The Midwest farmer Sue Illingworth was taken aback when her husband John suggested they take up a hobby together a few years into their marriage.
Instead of joining a sporting club or volunteering with a local charity, the couple decided to spend their weekends restoring tractors that would otherwise be left to rot.
At the time, Little did Mrs Illingworth know that the hobby would turn into a 50 year labor of love and culminate in a collection of more than 150 items.
Mr Illingworth was one of the first farmers in Lancashire in the UK to acquire a tractor, showing an uncanny knack for fixing any problem with the machinery.
The couple married in 1978 and established a sheep and wheat farm in Arrino, near Three Springs in Western Australia.
After they finished their work for the week, they would get in the truck and pull discarded tractors from the earth.
She said farmers were often too happy to be able to get rid of the machines, which she would be tasked with cleaning.
She said I was covered in mud when I was blasting them, and it was hilariously funny.
We d continue doing that for years, and I got a better angle with the jet so that I didn't have half the paddock on me. Once clean, Mr Illingworth would strip the tractor of parts before oiling them and putting the machine back together.
Mrs Illingworth says everything in the collection has character, but one of her favourite pieces is a 1928 Denis fire engine.
It was because all these ladies were gardening in his area and they were so focused on the garden, he wanted her to ring the bell, so they'd look up. Mrs Illingworth said that they were often met with strange requests while tractor hunting, with one man saying he was open to selling his machine, but he wouldn't deal with Mr Illingworth.
He would only talk to me, and my husband had to stand outside the door, she said.
He wanted to tell me why he felt badly that he was being treated and how he felt that he was selling tractors, but people cheated him. After winning him over, Mrs Illingworth said he would sell her the tractor if she had the money ready in cash the next morning.
They feel they are not men if they have to talk about it. The couple were generous with their collection, with Mr Illingworth spending hours showing the tractors to friends, tourists and motorists passing through town.
Before he died, Mr Illingworth suggested the collection be sold, with all items to be auctioned on Sunday.
One of the tractors - a 1904 Ivel agricultural motor tractor - could sell for a record-breaking price, said Robbie Richards, head of Donington Auction.
The last Ival sold two years ago was in the UK and I believe that one went for around $580,000, which set a new world record for it, he said.
One of nine known to exist is the Ival tractor.
Mr Richards said the Illingworth's vintage tractor collection was the biggest he had ever come across.
This one is a real specialty these things don't come very often on the market and when they do, collectors do fly in from everywhere to be part of it because they realize that they may never get an opportunity to acquire some of these in their lifetime, he said.
Mrs Illingworth says she will not be sad to see her go despite the lifetime of memories connected to the tractor.
She said that we ve had the joy out of it, we ve worked hard on them but it's too much.
It's time for someone else to do this, and there are a lot of collectors who like to go and tinker with them and they get a lot of pleasure out of that. Mrs Illingworth said her husband loved nothing more than passing on his skills to others, a legacy she hopes to continue by establishing a charity to help people overcome adversity.
She said that we were a good team, and the girls and I will carry it on.