Memories from Orchard House

Bow looking at a picture of himself from Orchard House

Yesterday, I went over to Orchard House to check on things.

Somebody had taken most of the firewood that had been stacked outside. Someone had been leafing through Project Bow notebooks that had been in the unlocked shed, and left them strewn on the lawn. Small children scampered away as my car approached.

But the apple tree was blooming, so that was good. I asked my yard man what I should do to keep people from stealing the apples before I can pick them. He laughed. "I don't think those people will work that hard for apples. They have plenty to eat."

This reminded me of my Debt Collector song, with music by composer Daniel Carter, that has a line that goes like this: "Good things don't grow on trees, 'cept in other people's yards, but we don't climb those trees, who wants to work that hard?"

You can hear the song, sung by Victoria Trestrail,  here. (There is also a new version from 2015 that I just got, but I haven't had a chance to make a video of it.)

http://www.pubwages.com/01/law-abiding-people-a-song-from-the-debt-collector

I took the notebooks from Orchard House home for safekeeping. Once upon a time, I had volunteers who helped with Project Bow, and they lived at Orchard House, and they had schedules like this:

A Schedule for Two Interns from 2006

The interns worked with Bow, they video-recorded his floortime sessions, and they transcribed his utterances into digital dialogues. And of course, they played with him.

Bow looking at a very old photo of his human  sister and his cousin
He is pointing at his cousin's name, because I asked him who that was.

Those were good times for Project Bow, but they are over now. People who volunteer to work with chimpanzees want to be able to go in and interact with the chimp and then leave and resume their lives.

But Bow needs people to make a lifelong commitment to him. He can't abide new people every year. We still need volunteers to pick the fruit at Orchard House and to work on computer programs for Bow's literacy, but they would not be allowed to go in with him, so the prospect is not that attractive for young people interested in apes.

A Hummingbird moth hovering over the creeping phlox in front of my house

But it's okay, Bow and I manage on our own. We have nice things happening at our own house, too. Yesterday, I spotted a hummingbird moth and was able to get very close.

The Hummingbird Moth's Wings are Translucent

Bow watched with interest as I showed him the video.

Maybe if I sell Orchard House, we can take some measures to allow Bow more outside access, so he can see hummingbird moths close up, too.

The Grounds at Orchard House

For Bow, the most exciting time of day is mealtime. No two meals are the same. Each is punctuated by the good things that turn up on the menu.

Strawberries and cherry tomatoes were both on the menu today.

Bow stopped to savor every mouthful.

Outside, it is still quite windy and cold, but the redbud has fully opened its blooms

The Weigela is blooming and starting to put for the green leaves that signal that soon the blooming will be over, as quickly as it began.

Pay no mind to the bee's bottom that is sticking out from one of the blossoms

And Orchard House is vacant again. I went over there and was shocked to see several trees had been felled without my permission. But the story of what befell the tenants is so complicated and sorrowful that I soon put my loss out of mind. I am not going to tell the tale that is going around, because this  is not a gossip column, but I will share some images from my inspection of the Orchard House grounds, which I think are beautiful in their own way, and may also tell a deeper story.

The apple tree is almost blooming at Orchard House

I was so happy to see that the apple tree at Orchard House is covered with many small blossoms. almost ready to open.

The wreaths on the apple tree at Orchard House

But even more unusual is the sight of the wreaths of twisted vine that the tenants left hanging on the apple tree.

There is also one of a pair of pear trees still left there, and it appears to already have  bloomed.

There are many beautiful flowers underfoot in the grass of the lawn.

Wood violets in the lawn at Orchard House

The two dogwood trees are giving off a whiter bloom than my one dogwood here at home.

And beside the dogwood, the tall phlox are already lushly blooming.

Many beautiful sights greeted my eyes as I walked through the grounds at Orchard House.

But the one sight that intrigued and at times even dismayed me were those ever-present wreaths, hanging from trees in surprising places.

What do those wreaths signify? I kept wondering as I went on my walk.

Also, images of randomly felled or uprooted trees in strange places disconcerted me. Was this one, still in bloom, uprooted by natural forces or made to give way by man for the sake of a path?

Can you see the uprooted tree, still in bloom?

Orchard House has a story to tell, I feel. If only I could properly interpret the clues.

Blossoms in the Cold

It has gotten cold lately. Shivery, goose-bumpy cold requiring, if not heating yet, at least blankets and warm jackets. But the more intrepid among us continue with business as usual. Bow, for one, is still going outside and staying out for long periods without complaint.

My new tenants moved into Orchard House last night. Their presence there will relieve me of the burden of having to heat the other house during the cold winter months. But I was surprised to see a pink rose still blooming on the front yard at Orchard House the day before, despite the bitter cold.

Of course, inside the blossom there was also an insect taking advantage. Where there are flowers, there  also are bugs.

In my pasture yesterday, I spotted a ladybug inside a thistle bloom. But the ladybug was green, as if with envy. Or maybe it was green from the cold, instead of being blue.

There was also a very busy bumblebee, seemingly covered with pollen, plying its trade despite the changing weather.

After all, if there are still flowers, why shouldn't the insects keep up with their usual business?

But surely all the flowers will fade soon, like these older thistle blooms that have gone to seed, and then what will the insects do?

