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EPISODE 416 THE GINKGO TREE…LONE SURVIVOR FROM THE CARBONIFEROUS ERA

EPISODE 416      THE GINKGO TREE…LONE SURVIVOR FROM THE CARBONIFEROUS ERA


alan skeoch
august 24, 2021



THE ANCIENT GINKGO TREE

We have a Ginkgo tree growing beside our house.   So what?  So we have a living fossil dating back
deep  into the geologic history of our earth.   Ginkgo trees seem to have thrived in the Carboniferous era
2999 to 350 million years ago. Those 51 million years were wet and warm most of the time so great 
tropical jungles covered the land mass.   Huge swamps we’re full of life.  And then the world changed
and that life mass became extinct except for the Gingko tree  By luck and good care by Chinese Buddhist 
monks the Gingko was saved from extinction.   The ancient trees of this kind are
Only to be found in the huge layers of coal that
dot the earth today.  None survived in the wild. Were it not for the Buddhist monks
none would have survived.  A remarkable story.

Today the Ginkgo is the national tree of China.   Ginkgo’s are part of most North American cities.
They are tough.   They are also very unusual.  They reproduce in a manner similar to humans.
Sperm from male Ginkgo tree float on the air .. riding on pollen …in their search for female
Ginkgo trees to fertilize.  Sex.

This manner of reproduction is proof of their ancient origin.   Ginkgo trees were alive on earth
before the age of flowers.    Flowering plants were so successful that they pushed earlier
plant forms towards extinction….except for the Ginkgo.

Our Gingko tree is a male ginkgo.   Most of the ginkgo trees found on city streets (like along
Lakeshore Road in Mimico, West Toronto) are male ginkgo trees.  Few people want female ginkgo trees
anywhere near their property.   Why?  Because they stink.  I mean really stink.  One source
says they over their seeds with a fleshy material that smells like human vomitl  Others are
less polite and say the ginkgo berries smell like dog shit.  Female trees are kept in special
nuseries as a result.   Why so stinky?   Another survival skill.  Certain creatures life rotten
or rotting food.  They set the berries and then excrete the nuts.  Spread the Ginkgo trees
that way.

Sometimes a male tree will fool everyone and switch to become a female.  Or develop
a female branch on the male tree.  This is thought to be a survival skill.

If you can stand the smell (vomit or dog shit) and clean the fleshy material off the nut
then Ginkgo berries are edible.   Some people, mostly Chinese I think, value the nuts.
Ginkgo trees are valued by medical experts for a variety of ailments.

The trees can live s long time.  One Ginkgo in central China is reputed to be 1,000 years old.

Our ginkgo is about 10 years old.  It has a long life ahead of it unless  it decides to change sex.


Gingko fruits
These Ginkgo berries smell so bad that they have to be cleaned up as soon as
they fall…smell like vomit or dog dung, take your pick.  Why?   Smell designed to
attract creatures who find smell attractive.  This evolved in time more ancient than
flowering trees.

OPEN PIT COAL MINE IN RUSSIA — FINDS FOSSILS OF GINKGO TREE

The fossils… 300 million year old remains of a once tropical jungle were noticed
on the top layer of this open pit coal deposit below..  The last jungle of the Carboniferous Era, at least
 that is what the fossils seem to suggest.  These discoveries are so recent that they
have not been fully documented.

 THE GINKGO WAS THERE AMONG THE GIANT FERNS, 

How could slower growing trees like the Ginkgo compete with rapid growing
giant ferns (60 feet high and higher)?  Apparently the Ginkgo trees “bolted”
…in other words the trunk grew fast and straight …. no branches until it
got higher than the ferns.   Hence the ginkgo trees had their leafy
tops higher than the ferns.  Illustrations can be seen in theoretical drawings
of these ancient tropical jungles.

Our gingko tree in the side yard has grown in that manner…i.e. bolted…but
this effect may have been much more recent.   Modern ginkgo are less speedy


Paleontologists find fossil relative of Ginkgo biloba

Another similar discovery has been made recently in central Mongolia.  And Still another was noticed 
on the ceiling of an exhausted coal mine in Russia.
Open pit mine in Tevshiin Govi in central Mongolia where the mummified fossil plants were found. Credit: Fabiany Herrera & Patrick Herendeen

“A discovery of well-preserved fossil plants by paleontologists from the United States, China, Japan, 

Russia and Mongolia has allowed researchers to identify a distant relative of the living plant Ginkgo biloba.”

MEDICINAL VALUE OF THE GINKGO

I leave that for you to research.  Lots of info available.


alan
August 24, 2021



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EPISODE 415 CARBONIFERUS Era -51 million years ago -where we get out coal.

EPISODE 414   when will we deplete oil, gas and coal deposits on planet earth?(gifts from the carboniferous era)

alan skeoch
august 23, 2021

Much of THE world was one gigantic swamp 350 million years ago

Picture of anthracite coal from Pennsylvania.   Look at the layering…ancient trees

It took 50 million years for beds of coal to be formed from the huge treeanimals living in the 
dense jungles and immense swamps of the Carboniferosera 299 to 350 million years ago.  Correction that immense pile of dead matter

was laid down 51 million years ago. A million years extra.Then the great piles of vegetation were covered
with sedimentary rock and heated from the molten bowels of the earth.   We call
the stuff coal today.   Really pressured ancient detritus became anthracite coal.
Less pressured material became soft of bituminous coal.  Both forms of’
coal were the basis of our Industrial Revolution which began about 1800 and
is still underway.   We have been burning coal, lots of it, for the last 221 years.

Now which time period is longer?  1) The Caroniferous Age  299 to 350 million years
                                                                            or
                                                       2) The Industrial Revolution  1800 to 2021 (and beyond to 2090)

Can the two events even be compared.  Our place in the history of the earth is tiny.
Silly question.  But a question that makes me wonder whether the world as we know can
survive when the coal runs out   And it will run out.

