Problems with Necks

After two days of torrential rain, Farmer George was soaked through to his plastic bag skin. George’s head became so heavy with rainwater that the 'wonderful' pipe insulation foam I had used for his armature could not support the weight of his head any more. When the sun came out again, poor George was looking very shy and sad.

Intrepid husband David got out his ladder and braved the blackthorn to make some repairs to George. The ‘ear lugs’ I had formed from the raw ends of his sacking head (see my blog for Monday, 8 April 2013, Introducing Farmer George) came in useful to loop some twine through, in order to tie George’s head firmly back to the trunk of his tree. Once more, George is boldly gazing out down the Bradwell Road to announce the All Saints’ scarecrow trail to passers by.

Whilst we were fixing George up, a villager who happened to be passing by, remarked; “He’s so lifelike that when I first walked past the other day, I thought someone was breaking into your shed!”

Whilst we were at it, I strengthened the neck of my flowerpot scarecrow (see my blog for Thursday, 11 April 2013, The Simplest Scarecrow Ever) by drilling right through both the end of the garden cane protector and the centre of the plastic flowerpot, in order to push the body’s armature through into the Oasis foam that had been placed inside the pot to anchor the flower decorations. This made the junction between flowerpot and armature much more secure.

Now that I’ve built a couple of scarecrows, I am beginning to appreciate that the way in which the scarecrow’s head is joined onto and supported by the armature at the neck is a potential weak point in any scarecrow design. As I tackle my mini-scarecrow today, I’ll be addressing this by modifying the way in which I attach his head to his body.