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EPISODE 187 … All worldly possessions YUKON JOB 1962


EPISODE 187    ALL MY WORLDLY POSSESSIONS…YUKON JOB 1962

NOTE:  THIS SHORT STORY WAS WRITTEN MARCH 10, 2018 DESCRIBING LIFE
PROSECTING IN YUKON TERRITORY IN THE SUMMER OF 1962.   SOME READERS
MAY HAVE SEEN IT BUT I WANT IT INCLUDED IN THE EPISODES .. EPISODE 187.
YOU MIGHT MAKE OBSERVATIONS.  I KNOW THE PICTURE IS TOTALLY SELF 
CENTRED…NARCISSISM.  PLEASE FORGIVE.

SEE IF YOU CAN FIND THE BIG BOX OF HOME MADE COOKIES MARJORIE SENT
BY MAIL.

I MAY TRY TO RETRIEVE ALL THE YUKON STORIES.  THE JOB WAS QUITE AN ADVENTURE.
IF YOU HAVE ALREADY READ THE STORIES…READ THEM AGAIN…YOU HAVE NOTHING
BETTER TO DO.  

ALAN


From: “alan.skeoch@rogers.com” <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
Date: Saturday, March 10, 2018 at 12:05 AM
To: Marjorie Skeoch <marjorieskeoch@gmail.com>
Subject: Alan Skeoch … All worldly possessions YUKON JOB 1962

DUBLIN GULCH CAMP, YUKON TERRITORY, 1962

NOW THIS IS REALLY SILLY…(found in old 35 mm slide)

alan  skeoch
March 2018

Readers  come in all sorts … interested and bored,  large and small, old and  young, critical and open-minded, full of evil thoughts and just plain joyful.  Which are you?


Some readers  might be interested  in this small corner of the universe  in the summer of 1962.   
 It’s a game….see what you can find.


SEE IF YOU CAN  FIND THESE ITEMS BELOW IN THE PICTURE ABOVE

1) Pants…note knee patches  made of medical first aid  tape…only had 1 pair of pants, no time to wash them.
2) Bed…made of light canvas and  metal rods…never lasted long…flat to floor eventually
3) Baby Rabbit…given to me by Moses Lord, First Nations  member of our crew, caught it by  hand, eventually freed the little fellow but meanwhile he
lived in my gum rubber boot in the evenings leaving a few soft marbles each morning.
4) Escapade magazine…must be good article in there on geophysics, else why would I keep it?
5) assorted  soda cans and bottle of  stuffed  olives
6) 2 pairs  of socks drying on my clothesline beside bed…socks were so important…dominated all.
7) 1 bottle of antiseptic…kill microscopic bastards trying to kill me  by slipping in open  wounds chewed  open
bu larger bastards  (mosquitoes,  black flies, moose flies,  deer flies, grand  wasps)
8) A small library including Pierre Berton’s Klondike, Michener’s Fires of Spring, Steinbeck’s East of Eden, 
9) boot insoles drying on top shelf…holes in boots meant water sloshed around most  days, body heat boiled  my  feet, pock marked.
10) Hair brush that was never  used
11) Moose lower jaw bone   (mailed back to Toronto with pair of caribou  antlers)
12) single caribou antler. Moses Lord got me  a  full rack to send home by freight truck.
13) Scottish tam at top. When I started teaching my principal, Mr Ellis, said to me privately “You will never get ahead
if you continue to wear that tam.”   Wonder what he would have said if he saw this picture?  Probably say “I knew it!…look at him.”
14) Alarm clock…rang at 5.45 a.m. Get up, dress, make breakfast, slather bait for bugs, and be on trail by 7.30 or so.
15) PICTURE OF MARJORIE…WE WERE ENGAGED…SHE GRADUATED U. OF T 1962, I DID SO IN 1961,  POST GRAD YEAR 1962
16) bottle of Eno’s fruit salts…for upset stomach.  Food we ate made that necessary.
17) candle in wine bottle…
18) Huge box of cookies sent as a  Care package from Marjorie who was back in North Bay.  She also sent chocolate cakes.
19) Mosquito lotion
20) Camera case and  pile of magazines…maybe scientific journals but more likely the other kind.
21) Diary on top of stump table
22) My brief  case in which was wrapped my idea of Yukon gold (see 23)
23) my Mastodon  Tooth found in a gold  sluice box  in Dublin Gulch.  It was a great teaching item when  presenting the theory
of Beringia…where Asiatic  people migrated to North America 10,000 to 20,000 years  ago when the Bering Sea was a vast dry plain feeding  Mastodons,
Mammoths and other giant now extinct creatures.  Must have been  a good lesson for some student stole the tooth the first  year I taught high school.
24) Alan Skeoch, 23 years old, bearded,  post-adolescent, Rover Scout, potential groom, Geophysical Field  Man. future teacher…immature… reticent to give up
the life of luxury implied by this photograph .   Marjorie took the view that ‘if you can’t beat them join them’  and  Marjorie Joined our  crews on jobs
in North Ontario at Paradise Lodge and Wart Lake in 1963 and a short and final job at Merritt, British Columbia.,in 1964 where the local mining executives thought
she was a hooker. 
25) Prospectors rock hammer

