The Owl
As I pulled up to the house Thursday afternoon I could see the activity that had taken place that day. The north facing side of the house that housed the garage was nearly completely sided. The soffit board was also installed. This gives the roof line edge a neat clean finished look. The first door of the house was being ready to be installed but there was some crafty pre-work that needed to be done first.
The man door out of the garage was a late addition to the house plan. Actually it was my father who mentioned that I might like having a door out of the garage. Without it I would have to walk through the house, go out the back door onto the deck, down the stairs and around the side of the house to access the driveway. I could also go through the house, out the front door, then around the side of the house to the driveway.
In order for the door to be hung, the wiring for my garage door close sensor needed to be run first. This created a small problem as the frame for the door is solid 2"x6" on either side of the door. The solution was to drill a hole, then route a channel in the framework to create a pathway to run the wire.
By the time Dan had finished creating the channel we were running out of daylight and the chore of rolling up the work site and putting tools away began. Once the job-site was secure, we had a meeting about the days events, discussed several things and then headed our separate ways. I heard owls hooting off in the distance and hooted at them as I started to talk to Steve about the house again. Since it was cold now that it was dark we decided to sit in his car while it warmed up and continue our discussion. After about 5 minutes I exited the car, looked up on the roof of our house and saw an enormous Great Horned Owl, which promptly hooted at me heartily. Steve commented on how big it was as he could see it as well, silhouetted on the southern peak of the house.
I've hunted Turkey's for a lot of years here in Washington, and one of my locator calls I use is an owl hooter, so I mimicked the calls I've made before and hooted to the Owl. What happened next was several minutes of the Owl and I hooting back and forth to each other. Steve had driven around the south end of the house and used a flashlight to illuminate the owl. The owl promptly turned towards Steve and hooted at him. The owl hooted at us a few more times then flew off into the night, probably looking for dinner. It was a fun thing to see and the second wildlife visitor we had that day as my son Derek saw a Deer behind the house earlier in the day.
