The Peekin' Pete Prank

God has blessed us with wonderful Christian neighbors, the Brocketts. We have thoroughly enjoyed helping each other out with all different kinds of things. But, besides helping each other, we are continually playing jokes on each other, too. : ) One thing that we joke about is checking up on each other with our binoculars. Neither of us can get away with anything. Well, we found just the thing! ; )

We waited till one evening when they were going to church and we set to work. Dad and Jonathan twisted wire together to put inside a strawman so we could position it any way we wanted.






I think the strawman looks so funny in this picture. Dad and Jonathan are taking him to the hay mow to be filled with straw. Does anybody have some good captions for it?




The stuffing "ceremony". : )



We all had the grandest time imagining what the Brocketts would think when they saw this man on top of their horse shed.

Sarah getting her hand in the plot.



Mr. Torrey energetically filling out the strawman.









We had found the pattern for this in one of Daddy's wood magazines. The description of Peekin' Pete in the magazine was:

"Hey, what's happening next door? Just ask Pete - the ULTIMATE nosey neighbor. Peekin' Pete see's it all with his high-powered binoculars!"

Perfect!!





The binoculars were made of PVC pipe that we spray-painted black and the eyes are fastened on the ends to make them look nice and big.



Jonathan: "My binoculars are upon you!"



I carefully carried him into the van and strapped him in so he wouldn't fall over.




The dastardly deed is being accomplished with Jonathan and Dad up on the roof. We had to prop the strawman up with slabs of hay and his head with sticks.




"I can't see anybody in the windows. It almost seems as if they aren't home, but don't worry, I'll watch closely."




"To your posts! Sir, your job will be to keep a close watch on things."
"Yes, sir. I will do my very best, sir, and keep you updated, sir."



The next morning:


If you look closely, you can see one of the girls out taking a picture of the strawman. I know because I was watching them with binoculars! : )

A little later - ring, ring, ring!

I answer the phone and Hillary says,
"It looks like you all got up pretty early this morning."
"Oh, hello. No, we weren't up too early this morning - why?(grin)"
"When did you put that man up on the roof?"
"What man on the roof?"
"The one on the horse shed."
"I didn't put a man on the roof!"
(laugh)
"Okay, when did your family put the man on the roof? At first we thought it was some plastic blown up there. Then we went to do chores and saw what it really was. That was good!!"
So, I finally told them the story. They had so much fun with it. Other neighbors would slow down when they passed and came up to ask who was on the roof. We even got some to look at it with binoculars. : ) People thought it was either Daddy or Jonathan up there, at first.

That was so much fun. : )