  26) plank under cot to prevent collapse

27) gold nuggets … tiny … really just gold dust which I dropped on black electrical tape and  mailed to Marjorie.   Should do a story about

our discovery of gold.  In 1962 gold sold at $35 an  ounce and was controlled by he Canadian government.  Today it sells at around $2,000 an ounce and the Gold Standard

has been abandoned.  A friend  in Dublin Gulch had  a slab of  gold as a kind of knuckle duster if he was ever robbed.  His cabin was amazing…Mammoth tusks and bones
leaning against the walls…and those huge teeth.

WHAT A WONDERFUL LIFE.

ALAN SKEOCH
MARCH 2018


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EPISODE 186 HOW TO LOAD A TRACTOR

EPISODE  186    HOW TO LOAD  A TRACTOR


alan skeoch
Dec. 2020

You may  wonder how a bull dozer gets  on a trailer.  Then again
you may not.  No matter here is a step by step visual instruction
just in case someday you are asked  to load  an IHC W6.

A few years ago we did it differently.  I remember with a shudder.
We drove the IHC W6 up a ramp  to the truck bed.  Getting it
off the truck  was absolutely terrifying.


This is the sediment bowl through which gasoline flows from the gas tank to the cylinders.  Look at the little bit
of grunge at the bottom.  My old IHC W6 always had  a bit of grunge.  Now it has a lot of grunge as  it has not been
going since the day we loaded it here in August 2017.  Needs a new gas tank.  Is it worth the money?  I must ask
Bill Brooks…he  can fix anything and  has kept the W6 alive long past its normal terminal age.  

That’s Andrew Skeoch doing all the work.  The movie was “Fanrenheit” something or other. 

alan  skeoch
dec.  2020

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EPISODE 185 HISTORY DEPARTMENT PARKDALE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE CIRCA 1980

EPISODE 185  HISTORY DEPARTMENT    PARKDALE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE   CIRCA 1980


alan skeoch
dec.  2020

left to right, back row: Gerry Wagner, Frank Bitonti, Susan Gilmour, Sam Markou, Terry Wickstrom
front row left to right: John Maize, Lynne Roddick, Alan Skeoch, Phil Sharp
(picture taken at Centre Island fun park for kids)

When I was hired as a history teacher at Parkdale Collegiate Institute there were two great educators involved…John Ricker and Evan Cruickshank.
Both of them said the same thing.  “Alan, if you take the job at Parkdale you will never leave.”  It seemed strange since both of these people
did not know each other well.  …both heads of history departments and both eventually teachers of teachers
at the Faculty of  Education.  My thought? “These guys must know what they are talking about.”

So I took the job and  never looked back.   No other job in education appealed to me.  The students at Parkdale were family.
The kind that punched  you on the shoulder and said “Good  morning, sir”

I think this photograph says it all.  We loved teaching.  We loved each other.  We loved Parkdale.   And let me add with pride
…I think we did a good job with our kids.   

Especially when we came to school dressed  like the picture above. (not true)

Each face is  a story.  But let me tell one story about a teacher that could  have been ignored.  Gerry Wagner, with the
Coonskin Cap.  His family once owned  a factory in, I believe, Czechslovakia.  World War II intervened and the factory was
seized.  Somehow the Wagners escaped.  Gerry ultimately got a job at Parkdale.  A quiet man.  We called him ‘the Wag’.
He was a great poker player.  Bob  Marshall and  George Stavropoulos (not in picture) tried to bluff Gerry in a game we called
East York #$%$    Gerry took their money.  The poker game was so silly that it is worth describing.  Each player took a
card face down and put the card on his forehead.  Then the betting began to force others out of the game.  Bob and  George were
determined to make Gerry fold (even though Gerry held a king or an ace)…they upped the anti, again and again.  Gerry took
all them money.  And he grinned…a quiet grin. Any man that had escaped Nazi Germany could not be bluffed.  We played
that poker game in our old farm house. Some beer may have been involved.  Good times.  Nickel dime poker…no one loses much.

Sounds silly?  Each of these people could be a story as silly as the story about Gerry.  Let the good times roll, as they say.  Before Gerry died he bought me a
wooden fish from Mexico.  It sits  above my head right now.

So I owe much to John Ricker and Evan Cruickshank…and to Parkdale.

alan skeoch
Dec.  2020   


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ALAN

I JUST MADE A MISTAKE AND SENT MY NEXT STORY AS A POSTSCRIPT OF 184…DAMN DAMN DAMN
IT TAKES A LOT OF TIME TO WRITE THESE STORIES AT THE SPEED REQUIRED…I.E. ONE STORY PER DAY…SO WHEN MY RESEARCH GETS SENT EARLY THAT MEANS MY STORY IS KILLED AND I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT
THE PACE IS EXHAUSTING AT TIMES.
ALAN
P.S. THANKS DIRK FOR SETTNG UP THAT BLOG

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EPISODE 184 DISAPPEARING FARMS… WITNESS TO HISTORICAL CHANGE IN ONTARIO SOCIETY 1950 TO 2020

EPISODE 184  DISAPPEARING FARMS


alan skeoch
Dec. , 2020

THIS is a story about the pace of  change in our society between  1950 and  2020.