What about oil?  good question.  We will run out of oil in 2053….32 years form now according 
to a British Petroleum study.

What about gas?  good question…we will run out of gas n 2,060…39 years from now.

Is there an alternative?   Of course there are alternative sources of energy.   That is why
we re talking more and more about electricity.   Electric cars are already being manufactured
en masse.   But electric energy needs something to turn those turbines.   Water power is an
answer but there are only so many rivers that can be dammed (damn it)..  Nuclear power
is another turbine turner but what will we do with the deadly waste…and we all
remember Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.  Wind power…sunlight..other power sources currently
provide A minuscule part of our energy needs




A WORD  FROM OTHERS

Oil will end by 2052   – 30 years time

Gas will end by 2060  – 40 years time

Coal will last till 2090 –   70 years time

However, according to BP [5], earth has 53 years of oil reserves left at current rate of consumption.

Figure 1  Energy reserves in billion tonnes of oil equivalent – Btoe [4]

Gioietta_1_23

According to the 2019 Annual Energy Outlook [6] global GDP growth between 2017 and 2040 is expected to average 3.4%. 

The world energy demand will grow by 1/3 through 2040, driven mostly by rising consumption in transportation in China, India and parts of Asia.


This is obviously unsustainable. These are horrific figures that will happen sooner than we can possibly mitigate.

COAL

So this takes us back to coal..  Dirty old coal will be around for the rest of this century and beyond. 
COAL is a problematic energy source even though it started and still sustains industrialization.  Burning
both anthracite and bituminous coal destroys the air we breathe.  Tiny particles of
coal in the air we breathe works like sandpaper in our lungs.  Black Lung…by product is S02…sulphur
dioxide which becomes H2SO4 when combined with water. Sulphuric Acid.  Acid Rain.

Where is the coal?  Two countries have the largest coal supply in the world.
First is the United Ststes and second is China.   Both countries resist the
efforts of environmentalists to stop burning coal.  It is killing us…smoke
and waste.   Acid rain. It seems we will burn coal until we have used up 
all the coal that it took 51 million years to create…and we will do that within the
lifetimes of our grandchildren. Then what?

SOME UNINFORMED SPECULATION: SOME WORDS OF HOPE

Enough of this doom and gloom.  Is there an answer that could provide cheap
energy for this century and centuries to come.  I think the answer is yes…infinite 
source of energy could be found in the water we drink and in the rivers, lakes and
oceans that cover
most of our planet.  Hydrogen!.  What is the by product of burning hydrogen?  Water.
H20.  Split the water into its component parts.   We already do that.  Yes, it is dangerous.

Who am I?  I am nor a chemist or even a scientist.  So once again I turn to my
science mentor, Robert Root.   What do you think Bob?   What will we do when
the coal, oil and gas are all used up?   and isn’r reliance on coal stupid in the short run?

Gioietta_1_23




Gioietta_1_23


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EPISODE 414 PORT CREDIT SALMON DERBY, AUGUST 2021 (bet you never heard of Howard Tanner until today)

EPISODE 414   PORT CREDIT  SALMON DERBY … (Who is Howard Tanner?)


alan skeoch
august 2021


“Andy, where are the fishermen?”
“Where are you?”

“Sitting on a bench beside the Credit River…no  one knows 
anything about the Salmon Fishing Derby.”
“That’s because we are all out in the lake fishing.”
“
“Dad, just sit tight …The harbour will soon be filled with 50 fishing boats
and lots of Coho and Chinook Salmon for your story…High Noon…Fish Derby ends.”

Sure enough.  At noon the harbour was bubbling with fish boats and happy
fishermen.  IT WAS TIME TO SEE WHO GOT THE BIGGEST SALMON.


This Chinook Pacific salmon is swimming in all the GreAT Lakes…voracious creature.  A CHINOOK SALMON.

BUT FIRST READ THIS

   I bet dollars to donuts that few of you have ever heard of Howard Tanner.   He changed the Great Lakes and nobody around me today seems to be
aware of what happened back in 1966 when Howard Tanner played fast and loose with our Great Lakes by ‘seeding’ Lake Michigan with baby salmon from the
Pacific Ocean.   Coho and Chinook Salmon.  Voracious predators that gobble up alewives like there is no tomorrow.   

“When our 50 boatloads of fishermen hit the dock…everyone nearby will know what lurks out there..”
“Who could believe that these huge creatures are chomping on alewives just s few kilometres out in the lake?”
“Only the fishermen.”
“Why not the general public?”
“Because these gigantic creatures spend most of their lives in water that is 100 to 200 feet deep.  Dark down there…perfect
place for these monsters.”

There he is now.  Andrew Skeoch and two fishing brothers.

“We got a big one, Dad, maybe a winner…we’ll see at the weigh in.”
(Andrew and his friends came sixth.)


Andrew Skeoch describes the salmon caught today…a contender for the big money prize at the
Port Credit fish Derby.  His morher, Marjorie, is suitably impressed.


These fish coffins needed two men to carry.

There is no fish quite as ugly as a mature Chinook salmon…except maybe
a Snakehead.  Snakehead?   Yes, There are other creatures starting to creep into our waters.
Another story.


HOW DID PACIFIC SALMON…CHINOOK AND COHO…BECOME THE TOP PREDATOR FISH IN THE GREAT LAKES?

HOWARD TANNER…DID IT IN 1966…55 years ago.

STOCKING THE GREAT LAKES WITH PACIFIC SALMON WAS AN EXPERIMENT IN 1966.  TODAY, AUGUST 2021, THE EXPERIMENT IS AN OBVIOUS SUCCESS.

