Alan Skeoch

Author: terraviva

  • EPISODE 372 meeting of the castlefield institute June 17, 2021 (John Ricker presiding)

    EPISODE 372    MEETING OF THE CASTLEFIELD INSTITUTE  JUNE 17, 2021  JOHN RICKER PRESIDING


    alan skeoch
    june 17, 2021




    This is John Wardle…creator and manager of the relatively unknown Castlefield Institute, an organization
    that discusses and makes suggestions concerning world events some of which threaten our very existence.

    Most of the time, however, we just enjoy each others company   We laugh a lot which is a good sign.
    And every one seems to have an opinion some of which are astounding…i.e. brilliant.  Many are just
    plain silly.   Silly and delightful.  We have a good time.

    alan



    And this is John Ricker in whose honour the Castlefield Institute was created.  John Ricker has suggested to John Wardle a disparate assembly of 
    people to join him in monthly discussions.






    “Mmmmmmmmmmmm!”   (read below to understand the Mmmmmmmmmm!)



  • EPISODE 372 THIS EUCLID DUMP TRUCK MAKES OUR VAN LOOK LIKE A DINKY TOY…COAL MINING CONTROVERSY 1990’S OHIO




    EPISODE 371   STRIP MINING IN OHIO


    alan skeoch
    June 2021

    See if you can find Andrew in this picture.   Behind the Euclid are heaps of rubble that was once a dense and beautiful
    Caledonian forest.   Why destroy the forests of Central Ohio?  Imagine the scale of destruction this Euclid could wreak.
    A few loads like this and our farm in Southern Ontario would cease to exist.   Can you guess the economic justification
    of using these Euclids?   What is being sought under the Osage Orange groves?  Under the Shagbark Hickory trees?
    Under the top soil?  Under the subsoil?



    Mining is not pretty.  Strip mining is especialy ugly….extremely so.

    We had good friends in central Ohio back in the 1990’s and spent several 

     week-ends driving down to their farm outside Zanesville.   To us it was
    a new world in many ways…sometimes a startling new world.

    For instance Osage Orange trees thrived and in the fall dropped bushels
    of aromatic smelling warted fruit the size of baseballs.  The Osage Orange
    trees, however, were not so pleasant as they were covered in spikes the size
    of hypodermic needles.

    Perhaps the most startling thing  however was not the work of nature.
    It was the opposite.  Beneath the lovely forested hills of southern Ohio
    are seams of coal. Layered parallel to the ground.  These seams vary from
    60 to 120 feet below the ground…technically called overburden.

    To get access to these seams of coal it is easier to strip the hills of
    their trees, shrubs, plant life with bulldozers.    Then use gigantic
    scoop shovels that, in the 1990’s, were bigger than some apartment
    buildings.

    The  damage done to the hills and valleys of southern Ohio
    by these strip coal mining operations is hard to describe.  Best
    seen visually in the picture of one Euclid dump truck that is so
    large that it makes our truck look like a Dinky Toy.

    After strip mining is complete the coal companies are obligated
    to put top soil back but the end result robs central Ohio of
    its former beauty.

    alan skeoch
    June 2021

    When is it economic to strip mine in Ohio?
    • Generally it is economic to strip mine when there is a 20:1 ratio of overburden-to-coal seam, meaning, for example that a three-foot coal seam can be surface mined economically when the overburden is up to 60 feet. However, at some surface mines in Ohio, highwalls of up to 200 feet high remain where five-foot-coal seams have been extracted.


    Just a few pictures below.






    In the 1990s, a new form of surface mining,mountaintop removal, became more common. This more invasive method provides access to coal that would’ve been left behind by traditional strip mining. In recent years, tensions over mountaintop removal have risen between those wanting to boost the state’s diminishing coal industry and activists wanting to protect the environment.



    wiki-wyoming-coal-mine.png



    One final thought:  WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR CIVILIZATION WHEN WE HAVE CONSUMED ALL THE COAL AND
    OIL DEPOSITS?

