Charlie, Chip and Suki – This is the story that never stops giving – everyone should have dogs. The hand they force, the opportunities they create, the simple love of snacks, walks and purpose.
Chips land has been one of the great finds of 2014 – It has allowed for the ultimate Howard Theory – selfishness for all !
It started with trespassing, then acknowledgement of trespassing, then moved onto project sharing, story telling and dare I say a little forward planning. Forward planning is not what I do. I like strategy, forward planning states there is a goal, long term. Strategy, solves a handful of shorter term issues and building up to a plan and a goal. I am usually long gone out of long term plans.
Dogs change that. Suki has been a roommate to Charlie. She goes home Saturdays and comes back Monday night. Suki seems to be the only dog Charlie cares for. Suki enjoys the woods as much as Charlie. There isn’t a morning, lunch time or afternoon, where they aren’t simply waiting for the next jaunt. They just sit on the deck and wait, looking through the glass door sending you telepathic messages “it’s time” – let’s go for a walk.
Our house was almost sold in 2014, just as my trespassing and project sharing hit its stride. Our 35 acres isn’t really enough, adding Chip’s property and 30 new projects was making me rethink everything. The businesses we owned were working ok, the cleanup of 200 Fiske was good, but going for a walk and helping someone save tax dollars was sweet. The dogs would see that sun come up, and start pacing about the dog room, that was sweet. Then I began to see a trail and desire to make it a road, poor Chip, little did he know. Chip is a pragmatic man, he burned firewood, liked his land, loved his critter friends, could spend hours out of doors and be quite content. We were good.
The idea of a trail conversion was perfect, it allowed for better walking, more rocks for the walls, more firewood to burn and a pleasant excuse for being out of doors longer. The road would sweep down a hill, across a rock field, ride a wall overlooking a swamp and then loop back around to the an old “Kings Rd” one of the early major cartways in the area. The original ?? rt 20.
Many, many hours were spent roughing the road and many good, but unspoken stories were created. The road has produced countless hours of walking, several rocks, some firewood and is key to the daily life of Charlie and Suki, and Chip, Howard, Shelley, a hunter or 2, many deer, a coyote, the Owls, a red tail hawk or 3
Without being too deep about it, this is where all Howard Theories try to go. A good personal desire, a need fulfilled, a good deed done that benefits all those affiliated, harms no one, creates something more user friendly, that will last a long, long time.