Our Story
The Fable Gardens Story - How The Fairy Tale Came True
Fable Gardens grew from an idea conceived over 10 years ago. Now retired from a long career in construction , Carpenter Robert (Bob) Chauvet had a vision of creating a special project as a legacy for his family and community.
Remembering the Fable Cottage from a visit in 1980s and realizing this style of building would have great appeal to children and adult alike, he choose to build his project as a unique fantasy Fable cottage and Gardens.
With the support of his wife Hien Ho and his children the Fable Gardens is now a reality. Took 10 years to have his dreams come true then he had gone. He has left his Legacy!
The Fable of The Fable Gardens
Once upon a time in the north country, there was a small village of farmers and hunters. The moms and dads all worked very hard to make it a good place to live. When they were working, there was no place for the children to go, and no one to take care of them.
The good fairy of the North said that this was not good, so she asked the help of an old carpenter. Together they decided to build a house for the children.
They gathered the children and started to build a house. The carpenter asked the children to go into the forest and bring back trees and find some wood to build the house.
Some children were big and some were small, so they brought back big pieces of wood and smaller pieces of wood.
The carpenter used all the pieces. Every piece helped. He tied them together at the top, but because some were long and some were short, the roof went up and down. It didn’t matter: soon, they had the shape of a house.
It was good to keep the wolves and bears away, but it did not help the cold or stop the rain. The carpenter and all the children went back into the forest and took bark off the trees. They found pieces of wood. When they put it all together, it made a roof to keep the water out.
Now they were not wet, but they were still cold. The old carpenter asked a fireplace maker in the next village if he could help.
He said he would be happy to help as long as he could bring his children and a few more children from his village. Everyone agreed, so he came and built the fireplaces with nice straight chimneys.
For their first winter, the children had a warm, safe place to be when their parents were at work. They would tell stories and play games. People with no children would often come to take care of them because they missed having children of their own.
One day, two giants came. They were not bad or mean: they were just tired from walking a long way. When they saw this little house with chimneys sticking up, they thought it would be good to sit down and rest for a while. So they sat on the chimneys, but they were too heavy. They squished the chimneys, and that is why the chimneys are crooked to this day. You can still see the foot prints of the giants on the roof. They told the children they were sorry and continued on their way.
The children decided their building should have a name, so they all got together to choose one. They decided Gardens was a good word because of all the flowers and trees around their cottage. One little girl said, “This is a good story—just like in the fables and fairy tales. We should call our house the Fable Gardens.”
Everybody loved the name: now their building with the crooked roof was called the Fable Cottage in Fable Gardens. Soon, the story of the Fable Gardens spread.
Children were happy there. They learned so many new things. They learned to read, write and count like they would learn in school. Most of all, they learned to share, work together and love each other.
That is why the Fable Cottage has a crooked roof and chimney, and patchy shingles. The children continued to live there happily ever after.
The End.