Keep this point in mind   as  you peruse and  remember the point for the next episode:  ONLY 12% OF CANADA  IS 
SUITABLE FOR AGRICULTURE.  ONLY 12%!


FARM AUCTION ABOUT 1975 OR SO:   Look above the heads the crowd.  That’s Marjorie with the kids
sitting on  the milk parlour roof with our great Coonhound Tara.  


AT A  FARM AUCTION…One summer afternoon,  August 24,   our anniversary…I bought marjorie  a coonskin coat and myself a bearskin coat. 
Granted the coats were out of season.  They were also a little worse for wear…that’s why my bid was the only bid that day.

ACCELERATING PACE:   FARM AUCTIONS 1950 TO 2020

As fortune would  have it, we became adults in the 1950’s just when North American agriculture was being revolutionized.  Corporate 
agriculture grew and grew through the last half of the 20th century.   Small, 100 acre family farms in Ontario began to disappear at
an accelerating rate.  In the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s there were so  many farm auctions that specialized  newspapers such as
the Woodbridge Advertiser could make a  living just listing the auction sales.  Impossible to go to all the auctions.  Basically, Ontario’s
rural heritage was on the auction block booth weekdays and week ends.  One of the sad features of these farm auctions  was the
fire pits where things considered irrelevant or not saleable or too personal were simply burned.   Things  unsold at auction were 
dealt with the same way.  One farm auction last year put all the old family pictures on the block.  I bought them all then the
family asked that I not write about the pictures.  Odd.   How did they know I was a writer?  I never knew the people.  So
I guess word spread about our rescue efforts.  Why would  people sell  off their family pictures?  “The children are not interested.”
…an answer we heard all too often.  Children change…they grow up…and then they get interested often too late.  The family farm
is gone and the records  of the 20th century are ashes  in many cases.







SOME RANDOM PICTURES THT TELL THE STORY


I bought six or seven of these threshing machines.  Huge things.  Beautiful things.  We  have  two of them tucked away in our barn.  Others
we donated to various museums.   We even had  a backyard auction with friends years and years ago . The purpose was to raise e $200
to buy a machine like the one Marjorie is holding.   We got the money, bought the machine, donated the machine…and the next week
the storage barn caught fire and all was lost.   It is hard to look after a machine like  this  Raccons like to live in threshing machines.

These pictures are just a tiny cross section of the auctions we attended in the last 60 years…literally hundreds of  auctions.  There are 52 weeks in a year…about 40 or more
of those weeks we got up early headed west, north, east to a farm auction.  Our kids, Andrew and Kevin, were with us as were the various dogs we shared our house with
over the past 60 years.   So what is 40 x 60?  The total is  2,400 auction  sales.   Hard to believe?  Truth! We  witnessed a  revolutionary change in Ontario  society.
The number of auctions shocks me.  The bigger shock was the change in our society.

We filled our truck and trailer with things nobody seemed to want.  Jewels to us.

On one of these farm auctions…the Root Family Farm near Ospringe…I borrowed a new movie camera and documented the day.  i gave the film to my good
friend Robert Root.  A family record. Bob and  I were both high school teachers at Parkdale Collegiate  Institute…a high school in the  core  of the city  of Toronto.   I made a big
mistake that day when I did not bid  on one Bob’s family tractors.  The price was reasonable in my mind…unreasonable  to the Root family I imagine…i.e. $600 to $700.
Note to Bob Root:  That film can  be  converted to digital…costs a bit but you will need it for future generations. 

Future Episode:  Bob Root and  I were allowed to visit an abandoned farm…people just seemed to have walked away.  Took what they
could carry and walked away.  We were shocked.  

alan skeoch
Dec. 2020


An Industry Leader

  • Canada is the world’s largest producer and exporter of flaxseed, canola, pulses, durum wheat, peas, lentils, and mustard seeds
  • The meat processing industry is Canada’s third largest manufacturing industry, ranking behind motor vehicles and petroleum products
  • Canada is the world’s 2nd largest exporter of malting barley (used to brew beer)
  • Canada’s is the world’s largest producer of blueberries
  • Canada ranks #1 in the G7 for low food processing cost
  • Canada produces 85% of the world’s maple syrup
  • The US is Canada’s #1 food export destination

The Environment

  • One tree can remove the same amount of carbon dioxide from the air that is emitted from a car driving 17,700 km
  • 50,000 fewer gallons of water are needed to grow an acre of corn today, compared to 20 years ago
  • Thanks to Canada’s conservation tillage practices, 12 billion kilograms of CO2 were prevented from entering the atmosphere in 2008
  • GHGs from Canada’s dairy cows and manure management decreased 21% from 1990-2009

