As winter started closing in last fall, I decided some 40-year-old pines in the front yard should be eliminated. They’d served as a great screen from traffic noise, etc., but some thinning was due. I asked the cutter to leave at least one 4-ft. stump in case I wanted a monument some day.
Before the first snowfall, I asked Gary ‘the custom carver? Elzerman to carve me an owl out my back door. You may remember seeing it in a Jottings some months ago.
Elzerman’s reputation is printed on the side of his pick-up: ‘You know, the guy on Baldwin Road.? That site has a dozen or so carved things – fish, birds, bear, deer, etc., of varying sizes, roadside.
So, a couple months ago I asked Gary if he could carve m’dog Shayna. He set a date and showed up at nine one morning.
Shayna greeted him and they looked at each other for a while. Then Gary said, ‘I think I got it, a bent ear and blue eyes.?
He started his 4-ft chain saw and began slashing. About three hours later Gary knocked at the door. He said, ‘I’ve got to measure Shayna’s tail.?
Aha! An Elzerman flaw. He forgot a detail, or as I tell it, the d-tail. With that figure he set about wrapping Shayna’s tail around her butt. Then he was off to Michael’s to find the right color felt-tip for the eyes.
So now our house is protected front and back by a wise old owl and untrained German shepherd-husky mix.