Scarecrow Scare

Our village is having a Scarecrow Festival this weekend. This means
that all good men and true will have constructed a lifelike and
humourous manikin stuffed with straw, ready to erect it tomorrow
morning. Judging is by public acclamation, the associated giant
home-grown pumpkin compo is professionally fiddled.

Of course, an opportunity like this could not be ignored, so Team
Garage Pixie has swung in, exploiting the manifold fantasies and shed
facilities to the max. A pair of scarecrows riding the Ural combo,
armed with technicolour water pistols and surrounded by huge black
crows with big yellow beaks and bad attitudes.

Oddly, I'd never made a scarecrow before (every day's a school day) so
a pair of articulated skeletons were produced from tanalised tile
battens, dressed in camo suits and stuffed with a mixture of old
T-shirts and bags of straw - topped off with a couple of repainted
helmets in black and green camo-ish.

We'd just finished stuffing the guys, and I was standing with a beerr,
looking at the rider 'crow when I reckoned his chest was a bit on the
full side. To save time and effort, we'd left the straw in the plastic
bag, which filled the chest 'cavity' rather well. Well, this fella was
doing a bit of a Dolly Parton, it seemed - so I crossed the room, put
down the beerr (hah!) and applied a chest compression.

The air in the bag hissed out and the chest relaxed to more of the
desired contour, so I released the compression and stood up. as I
picked my beerr up - the bag refilled with air, with a wheezing hiss
.... and the chest expanded again.

Standing in the dining room, with all the lights on, I felt every
individual hair on my arms and the back of my neck stand up rigid and
quivering. We appear to have created a monster.

It's ALIVE!

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, SIRPip

I don't get it, you have a winning entry living under your roof.

Mind you, at your age, keeping still could be a challenge. You'd
probably want a wee every twenty minutes.

CPR, stat!

Only so long as you keep up the chest compressions. Remember: two verses
of "Nellie the Elephant", then a breath.

Paging Nursey!

 

The Ural seats three doesn't it?

 

Yeah, yeah. Scraggy mentioned this on Facebook, to Elly, a few hours
ago. Time I had a makeover, I guess.

20 minutes? How do you hold on that long? Just letting a little bit
out at a time, i suppose.

****. That. I'm going nowhere near the fucker until it's light
outside, I tell you.

 

Wotcha.

They had one at Belbroughton last weekend - some of those scarecrows bore
more than a passing resemblance to our club members.

 

I'm trying very hard to resist the temptation to put my camo jacket and
lid on (the same as the combo 'crows) and pose, rigidly ... wait till a
spectator gets a bit close and roar at them. I'd fit right in, they'd
never notice me.

 

Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it.
Perhaps not to the judges though.

Oh and .jpg?

 

And I see from Elly's Flickr photos that your entry (rather than you!)
grabbed second prize. Well done!

There were some amazing looking entries.

 

TYVM. Not only was it great fun making the things and allowing full
rein to colourful imaginations (and cut-out hardboard crows) it turned
into a fantastic community event. Loads of people walking around
spotting scarecrows and even tea and buns in the church next door. The
Ural has turned into a celebrity all of itself, as loads of people were
asking us about it - now we know we can't get away with anything round
here as so many people turned out to know us by sight, and so many more
do now.

There were, and plenty of inspiration for next time. A pirate theme
for ours, I think, and animated crows are on the cards. Apparently
there's a spreadlet in one of the local rags, featuring ours and a few
of the other funny ones. I can feel a scrapbook entry coming on ;-)