Dollars

  • In 2008, Canadian agriculture generated more than $70 billion in economic activity
  • The value of honey bees to Canadian agriculture is over $1 billion
  • The cattle industry contributes approximately $24.6 billion to the Canadian economy
  • Sales of milk and dairy products contribute $10 billion to the Canadian economy
  • In 2011, Canadian dairy genetics exports were valued at $120M
  • Grains create $9B in economic output for Canada
  • In 2009, Canadian farmers exceeded $1B with a total economic impact of over $3B
  • Beef industry contributes almost $25B to the Canadian economy annually

Growth & Demand

  • Canada is the world’s 5th largest exporter of agricultural products
  • World food demand will increase 70% by 2050
  • Since 2007, China’s import of Canadian vegetable oil has increased by 300%
  • Within the last 6 years, Canada’s exports to Russia alone have increased by 430%
  • A farmer in 1900 produced enough food for 10 people. Today’s farmer feeds over 120 people
  • 3% of Canada’s population is employed in industrial farmer – they are able to feed a population of over 30 million and export to foreign markets
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EPISODE 175 ‘WOODEN QUILTS’ FOLK ARTWORK – WHAT WAS THE MOTIVATION?

EPISODE 175   ‘WOODEN QUILTS”  FOLK ART


alan skeoch
Dec. 2020

IN THE BEGINNING

IN the beginning of my dabbling into folk art I picked up  a piece of weathered snow fence at
the Norman Skeoch farm near Fergus.  Wind scoured, rain soaked, man handled … each piece of lath
looked like the sky on stormy days.  Or did it look like a plowed field on a winter morning?
Whatever!  Those pieces of abused snow fence had a patina and appearance that my mind
saw  as metaphors of farm life.  Disappearing  farm life.  Family Farms were as fragile as weathered snow fencing.

Note:  This Episode was triggered  my Marian Kutarna who sent me a very
flattering request:  “Alan, could you describe the motivation behind your folk art creations?”
So here you are Marian.



This log cabin was my first effort at translating old lath pieces  into a piece of folk art.
Marjorie liked the effort and that flattery launched me into larger and  larger pieces  
of folk art.  

“What do  you call them, Alan?”
“Well, they look a  lot like pioneer patchwork Quilts.”
“Wood quilts?”
“Sounds  like a suitable name…Let’s call them WOODEN QUILTS

“Let’s gather as much old snow fence as we can.”
“Sometimes rolls of the stuff are auctioned at farm sales.”
“Most times it is simply burned  in a  field a few days before the auction.”
“How much do we need?”
“Not much.  I’ll just make a few pieces of folk art.”

Well,  the few pieces  multiplied into dozens and dozens.  And  they got larger and  larger.
Initially I made them just for our house and workshop.   But people wanted to buy them
so  a small art business was launched.  Dozens  and dozens.   All a bit different.  But
some kept the rural theme…a red  brick rural gothic farm house.  Our farm house in
Wellington county.  Patterned after the art image titled ‘American  Gothic’.

I bought a big band saw and an industrial stationary belt sander.   The bandsaw  could cut
out the shapes.  The sander could polish  the pieces.  Then I would assemble the pieces
as my mother did when she made our clothes.   Patchwork quilts. Mine  were made of rescued
wood from Ontario’s disappearing family farms.


Large  wooden  quilts  like the ‘village’ above our fireplace were rather interesting to construct because  I made
many of them on slabs of first cut white pine which had  been save for a century or so in barns or drivesheds.
Often these slabs were nearly two feet wide so you can  imagine how tall those white pines must have been  when
the land  was cleared for farming.  The timbers in Ontario barns tell the same story.

DETAIL OF PICTURE ABOVE FIREPLACE


Elements in this closeup 
1)  Apple orchard  made from wooden beads
2)  Base of house made from age old plank chewed by rodents or chickens.
3)  Sky from old snow fence
4)  Field made from old barn siding
5)  House roof made from farmhouse shutter
6)  Smoke made from piece of aromatic cedar from chest
7)  Apple trees made from lath spacers used in lumber aging 
8)  porch supports and  decorative roof edging made from old picture  frame
9)  Large backer board was top of large pioneer chest or perhaps a   slab
door to granary.


The large home in this picture was made from cast off lath used on our farm
house walls before the wet plaster was applied around 1870.  Really old lath
was made of fine pine, knot free.  Later lath was thinner and less interesting.
Piles of old lath appeared occasionally where farm houses were being wrecked or
renovated. It was free for the taking usually



TRADE SECRET:  HUSH…DO NOT TELL ANYONE!

My apple orchards were made from the little wooden  balls that used to be strung
together for Christmas garlands.  No need  to paint them.  If you look closely
you will see three kinds of apples…red, green, white were good…purple had
to be painted as there are no purple apples.

