Lunch Comes A-Callin’

One of the things I really like about the way the barn is outfitted is that my friend CraigC and I installed scores of fixed windows in the place, including an uninterrupted band of windows all the way around the second floor where my studio and the classroom are.  This has its downside as well, reducing the amount of wall space I have to put storage in the space.  I might be the only woodworker in the world who has too many windows -in his shop.

On the other hand I get to observe the natural world outside whenever I want to look there.  I recall an instance a couple years ago when I looked up from the bench just in time to see a bald eagle swoop by the corner of the studio, zooming down the hill probably after lunch.  It was only a couple dozen feet from me with fully outstretched wings and my only regret is not having a camera capture the moment.  As was usual my camera was within arm’s length but by the time I grabbed it the eagle was gone.

Recently I looked out the windows and saw that lunch was coming to me.  A flock of about a dozen big, heathy wild turkeys were out in the driveways nibbling on grass seeds themselves (my hunting friends were ecstatic at the account), and then about a week later a herd of a dozen deer emerged long before their usual dusk.  Like the eagle they were too much in motion to get a really good photo.  I’m not a hunter even though I like to shoot, but hunting is not a skill I possess although I should try to acquire this complex skill set before the collapse.