"Man Scrapbooking"

Mark has taken on a new project - building a log splitter out of salvaged and new parts. This log splitter will use our tractor's power to work. Genius! He's nearing completion and I'm keeping my fingers crossed & knocking on wood that it will work! (just fyi- we try to heat our home with a wood stove in the winter- hence the need for a log splitter. Oh, we do chop wood with a maul but some of the wood here is nearly impossible to split by hand. Elm being one of the worst. If you're in the area and would like to have a full-body work-out just stop in and chop some wood with the maul! Then you'll need a whole bottle of Ibuprofen the next day to keep the pain away! Just kidding.)

He jokingly calls metal working "Man Scrapbooking". I guess I can see that ...except that his stuff weighs a few hundred pounds (that's a guess) more than my scrapbooking stuff.

Do you see that yellow cylinder? That's a hydraulic cylinder that was salvaged from a crawler (that's a Bulldozer for all you non-construction machinery people). I just think it's really neat to recycle old parts and turn them into something new and useful. Mark also made that upside-down U shaped bracket that holds the cylinder in place (he used FIRE to bend the metal). ETA - Mark has made everything on this log splitter, not just the U bracket.

Pretty cool!