OLD MILLS….GRIST, LUMBER, FLOUR MILLS WERE ONCE COMMON ON ONTARIO RIVERS



BLACK CREEK GRIST MILL

Just barely visible in the light of the moon is the towering old Black Creek
grist mill in full operation with the mill pond water rushing through the flume
to drive the giant overshot mill wheel providing more than enough power
to grind North Toronto Grain in the late 19th century.

SOURCE OF PARTS
1)  Old  shutter provides the mill pond
2)  Elm shingles found in Ohio are carved  to simulate moving water
3)  The Iron Mill wheel comes  from a farm corn grinder
4)  The dark sky is lath from Norman Skeoch’s snow fence
5)  The Massey Harris curved top board was  once protective
shield on a corn cutter that made ensilage as cattle fodder.
6)  The moon is a hardwood disc cut from a roller from an
old grain binder.
7)  The red  house was  inspired by the Freeman  farm house of
which there were once hundreds built on the same model with
plans purchased from the Timothy Eaton catalogue.

OTHER WOOD QUILTS


I made this piece for my brother and sister in law.  The old hotel still exists
in the village of Flesherton.


I made a larger version of this one for the MacMorrin family in memory of their grandfather
who was the Anglican minister of the church in the village of Wales on the St. Lawrence
Seaway.  The village now lies beneath the rushing waters.  Church and Manse.

Below are copies of  paintings  done by Kierstead  who had  similar motivation to mine
only he used oil paints to capture the disappearing rural architecture of Ontario


MISSISSAUGA LIBRARY SYTEM

Three of my wooden quilts were bought by the Mississauga Library System. Two  were 
very large.   One hangs in the South Common Mall  library, now protected by a sheet of solid  plastic
because children loved to pick the fake maple leaves.  Another hangs in the Frank McKechnie Library featuring
the rural landscape that once existed there.  The other, a small one, represented the first Port Credit library…
a small cottage like building in faded yellow.  That wood picture disappeared when the new 
library was  built a  few years ago.  Maybe Marian Kutarna can find it.

Two people who influenced me must be mentioned.  Don  Mills, the top man at the Mississauga
Library and  Aileen Whortley whose enthusiasm led me beyond the Wooden Quilts to the
writing of  a history of Mississauga titled ‘Where the River Speaks’, a book now out of print
and offered at high cost through eBay and others.


HERE ARE A BUNCH OF OTHER WOOD QUILTS


I Made quite a bunch of these engines.  Why?  Because I had  all these sprocketed gears taken from old farm machines.  The engines  made
no operational sense which was why so many people wanted them for their children’s bed rooms.  Imagination is something to be encouraged.





Barn interiors were also very popular.  We did  quite a number of art shows across Ontario.  I  remember one show
done in the Distillery District of Toronto where I asked

 “Do you have any rats or mice?”
“None whatsoever. was  the answer

Well that turned  out  to be a lie.  The real grain in my imaginative granaries
was gobbled  up in one night.

\



Not everybody likes these interpretations.  How do I know that.
?  Because I made a large quilt from lumber where cattle had taken their last
long walk at the Toronto Stock yards.   I liked it but felt the general manager of the yards should have it.  A year later
I noticed it hanging in the window of a  North Toronto antique shop.  I should have bought it back.

I really do not give a sweet goddamn whether you like or hate these creations.  What matters  most is that I liked doing them.  Most
artists must feel that way.   Today we have moved  on.  The movie industry likes our things some movies even rented  some of
our wooden quilts.  Why?  Because art directors have imagination.


MY WORKSHOP…WITH PIECES GLEANED  FROM RURAL FARM SALES WITH ‘VISIONS OF SUGAR PLUMS DANCING IN MY HEAD’


With the money from my first sale I bought this wonderful  band saw which allowed me
to cut shapes into cows, horses, chickens, ducks, people, fanning mills, steam engines.


MOTIVATION

A lot of the motivation came from three sources.  First, there was Marjorie who like the creations and refused to sell some of them
Second, from my mother who was a seamstress who made our clothes out of scraps and old coats … when we were kids.
Third, from my grandparents whose farm provide all the imagination I   would ever need  in life.


alan skeoch
Dec. 2020



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EPISODE 181 JOY! WE WON PRIZES AT THE ROYAL WINTER FAIR FOR OUR CHICKENS

EPISODE 181    WE WON PRIZES AT THE ROYAL WINTER FAIR FOR OUR CHICKENS

                           (I was too dismissive in the earlier story about them.  Joy trumped disgust.)
alan skeoch
Dec. 2020

Thanks for the responses to the chicken story.  I worried that the story was a little too
dismissive of  our chicken raising days.  Also thought some of you would find it silly.
Well the  reverse has  happened.   Lots of comments.  Russ Vanstone even sent a note
in praise of  keeping a pet pig…big sow with piglets.  I think he is going to try to raise
one at his home in Toronto.  

