Decorated hay bales have become a seasonal staple for drivers along Highway 78.
One of those responsible is Charles Fleming, a farmer and grading contractor who has been decorating the bales for 25 years.
“The main reason I do it is to get a reaction from people and to give somebody a smile coming down Highway 78,” he said.
Charles uses materials from his farm at 1741 Athens Road in Crawford to decorate the hay bales.
One year for Halloween, he used black paint to paint the face of a spider and used rebar to create spider legs coming from the hay bale to the ground. He said it takes around 8-10 hours to complete a bale.
“The main fun in it is making it,” Charles said. “The secondary fun is getting people that honk at us and that pull in and want to get pictures.”
His wife Polly, a baton twirling coach and former teacher, said this year’s decorations are different.
Plastic pumpkin buckets are decorated wearing hats and sit inside of the manure wagon with skeletons. The wagon is attached to a 1952 John Deere B model tractor where a “clown sits in the driver seat, while a witch sits on the exhaust pipe.”
“Usually, I’ve got a truck or a trailer or a tractor involved in it,” Charles said. “So that’s why I kind of change up every once in a while because I don’t want to put the same thing out every year.”
Charles is a welder, and said he’s intentional about repurposing materials. He made a turkey in 2021 using two dish satellites as the head, oil funnel as the beak and metal parts as the neck.
Though he decorates for different seasons, he said he doesn’t have a favorite seasonal decoration.
“I like them all,” Charles said. “I get the same buzz out of doing any one of them.”
Whenever they go to Walmart, the Flemings said people ask what decorations they are putting out next and when.
“I’ve heard two or three today, and I haven’t been here but an hour,” Polly said.
Polly emphasizes their farm has the most beautiful view of the sunset, which also draws people in to take pictures alongside the decorations.
“It brings a lot of community together,” Polly said. “Sometimes there'll be two or three cars over there at the same time.”
But there’s one thing Polly wants the community to take away from the decorations.
“Everybody’s got things going on in their lives, good or bad,” Polly said. “Bring back good memories, make them smile.”