Heavy Metal

The past two weekends I have been occasionally working on building this firewood holder for the basement. It's certainly no work of art but it gets the job done and will hold a good amount of wood. I just took some #5 rebar (5/8") that was leftover from the railroad job and selected two lengths that were about 6' long. I bent these into a half circle basically and kept tweaking them until I got them to match fairly well. It's not real easy to bent a perfect half circle but you know, it's close. Then I used about 6 pieces, approximately 14" long to join the two half circles.

Here you can see the cross pieces. I welded them on the outside but I don't think it really matters.

Then I took two pieces about 3' long and used Allen's rebar bender to make sharper turns here for the legs. I know most people would never even know you can get a manual rebar bender much less have access to one but let me tell you, those things are sooooo cool. It will cut or bend up to #5 bar and it has come in very handy round here. Of course, the easiest way to cut rebar is with a torch, which I did here, but often times on commercial jobs you are technically not supposed to heat rebar to cut it. It must be sheared manually or cut with a band saw. So, after a little time yesterday afternoon gathering and splitting wood, I now have a supply of dry wood right next to the stove. Oh, this contraption is probably about 4' wide and 3' tall, maybe. I have more wood on a pallet under the deck but need to cut a lot more. Today I will be taking a load of firewood to my mom.

While I was welding and had Big Red all fired up with his new battery, I decided just to play around some and make a pretty. Well, I think it's pretty. I took some more leftover rebar and fashioned this yard ornament. These are leftover caisson bands, about 16" in diameter. I'm going to make some shor' 'nuff tomato cages with rest of these. I just threw this thing together trying to work out how it would go and now I think I could make a much better crafted one. If I get time that is! I have several more sculptures and such that I would like to put together with some of the scrap I have around here.
Oh, btw, and I'm telling this just for fun, I went out to eat last night at my favorite Japanese restaurant. I bought Allen's dinner for helping me cut wood. My fortune cookie said, "A new relationship is about to blossom. You will be blessed." Ha ha! I swear! I also dreamed a couple of nights ago about seeing a big tree knocked over that had a bee hive in it. The bees swarmed out and started coming towards me. I tried to run away but I didn't even get 10 feet away before the bees had completely covered me. It scared me at first and I could actually feel the weight of the bees on me, there were so many. But then I realized they were not stinging me and I just stood there kind of marveling at these bees all over me. I read later that honeybees, in dreams, often symbolize blessings and happiness. Well, I'm already blessed but there is an old song that says something about never getting tired of manna from heaven!


*Sammy Hagar