  • EPISODE 370: ONE DAY IN JUNE 2021 (JUNE 16) FREEMAN/SKEOCH FARM, WELLINGTON COUNTY, ONTARIO)

      EPISODE 370:    ONE DAY IN JUNE 2021  (JUNE 16)  FREEMAN/SKEOCH FARM, WELLINGTON COUNTY, ONTARIO)

    alan skeoch
    June 13, 2021

    Today I quit work early in the morning.  Too nice a day to work.  So I spoke
    to myself.  “Alan, why don’t you try to capture this day on he farm.  Forget about
    all your old machines.  Forget about weeding.   Forget about appointments.”

    “Just take a walk.  Make the walk into an episode..”
    “Good idea, but readers like a purpose.”
    “Purpose…shhhhmorpose.”
    “No, they need a challenge.”
    “Challenge…shhhhmallenge.”
    “Let me give them just one thing to look for.””
    “What?”
    “See if they can find the thistles that are taking over the flax and sweet clover field.”
    “Look for thistles?”
    “Thistles….ssssmmistles.”

    The thistles are about to disappear beneath the blade of the Bobcat bucket.

    alan Skeoch

  • EPISODE 369: OLD PICTURE FREEMAN FARM … GRANDPA, ERIC, DAD (SPIFFY OUTFIT), LADDIE…OLD VERANDAH 1943 PERHAPS



    EPISODE 389   OLD FREEMAN FARM…GRANDPA, ERIC, DAD (SPIFFY  OUTFIT), LADDIE…OLD VERANDAH 1943 PERHAPS
                              (SOMETHING IS OUT OF PLACE IN THIS PICTURE…WHAT IS IT?)


    alan skeoch
    June 2021

    Take a look at the picture below.  Something is out of place…does not fit…odd.  What is it?
    No, it is not the cat’s bum.  No, it is not the dog Laddie trying to persuade granddad to teach
    him to smoke a pipe.   No, it is not the decrepit back stairs.   Wise up.  Look closer.



    Laddie, grandpa, Eric, and the cat all fit and are in harmony with the shape of the back porch.
    The odd thing is Dad.  Red Skeoch looks spiffy.  Sort of odd for a man whose job was building Truck tires
    at Dunlop Tire Company in Toronto.

    Look at the new hat…a sleek black fedorah..and the suit.  Spiffy.    Why is he dressed like that?

    The answer is simple.  Dad is en route to the horse races somewhere in Ontario.  We had no car.
    So getting to the races depended upon special busses leaving for the track at Fort Erie or in New York
    State at Batavia.   Close by , however, were many Toronto racetracks also serviced by special 
    busses…Thorncliffe Park, Woodbine, Dufferin and another near Mimico.  Those special busses always
    seemed jammed with men like Dad.  Many were Chinese which was how Dad came to speak Mandarin!
    Dad’s version of Mandarin which is called Gibberish .  His Chinese gambling friends liked dad even
    when he was outlandish.  At least my memory of them involved smiles… 

    Why so spiffy?   Because dad liked to live a second lifestyle .   He had friends everywhere it seemed.  
    One friend let him into the high class part of Woodbine track…or Fort Erie.   He dressed to fit the image
    of the Club House class.  When he took us to the track his instructions were always the same. “Look straight
    ahead boys…walked right through the ticket gate with me…I have a contact taking Club House revenue…Do
    not look anywhere but straight ahead.  If someone yells, keep moving.”

    Now this picture was taken before he started taking us with mom to racetracks.   Eric must be out
    5 or 6 years old which puts the picture around 1944.   Why wasn’t Dad in the army like so many
    of our relatives?  Too old.  His work was also a necessary war industry.  Armies moved on rubber tires.
    Dad married late in life “because no woman would have him” some said.
    But that was not true.  He attracted people\le even with his offhand manner.  He was one of those people
    who were charismatic.   Charming.  Disarming.  Impolite….always searching for the golden ring on
    the merry go round of life.  He made our life as his kids fascinating.  

