SUNNYSIDE BEACH…Small garden teeming with MONARCH BUTTERFLIES SEPT. 17, 2019


MONARCH BUTTERFLIES KNOW WHERE TO GO…SUNNYSIDE  BEACH IN SEPTEMBER

alan skeoch
sept. 2019


“Wish you were with us  today.”
“Why?”
“An invasion of Monarch  Butterflies at Sunnyside Beach”
“Why would they congregate there…it’s a barren  stretch of
boardwalk and  water.”
“True but there is  one small Butterfly Garden between Sunnysdie
Swimming  Pool and  the Palais  Royale….loaded with Monarch
Butterfly right now….”
“Tale a  break…take a look…lots of room to park.”





“Beautiful board  walk…lovely beach…but looks devoid of life forms other than
the two legged  kind.”

“Then suddenly there in front of you is the Butterfly Garden…lots of things
fluttering.”



“This picture looks nondescript until you look clearly and see FOUR MONARCH BUTTERFLYS!!!”




“Marjorie and some others collected seeds.”
“Is that  legal?”
“Catch  me if you can.”




There are no milkweed  plants in the Sunnyside Beach  Garden.

“But fear not.”





“Meanwhile, 45 miles away from the Sunnyside Monarch Butterfly ‘swarm’, two young Monarch  caterpillars
were chewing  merrily at our little milkweed garden.  Sometimes these  creatures are  hard to find Like
this one chewing upside down from under a  milkweed leaf.  The best way I use to find them is.!!!”

“Is what?”
“Hold on, Alan, your next comment may be in bad taste, better warn any readers. “
“good  point.  If  you are sensitive please  do not read any farther.”

“The best way I find  to locate a Monarch  caterpillar is to look for its’ excrement…that is
how I found the little fellow below…excrement in little brown  marbles.”
“Crude, Alan…crude.”
“I Told you not to read  if you are sensitive.”

“See  if  you can find  the Monarch below…bet you cannot.


STORY TWO

“Time to pick the crabapples…right now…”
“Some say wait until the first frost.”
“What if  they fall to the ground?”
“Best to get them now.”

“Alan, crab apple jelly is a lot of work.”
“I risked  my life picking the apples…is that not enough.  High on
a wooden ladder that had  seen better days…while  below  me three
old horse drawn mowers waited  for my flesh to land on their cutter bars.”
“Alan…you over do comments far too often.”
“Take a look … three rusted out mowing machines hungry for
blood  as red as the crabapples.”

“Enough…give me a hand cutting top and bottom, then cutting the little
red apples in half
“What about the worms?”
“Keep  that as  our little secret.”
“Now boil them up…get the sugar ready…may or may not need  pectin.”
“Definitely need bottles…little ones are best.”
“Why?”
“Friends  and enemies want to steal the finished  product…”
“Will hardly  miss a little bottle…but a  big bottle of  crab apple jelly  if  
stolen is a tragedy.”

“I thought this story was  about Monarch Butterfly.”
“Do  you not know the trick …”
“What trick?”
“All writers have a main story and a secondary story going at he same time.”
“Some writers have a whole bunch of  stories going at the same time…”
“Only two stories here…less stress on your metal ability.”

alan sketch
Sept. 2019






“BIGGER THAN A MONARCH BUTTERFLY…AND SO CONFIDENT.

IT landed in front of me  as I sipped cold coffee  on the side

verandah…bigger than a Monarch butterfly…and black.


“Holy Samoly…that is one big butterfly.  Wonder  what it is?”

This is the Giant Swallowtail butterfly…4 inch wingspan…to 6 1/4 “wingspan…Almost at the
edge  of its  territory at our arm in Wellington County…outside its territory really.

2019 STEAM ERA AT THE SHERWOOD HUME FARM: “A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE”

“A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE”

THE 2019 STEAM SHOW AT SHERWOOD HUMES FARM

alan skeoch
August 30, 2019


ONE DAY in the early 1960’s my Uncle Frank Freeman dropped by…


.”Alan a bunch of farmers

are showing their old farm machines over on a farm near here, do you want to come?”
“Thanks for asking me Uncle Frank…love to come.”

And I have not missed a Steam Era show in nearly 60 years.  Marjorie is less enthralled
and  has missed a few of the  shows.   I do  not know why.  This year the show was
in a bit of turmoil as the Milton Farm Museum site bumped  up the rent five times…FIVE TIMES!
SO the organizers  made a fast decision to hold the show on the farm of Gladys and  Sherwood 
Hume.  

Take a gander and see what you like best.

Guess what I liked best.

Have you every heard of the PARACAS SKULL?  If you have not then
you are about to be mystified as I was.



Our first tractor was an International Formal A…like this little beauty.  We were  so proud of it.  Bought it from Al Fox when he
retired and then proceeded to make a mess of the farm fields bye dragging an ancient single furrow plow up and down.  I drove
while dad held the plow handles and called me a ‘damn fool’.   It was quite a  wonderful few weeks.  Then winter came and  we
parked the Farmall A behind the farm house.  In theory it would be ready for spring planting.  That never happened. I assumed
the radiator was filled with anti freeze. Wrong!  WRONG!  It was filled with water and one herd  cold snap was enough to crack
the engine block.  Scrap tractor resulted…ruined.  As dad said, I was a  damn fool.


I really enjoyed these people who  set up their tent promoting ‘UNSOLVED MYSTERIES OF THE WORLD’.  The little tent was jammed with wonderful things most of
which were hard to believe.  Like the elongated silver looking human skull.  “When found in Peru, many thought this was the skull of aliens from outer space”

It is called the ‘[PARACAS SKULL’.   Now that aliens from space explanation was very hard to believe.  As  was the comment that the skull was a copy
of the original which was destroyed in the London Blitz of World War II.  But the story was amusing.  just for fun I punched up Paracas Skull on my search
engine.  There are dozens of entries.  Was there a lost tribe of humans with skulls like these?  Find our for yourself.   Stop laughing and do  some  research.

Lighten up…your underwear is twisted.






Inside the mystery tent there is  a big box promoting the GREATEST LIVING
WONDER OF ALL.   

“Brace yourself, sir, you are about to see one of
the great wonders of the world.”

And she opened the doors of the box.  I leaned  over and looked in.
Surprise!!!







Look who is sitting on the back of Dave’s truck.  Cute.




Why do people go to Fairs  like the Steam Era Show?

“Too have a good time…and we are devoted to that.”

“Some of our strange and funny mysteries are even based on fact.”



I spent two hours at the Steam Show.  Guess where I spent most of my time.




Just before I left I noticed  this lady and  her dog sitting on this  wagon.
“What are you waiting for…a tractor to pull you?”
“No, I’m waiting for my husband…pulling us around the
Steam Show is his job.”

I waited  and watched for a few minutes….no sign of the husband.


Now here is a gem.  Two people with many years gap between them, both enthralled
by this ancient Massey Harris  tractor.    

ALAN SKEOCH
August 30, 2019



IN PRAISE OF GOLDENROD….FIND THE POLLEN LADEN HONEYBEE


FIND A HERO BEE IN THE GOLDENROD

WE  have so much goldenrod growing on our farm  that it has  bevy a taken for granted weed.

Now that is  unfortunate for goldenrod seems to be loved by honey bees, wasps  and even humming
bird moths.

Others love it as  well.  Henry Ford for instance had  the  tires on his first Model T cars made from
rubber extracted from golden rod.  Hard to believe I know.

Golden rod honey is now  in full production.  Take a  look at this heroic pollen laden honey bee.

alan skeoch
August 30, 2109