Raccoon tie-in with Easter
Recently we spied an old cross we'd made out of brazed cement nails as we strode the yard looking for manifestations to remove.
For example, soon I will take a Saws-All hack-saw to the 'VULCAN' sign arm of the yard light and divide that from the rest of the pyramidal yard illuminator, a good and functional thing still, which we years ago left unpainted purposefully to rust; per the suggesion of our late welder-artist friend, John Tyson.
This cross was easily removed from a fence post along the back pathway. It was just a matter of unscrewing it by hand.
The decision was to send it to unmet but beloved welder brother Stew Tolbert in Dillonvale, OH. Workers with 2500 deg. C. fire sometimes can have a bond as strong as their cut and joined work. Readers of the raccoon news will be familiar with Stew, holding forth on a reclaimed abandoned coal mine near the Ohio River. For more, search 'Stew' at the SRN search window upper left.
Stew told us that he wanted to attach the cross to something in his barn, allowing it to continue weathering as had been the custom for the sturdy steel symbol here. But Donna, his wife, wouldn't hear of it and insisted that it be attached to the dining room wall.
There it is now. His two year old faithful grandson likes to touch it, we're told. He also likes to groan just like his grandpa does when he himself stands up.
But then, Stew took the package the cross was mailed in, flattened it, and hung that on his welding shop barn wall. Evidently even our scrawled raccoon design on the back of the box had value to Mr. Tolbert, who we now certainly believe is a man of discriminating taste.
This is the sort of setting I would most desire for anything I ever did!
