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“Grate, Grater, What’s The Difference?”

Ah, but I was soon to learn one had nothing to do with eating when Mountain Man said, “I really need a table grate.”

“What’s a table grater?” I naively asked. Visions of blocks of Parmesan cheese atop mounds of spaghetti floated through my head. Yum, now I was hungry.

“No, not grater. Grate. It’s for the log splitter. It’s a kind of platform for the logs so I don’t have to keep picking them up to run the big ones back through.”

“Oh.” Now that I knew I wasn’t going to experience a new gastronomic delight, my attention span immediately ran out.

“Well, never mind. They are too expensive.” Mountain Man sighed as he perused catalogs and web pages. And, when I saw the prices, I sure agreed what with just paying an king’s ransom for a new tire tractor. No way a table grater or grate or whatever the heck it’s called was in our budget.

But wood is our life blood here on Red Pine Mountain and once Mountain Man gets an idea in his head, there is no stopping him. So, two days later, he said, “I know. I’ll just build my own.”

And so he did.

Out in his shop constructing the table grate from materials he already had on hand.

Getting ready to weld it on to our wood splitter.

On to welding.

Positioning the splitter into place at the log landing with the help of the tractor. The black piece on the front is the table grate Mountain Man built.

A head on view of the table grate.

He’s got some big logs waiting to test his new table grate.

Lilly and Khrysta say “What’s the hold up, Dad?”

But Mountain Man wants it all balanced just so.

It’s working perfectly.


Mountain Man surveys his handiwork and is pleased with the results.

And now I know a table grate has nothing whatsoever to do with cheese.