coming.”

Lacey’s background in farming also started when he was a kid, helping his dad on their 100-acre potato farm.

“We would sell them to grocery stores. Then, we got into irrigation. My dad had 28 patents,” Lacey said. “He was always thinking, and I’ve learned the same thing. You think outside the box because it’s what we were raised in.”

Now, Lacey is the one doing the teaching, helping so many others connect with and appreciate the past.

“It’s a lot of work,” Lacey said. “It’s been a lot of work.”

But it’s work Lacey describes as worth it at the “little” farm with loads of history and heart.

The couple funds the Little Village Farm museum all on their own, and they hope to keep it open for years to come. They offer tours by appointment for $10 a person.

The museum is located at 47582 240th Street in Dell Rapids, South Dakota, about three miles east of the I-29 exit. Tours are by appointment only. Call 605-428-5979 to schedule a visit.