Lewis Yard Critters

We built a shop as part of our home area when we lived in Greenwood AR on top of a ridge line and 8 acres. We had a lot of fun using old propane tanks and scrap metal to create ‘critters’ who lived all around our property with us.

This one we called the ‘farmer robot’. He was in charge of all the yard work, square foot garden, and greenhouse.

We brought “when pigs fly” and “putting lipstick on a pig” to life with this critter. For years he hung over our driveway from the branch of a tree. An ice storm brought both the branch and the pig down onto the driveway. We were in the process of repairing him and repairing him, having thoughts of attaching him to a boulder beside the driveway, when we moved to Thailand.

We called this our ‘welcome robot.’ He doffed his hat at cars driving by and visitors to our place. He weighed over 200 lbs, and certain really strong gusts of wind would topple him, so we put a chain around his neck and attached the chain to trees fore and aft to keep him upright. He ‘leaned’ with gusts, but we could pull him back into place.

Our “mallard duck” ‘flew’ over our land in the back yard, attached to the pole that rose from the middle of a brick planter in the yard

The “vested popadoo bird” stood between the house and the shop.

The ‘butler’ or ‘cleaning’ robot guarded our woodpile for a while, then we moved him to beside the garage door to oversee necessary clean-ups, particularly after we brought in firewood.

This turkey was permanently pardoned and a member of the family.

And, finally, we had this 1,000 gallon propane tank that provided energy to the house (we had another 250 gallon tank for the shop). I didn’t like it being white, and so painted it to look like a watermelon. I will never forget the first time the propane guy drove up to top off the tank before winter. I thought he was going to bust a gut laughing! 🤣

Making these, and other critters, plus cutting out decorations for our mailbox down by the road was a wonderful part of our lives together.