When I wrote the chicken story I think some of the joy we experienced  raising chickens
was  neglected.   To get up in the early morning knowing that Big Red and  his harem
were waiting for us to lift the trap door was a joy.    Once lifted Big Red came out first
and moved to the side.  He ‘serviced’ each hen at it popped  out the door.  He paid 
attention to the whole harem.  None were left out.  And he could crow with joy day
after day.   He made us all feel good about life.

Each year we sent some of our hens to the Poultry exhibit at the Royal Winter Fair
and we won prize ribbons which  Marjorie has  framed.   








Tinware chickens are nice to look at but they do not lay eggs.



MARJORIE believed  the children that could love animals would emerge as fine adults.  All kinds of animals…including puppies


Our back yard  in the chicken keeping days had no room for grass…kids  and  chickens…dogs and cats.



Remember I said backyard chickens attract kids.  Here is proof of the pudding.


The day the fire truck was completed it was filled with kids.  That was why it was built.

Another shot of Big Red. He is letting me know that he is  boss.

Our ducks, ping and pong are amused to find Andrew in he cage while they peer in.



Cats,dogs, chickens, ducks, turtles, frogs, …wonderful world.


Andrew and  the duck called Ping are very alert.  Do they hear a coyote?

Kevin and  our cat Tarnga are colour co ordinated.   Love the big smile.


Not every chicken was a pet.

alan skeoch
Dec  2020
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EPISODE 180 WINTER WONDERLAND IN MIDDLE OF COVIDD 19 PANDEMIC

EPISODE 180    WINTER WONDERLAND IN MIDDLE  OF COVID 19 PANDEMIC


alan skeoch
Dec. 1, 2020

When we awoke this morning our small world had been transformed.   The dark days
of November were gone and everything was clothed  in snow.

Even better we had  a visit by a joyful mailman who Woody greeted.  A few  days earlier
another grouchy mailman refused to deliver the mail because of Woody and  his wagging 
tail.

Some years we do not get snow  until Christmas  or later so…at present…this is a joyful
day.  Shovelling will come later.  Shovelling can be avoided by driving the truck  up and down
the laneway but that packs  it into ice.  A year or so  ago I went ass over teakettle on the 
ice and  knocked myself out.  So now I take short steps.

Our living room seems more welcoming on  days like this.  Sad  to say there will be no visitors
for we are in isolation.  Scrabble today….we are even at 2 games each.

No doubt all of you are out taking pictures as well.  Use short steps so there will be no
need of a 911 call.

alan skeoch
DEc. 1, 2020

P.S.  MARIAN KUTARNA…thanks  for the nice note.  I will send details of the wood quilt now hanging in your library.  So nice
to know  someone loves these folk art pieces.  

p.p.w.  To John Ricker…Woody does not normally sit on  cold  snow but when  I said the picture was for you John he sat down.
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EPISODE 179 KEEPING CHICKENS…THE UPS AND DOWNS.

EPISODE 179     KEEPING URBAN CHICKENS…UPS AND DOWNS


alan skeoch
nov. 29, 2020



THIS IS BIG RED…THE KING IN OUR CHICKEN COOP LONG AGO




“Andy bought some chicks for us from the Fabers…mixed  breeds…plymouth rocks, new hampshires, leghorns…
”Any Silver Laced Wyandottes?
“No, weren’t they beautiful when we raised them years ago…regal looking…rare breeds “
“Neighbours loved seeing them…”

“Not all the neighbours…someone reported us to the By Law Inspector, Remember?”

The by law inspector dropped by.  Reacting to 
a complaint about our chickens.  Marjorie gathered  a bunch of supporting neighbours
when he arrived.  I met him of the front lawn and asked, “Are you sure you want
to go in there? MY wife has and army of supporters on the verge  of  war.”
 We were cleared as a non conforming property having chickens before
the by  law was written.”  HE ESCAPED.

SILVER LACED WYANDOTTE HEN…REGAL…AND ALONE.


Points to remember about keeping urban  chickens

1) Free range chickens lay wonderful eggs.  A thrill to reach
in the nest and gather fresh eggs.  I am not sure the chickens
liked that.  Must have damaged the psyche of those hens.

2)  Backyards chickens attract kids.  If you do not want children
around  then do  not keep chickens.


3) Backyard chickens attract practical jokers like Kaye Donovan
who sneaked into the coop one Easter and painted  all our eggs.

4) Backyard chickens need lots of  care.  Chicken  dung can
smell bad if allowed to pile up and get wet.  Believe it or not there
are people who do not like the smell of  chicken manure.  I know
that is hard to believe.  Chicken manure…with age…makes things grow.

5) Backyard chickens get  lice.  Nasty little devils that can
get out of control.  Control?  Yes, they have to be dusted with
louse powder.  How?  Pick the chicken up by back legs and 
dust its bare bum with the delousing stuff.  Not a nice job but
necessary.   The key was a piece of string.