ALAN SKEOCH

P{ost Script: excerpt from article written in 2015 by mynorthmedia

The Improbable Tale of How Howard Tanner Unleashed Salmon in the Great Lakes

by  | Nov 2, 2015 | Counties, Evergreen, History, Outdoors, People, Towns


o be clear, what Howard Tanner was now contemplating was nothing less than the intentional introduction of a non-native Pacific species to the largest freshwater system in the world. And when he worked up the nerve to start speaking publicly about his idea, people were quick to raise concerns. First and foremost, no fisheries biologist had ever attempted to manage water even close to this size. In Tanner’s case, his master’s degree program had put him in charge of a 27-acre lake; his doctoral program, six lakes—the largest of which was six acres. Lake Michigan alone was 23 million acres. “It was like somebody who had gotten good at raising geraniums in flower pots was now being given a cattle ranch,” Tanner says.
There were also logistical questions. Some argued salmon would die in freshwater or simply head into the St. Lawrence River and out to the open ocean. Others pointed to the many failed attempts to introduce salmon to the Great Lakes dating back to the late 1800s. The plan also faced one giant, undeniable obstacle: coho salmon, the fish that Tanner had identified as the species of choice, simply couldn’t be had. At the time, every single coho egg harvested from the hatcheries of Oregon and Washington were spoken for—part of a grand attempt to re-establish salmon in the heavily dammed Columbia River.

Then came the phone call.
Howard Tanner was sitting in his living room, having his usual pre-dinner cocktail. On the line was one of his old Western colleagues. He was calling to let Tanner know there was an anticipated surplus of coho eggs on the West Coast.
“It was just like the chair fell from under me,” Tanner remembers. “That night, I didn’t sleep much. I just sat there most of the night, thinking, What if … What if?”
The following morning, he was in his office watching the clock tick. With a three-hour difference between Michigan and the coast, he had to wait until midday to confirm the rumors that coho were available. The hearsay turned out to be true. Still, to get some of the eggs, he and his contacts in Oregon would have to navigate a gauntlet of bureaucracy. On top of that, they were working with an immovable biological deadline: If the surplus coho eggs were going to be viable for hatching and release back in Michigan, the whole plan would have to get every bureaucratic stamp in no more than six weeks. But, in a scenario Tanner can characterize only with words like “miracle,” the approvals came. Within a few weeks, one million coho salmon eggs were on a plane, bound for the Great Lakes. Tanner’s spectacular experiment was now underway.
Everything happened so fast that Tanner didn’t yet have money for things like fish food. And he didn’t know exactly where he was going to raise the fish once they hatched. Michigan’s hatchery system, which had been largely devoted to restoring lake trout, was 40 years out of date and in no shape to undertake a program of this size. He went to the legislature and asked for a million dollars—half of which he finally won by promising the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee that 150,000 of the salmon (and the promised economic boom) would land in the senator’s district. Tanner and his team then embarked on a tour of the state’s hatchery system, looking for just the right place to raise the fish. Eventually, the hatchery on the modest Platte River in Benzie County was chosen as the spot where the salmon would start their lives—and, theoretically, return to spawn—if everything went according to plan.
Tanner remembers the moment when the fish were finally ready to be Michigan Department of Natural Resourcesreleased as one of the great moments of his career. It was April 2, 1966, and the now year-and-a-half-old coho were ready to enter the Platte River near Honor, Michigan. He had a special wooden speaker’s platform built for the event. Public officials offered words touting the benefits of the salmon program. The press took photos. Then, Arnell Engstrom, the Traverse City house representative whose vote had been critical in funding the salmon program, picked up a golden bucket and dumped the first batch into the Lake Michigan watershed. Tanner got his turn later in the afternoon on Bear Creek, a tributary of the Manistee, at a site just below Tippy Dam. Swimming with the current, the four-inch “smolts” would find their way to the open water in less than two days.
If everything went according to plan, the young coho would spend a year and a half in the open water before returning to the Platte River in the fall of 1967. And early indications suggested the fish would indeed find their way home. In the fall of 1966, the “Jack” salmon—a small class of precocious fish that spawn a year ahead of schedule—started showing up in Platte Bay, many in a form that astonished Tanner’s Western colleagues and foreshadowed a potentially colossal spawning run the following year. “On the coast, the Jack will maybe weigh a pound and a half or two pounds,” Tanner says. “Some of our fish were coming back at seven pounds. The guys from Oregon just shook their heads and said, ‘You’d better get ready. You’d better get ready.’ ”
Even today, what happened next still stands as the biggest “big fish” story in Great Lakes history. In late August 1967, tens of thousands of returning salmon suddenly announced their presence—this time without a formal speech. coho rushed into Platte Bay, and the fishermen followed—largely learning of the spectacle by word of mouth. Tanner has aerial photos from that fall showing tiny Platte Bay jammed with 3,000-plus boats, many of them canoes and little aluminum dinghies not suitable for open water. The boats formed a near-solid mass; some fishermen joked you could almost walk from boat to boat and never get wet. And in between, the fish were so thick, they were porpoising out of the water.
Tiny coastal towns like Honor, Empire and Frankfort suddenly found themselves overrun with tens of thousands of fishermen and wannabe fishermen. The tiny boat launches grew tails of cars and trailers that ran miles long. One man, Tanner remembers, even started a taxi service to ferry people back and forth. Another guy was selling hot dogs. Lures sold out, so people started renting lures. In September, Sports Illustrated even showed up to cover the event they dubbed a “boom on Lake Michigan.”
People who had never caught any fish of any size like these were catching five, and their tiny little boats were just full of salmon. Nobody had to embellish the stories. It was madness.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
The impacts of the salmon were huge and immediate. The value of riparian property in the surrounding area doubled almost instantly. Hotels and businesses sprouted up in Michigan’s new salmon country. Tiny Honor, Michigan, population 300, even christened itself the state’s new “Coho Capital.” The joyful hysteria was only briefly interrupted by tragedy on September 23, when the crush of mostly inexperienced anglers ignored small-craft warnings and found themselves overrun by a violent Lake Michigan storm. One hundred fifty boats were swamped; seven people drowned. But it hardly blunted the public’s appetite for salmon. Now, every coastal town’s bait shop and city hall were lobbying for the fish to be planted in the local stream. And the state delivered, stocking millions more coho across the rest of the Great Lakes in the following years, and furiously expanding the antiquated hatchery system to give the people what they wanted.
Doubling down on its great salmon experiment, the state added an even bigger trophy to the mix of Great Lakes fish the following year. The Chinook salmon was a Pacific species two to three times bigger than the coho, was cheaper to produce, and had a diet that consisted almost exclusively of the hated alewife. Within a few years of the new super-salmon hitting the open water, reeling in a 30-pounder became common. Fishermen loved it. Sunbathers loved the fact that alewives weren’t rotting on their beaches. And the fisheries department kept the big fish coming, flooding the Great Lakes with millions of coho and Chinook every year—the state’s economy, in turn, flooding with the windfalls of a world-class fishery that seemed to have been created overnight.
“It almost gave us the impression that the system was unlimited,” says Randy Claramunt, a fisheries research biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. “The more salmon we put in, the more salmon we got out. Literally, we went from zero stocking to almost eight million a year in the 1980s, and we still had record-high harvest levels.”
By the mid-1980s, there was no arguing that Tanner’s original vision had indeed evolved into something worthy of the word “spectacular.” Just two decades after his coho fingerlings were released into the Platte River, the salmon had brought under control one of the area’s worst invaders, alewives. The sport-fishing industry, previously non-existent, was now valued in the billions of dollars. And people came from all over the country to fish the Great Lakes.
But the record catches and the new trickle-down salmon economy in which everyone seemed a winner weren’t telling the whole story. Though no one knew it at the time, the Lake Michigan fishery, the crown jewel of the lakes, was beginning to strain. The system did indeed have limits. And without warning, the once-mighty Chinook, the adopted king of Michigan waters, all but vanished almost as quickly as it appeared.
In a plot twist worthy of the theater, it was the demise of the fish everybody hated that brought down the fish everybody loved. The alewife—the invasive saltwater species that was best known for dying and rotting en masse on Michigan beaches—had given the Chinook salmon what seemed like an endless food supply. In fact, when the salmon program was first conceived, it was never done so as an alewife control program; the small invaders were so prolific that the idea that their populations could be significantly impacted by a predator seemed like wishful thinking.
In less than two decades, however, the Chinook began to chip away at the alewife’s dominance. In fact, by the early 1980s, alewife biomass in the Great Lakes stood at less than 20 percent of historic highs—largely because of salmon predation. With less to eat, the salmon being reeled in from the lakes started to get smaller and thinner. Then, in the mid-1980s, the already-stressed Chinook was overcome by an outbreak of a mysterious kidney disease, one that would later be linked to the high-density hatcheries unknowingly pushing out diseased fish to keep up with the public’s demand for salmon. Though the less-fished and more-adaptable coho toughed it out, the mighty Chinook soon disappeared from Lake Michigan.
More than a decade later, the story repeated itself in Lake Huron in an even more devastating fashion. Better rates of natural reproduction and heavy stocking led to a scenario in which the Chinook ate themselves out of an ecosystem. To make matters worse, new invasive species like the zebra and quagga mussels—both of which filtered plankton out of the lake—undermined the alewives’ own food supply. Faced with pressure from both the bottom and top of the food chain, the alewife population collapsed in the early 2000s, the Chinook population following close behind. Stories of big fish harvested from Lake Huron were quickly replaced by those of gas stations, hotels and restaurants going belly-up. There were even stories about charter boat fishermen moving west to try to start over on the Lake Michigan side, where salmon populations had started to rebound.
The salmon bust revealed new truths that had gradually become latent fundamentals of the salmon program. For one, if the state was going to maintain salmon as a top predator in the Great Lakes, it needed a more nuanced policy than raising as many fish as it could and dumping them into the water. It was also obvious now that the salmon economy had grown too big to fail: The experiment that Howard Tanner had started almost on a hunch had now evolved into a $7 billion economy and a vital tool for restoring balance to the largest freshwater system in the world. More importantly, though, the salmon program had inadvertently ushered in an era whereby the Great Lakes would now be a highly managed entity, and from which there was no turning back.
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EPISODE 413 THE PORT CREDIT FISH DERBY, AUGUST 20, 2021

