EAST WATERFORD — It's not unusual to see giant round bales of hay near the home of Todd and Kendra Swartz, who own a cattle ranch on Interstate 75 outside of East Waterford.
Ten years later, none of them have seen the holiday photos on the wrapped packages.
His wife and mother of three children, Kendra, says : "I have always been interested in doing crafts . White, 14; Winston, 11; Walker, 5 years old. “I saw this idea on Pinterest.
He added : "I thought: I can do something like that." "We've had balloons since we were farmers. I used to do it for fun at first. But soon everyone started enjoying it."
Some of the models Kendra saw on the social network were a little too extravagant for her taste. He also tried to keep it simple to avoid cost overruns.
In 2013, Kendra began making hay balls for the holidays at the family's former home in East Waterford. I have made special designs for Christmas and Halloween. I have also done Easter in the past.
The design definitely shows Kendra's love for sewing.
She explained : "People have been sending me messages like, 'You're cute.'" "Then people sent me an idea for something new. Then I saw that people really liked it.
"It made me happy," he said.
Kendra admits she's come a long way since her first snowman design. "It was really simple," Kendra recalls. "The upper forehead was the head, the lower forehead was the rest. I painted it white and added black dots for eyes and buttons.
He decorated the main figure with a cylinder made of a tire and a five-liter bucket.
"Over the years, I've tried to make it more realistic," Kendra said.
His favorite Christmas creations include a snowman in 2013, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in 2015 and Santa Claus this year. Santa became his 22nd holiday creation.
"It was hard to come up with an idea this year," Kendra said. “There was nothing on Pinterest, it was getting closer and closer.
He added : "Four different people sent me the same idea for Santa Claus." "I think that was a signal of what I needed to do this year."
Creating pieces used to take a lot of time, but these days it's down to a science at Kendra. She can now make straw ornaments in about 30 minutes.
"I have to go get some spray paint," Kendra said. "I could get it for $4. When I went this year it was $7.50 a box."
This year Santa needed about three cans of paint - white, red and black. "It can be expensive," he said. "It depends on how much paint I need to cover the foals and how many colors I use."
I left Santa's face unpainted because the straw color matches his skin tone better than any paint you can find.
"I think it looks good in the end because she didn't use any paint on her face," Kendra said.
She didn't decorate during the pandemic because she just didn't have spray paint.
After her husband covers the front of the family's home along Route 75 with hay and bales, Kendra can do the decorating herself. Todd helps a few more times and makes plywood doors from Rudolph's Creations.
Straw decorations stay there for about a month. "It's about how long the paint will last," Kendra said.
It is also very easy to delete them. “I just remove the paint and put it in the compost pile, and the rest of the mud is used as bedding for the cows.
Passers-by often stop to take pictures of the exhibits and sometimes pose with them.
"People can stop and take pictures if they're respectful," Kendra said.