6) Predators soon arrive to assess the availability of backyard
chickens…foxes, coyotes, raccoons.   We  designed an ourdoor
run with a cement floor and s heavy chain link fence that hung like
a drawbridge door..   When loose in the backyard  the chickens were
vulnerable.  One day a huge Osprey swooped down a picked up
a one eyed hen.   How did the Osprey know that?  The odd skunk
slipped around looking for the eggs.  Nice animals as long as they did
not baptist you with fluid.


7) Backyard chickens attract rats and mice since the chickens  like
to throw their food around so traps small and  large are necessary.
Enough  said  about that.
8) Backyard  chickens  are beautiful to watch as  they wander around
the yard cleaning up unwanted insects.   Friendly birds is well treated.

9)  Backyard chickens to be avoided are the so called  ‘meat birds’/
We accepted  10 or 12 of these from Vic Laing and  For Root and the
Parkdale C. I. science department.  Dreadfull creatures bred  for fast
growth in weeks rather than months or years.   They grow immense
and ours had lots of genetic  defects…crooked  beaks  and feet…some  staggered.
They ate fast.  They ate lots.  And they dropped turds lots.  When  I got rid
of them to a farm friend they managed to make our van unlovable.  Chicken
shit everywhere.

10) Backyard  chickens are perfect right now as we are in a Covid 19
Pandemic and urged  to stay home.  IN normal times, however, backyard
chickens travelled with us in the truck..  We could not leave them alone.
Farmers must stay close to their farm animals.

11)  Backyard  chickens and backyard gardens are not harmonious.  Choose
one or the other.  Or build extra fences.

12)  Backyard chicken farmers  are credited  with saving some of the 
breeds on the verge of extinction…such as those Silver Laced Wyandottes that’
we grew to love.  We were never able to find a rooster of that breed  sadly.


13)  If you do  not mind  me making a suggestion. Try backyard ducks after
you tire of the chickens or after the predators have emptied your coop.  Get a couple
of ducks.  Get them young.   They IMPRINT a couple of weeks after birth.  Imprint?
They look around and  consider whoever they see on that particular day as their
mother or father.  Our backyard pair of  ducks imprinted us as their parents.
We just had to call them.  They would waddle over and up the ramp into the van
or into the duck cage.   They got so familiar with human beings that occasionally
they would go for a  walk around the neighbourhood gabbing away to each other.
One day I caught them a block away…called them and they came chattering
in a language  i did not completely understand.  I put one under each arm and
hot footed home with them.  My camel hair suit coat was never quite the same.
I went to school with duck shit streaks under each arm.   But we loved  them.
They would  go  to the farm with us…swim all day in the swamps and ponds…then come
when called.  What happened to them?  We were never sure but suspected a fox
or coyote got them.   It was  easier to think they fell in love with wild ducks and
flew away.  Easier, yes, but the problem was  they were to fat to fly.

14)  The same applies to a crippled  Canada  Goose we adopted  when it
was  a gosling.  Imprinted.  Thought it was human.  Then one day it was gone.
We think it could fly.  Happy ending.



Baby Canada Geese are hatched and  raised every year on our big pond.  Once
mobile the parents take them away because  your Big Snapping Turtle is a threat.
Nature ‘red in tooth and claw’.

alan  skeoch
Nov. 29,2020

Post Script

One day I gave Marjorie a nicely  carved  wooden pig.

“Does this mean we are going to try to raise a baby pig?”
“Not a chance.”



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EPISODE 179 CONCLUSION OF REAPER STORIES: GRANDFATHR SKEOCH ON REAPER N 1932

EPISODE 179         


alan skeoch
Nov. 2020



CONCLUSION  OF REAPER STORIES:  JAMES SKEOCH  ON  REAPER IN 1932.


SERENDIPITY:   SURPRISING WHEN SEEMINGLY RANDOM EVENTS  COME TOGETHER IN A MEANINGFUL WAY

This final  Episode on the history of  reapers is special to me.  In  1932, the Fergus  News Record published a picture of  my grandfather
James Skeoch reaping his grain field with an old but still operational reaping machine which owed its existence to the Cyrus MCCormick
invention a century earlier in 1831.  The copy of the Fergus  News Record is dated  November 10, 1932, and  had  been mailed to his eldest son,
John Skeoch, who was farming near Keeler, Saskatchewan.  Eventually this  farm covered  3,200 acres.

W



Can you read the stencilled name on this aged IHC W6  tractor.?” McCormick” !   The International Harvester Company made a large  assortment of machines for
farming.   That began with the McCormick Reaper but did not stop there.  They eventually made tractors…good tractors… short turning featured for small fields.

 This International Harvester Tractor , IHC W6, was built in 1953.   Cost $400 at Mr. Smith’s auction
near Guelph and drove it cross country to our Erin township farm.  I will never forget that trip
on cold November day.   exhilarating.   Proud owner of one of the great machines of agriculture. A McCormick W6 tractor.
The road trip was  long  and detour laden.  I thought I was absolutely alone.  Then,  En route, I met our horse,
Spartacus, running towards me hell ben for election…saddled but no rider.  He was heading to his first home
and away from ours.   He had a length of rusty barbed wire attached to his tail.  Terrified.  What should I do?  I kept 
driving  and eventually met Marjorie who had been thrown. She corralled  Spartacus eventually.   Why tell you this? Because we
had continuous rural adventures.  (Spartacus was the son of an estrogen mare whose story will eventually
become an Episode.)



