My husband and I worked together, from 1988 to 1994, in a small art and craft business. We supplied artists, industry, and manufacturers of medical supplies with molds and reproductions. I worked closely with many talented people during those six years; however, the artist I got to know best was Ernie Muehlmatt, champion bird carver. We supplied him with resin reproductions of his bird carvings. I cast these reproductions using the molds made by my husband, then trimmed them with a carving tool and sent them out to people who ordered them. I never noticed birds very much up until then, but suddenly my whole life was about birds, and I even wrote a memoir of those times called "Birds R Us."
The redtailed hawk was a bird that Ernie admired very much. I saw pictures of it. When we moved to the country we found that a pair of redtails lived at the top of a mountain on our property. The presence of the hawks was one of many signposts along the way, telling us that we belong here.