Hey, interesting coincidence! My wife does that as well, as a hobby I mean. She takes apart old farm equipment, iron pieces, and the likes, then makes them into animals. Our half acre lot has tons of different animals, rather cool actually. She made a fence a while back with different pieces, very cool. Only problem... your yard gets full fast! She enjoys this art project though, so no problems here!
A tip: if you know anyone who has old farm equipment then that's the place to go. A killer to disassemble, but the pieces you get are wonderful. Lots of chains, too, which can be added to so many creatures.
