New Tenent in the Barn - Suggest a name?

[Lud]

I had the big barn door open in a bit of mild weather fairly late in the day while I was sawing on my mill  and  locked up around nightfall.

Next day, I was in for a shock. Not a great pic. when I got one.





Help me with ID.  Horned Owl? 

Need to get him out , right?

Wouldn't mind if he stayed, anyone care to suggest a name?

I'll try to get a better pic.  asap.

[SwampDonkey]

Could be Lud. White throat? If not, could be long eared owl to. What, did ya catch the camera shakes?  ;D :D

[beenthere]

How about "four eyes" ?

[Tom]

Looks like probably a horned owl to me too.  'Course I'm having trouble seeing whether I'm looking at his chest or his back.  :D

If he flew into my shed, I'd call him Hoot.

[Brad_bb]

Blurry picture, but it's a Great Horned Owl.  How'd you get the pic without him flying out?  I've startled them a couple of times in my barn and they'd fly out, but would land up in one of the trees and sit there all day.  Yellow eyes, ear tufts(not really ears or horns, but feather tufts), largest of the owls with females being bigger than males.  Reddish to brown feathers, greyish on the underside.  I had a dead one on my farm that was electrocuted on the electric line in a rainstorm.  Was cool to see and examine up close.  I believe it was a mother because after examining it, I looked up and on the peak of three different pole barns was a full grown great horned owl.  Must have been close to time to leave mom as I saw them a number of times throughout that summer of '07.

[Norm]

It's a great horned owl, pretty common around here but one heck of a predator. I've lost a bunch of poultry over the years to them....most likely a cat or two.

[WH_Conley]

I walked out the other morning and one was sitting on what was supposed to be MY pot of chicken and dumplings.

[SwampDonkey]

I'm by no means an owl expert by a long shot, just what I read.

Actually, the snowy owl is bigger, but don't see it much. It comes down from the arctic in the winter. Nests mostly on the ground and hunts lemmings and ptarmigan. My uncle had one stuffed when he worked in the far north. The biggest owl is the great gray owl, from Ontario to Alaska, along the northern Prairies and rockies. 5 inches taller than the great horned. Barred owl which I see a lot around here is about as big as the great horned, 1 inch shorter. I also here owls quite often hoot in the evening before pitch dark. In the west the barred owl breeds with the spotted owl. Look almost the same.

[Lud]

Here's a better pic.





Brad and Norm are right, I think.  Didn't open the big door yet is why he didn't get out, Brad.
SD,  I actually helped capture a Snowy Owl that flew in the Ford Plant in Cleveland in 1986.  I contacted Raptor Rescue after report came in.  Bird was thought to have been blown down over Lake Erie in a fall storm.  He was mostly gray from bangin' around the beams in a foundry .  Rescue guys showed up with an 8' net in a plant with 40' cielings !  We taped the net to a light changing pole and I hefted it up to get the feel.  Then I had some Electricians go up in a scissor lift behind where the owl was sittin'.  He was keepin his eye on them until they spooked him and he jumped off into the net I'd swung over.  I think it was first try.  Heavy up on the end of that pole!  Got him down safe and they drove him over past Toledo to release him.  Had a picture somewhere but it was 24 years ago.

I'm thinking of calling the Horned Owl Erasmus because then his nickname could be Raz..

Will get more shots today, I don't think he's going anywhere.  The barncats are looking over their shoulders!

[WDH]

He looks aggravated to have his picture taken.

[crtreedude]

He looks aggravated to have his picture taken.

Yeah, I think he is. I look the same way anytime someone gets me on the wrong side of a camera.  :

[jim king]

Lud:

What facinates me is your barn.  This photo and the drying post photos are great.  When was it built ?

[Lud]

Jim,  my barn is a classic Bank Barn.  Probably built around 1830's as that's as far back as I could trace it in the county tax records.  Undoubtedly built with logs from the property,  it was cut back into a slope on the rise up to the knob where they sited the house which they got around to when the women got tired of the cabin that would have been built first! :D

It's all post and beam, with 40' clear 8x8" on 2' centers. All beams hand worked but 4x4's had to have been taken to a millas the show sawmark.  Doubt it was a WM! What's a bit unusual is that it's a 60x40 barn on a 45x40 bottom frame with an outrigger wall on the south end. The hayrail in the barn that has no end doors means they must have drove wagons in under the south end and lifted the hay straight.  Good place for cows to gather too, I suppose.  Barn had a concrete floor poured way back and it had been  set up for milking long before we got it. We figured this out back in the 80's when I lifted the south end as the sill had rotted and the foundation was kreeling, I think because of the lack of expansion stripping and years of freezing cow whiz.  Lifting one end of a barn over your head with 4 screw jacks is exciting but it saved the barn when I put in drainage, moved a 40' long stone wall 3' south and poured an 11 yard pier to bolt the posts to.

