Josh, you wrote: "There are lots of costs involved and the need for staff."

If you're going to take care of a ton of dogs, yes, that may be necessary. How many are we talking about, here? Three hundred? How're you going to feed all of them?

Have you considered an alternative means of accomplishing your goals? For example, you enjoy being around dogs. So do lots of others. There are organizations out there who rescue dogs from bad situations (often from the pounds) and who place them in loving homes, often with the elderly, for the mutual benefit of them both. I've a friend who's involved in a Golden retriever-specific organization doing this. Something you may wish to consider, if you'd like to expand it to more breeds.

Atraveller - "Life large - take life in big chunks"

And if we don't, it often takes big chunks out of us! Seriously, life can be scary, but that's all the more reason to meet it head-on.

Perikles - "other than having the conviction that sitting in the same office for two to three decades was not for me personally."

Wise man! Too often people going after nothing but a dollar loose sight of what's really important, including piece of mind, family, and friends.

stutefish - "So if survival is going to be hard work no matter how you go about it, why not og about it at a job you enjoy?"

Very astute, stutefish! Why not, indeed?

blueshift - I miss my tree forts! I had quite a few scattered throughout the woods around where I grew up. Many didn't even have a roof - just a few boards nailed in some branches. There is indeed something about manual labor that I like. I'd usually shock my employees when I'd grab a broom and have a go at the halls or take out the trash. The smarter ones jumped in to lend a hand...

ToeQuestor - neat story! A fellow writer!

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If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.