EPISODE 413   THE PORT CREDIT FISH DERBY, AUGUST 20, 2021


alan skeoch
august 20, 2021


Imagine yourself as a scuba diver taking your first deep dive.
How would you like to meet this fellow at the 100 foot level … deep in the waters
of Lake Ontario just a few kilometres from the mouth of the Credit River.

It would not be a friendly experience.  This huge Chinook salmon has spent 
all of his or her life eating other fish…principally alewives.   But he might
be big enough to test off a little human flesh…yours.

The Chinook and Coho Salmon story is worth retelling…in my next episode.
The story  has ‘legs” as Journalists say when a story never dies.

EPISODE 413   THE PORT CREDIT FISH DERBY, AUGUST 20, 2021

(Full story coming in Episode 414…)

Marjorie and Andrew Skeoch, mother and son, waiting for 50 boats of sport fishermen (and 1 woman) to arrive at the weigh station
where $10,000 in prizes are about to be won.

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EPISODE 411 TRIPLE AXLE DUMP TRUCKS…. HOW DO THEY STOP IN TIME?


EPISODE 411   TRIPLE AXLE DUMP TRUCKS…HOW DO THEY STOP IN TIME?

alan skeoch
august 19, 2021


This is the truck I timed…speed limit?   Consistently 20 kph faster than the speed limit.  And one other very strange
thing.  See if you can see what I mean…look closely.   Look!  Look!   Then scroll down past the other dump trucks for
the strange thing.