Hey,  that owl held still for some more pictures!





















So  the moral of the story is,

"Owl's well that Ends Well"

[WDH]

Yeah, on second inspection, that owl is not likely to fly off, so make the owl comfortable .

[metalspinner]

 :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

He looks like a wise old hoot.  ;D

Lud, your a stinker. :D

[pigman]

I just thought Lud had the D Ts and after the pictures got better assumed he found his bottle. ;) :D

[Dan_Shade]

Lud, you made me laugh after a crummy day at work!

[WDH]

We have definitely been had.........

[Lud]

Well,  I do hope he'll keep the little birds out of the barn in the summer when the doors get opened.

I'd left the post tall when I built those stairs 24 years ago.

When I got to carving on him with the Lancelot disc and the hand tools, it only took about 20 hours or so.  He'll mostly  be viewed from a distance so a bit rough.

The comments in the notes really warm my heart.  Maybe Raz will be  short for Rascal, eh?

And if you can't kid your friends who can you kid? 8) 8)

[Brad_bb]

Oh, you big FAKER!   You got me.  I did think it was strange that you got a second photo in the same position.  I almost left the post before scrolling down to see the close up.  That's a nice touch for the stair rail.  Have you been carving, or was this your first?  Good paint job too.  From 20 ft it looks real.  Now I understand that the first pic was intentionally blurry!  It threw me as I have shots of red tailed hawks on my farm that often end up blurry from their quick movement taking to flight.

[Lud]

Brad,  glad you enjoyed it .  You and SD really helped the con along with all your input.

I have carved since I was a kid. Neckerchief slides in Scouts. Stabbed myself a lot.  A great uncle and his wife ran a wood shop in Cal. in the 40's specializing in Myrtle wood. He turned lamps (I have one) and she carved.  I was given her set of English Carving chisels after she passed and only really ruined one,  but as a kid to have the opportunity to know what sharp can be really made a difference.  Plus that whole spatial orbitation thing, y'know.  I can visualize in 3D and covert that to 2D from the various faces and then it's just a matter of whackin' away at what shouldn't be there.

I have a life size carved Newfoundland dog sitting on my porch with his paw up to shake and as he was lonely I also carved a Westie to stand beside him. They're know as Woody and Chip and both know how to sit and stay.

I've also got a cigar store gnome at 5' as well as an 18" standing Santa Claus carved in Hickory. I have a black swan carved in black walnut that I died with India ink cuz he wasn't dark enough. 

I can do it and enjoy it but it's just one of the many things I pursue.  Each craft can be a mountain that you have to be passionate and fanatic about to reach the top.  I'd rather explore the whole range and enjoy the interdisciplinary overlaps where wood and metal and glass and leather and ink, paint and paper all work together.

[WDH]

OK, after that explanation, we will let you get away with it this time    ;D.

[Warbird]

I think you should call the thing "Hooter".  But then you'll have to be careful when talking to the Mrs about Hooter's  being in the barn.  ;D

[Lud]

Yeah, like I'd try something like that!  I don't do Deathwish!
Actually  I'm calling him Raz,  as in short for Erasmus ,  or Rascal.  I finished Neal Stephenson's newest book Anathem
and that was his protagonist's name.  Good story but a bit heavy going with the math and the physics.

Reading constantly is it's  own reward.   Hard to enjoy the Forum if you don't read, eh?

[Phorester]

There's always Woodsy Owl.  Wait a minute, another owl already has that name.

Faker comes to mind, or Falsie.

[beenthere]

........... comes to mind, or Falsie.

Have ta carve another one then.  : :

[Phorester]

HA!  Just make sure they're the same size. 

Which reminds me, Larry The Cable Guy says he had a girlfriend who had two different sized...., er..... well..., you know.....
She went to a wet T-shirt contest and won first & third prizes.

[zopi]

Woodsy...