The late Speaker of the U.S. House Sam Rayburn once said, “any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.”

And Vance Erie is, indeed, a good one.

The 62-year-old Dexter man, whose toy barns have sold for thousands of dollars at the annual Lyle Area Cancer Auction, uses only the best materials and doesn’t tolerate shoddy work.

It is, after all, the cancer auction – and that means a lot.

“I’ve had a lot of skin cancers; my wife and daughter have had cancer. We thought this would be a good place” to donate one of his barns.

Vance Erie takes a measurement as Bruce Buchardt holds an eagle adornment in place in Erie’s Dexter workshop. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

His very first was built for a grandson. When he built another one for another grandchild, the size of the 34-by-22-inch structure, which is 36 inches high, was too large to keep in a small Minneapolis apartment.

“So, I decided to give it to the auction,” Erie said.

He was amazed to find it sold for $750 – and then the next year, another sold for $1,800.

“Each year, it just kept going up,” he said. In recent auctions, his barns have sold for as much as $4,000.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said, as he took a break from putting on the finishing touches to a barn headed for Lyle.

He has donated seven barns for auction in Lyle, but has crafted others for other fundraisers, too, including the annual auction at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Adams, and one for Legionville, north of Brainerd.

Vance Erie has been making toy barns for a number of years and several have gone to the Lyle Area Cancer Auction where they are auctioned off. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

Altogether, he has made 16 of the structures.

Seeing the barns up close and personal will give you a clue why these barns are so valuable. There is no skimping on materials or on the time it takes to make one.

“We would be pushing it to get one done in a month,” Erie said.

Only hardwoods are used, like cherry, walnut and oak, in addition to redwood siding. The foundation wood is cross-cut to give it the look of masonry. Ten small windows grace the lower level; up above, roof vents are fashioned from walnut.  The roof is made entirely of cherry. On one panel above the doors, a small wooden eagle was glued.

After the first few were built, his barns were electrified by his brother-in-law, Bruce Buchardt of Rochester, who has been a partner in several barn constructions.  The main barn doors slide open, and lights flicker on.

One of the lights — this one over the haymow — is purple, to signify being a cancer survivor.

Bruce Buchardt wires the barns that Vance Erie makes so that lights can be added. In this case, pink lights in honor of the Lyle Area Cancer Auction which began Friday night in Lyle. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

They are all survivors. Erie and his wife Deb’s daughter, Carrie King, said she is alive today thanks to recent advances in the treatment of breast cancer.

And, like her parents, she is thankful for the chance to give back.

Her mother-in-law initiated King into the world of watercolors; since her first painting a couple of years ago, she has transitioned to oils. On Friday, she took five of her paintings to the auction. She has also donated her paintings to her church and school fundraisers.

“In fact, I haven’t put one on my own wall yet,” she said with a grin.

King added that she thought a medical call on Monday demonstrated Erie’s commitment to the auction.

Erie is awaiting a kidney transplant after his kidneys began to fail due to his type 1 diabetes. He has dialysis three times a week.

King joked that her dad “was probably happy” when a kidney, thought to be a match, later turned out not to be after Erie made it to the hospital.

Happy? Well, it meant he did not have to miss the auction.

“On his way to the hospital, he was already making a list of things he had to do to the barn, and things he had to take to the auction,” she said, chuckling.

Bruce Buchardt holds an eagle adornment in place as Vance Erie nails it in place as he wraps up a toy barn for auction at the Lyle Area Cancer Auction. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com