SPLITTING WOOD WITH THE “LOG HOG”

  Today Dennis and I made an attempt at cleaning our garage…together..Hmmmm.  Terrie and I are having a garage sale here this weekend and I had hopes of reducing our “useless stuff” collection by a quite a bit…The trouble with this great idea is that McGuyver doesn’t want to let go of any of HIS “stuff”..”Hey, don’t put that mesh basket out therein your sale!   I used that to wash rocks 30 years ago, I might need it again!” (Not in MY lifetime you won’t!)…What about that Xmas wreath on the wall we haven’t used since 1988?? “DONNA….If you sell it then you will wish we had it back in a couple years!”…Oh, OK…  Hey Den, why is it we need 2 leaf blowers? “Because one was broke, so I bought a new one…then I fixed the old one”.  OK, so now you can blow the leaves with one in each hand, right"?…I’m not even going to ask about the 40 year old rake that the handle falls off of when we rake…I already know the answer…We may have to rely on that when our other 3 newer rakes wear out…(in 2022) …I’ll be raking from my wheelchair anyway.

I ASK YOU, DOES THIS GARAGE SEEM EMPTY OF “STUFF”??

(AND YOU CAN’T EVEN SEE THE “STUFF” STORED OVERHEAD….)

   We came to a stalemate and I finally accepted the fact that Dennis was not letting go of a darn thing…At least when we cleaned out the garage, we made more room to bring in some firewood…..So now, it was time to get out the Log Hog and split some wood!!!

About 20 years ago, Dennis and his fireman friends decided to build their own logsplitter..Buying one may have been an easier answer, but not nearly as much of a challenge, nor as much fun.  Do you know how many cases of beer it takes to build a log splitter??

….ENTER…THE LOG HOG!!

…This unique and very interesting piece of machinery was built with some parts from a garbage truck…notice the hydraulic cylinder in the upper right photo..yup, ex-garbage truck part.  The axle came from a boat trailer we had…The engine Dennis snagged from somewhere (imagine that).  The wedge they built and welded…and the beam..Den can’t remember where that came from.  Does that mean he and the  “fire guys” stole it???…Now how could you forget where the Hell a beam like that came from???? I’t not like you picked it up and put it in your back pocket!!!

I mentioned once that my brother, Michael, is a very gifted artist…Here are a couple of his gifts to me…

The two on the left are painted on little wooden boxes.  The left one had something splashed on it , which didn’t please me, but you can see the Canadian Goose’s reflection in the water..Middle is a Pheasant….The decoy on the right Michael carved by hand from SCRATCH from a piece of wood, then hand painted it…
These photos don’t do his work justice, but he has done carvings, pencil sketches, paintings…He used to work for a monument company (as in tombstones), and did stuff like that beautiful etching of scenery you see now on some of them.  ( Don’t you wonder how it is that our family is still involved in cemetery stuff??)  Unfortunately, his eyesight isn’t what is was..He had sinus surgery and the Doc cracked his eye socket and damaged one eye…But, he still does some wonderful artwork….

  Boy, this part of the country has had some absolutely fabuloso weather this past week.  McGuyver and I have been sitting by the campfire on our deck every evening enjoying a cocktail…Tonight is big FAT pork chops on the grill…I need to find something to do with some more of my tomatoes…They are still overflowing the deck and my kitchen…HMMMM…I think some homemade pizza sauce might be in order!!   Maybe I could pawn some off on Sam ..I see a plan forming!!! 
….And thanks to Kenny and Angela  for including the Sandwich Water Towers in today’s “funnys”…I told them that those towers also have the words “ON” and “OFF” on them…VERY FUNNY YOU GUYS!!!

WELCOME NEW FOLLOWER DAVE!!! CLIMB ABOARD AND HANG ON!