Tag Archives: yard critters

July 5, 2021 · 9:51 am

Refurbishing Progress

I’ve been working on the “Belly Vested Whapado” bird for several days now. He’s finally finished and will find his spot in the yard later today. We’ll have to tie him to something wherever he lives, because he needs the extra help, but I’ll take some pics and post them later.

Next up will be a set of 4 “emus’ we built to hold planter pots. There are actually 6 emus in the set. 4 live together to the side of the driveway and and there are 2 more that live on our deck. We haven’t brought the other 2 in yet. Pics to follow on these, as well.

There are some yard critters that I plan to refurbish in place. One is the robot who welcomes people to our home and holds our house numbers sign. He weighs 200+ pounds. I’ll do him in stages, first cutting the greenery away around him, then using a mold remover to get him clean, and then bringing a large can of white paint and a brush to the bottom of the driveway in our truck. I will also use rust preventing spray paint on him, masking areas carefully.

I noticed the ‘Mama and Baby Snail’ that live on one of the brick planters needs to be repainted, and a shovel bird that perches on the edge needs work, too. Right now I am refusing to even THINK about the ‘Flying Pig’ that hangs over the driveway. :0)

I’ll go out to the shop soon and take some pics.

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November 29, 2016 · 1:13 pm

A Really Nice Thing Happened…

Herring Gas Co., Inc. - Meadville MS

Herring Gas Co., Inc. – Meadville MS

“Matt” emailed me a week or so ago, asking if I would allow him to post a picture on his blog of the turkey on my website.

 

critterturkey

Like all of our critters, we use ‘found’ objects cobbled together. For the turkey, we used a 20 lb propane tank for the body, sheet metal for the tail, wings, and wattle, rod for the legs, scrap for the cockscomb, some kind of agricultural ‘tooth’ for the head and beak, and google eyes. He stands beside our driveway.

I said, “Sure,” to Matt, asking that he give credit to both my husband and me for the creation, feeling happy he liked the turkey and wanted to use the pic on his website. A couple of days later, he sent me a thank you and the URL to the website.

Today I received a package. Neither my husband nor I could remember ordering anything from a gas company, so we opened the package with interest.

Inside was Matt’s business card, and goodies of all kinds, including 2017 calendars, quilted hot pads, quilted eyeglass cases, and a nice spatula for the grill, as a thank you. Isn’t that amazing?

I’m really impressed with Matt. He could have just used the picture, not asking for permission. I do this many times, giving as much credit as I can find for each picture I post; but getting permission takes a lot more time and effort, and is just plain NICE. We’ve never been thanked in this way for something that was so personally satisfying as having something we made appreciated and posted to others.

Matt Holt is Director of Information Technology for Herring Gas Company. It serves Mississippi and Louisiana. Here is more information if you would like to use their services, or tell others about them –

Herring Gas Company, Inc. 33 Main Street, Meadville MS 39653 601-384-5833

Thank you, Matt, for making our day – twice!

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August 22, 2016 · 2:51 pm

Lewis Metal Yard Critters – Take 6

finishedsunface2

This sun face is HUGE and HEAVY. I was afraid my husband would hurt himself trying to lift it onto the humongous hanger we put on the tree. We made some templates and cut out each ‘flame’ separately and then welded each to the round sun face. The eyebrows, nose, mustache, lips and beard + sunglasses are all separate pieces, as well. After all the pieces were welded, I began the painting. The final part was making and attaching the sunglasses. The tree is toward the top of our driveway. He greets all comers. :0)

 

metalbutterfly1

This is my husband’s design for a butterfly. (No light, delicate, ‘sissy’ butterflies for HIM!) This is made totally from scrap metal pieces welded together, plus old satellite dish arms. The eyes were made by cutting a rubber ball that had ‘studs’ on it in half. I painted the ball halves black, then dabbed paint on all the studs in iridescent green, then sprinkled glitter into the wet paint.

 

scrapdragonfly3

This dragonfly clown hangs from the ceiling in the shop. He’s made from scrap metal, some round glass for his eyes, and welding rod for feelers.

 

turtlecrossing2

We bought this wonderful turtle from a shop in Van Buren, Arkansas. He was totally concrete colored – much too tame for our tastes. I mixed up several shades of green and painted his shell, plus gave him an eye, a mouth, some toenails, and a bit of webbing on his legs.

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