Arnold “Hobo” Lumbley stands by his truck of scrap metal and explains how he plans to make a dinosaur sculpture out of it.(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[8/23/04]There are plenty of ways to recycle. Just ask Arnold “Hobo” Lumbley.

His definition of the old phrase “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” takes the saying to new heights. From old, rusted tools to horseshoes, skate wheels and just plain junk, he makes one-of-a-kind creations that can be viewed only as art.

“I know nobody wants this stuff, and I do. I see a rusted old nail in a different way than anybody else. Once you start seeing things like that, you can create almost anything,” said Lumbley, 59.

His favorite projects are statuesque garden animals ants and birds he makes out of scraps of metal, steel and a little paint. He said he rarely sells any of his creations, but enjoys giving them as gifts.

“The first one I made was my ant. It’s a worker ant that’s carrying a leaf on his back. The ant’s body is out of steel balls, his stinger out of an old gutter nail and his antennae out of refrigerator wire. The leaf is a scrap of metal,” he said.

Lumbley started making the creations only a couple of years ago after he built up an incredible collection of scrap, which he stored in barrels and calls his “buckets of imagination.”

“I started picking up stuff about 40 years ago because I knew none of it would be around eventually. I guess you can say I like my antiques dirty. I just have always liked to collect old junk, but I never knew one day I’d make art from it all,” he said.

“I’ve wanted to do something creative with all this stuff for a long time, but I never could see anything out of it. But my wife suggested I make an ant, and that’s how it all got started,” he said.

Lumbley and his wife, Charlotte, live on 6 1/2 acres on Stenson Road in a house they built literally from scratch 20 years ago.

“Our house is an old dairy barn dating back to 1938 that used to be over on Old Highway 27. We bought it and took it apart piece by piece, moved it over here and rebuilt it as a house, piece by piece,” said Charlotte Lumbley.

“It’s our dollar house we work on it slowly dollar by dollar as we can,” she said.

Behind the house, the Lumbleys built a horse barn for their prized horse, Judy, and another craft barn they use to “piddle in.”

The horse barn is built out of old shipping crates, and the craft barn out of lumber from Lumbley’s father’s old house dating to 1881 and rafters from the old bleachers at Porters Chapel Academy.

“I like stuff with a history behind it, but sometimes you have to go out and buy something you’re missing. But I avoid that if I can,” he said.

His craft barn has the appropriate name of “Days Gone By” and is filled with old tools, license plates, doors, wheels, anything and everything imaginable, all neatly organized.

“The doors to the barn are the old doors from Rainbow Casino, and the windows on the second floor are from the old ParkView Hospital nursery. They’re the windows new parents and grandparents would look through to see their newborns,” he said.

“Everything has a purpose, and everything can be something else. It’s a fast-paced plastic world nowadays, and I just want people to appreciate things from the past,” he said.

The Lumbleys’ love for animals carries over into every aspect of their lives from the creative artwork they make to playtime in the house.

“Our daughter is in veterinary school, and we’ve always loved every type of animal. We have our dog, Lucky, the horse, Judy, and two chickens named Romeo and Lucy. All of them (except Judy, of course) wander in and out of the house all day long. We leave our doors open for them to come in, and usually all three are right there in the living room,” said Charlotte Lumbley.

It’s no wonder Lumbley’s newest creations were still made with animals in mind.

“My latest project is this train here that’s a squirrel feeder. We call it the Squirrel Express. Most of my projects can take from a couple of days to a couple of months, depending on the difficulty, but this one took three months to do. We have about 150 hours logged on this project,” he said.

The train is made from a jar, two shovel heads, horseshoes, skate wheels and railroad spikes and is painted bright red and black.

“We’re going to build a train track flower bed in the front, and this will be the lead car,” Charlotte Lumbley said.

She said the next work in progress is an ant bed an old bed frame they’re going to use as a flower bed and decorate with different worker ants performing different duties.

“That one will take a while, but we have some good ideas for it,” she said.

She said they collectively sketch out all their designs first in a notebook.

“I design. He builds. We both pick up stuff here, there, yonder, wherever whatever looks promising. We make a good team,” she laughed.

But with so many ideas and a brand-new load of junk filling Lumbley’s truck, it’s no surprise some projects are always a work in progress.

“He works seven days a week, 14 hours a day. This is what we do to relax. He’d definitely be dangerous if he was retired,” said Charlotte Lumbley.

“If he lives to finish all his projects, he’ll be at least 200 years old. I told my daughter, Just call the junk people to come take this stuff away when your daddy and I pass.’ Nobody really appreciates this stuff but us, but that’s OK. It’s fun for us. It may be junk, and it may be trash, but it’s definitely our treasure,” she said.