I have never ever seen an OPP cruiser pull over a dump truck for speeding. 
That is rather odd.   Nor have I ever seen an 18 wheeler pulled over…nor a 22
wheeler.   Yesterday an 18 year old boy was killed by a cement mixer truck which
usually has 10 wheels.   Not sure who is at fault.  Cyclists often play fast and loose
with stop signs.  Lots of bikes on the road these days…and lots of cement trucks…and even
more dump trucks.  

Have you ever seen a cement mixer getting a speeding ticket by the OPP?
I think not.  

Probably because these trucks do not exceed the speed limit?  Right or wrong.?
So I did a little test on Trafalgar Road east of Milton about mid morning when traffic
was light.   I drove at the same speed as a dump trick.   When the speed limit
was 70 kph we drove at 90 kph…When the speed limit dropped to 60 kph we
drove at 80 kph.   Clearly in both instances we were speeding.

Given the choice who would get the speeding ticket?  Need I say more.

Why would a dump truck driver want to speed?   I interviewed a driver
a month or so ago when he had trouble dumping his load.

“Wet soil..stuck in the bottom…bitch to get out.”
“What do you need?”
“heavy shovel.”
“:How about an axe?
“great”

So he borrowed my axe.  Seems a long leased borrowing as I have never
seen the axe lately.  But I learned one thing from that driver.   He was worried.

“They expect me back for another load…now I will be late.”

So dump truck drivers want to pick up and dump their loads as fast
as possible.   That pressure might encourage speeding.  Right?

Tried to count the number of dump trucks I met today.   Had to give jump. Too many going too fast.’


What is strange?   There is no licence plate!    I have to have my licence plate clearly visible from behind
or I am fined and perhaps taken off the road.  Why is the dump truck any different?  I have no idea.

alan skeoch

P>S.   I am a tire counter.  There was a time when the biggest rigs on the road were “18 wheelers”.  That is no longer
true.  Today I counted 20…22 and even one seemed to have 24 wheels.   Makes me think.  How long does it take
a big rig to stop dead…even with air brakes?    Why do we hear the  term ‘jack knife’ so often.  Are most truck drivers
under pressure to get where they are going as fast as possible?   Danger danger danger danger!

Is it difficult to get a dump truck or big rig licence?
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EPISODE 410 WHERE THE NUTS COME FROM…AT SHAW FESTIVAL AUGUST 17, 2021

EPISODE 410    WHERE THE NUTS COME FROM…AT SHAW FESTIVAL   AUGUST 17, 2021


alan skeoch
august 2021


Yes, we attended Charley’s Aunt at the Shaw Festival.   The play was
originally written and performed in the 1890’s.   That seems about where
it should have stayed.

There is one good line in the play….a line that has been repeated over
and over until it has become a bad line.   “I am Charley’s aunt from Brazil…where the
nuts come from.”   Must have been funny at one time.

Cost us $93 a seat up front.   Money gone.  I am trying to find a redeeming
feature of the play.    Ah, yes.  The actor playing at cross dressing as Charley’s Aunt
looks
and acts like Mr. Bean.   He has that rubber face and looks at times
like he has been hit with a water bomb or trash can lid.

When the curtain went down on Act two I packed up and got ready to leave.

“Alan, there is another act.”
“You must be joking.”
“You fell asleep.”
“Wish that were so.”

“Alan, did you really tell those people taking a break outside
 that there were seven more acts?
“I did. They were not amused. The man used a four letter word
that starts with F.

“Come in, Act Three is starting.”
“Give me a moment…I have a person
interested in buying my listening device…started at $20-…
getting serious now we are down to $5.”
“Alan, that is not yours to sell…belongs to the Shaw Festival”
“They got nearly $200 bucks from us, surely I can try to
get $5 back.”
Someone will report you…get you thrown out of here.”
“Really? “
“yes, really”
“If we get thrown out then we will escape Act Three.”
“God,  I’’ll seen the damn thing for a buck…just
get thrown out.”
“Alan, shut up….peopl;e are looking at you.”
“See that seat on the stage…I am going to go and
sit there…perhaps begin to sing Send in The Clowns”
“Alan, you are making a fool of yourself.”
“Nobody is listening…the Covid 19 separation gives everyone
a good chance to stretch out and go to sleep.

NOTE: as things turned out Act 3 was the best of a bad lot.  Why?
Because one of the females had a nice scarlet dress.

“Alan, what happened to those two people you told there
were 7 Acts.”
“Never saw them again.”




















“Alan, you sound just like your dad.”

“Great news.  What would he have done that was any different?”

“He would never spend $93 here.”
“And he would do the same thing You did to that poor couple outside
on the bench…caused them to miss Act Three.”
“I sold my listening device for 50 cents to that guy on the bench.


“Wonder how the play was received in the 1890’s?”
“Nothing else to do back then.”



“


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EPISODE 409 NIAGARA ON THE LAKE – JEWEL IN CANADA’S CROWN as seen August 17, 2021

EPISODE 409      NIAGARA ON THE LAKE (no wonder people move there)


alan skeoch
august 17, 2021



So nice to be able to visit Niagara on the Lake once again.  Guess what?  It has not changed a bit.
If you like to shop for high end things then the main street has lots of places.  If you just like
to live on the cheap then the park at mouth of Niagara River is ready for you with 
free benches but a few dollars parking fee.  Reasonable since the public washroom is
safe and clean with attendants on duty.  

If you we’re there yesterday you may have seen a near nude man walking through the other park.  Bare white skin
with black braces holding up his shorts.    His shorts were the same colour of his skin.  White.  Soaked from the
rain. Looked naked.

 He cut across the Anglican graveyard to his car.  An apparition. No one charged
him with nudity in a public place.   Probably because others had got wet in the short rain shower but did not have
the ignorance to strip.   He put on a sweater and limped back to the performance of Charley’s Aunt.
(where he  met Marjorie)

He had a back up plan if police charged him.  He Would say he was a friend of Bill Saywell, a U. of T.
professor that he knew.  MOVED to the town.  Bill would get me out of trouble. Professors are usually a little weird…as are their friends .