That’s Kevin on my shoulders.  Marjorie made us duplicate clothes.  Behind the tractor is a
seed drill which is there jus for show.  Like most of my farm machines, it was no longer functional.

AN APOLOGY TO CYRUS MCCORMICK:

Let me start by apologizing to Cryus McCormick and  his corporation.  Remember that lawsuit where Cyrus
felt he was overcharged  $8.75 for his wife’s baggage on the New York Railroad.   The lawsuit lasted 20
years.   Made Cyrus look cheap and bull headed.  Perhaps wrongly so.  I did not mention the value
of $8.75 in today’s cash.  Turns out to be over $300.  Is the collection of that amount worth a  20 year lawsuit?

IN my presentation of Cyrus McCormick I may  have miscast him.  For 20 years he fought a court battle
charging the New York Railroad had overcharged his wife by $8.75.  Today,  November 1920, that amount
of  money will get you a hamburger, chips and a soft drink.  In short it will get very little.  Hardly worth 
a 20 year court battle.  Right?   Maybe.   But $8.75 in 1850 had over $300 in purchasing power.  ($10 in 1850
was  worth $333.83 in today’s purchasing power).   I would  still argue the court battle was not worth
the cost and the energy.

So this is  a good time to put all these events together.  The result makes the Skeoch connection seem larger 
than is  warranted.  Way larger.  Keep that in mind.

1)  The ‘goddamn’ rock ruined  Uncle Norman’s Massey Harris combine harvester.  Combine Harvesters remain the
pinnacle of  grain harvesting technology.  
2) I researched and wrote a 300 page manuscript on machine designs in agriculture, particularly from 1850 to 1891.  M.A., U. of T., 1975
3) phone  call from Mellon Bank of New York asking us to restore a (replica)  1832  McCormick Reaper
4) Many trips to the Ford  Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, where Peter Cousins  was collections curator
5) Began to research  Patrick Bell, Scottish  inventor of an earlier grain  reaper that was  never patented
and remained on the Bell farm until purchased by the Science Museum in London, England.  (In storage
at present but may  be on display in the future)…visit to London, England, to see the Bell Reaper when  it
was a feature display.
6) Restoration of the replica  model of the McCormick Reaper with was crated  and  sent air freight
to the Ulster Folk Museum in Northern Ireland where McCormick was born.
7) Along the way, I discovered that Patrick  Bell travelled to Fergus, Upper Canada, in 1851 where
the two Skeoch boys, James and John, (migrated in 1846) were farm boys. I speculated that they may have seen
each other in Fergus…but never knew each other.  Patrick Bell, by then, was a Christian minister
and  also a  teacher of children of Adam Ferguson, founder of Fergus.
8) The Patrick  Bell diaries and notes exist in Scotland but have not been published to my knowledge.
9) Copy of Fergus  News Record, Nov. 10,1932, features  James Skeoch (my grandfather) using a reaper
to cut grain.  The machine was considered obsolete by then which made a  news story.

 Through the years Marjorie and I have purchased and  stored dozens of machines relevant to
the history of  agriculture.   We developed a  particular interest in fanning mills because those
machines could easily fit inside our Ford  Van.   Fascinating history of these machines to come in later episode.
Fascinating to whom?  Good questio.
 Around 1990 the North American movie industry became very active in the Toronto
and region.  Our collection of 19th and 20th century artifacts  began to be demanded which
led to the incorporation of Skeoch Enterprises Limited.

LET US NOT GET SILLY

But let us not get silly  The connection  between the great inventors of the 19th 
century like Patrick  Bell and Cyrus McCormick and the Skeoch  farmers is not even
tenuous.  The connections is as thin as one strand of a spiders web.  
 We were the users of  machines  like the reaper and the combine harvester.
We were not the makers.   And  there is one hell  of a difference between inventing and 
making a machine as opposed to buying and using a machine.  Keep that in mind, Alan.


 JUST imagine if  your student turned in a 300 page essay for you to mark?   A  copy of my thesis in hand…as bound via Jim Hunter.

SOME ILLUSTRATED  COMMENTS 





THE PATRICK BELL REAPER




THE BIG THREE REAPER INVENTORS






At a farm sale outside Milton I was able to buy this “SAIL” reaper.  It worked. But is now a pile of scrap iron.

It looked better with Kevin sitting on the drivers seat.   Adding a seat to the replica reaper was one improvement.
This was called a ‘sail reaper’ because the reel was removed and a sweeping toothed sail of four wooden rakes added.




When Cyus McClintick lost his patent monopoly a great man reaper began to appear.  All of them improved as above



This will give you some  idea of the variety of reaper manufacturers that appeared in Ontario after the McCormick patent ended.

alan skeoch
Nov. 2020