Orchard House

Yesterday, I took possession of Orchard House again. The sale that was pending did not go through, so now I have a vacant house again. It's a beautiful house. But it is not our home. Our home is also beautiful, and that is where we live.

Bow enjoying salad in the inner pen

"יש לי בית" Bow said to me the other day, "I have a house." It was in reference to someone else who did not have a house. He offered to share his house with that person. He, however, does not wish to move. He is happy with his house.

Bow has his indoor and his outdoor space, his alone time when he wants it and his companionship when he needs it.

He has his human family and friends. And he has his canine family and friends. And yes, he wants chimpanzee friends, too, but he should not have to give up his home and his family and his privacy and his property rights in order to get that.

No matter how wonderful everything is, it could always get to be even better. But it's important, when reaching for that brass ring, that you do not make things much worse. A step forward would be to have even more freedom, not to give up one thing for another.

The red roses are blooming now in front of Orchard House

Which brings us to why it is that I have Orchard House in the first place. Orchard House was where Bow used to go to school.

When Bow was very small, and Project Bow was in its infancy, we used to have interns who would come and work with Bow, and these interns stayed at Orchard House. But there was a special room for Bow there, too.

It was not a room for Bow to live in, but it was where he went to school for about three hours at a time. The house and grounds at Orchard House are well tended, and the outdoors is tastefully landscaped.

There are many beautiful cultivated flowers that bloom at Orchard House, like these hollyhocks that border the deck.

Orchard House is surrounded by 4.6 acres, some wooded and some clear.

There are several out-buildings on the property, including a carport/garage. While we are trying to sell the property, I am going to be spending more time at Orchard House in the evenings, which means that I will probably taking a closer look at the flowers blooming there.

Orchard House flowers blooming now

But as much as I love Orchard House, it is not home. At home we do not have such fancy flowers, but the butterflies know and love us.

A Common Buckeye on the wildflowers by the fence at my house

There is no place like home. It is good to see other places -- to go to school or work or to visit friends -- but in the end, we each want to live under our own vine and fig tree. Any expansion of our horizons should not be at the expense of our privacy or our property line.