SILLY COMMENT…PRETEND YOU DID NOT READ IT.

Imagine sitting on these chairs reading a good book…oR chatting with a bunch of People who find you disgusting.



NOW HERE IS A MOVIE IN FOUR FRAMES…TAKES SECONDS TO WATCH…SEE BELOW













NIAGARA ON THE LAKE GOLF CLUB RESTAURANT

“Table for two, sir?”
“No, we came for a swim in the Niagara River …here…where it
empties into Lake Ontario.”
“Steep here above the water.”
“Do we have to wear bathing suits?”
“Afraid so…golfers you know are a bit picky”
“Then can we borrow your bathing suits?”
“Sorry, I do not have any.”

“Oh, in that case we’ll take a table for two overlooking the River.”
“It’s our anniversary.”
“Then this will be a special meal, what would you like?”
“Two orders of fish and chips…assume the fish is bigger than a tomato can lid.”
“Yes, two large pieces each.”
“And to drink?”
“Coffee for Marjorie and I’ll have a pint of Oast beer…local brewery…if it’s cold.”
“And dessert?”
“Your biggest chocolate sundae… with one spoon.”
“No, two spoons, Alan.”
“One spoon…”

The waitress brought two spoons along with the bill which
was a very modest $57 plus a tip of 18%.



WE SPENT MUCH OF OUR FEW HOURS DRIVING AND WALKING AROUND THE TOWN…NO COST.




THE MOFFAT INN (above)

Decades ago when I taught a class of new and anxious teachers at the Faculty of Education.
Kids, just out of university as Marjorie and I once were.  Kids with little money but big hearts.
On the last day we threw a party at our house and these fresh faces presented us with
a week end stay at the Moffat Inn…we came in the winter time…long time ago.  Our room
had a wood fireplace and super bed.   Good times.  Always fresh.
I bet that room cost almost $100.  Somehow every time we pass the Moffat I feel younger.



THE WEATHER TOOK A NASTY TURN
AS WE HEADED HOME.







Halt…let’s not end this story with a downer.   An Angry sky.   We were very happy…nice anniversary.  Our anniversary..58th.  We did
not put that up in neon lights.  It was personal.   So here are a couple more cheerful pictures.

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EPISODE 409 LAKELEE ORCHARDS…PEACHES ARE READY august 17,2021






This is Lynndon, the cheerful foreman of Lakelee Orchards…so nice to see him again


“MARJORIE, here is some good news on this dark day”
“We need good news…the world is desperate for it.”
“We’ll pull over at the Jordan exit…we’ll take the South Service Road … get a load of peaches…the free stone kind.”


“Hi…how much are the peaches this year?”
“$25 a box for the Number 1 kind”
“How heavy is the box? “
“Too heavy for you to carry….I’ll take them to the car from the cold room.”
“:What else is ready for us?”
“Nectarenes at $5 a plastic pack…ready to eat now.”
“Any plums?”
“Sure…$5 as well .”

I do not know how much money we saved…probably a few bucks on the peaches.  But the greeting was sincere
and it was nice to get fruit directly from the source.  And nice to see Linnden once again.

(Directions… Take QEW from Toronto to Jordan exit…then South Service Road which weaves a bit for a couple of miles
until you see the Lakelee Orchard buildings up a hill on your right…make immediate right
turn then drive in the lane and park where it seems reasonable.  Do it now.  Peach season 
is short.)

alan

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EPISODE 408 MYSTERY PLANT IN OUR GARDEN

EPISODE 408   MYSTERY PLANT IN OUR GARDEN


alan skeoch
august 15, 1021

Our garden is out of control.  I have been reading about the Carboniferous era in 
geologic history 265 million years ago when the earth was hot and giant 
plants covered the globe.  I became a bit distracted until today when
I got back to the garden.  What a sight.   Some strange plant has taken over.
Huge leaves and snarly tendrils have crowded  out the pepper plants. But
The tomato plants are still in place gleefully producing tomatoes under 
the umbrella leaves of the mystery plant. 
strange.

Weeds can usually out compete the garden plants and by mid-august we
sort of give up after rescuing dozens cucumbers and other assorted vegetables.

We rescued nearly a bushel  of red tomatoes cooling themselves under
the great umbrella leaves of the mystery plant whose tendrils are now,
as I write, heading for the barn.

Two weeks ago we thought we were about to have a bumper crop of cucumbers.


Then these big yellow flowers began to appear beneath leaves the size of ash can lids.  The cucumbers gave up the battle.

Surprisingly the tomatoes are just fine after I slashed my way through to them

Under those leaves something big is growing.   getting bigger. each day…and it is not alone…six, eight ten of them inflating like hot air 
balloons.   Taking over 


We will  keep you posted.   Meanwhile I recommend you find a copy of John Windham’s great science fiction novel ‘Day of the Triffids’
in which a mysterious plant from outer space began to take over the world.   I think we have a Triffid in our garden.   
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Fwd: EPISODE 401 CONCLUSION THE SHORT AND HORRIFIC LIFE OF GEORGE EVERITT GREEN, HOME CHILD , PART FIVE




EPISODE 401    THE SHORT AND HORRIFIC LIFE OF GEORGE EVERITT GREEN, HOME CHILD ,  PART FIVE

alan skeoch
august 2021

  THIS WILL BE MY CONCLUSION OF THE STORY. THE FULL STORY OF GEORGE EVERITT GREEN’S LIFE
AND DEATH IS MENTIONED OFTEN  BY BOOKS AND ARTICLES ON THE HOME CHILDREN (BARNARDO CHILDREN)
NEVER, IN MY EXPERIENCE, HAVE DETAILS OF THIS TRIAL  BEEN USED.


