Chapter 1 - Building the Hutch

2009-06-15T17:09:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, in a place not so far away, there was a lovely country farm that was gently rounded on the ends and high in the middle providing a delightful place for animals of every kind to live and become all they could become. Water was readily available all over the farm, glorious woodlands abounded, and grasses grew tall in the openings of the woodlands, being nourished, as they were, by the rich soil and ample rainfall. The lovely farm was itself bounded by great waterways and friendly neighboring farms. The happy residents named it “High in the Middle Farm.”

For a very long time High in the Middle Farm was a very wonderful farm where everyone worked to help one another and cooperated in order to make life even more happy and enriching for their offspring, and for the offspring of others. Over time, however, it became clear that only the most fortunate of the farm offspring had access to the opportunity for higher learning on the farm. Higher learning was greatly valued by the farm’s animals, so a group of wise elders, the Elected Owls, sought to devise a plan to provide higher learning to all offspring that cared to have it.

The Elected Owls met, pondered this problem at great length, debated several possible approaches and eventually agreed to a plan that would make it less expensive to receive higher learning on the farm. A major part of the plan was to build small hutches around the farm in order to provide the best possible higher learning for everyone that cared to come to a hutch. By doing so the Elected Owls created a system wherein some of the costliest parts of higher learning – travel, housing, boarding, bureaucratic overhead – could be avoided.

Now hutches do not come cheaply to the farm, so the Elected Owls agreed that the farm would provide most of the funding for the hutches, with the offspring helping to pay for the hutches as they got their individual higher learning. The Elected Owls, having the wisdom of their years on the farm, also decided that even though the farm would own the hutches, they could attract more offspring into the hutches by providing some local oversight as to how the hutches were managed.

The Elected Owls decided that the reigning Most Wise Owl would appoint the local overseers for each hutch. Naturally, the Most Wise Owl, being very wise, always appointed owls of the same persuasion. Overall, though not perfect, the plan for local hutches was agreeable to most every animal on the farm and was thus put into place. This particular higher learning plan of the Elected Owls became very popular among most of the farm animals and the hutches grew quickly and prospered.

One particular hutch had the most modest of beginnings. This remote area of the farm was not provided its own hutch immediately, but rather, it used space in another hutch, a hutch of not-so-higher learning. Still, despite some shortcomings, the higher learning went well in the temporary hutch. Very quickly the finest of higher learning hutches was built for this part of the farm. Brilliantly conceived, the hutch was designed to grow with what the local Overseer Owls expected to be a great growth of demand for higher learning.

As the hutch became popular, many additional resources were needed. The most important resources, other than the hutch itself, were the Learned Owls. The Learned Owls provided the higher learning knowledge critical to the success of the hutch. The Learned Owls were sought out by the Most Learned Owl of the hutch and began to come from hither and yon. Many were from the same farm, but some brought impressive credentials from farms far away. The Learned Owls came for the same reason the offspring came – a love of higher learning. All was peaceful in the hutch, for a while.

Next – The hutch grows, but not quickly enough for the OOwls (Overseer Owls.)

Terms Introduced in This Chapter

Elected Owl – EOwl
Most Wise Owl – MWOwl
Overseer Owl – OOwl, colloquially an Oowly.
Learned Owl – LOwl, colloquially a Lowly. ¹
Most Learned Owl – MLOwl, colloquially an Omnipotent ¹

Test Your Knowledge

Who funds the higher learning hutches built on High in the Middle Farm?
Why were the higher learning hutches given local oversight?
Name an important resource for the hutches.

^1. Lowlys and Omnipotents are not necessarily owls, but have been awarded degrees of owldom.

The Skunk in the Hutch

Chapter 1 - Building the Hutch