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Giant "Birdcage" Greets Visitors To Farm
People who drive onto the Paul and Phyllis Hoeger farm near Maynard, Iowa, for the first time often sit in their car and stare for a few minutes before they get out and have a good laugh.
What brings them up short is the giant bird cage standing in the farm yard. Paul and Phyllis explain:
"We built a large
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Giant "Birdcage" Greets Visitors To Farm AG WORLD Ag World 21-4-21 People who drive onto the Paul and Phyllis Hoeger farm near Maynard, Iowa, for the first time often sit in their car and stare for a few minutes before they get out and have a good laugh.
What brings them up short is the giant bird cage standing in the farm yard. Paul and Phyllis explain:
"We built a large parrot out of plywood and installed it in a wire corncrib.
"About two years ago we decided not to store ear corn anymore. We tried to sell our wire crib but had no luck. During the winter of 1995-96, we started talking about what we could do with the crib. We had always thought it looked like a bird cage so we decided to put a giant bird inside.
"We found a picture of a scarlet Macaw on the front of a greeting card and graphed it out from the 3 by 5-in. card to a 2-piece pat-tern measuring 13 1/2 ft. from the tip of the tail to the head. We cut the two pieces from a single sheet of 3/4 in. exterior grade ply-wood and gave it a couple coats of oil-based paint.
"Then we made a metal frame to bolt to the bird to keep it from warping. It was worth the effort because the parrot has held up to wet weather and winds of 50 to 60 mph with-out warping. The bird mounts on a pipe across the crib about two-thirds of the way up.
"The hardest part of the entire job was putting the bird in its cage. We had to use a block and tackle to handle the 200-lb. bird and several cables to hold him in place on his perch.
"The positive response to the bird has been overwhelming. It's rare that we go anywhere in nearby towns without someone remarking about our bird. Two local TV stations have done stories on it along with local newspapers. People stop to take photos all the time. "This was something we did just for fun, but it has paid off big dividends by bringing smiles to the faces of people driving by. Farming can be stressfull - once in a while you have to do something just for fun."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Paul & Phillis Hoeger, 17458 100th St., Maynard, Iowa 50655.
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