I HAVE EDITED THE TRIAL RECORDS SLIGHTLY.  
George Green

SOME FINAL WITNESSES


MR. MCKINLEY, sworn and examined by Mr. Mackay

Did you know the boy George Green?
Yes
Did you see him when you were sewing grass seed.
I did not see him.
Did you hear him?
Yes.
Doing what?
First he was calling the cows, then he semed to go back to the house and then I heard Miss Findlay scolding
and then I heard blows and the boy crying.
How many blows?
Several…five or six
Followed by what?
Crying
You could not see them?
They were at the other side of the house…fully 80 rods away.
Would the blows necessarily be very severe to enable you to hear them 80 rods away?
They would have been.


Do you remember pulling peas?
We were busy pulling peas and I heard Miss Findlay start to scold and I heard blows again.
Ordinary scolding?
Swearing…and I heard the blows again and the boy crying same as before.
What were the blows on the first occasion like?  Slaps of the fist?  What did they sound like?
Like as if you were chastising a horse with a stick or rope..

  Can you give me another date?

 Well on or about the last of October we were busy digging potatoes and I heard a boy calling
the cattle.  Then the boy did something that displeased Miss Findlay.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        She told him she would knock his damn white head off.
  
About the 30th of october i went to lay up a prop in the line fence and heard the racket start again and
hurried over to see what was going ron,  I heard her punishing  the boy and heard him crying and
I hurried over to where I could see. I seen her coming out of the place where she kept her buggy and
I could hear him crying in there and after a while I heard him begin as if he was splitting  wood, That is
the time I heard the blows and heard him crying,,,then on the 6th of November…
How do you place the date?
I keep a journal
Do you know what you were doing on  6th of November?
Digging potatoes .   I heard Miss Findlay say  “Get up and get in there.”
How far away would you be?
At my  own house—about 80 rods distant and I looked over and I seen her
trailing him up the steps. She had him by the hands and had him on his back.
By both hands and she was dragging him up head foremost.
Yes.

CROSS EXAMINED BY MR. TUCKER

You Never saw her strike him during any of the three occasions,?
A blow that would be heard at 80 rods would be sufficient to fell an ox.
If you hit hard enough I suppose. 
A blow heard 80 rods away would crush anything?

You knew she had a black colt?
Yes
And you knew the black colt was in the habit of  chasing the boy?
No, sir.
Didn’t you ever see it?
No, sir, I seen him holding the horse in the field and never saw it offer to touch him.
If she struck the black colt at that time instead of the boy that would account for the sound?
That would not make the boy cry.
If the colt were chasing the boy he would cry. He was simple in the head?
A little simple perhaps.
And is it not a fact that he had some kind of impediment in his windpipe so he made a noise when he breathed.
I could not say. I didn’t hear the noise when I was talking to him.
You never went to complain to Miss Findlay ? 
NO,sir.

Mr, Mackay seemed to get worried.  Mr. Tucker defended Rose Findlay by creating doubt. 

Was it a horse she hit and not ‘George Green? Was George simple minded?

Did he have a voice impediment?

MR. MACKAY 

How would Miss  Findlay react if you had interfered?
She would have ordered me off the place.
(In fact she did order the McKinley’s off her farm)
Is there anything at all plausible about the theory that the woman struck the black colt?
No, sir.  The Findlays would not strike a colt.

NOTE TO READERS IN 2021:   THERE WERE MANY MORE WITNESSES CALLED TO TESTIFY IN  1895
MOST OF WHOM I HAVE IN MY ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT.  TOO MANY.  SO LET ME END THIS HORRIFIC
STORY WITH THE TESTIMONIES OF TWO 12 YEAR OLD CHILDREN WHO WORKED FOR MISS FINDLAY
WHILE GEORGE GREEN WAS STILL ALIVE

ALEXANDER GILCHRIST, JUNIOR

Did you know George Green?
yes
Did you ever have any conversation with Miss Findlay as to how she used him?
When she was doing the harvest she told me she got down off her load and gave him two bootings. She also told
me she threatened she would shove the pitch fork through him.
Did you see anything yourself?
No

CONCLUSION:   ONLY READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NERVES OF STEEL

THE EYE WITNESS TESTIMONY OF
MARY BROWN WHO WORKED ON THE FINDLAY FARM THE SUMMER OF 1895

How old are you Mary?
Twelve
Were you there at Miss Findlay’s along until the boy died?
Yes, sir.
Can you tell me how Miss Findlay used the boy while you were there?  What did you see her do?
I saw her kicking him around and I saw her taking an axe handle to him.
How do you mean she used to kick him, was it an easy or hard kick?
Sometimes she used to kick him hard.
Did he ever cry?
Yes
She used to kick him five or six times.
You mentioned an axe handle, where was that used?
We were unloading wood.
I was on the top of the  load with George Green when she struck him with an axe handle on the back.
Just once?
No, she struck him two or three times then she would stop and he would throw a piece of wood down and if he
didn’t throw it in the right place she would strike him again.
Hard? How did she hold the axe handle?
She took it at the bottom of the axe handle and fetched it right down on his back between the shoulders.
How high did she raise it?
Over the shoulder
Did the boy cry?
Yes.
Did she strike him with anything else other an axe handle?
Yes, a pitch fork.
What part of the pitchfork?
With  prongs of the fork.

Where?

Between the shoulders on the back.
How did she hold the fork?
Just by the handle. Two hands, She raised it up and hit him on the back with it.  Hard.
What did he say? Did he refuse to work?
No. He was working only not fast enough for her.
Was he in the habit of giving her impudence or refusing to do what he was told?
No sir. He was quiet. He would never speak unless spoken to.
She was often striking him in the field and threatening to run the fork through him if he didn’t hurry up
Tell me now if you ever saw her strike him with anything else?
She struck him with the broom handle and broke it.
Where was this?
I didn’t see it as I was in the bedroom but she told me se broke the broom over his back.
You heard him yelling…crying?
He just cried hard.