    He made the life of collection agencies from Finance companies challenging.   Mom often had to
    pay off his debts.  She loved him in spite of his failings.  Whenever he got into trouble her comment
    was “Oh Red, you fathead.”

    THE PICTURE

    No, I do not know how he got from the farm to the racetrack on that day…Gray Coach bus
    stopped at Silver Creek.   And Uncle Frank could be relied upon to rev up the Model A or
    Model T to get him there.

    Granddad was poor, respectable, welcoming.  He liked Dad in spite of his tendency to scam
    those around him.   We loved him.

    alan
    (another Red Skeoch story)

  • EPISODE 358 “WHERE DID YOU FIND ALL TOSE PICTURES FOR TE EPISODES, ALAN” “IT WAS NOT EASY”

    EPISODE 358    “WHERE DID YOU FIND ALL THOSE PICTURES FOR THE EPISODES, ALAN” “IT WAS NOT EASY”

    alan skeoch
    June 2051

    This is my family:  Mom, dad, Eric and I.  We laughed a lot.  Did not know we were poor.
    Actually we believed we were rich.  And we were correct.  We were rich.

    WRITING STORIES WITH PICTURES 2021

    Dan Bowyer wondered why there were no pictures with the rather crude story about the Fireman’s Lift.
    He liked both and has responded to every episode, many of which paralleled his life. Then
    The Mississauga Library System wanted permission to replicate my pictures.  Others were surprised
    I was able to illustrate the 357 stories with pictures.  How was it done?

    Getting pictures to fit the stories is not easy.  Some stories took me several days to find pictures.  But pictures
    were necessary to establish that the stories are authentic.   

    HOW I GOT SO MANY PICTURES


    1) From elementary school to the present time I have been a camera enthusiast.   Initially using 
    cheap little plastic cameras that always seemed to leak light to the more sophisticated pocket cameras
    available today.  My best cameras have been and are the 
    Sony 1.8-4.9/10.4 – 37.1 with Zeiss lens.  They take a lot of abuse and do fit in my pocket even if
    the weight threatens to pull my pants down. I dropped one ..broke it…cost $500.  Uttered a few
    choice expletives and bought another camera.  

    2) I saved negatives and pictures in cigar boxes even when a kid.  Then I began making slides….35 mm.
    Last year , 2020, I looked at the boxes and boxes of slides that no one would ever see.  There must be a way to get
    slides in digital form.   First, I bought a cheap replicator…not good due to dust.   Second, I discovered a
    company that copies slides professionally.  At a cost.   Was it worth spending 50 cents to $1 a slide and same
    for negatives. ?  I decided to spend the money.  Well over $1,500 so far…not cheap.  More to do. Threw away lots.

    3) All converted pictures and slides come back to me in a stick form and can be injected
    into my computer like the vaccine is to our arms.   Then Spin them like a slot machine … images rolling by.

    4) Reams and reams of pictures … over 1,500 images. saved.
    Lots of work.   I also have several thousand images put into my computer from my cameras.
    Sometimes I go searching for images to fit the stories.  Sometimes an image triggers a story.

    5) Then each picture is photo shopped to improve it…lights up dark images….crop images
    to highlight a particular theme.   Lots of work.   Sometimes it takes a whole day to put things together.
    Sometimes several days.   It is a challenge to do a Story a Day but an enjoyable challenge.

    6) To me a story has to have both a written script and lots of illustrations.  One without the other just
    does not feel right.

    7) DOES ANYBODY READ THE STORIES?  AM I JUST WASTNG TIME?


    Who reads the stories?  No one?
    That question occurs to me.  I know, however, that some people in isolation like
    having a story a day.  My sister in law, Anne Hughes, told me yesterday that she looks
    forward to my story every morning with her coffee.  She and her husband are cloistered
    in a tiny home.  They can no longer drive.  My stories help which pleases me.

