||| ORCASIONAL MUSINGS BY STEVE HENIGSON |||
The place used to belong to Don Tompkins, a retired airline pilot, who doted in equal quantities upon physical fitness, a Ford Model T pickup truck, and rescued border collies.
Don was the only person I’ve ever known who ran a members-only fitness center in what used to be a chicken coop, upstairs over a sheep fold. Don’s exercise equipment was up-to-date and well maintained, and, probably, until the day he died, Don could do the entire circuit, from machine to machine, without ever faltering a step or gasping for a breath.
If Don needed to do some shopping, he would crank-up the Model T and drive it to Eastsound village with a small herd of dogs in the back. Henry Ford’s Model T was always a finicky piece of machinery that required constant fiddling, and Don’s was at least 80 years old, but somehow he kept it running reliably enough to be a feature in every Orcasian holiday parade, always filled to the brim with border collies.
And that’s where the sheep came into the picture. Border collies are intelligent animals who require constant mental stimulation. They need something meaningful to do, and what they like to do most is to herd other animals. So Don kept a small flock of sheep, just to give his dogs something to herd, keeping them busy and feeling fulfilled. And the sheep kept the small trapezoidal pasture at Fowler’s Corner neatly mowed.
Don is gone now. He died in 2017. But an amusing and eye-catching feature of what used to be his fitness center continues to remind us of him. It’s the holiday lights: The outline of a fir tree at Christmas, a big red heart at Valentine’s, a shamrock for St. Patrick’s, huge rabbit ears at Easter, a jack-o’-lantern at Halloween, and a turkey at Thanksgiving. It’s particularly nice to see that the new owners of Don’s property are maintaining the tradition, minus, I’m glad to say, Don’s peculiarly pin-headed Christmas angel.
I’ll keep watching for some sheep to show up, in that small trapezoidal pasture at Fowler’s Corner.
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So glad to read your words again, Steve!
I believe the sheep ARE still there, though I might have been seeing Don’s ghost sheep.
Maybe they were hatching a plan: to let the grass grow long so you would write a piece about that trapezoid pasture……
When you approached Fowler’s Corner, and out of the blackness an outline of fir tree lights suddenly appeared, you knew it was Christmas . . .
And the plastic pink flamingo flock at Dolphin Bay and Hawkins. Always like to see what they are up to.
Another one of those small things that make Orcas Orcas.
Welcome back Mr. Henigson, you’ve been missed.
Yup! Continued Thanks, Mr H, and welcome back into the continuing mini-maelstrom of our Island slide show, Power Point, Zoom! Lookin’ forward to your next Musing.