Anything else?   
We were unloading wood and a stick he threw bounced and hit my shoulder . She jumped off the rig
and started pounding him with her fist.  Then she took off her rubber boot and was pounding him with that.
Do you remember an incident around the pump?
Yes    But I was not there. She told me she hit him with her slipper and a naIL cut his head.
You saw his head bleed?
Yes.
Was he crying
Not when I got there but he might have been crying.

Was there any other occasion that you recollect?
Yes, with a table fork. I was outside the door when she struck him with the table fork.  
 There was blood on his cheek when he came out.   The fork was lying there broken.’
I never saw it broke until she struck him.  Blood was running down his cheek when I went in.
She never said anything about it.

You were in his bedroom from time to time throughout the three months you were there?
Yes
Did you ever make George’s bed up?
No sir.
Did you ever know her to make it up?
No sir.
Do you recollect anything being the matter with George before he took sick in bed?  Take
his fingers for instance.
As far as I know his fingers got sore when the first snow came.
It would be a month or so ago
What do you mean by his fingers got sore?
The skin all came off.
From the first joints to the points?
Yes.
What about his nails.?
Well I saw one of his nails come off when we were splitting kindling  wood.


Did you ever see Miss Findlay take him into the house?
I saw Miss Findlay dragging him up the steps a week before he died.
How did she drag him?
Well, I thought she took him by the collar
The week that he was sick…the week he died?

Was there ever a doctor called?
No sir
Who took care of him? What did you ever do for him?   How often did you take water to him to wash
during the time that he was sick?
I never took it unless Miss Findlay did.
Did you ever see Miss Findlay take water up to him while he was sick?
No only the Saturday morning he died.
What did she do that morning or did she do anything?  Was he changed from one room to another?
Yes , she changed his room Saturday morning.
Where did she go that day?
Owen Sound
What time did she get back?
About 9 0’clock
What time did she leave?
About 12 o’clock (noon)

What was the boy doing?
He was moaning…could not speak.

Was that bed made up or changed during the week he was sick?
Not that I saw.  It was dirty all week.
I believe he dirtied it himself?
Yes


Do you know if Miss Findlay supplied him with a crock as a toilet?
One chamber pot broke  Replaced with a pail.  Not emptied.
Can you tell me whether the boy was dead when Miss Findlay got home at nine o’clock Saturday?
Did she go up to see him?
After she got warmed she went upstairs  She said he was was either dead or dying and she didn’t know which. 
Then she went out to tend the cattle then came in again and made herself a cup of tea and went to bed.
Did you sleep with her?
Yes.
Did she get up again that you know of?
No sir
When did she learn that he was dead?
When she went up in the  morning she said he was stiff.
Did you see him”
Yes.
Were his eyes closed?
No
Was his mouth closed?
No.
Both open?
Yes.
You gave evidence at the Coroner’s inquest in Big Bay, didn’t you?
Yes
Did you tell the same story at the inquest you are telling now?
No sir.
You didn’t tell the same story, why?
Miss Findlay scared me.

NOTE:  Fear is the enemy of truth.  Mary Brown, a 12 year old farm labourer spent the summer of 1895 watching
the abuse and terrible death of George Everett Green.   Mary Brown was afraid of Rose Findlay.  They shared the 
same bed. She saw the violence Miss Findlay directed to the boy.  With great courage and no doubt, careful
priming by Mr Mackay, Mary Brown explained why her evidence in Owen Sound contradicted her statement in 
Big Bay.

MARY BROWN

MISS Findlay told me that I was to tell that she didn’t abuse the boy, or didn’t kick him around and them bruises was 
from him falling down.
Were you or were you not afraid of Miss Findlay ?
Yes.
Do you remember when she was arrested, when Mr. Pearce came for her?
Yes, I remember when he came. She told me I was to tell the same thing as I told in Big Bay.

CONCLUSION

I HAVE DECIDED TO END THESE EPISODES ABOUT GEORGE GREEN WITH THE  TESTIMONY
OF MARY BROWN WHO, YOU WILL REMEMBER, WAS ONLY 12 YEARS OLD IN THAT TERRIBLE
SUMMER AND FALL OF 1895.   MUCH MORE COULD BE SAID.  LIKE THE CONDITION OF GEORGE 
GREEN’S BED IN THE WEEK HE DIED.  THE BED WAS ‘IMPROVED’ ONCE BY THE ADDITION 
OF DIRTY STRAW FROM THE STABLE.  GEORGE GREEN’S CLOTHING WAS FILTHY BUT
HE HAD NO OTHER CLOTHES.  THE BODY  OF GEORGE GREEN WAS FOUND CURLED UP
IN A NEST OF DIRTY STRAW . FOULED BY GEORGE AS HE LAY DYING.

THIS TESTIMONY STARTLED MANY CANADIANS AS THE TRIAL PROCEEDINGS WERE  REPORTED
BY NEWSPAPERS ACROSS CANADA.

MARY BROWN’S TESTIMONY IS MUCH LONGER THAN I HAVE QUOTED BUT I THINK
READERS HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS HORROR.

THE JURY COULD NOT AGREE.  A hung jury. THE PREJUDICE AGAINST HOME CHILDREN
WAS SO PREVALENT THAT EVEN THE TERRIBLE TREATMENT OF GEORGE
GREEN COULD NOT PERSUADE SOME JURY MEMBERS TO CONVICT 
ROSE FINDLAY OF MURDER.  

IN A SUBSEQUENT TRIAL SHE SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN CONVICTED OF A LESSER
CHARGE…PERHAPS CHILD ABUSE…AND SENT TO THE MERCER
PRISON FOR WOMEN IN TORONTO…FOR A YEAR.   

alan skeoch
august 2021

PICTURES BELOW ARE NOT FROM THE GEORGE GREEN STORY.  BUT THESE 
PICTURES REINFORCE ELEMENTS OF THE STORY.