Stan, Stan, the Scarecrow Man

So what do you do when evil birdies are pillaging & plundering daily in your garden?

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If you're a country hick like us, you get out the pellet gun & try to blast the culprits into the next county. But, when you try that a few times & never get the varmint, you build yourself a real, authentic scarecrow!

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I don't know why, but I decided that his name should be Stan.

Andy drew up an artist's rendering of Stan, so this is where we started from.

The Beginnings Of Stan

Emma had LOTS of fun stuffing Stan. Frank liked it, but didn't like having the straw stick to him. Wearing Mommy's gardening gloves definitely made it more fun.
Stan had to have Daddy make some wire suspenders so that his pants could stay up. Andy knows how that goes. He's lost so much weight lately that his pants literally fall off his body. Men!
So there you have it. Stan now proudly presides over our garden. We embarrassed him by hanging pie tins & CDs from his arms, but he forgives us. He likes his job.
But guess what?

STAN DOESN'T WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So now we have a very labor- & time-intensive garden ornament.

Sigh- so what do we try now?

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Bird tape! Basically it's a very expensive streamer. I'm positive that I could've bought this at Lowe's or even the party store for about 1/4 the price, but you'd be amazed what you'll do (or pay) when you're fighting for your little plants.
And so far, it's working! (mostly) I've only had 2 plants go missing since the introduction of our newest garden decor. If our garden didn't look white trash before, it certainly does now. And I mean that literally. It really looks like there's trash all over my garden. But I don't care as long as the plants stay put & the birds stay away.

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And just for fun, look what we found this week!

Happy Gardening!