Except that it's not really all that simple. Today, walking in the cold, cutting wind, wearing a jacket, I spotted brand new blossoms on a bare service berry tree.

Why would the tree choose to blossom at just such a time as this?

Isn't it a terrible waste of resources? Surely, there is not time enough before the first big freeze to grow any berries! I figured this must be an isolated fluke, until I saw the blossoms on the bare limbs of the first cherry tree in my orchard.

Just like the service berry, the first cherry tree has decided to bloom.

The branches are bare, the sky is grey, there is no sunlight or warmth, but still there are blossoms. And the first cherry tree is not alone in its error. The second cherry tree has sprouted a single open pink-centered blossom.

What is the world coming to?

Will we be picking cherries in November?

Even the lawn is sprouting new flowers that were not there a few days ago. And the honeysuckle seems ready with new buds just as the mature flowers are fading.

Everywhere I look, there are new flowers blooming, despite all the dying leaves.

With so much confusion about whether it is autumn or spring, it is not wonder that all the insects are still so active.

As I was taking my walk this afternoon, this spider was walking down the path, right ahead of me.

Sometimes nature gives us such mixed signals, assuring us of the hope of spring, when winter is right around the corner. Do not be deceived!

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.

Our Plans for Orchard House

If the first day of spring seemed a little bit nippy, the second day was downright arctic.

March 21, 2013 started out normally enough, and by the time of Bow's afternoon snack, I was not aware of any snow. Bow was so nice to me that afternoon! He shared part of his snack with me.

But when Sword came home from school, it was already snowing, and  by dinner time, the snow was coming down strong. In the short video below, Bow was napping on a full belly from his snack of sweetened pecans, when I looked out the window at the snow.

When Bow realized it was supper time, he handed me the rug, and I went to get the meal ready.

The nuts left over from Bow's snack were part of his meal.

After Bow had gone to bed, I observed many of the sights around our property.

I went for a walk around the house and ended up sniffling a little in the snow.

You can see why I had the sniffles in the picture below.

Afterwards, I drove to Orchard House. This is what it looked like.

 

Orchard House was a house that I bought in order to house the interns who came to work with Bow. They were volunteers who worked for no salary, but they needed a place to stay. Many of the scenes in our Project Bow videos were shot at Orchard House. For instance the one with Carrie Stengel. Carrie was a Spring Intern with Project Bow, and you can see by the background that in those days, spring was really spring. But this year spring looked very different.

After the interns stopped coming, when I realized that introducing Bow to new people was not practical, for a time Orchard House remained vacant. We held a few birthday parties for Sword there, but on the whole it was a drain on the finances. Recently, I rented Orchard House out. That was a nice arrangement, but the tenants moved out unexpectedly, and again we have an empty house on our hands.

I will probably have to sell Orchard House. But until it sells, I have a plan of turning it into an internet cafe. It will be open during those hours in the evening when Bow is asleep. There will be free internet access, and I will be serving snacks like ice cream, coffee and hot chocolate. It will give me and my daughter a chance to socialize outside the presence of Bow, who sometimes tries to veto our choice of friends. But hopefully it will also add to our income, or at the very least help defray the cost of keeping a second house.

When I took pictures that night, on the second day of spring, of the swing at Orchard House, a strange optical illusion appeared in some of them.

Was it a ghostly apparition or an alien come to visit? Probably not.

By the time I drove home, the light was fading. But if our plans for an internet cafe go through as planned, we will be making that drive quite often. Hopefully not in the snow, though. Spring is bound to come eventually!

The End of An Era: Orchard House Rented Out

Yesterday I signed a lease and rented Orchard House out. It is the end of an era. There will be no  more interns staying at our guest house, and Bow and I need the income from the rental to keep going.

Orchard House was originally purchased to give interns a place to stay while they volunteered with Project Bow. At one time, Bow would commute from our current home to Orchard House several days a week, to have floortime sessions in a different learning environment. We had a playroom with a swing, a different set of toys, and there was even a real child's toilet that flushed, very low to the ground, like the ones they sometimes have in preschools, for him to use. We had a little school house set up in an outbuilding, with a real chalkboard and school desks. Hopefully, the children of our tenants will now enjoy those facilities.

Bow's visits to Orchard House ended in the Spring of 2007 when he and I became confined to the pens here. But for several years after that, interns would stay at Orchard House and make the drive over to this house to work with Bow.

Does Bow need floortime sessions anymore to learn language? No. He already has picked up two languages and literacy. He does not seem interested in learning any other subjects in a formal way, and I'm not going to force him to try. He pays attention to day to day events. When I read a book, he looks at it. If I read it out loud, he will listen. When I watch a video, he watches along. He will sometimes make sweeping pronouncements as a comment on something we watched: "I heard. It is not good for a son not to let a father win." At other times, his concerns are entirely practical. "The hour is three," he will tell me. I have no watch on, but when I go to check, sure enough, it is 3:03. This is important, because between three and three-thirty, I go to the kitchen to put dinner in the oven, and Bow gets a snack when I get back, if he's been good. But he doesn't always tell me that he wants the snack or that I should put dinner in the oven. Sometimes he just tells me what time it is.

It would be good to get some sort of independent confirmation that this is happening, so that I can say that I have proved it. But sometimes proof is not the most important thing. Sometimes just letting it be is okay, too.