The Meaning of the Red Tailed Hawk or Birdz R Us

For six years I worked side by side with my husband in his workshop. He was a self-employed mold- and model-maker. That's past tense; he still is one.

We as a family stood at a crossroads in the late summer of 1988. Michael was five, having been in full time daycare for three years, Peter was self-employed, and I had a job as a medical transcriptionist in a rehabilitation hospital. I hated having my son in daycare; I actually got physically ill with a very stubborn case of reflux or what they now call GERD. Gastrointestinal Reflux Disease. All from stress.

Michael was entering kindergarten in the fall and just the thought of him attending his elementary school years and having to go to a babysitter's house after school made me ill. More than anything I wanted to be at home when my son got off the school bus. I felt that my presence at home was crucial during the elementary school years. But I was stuck in 9 to 5.

Enter Ernie Muehlmatt, world famous bird carver, who was practically a neighbor of ours except we didn't know him. His wood carvings of birds costs thousands to purchase; he wanted to have replicas made in a form of plastic so that all of his bird carving fans could buy them and study them and possibly paint them. He could not have come into our lives at a better time. The work he wanted done created a real demand for me to step in and learn how to use my husband's molds. It was simple; Ernie gave us a carved model of a bird, Peter made the mold, and I used the mold to create replicas. I found that I loved working with my hands. My life was taken over by birds--sometimes I used to dream about them.

In those years I didn't leave the house until Michael got on the bus in the AMs; I left our shop to be home by the time the school bus pulled up and Michael came running up the driveway. Peace at last.

One of Ernie's masterpieces was his red tailed hawk. This was to be entered in a world-wide competition. This was not for public consumption. I watched as he worked so slowly and patiently, taking slivers of wood from the carving. When the bird was done he painted it and he let me sit next to him as he did so, looking at pictures of red tailed hawks and trying to find the exact shade of red for the tail.

What joy there was when we moved to the country and quickly discovered that a pair of red tailed hawks lived on "our mountain!" It was the supreme good omen.