Decor Animals Dress Up Farm Buildings

Decor Animals Dress Up Farm Buildings AG WORLD Ag World 8-5-20 When Minnesota farmer Larry Mages, of Lafayette, finished converting an old dairy barn into a hog house, he shopped around for life-size hog silhouettes to dress up the remodeled building, and to let passersby know that he's a pork producer. Unable to buy the kind of ready-made animals he wanted, he drew up patterns and made them himself out of 4 by 8 sheets of plywood. Before long, neighbors were asking him to design and paint decor animals for them. One thing led to another and Larry is now doing a booming sideline business in decor animals for farm buildings and mailboxes. You can buy completely finished silhouettes ù cut from 4 by 8 sheets of 1¢-in. exterior grade plywood and hand painted ù for prices ranging from $49.95 for a full size (about 46 by 76 in.) cow, bull, hog or horse; $34.95 for a large dog of your choice (painted in 2 or 3 colors) and $4.95 for small (10 by 11-in.) chicks or piglets to be used, as murals, with larger hens, sows, and so forth. Animals can be ordered to face right or left, and hand-painted in your choice of colors. Full-size patterns for do-it-yourself silhouettes are available for $7 each. You simply lay the pattern on a 4 by 8 sheet of plywood, using it to cut out and paint the animal or whatever other silhouette you want to dress up a barn, machine shed, garage wall, or your mailbox. Do-it-yourself patterns are also available for large letters made from 4 by 8 sheets of plywood. For a free catalog of patterns and prices, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Decor Animals, c/o Larry Mages, Rt. 1, Box 75, Lafayette, Minn. 56054 (ph 507 228-8557).

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