Thank goodness for those donation boxes that sit in my garage forever before they make it to the donation center because I needed a new friend to help me scare away a predator down by the chicken coop. I’m talking about a scarecrow—a not-so-scary scarecrow.
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LET’S START WITH THE BODY
To make the body of the scarecrow, I used a fence post, two furring strip boards, and a couple of nuts and bolts. The first longer furring strip is for the arms of my scarecrow’s shirt and the second bottom piece is to attach the pants. I used a drill to make a hole into the center of each board so that I could attach it to the fence post tightly with the bolt.
Next, I dressed her. I slid the fence post down one side of her pant leg, and then I used a staple gun to staple the pant’s waistline to the smaller board.
Then I put on her shirt and stapled cut pieces of hay twine to her wrist area. I also stapled down the wrist of the shit so that they would stay in place when it’s windy.
As for that garland, I cut strips from a couple of hand-me-downs, and tied them to a piece of twine. Of course, I used my staple gun to attach it.
I use an Arrow T50 Heavy Duty Staple Gun you can find it HERE.
AND NOW FOR THE HEAD OF THIS NOT-SO-SCARY SCARECROW
For the head, I used some old khaki shorts and cut two similar in size, somewhat oval circles. I didn’t want to sew the two pieces together, so I used a regular stapler. You know, like ones for office paper. I turned it inside out, voila, her head.
Her face was painted with multi-surface craft paints and her head was stuffed with twine. I thought about using plastic grocery bags, but we have a lot of twine lying around since our ponies eat from small hay bales. This project was an easy way to repurpose some of it.
Once I had the head stuffed with the twine, I realized I didn’t have a way to attach the head to the fence post, so I placed a 1×2 piece of the board inside the head with a bolt so that I could attach it to the fence post.
After her head was attached, I made some hair pieces out of braided strips of tulle that I stapled on. I also painted cluck off on her shirt pocket because it seemed appropriate for the job she has ahead of her.
Lastly, she needed the finishing touch of a straw hat, and she was ready to pound into the ground.
LET’S GET TO WORK
If you remember the beginning of this post, I mentioned that I needed a new friend to help me with a predator by the chicken coop. The predator is a fox. I’ve seen it the past few mornings. I’m hoping I can deter it by making him/her think someone is standing in the field.
The fox was using a different route on the opposite side of our property, but our neighbor changed up some landscape to try to catch it. Now, I think it’s using caution and changed routes. That’s why it’s headed along this new path right next to my chicken coop.
We’ve lost chickens to foxes in the past. Nature takes course sometimes, but as an animal owner, I think it’s my responsibility to try to keep my animals safe. I also want to allow my chickens to live free-ranging. So, for now, the chickens have to wait a little longer to get let out of the chicken coop in the morning, and I’m trying my not-so-scary scarecrow.
I call this scarecrow not so scary because she’s kind of cute with those pink cheeks, lips, and blue eyeshadow.
Eventually, she’ll move to the garden, where she can tell the rabbits to cluck off because the stinkers are eating my pepper plants.
XOXO
Emily
You can find more crafty projects under the LETS DIY – ARTS & CRAFTS category on the blog, or if this is your first time on to SHE PAINTS FOR PONIES, start HERE.