    8) Do the stories go beyond my friends?  It is wonderful to get an email from persons I do not
    know who have found my stories on the internet.  Yesterday I got  note from a young man who spends summers at  Paradise Lodge on
    the Algoma Central Railway… a person I do not know.  He loved those wilderness stories about
    Wart Lake, mining exploration, wolves, lightning and Marjorie arriving with our cat and her sewing
    machine.  We had lots of wolves . We had no electricity.   So many notes like that.
    Victor Poppa’s grandson for instance…writing a play about Victor.  I hoe he will Remind me to send some
    more pics…lost his email.  Then there is Dr. Norm Paterson, my former boss in the mining
    exploration days who sends notes often.   On and On.  Letter from Belgium, Australia, England,
    Ireland…from the far corners of Canada like Mayo Landing , Whitehorse, Anchorage Juneau

    Then so many notes from people who have had similar experiences but have lost
    the pictures.   Lucky for me that mom had kept some black and white pics of our childhood.

    Missing pictures?  Lots of them.  I wish we had more pics of dad wasting his money at racetracks
    …wasting his money but sharing the experience by sneaking us in to tracks when we were young or
    setting us up as scam artists selling gamblers day old racing forms.  Did we really do that? Or is it
    imagination.  No pictures to prove or disprove.

    And nice to get notes from friends…to rekindle friendships in spite of the pandemic. Russ Vanstone and
    his bees; for instance…..too many people to name.  I know some people do not read the stories.  a couple of months ago
    I started to delete names because I felt I was cluttering up the emails of those who do not respond.  There was a
    hue and cry … so I have not deleted yet,  And will not.  So many of my former students are on the list. We
    speak as peers now.  Jeannette Chau even nominated me for a Mississauga literary award.

    JUST THE BARE FACTS…LOOK AT THAT GRIN!



    8)  Should I worry if the story and the pictures do not reflect well upon me?  No,  I am too old to 
    worry about my appearance, my language, my.mistakes,  I try to be self effacing.  Who the hell
    wants to read about personal heroic exploits.  Better if the stories have a more earthy touch.  Like
    when Floyd Faulkner nick named me Fucking Al on that Groundhog River job in Northern Ontario.
    It was a compliment.    Voltaire’s novel Candide has been a big influence…i.e. the naive innocent
    facing the best of all possible worlds. Remember Voltaire’s conclusion?  “If this is the best of all possible
    worlds, what then of the others?.”

    THIS STORY BELOW SHOWS HOW IMPORTANT PICTURES ARE … WHO WOULD BELIEVE IT OTHERWISE?

    9) Here is a mini story.   A story made in gentler times.  Today our behaviour
    on an Air Canada flight to Iceland and then Toronto might lead to big time trouble.
    But  in 1965 we were just entertainment … young and foolish.  If I told the story without
    the pictures you might think it was a fabrication.


    PHOTO 1:  Marjorie, my brother Eric and I had been drinking a pint of Guinness
    in the Dublin lounge waiting for our flight back to Canada.  We were joined
    by a Catholic priest and his father.  Nice men. Might have shared a second pint.  Innocent enough
    Lots of people drink Guinness.  We boarded OK.  But once in the air the Guinness
    did funny things.  We started to giggle.  Marjorie wiped my brow with whipping cream
    or was it mashed potatoes?

    PHOTO 2:  I maintained I was sober until I found this picture in my camera.
    Apparently the pilot came back to check us out.  He borrowed my camera to get
    this magnificent shot.   Pictures might remind you of Jack Lemmon and Shriley McLean
    in Days of Wine and Roses.


    PHOTO 3    Our Air Canada pilot was called by the stewardess to check us out.
    He realized we were just young and silly.  Then he borrowed my derby hat for 
    this picture which I managed to take.  My brother and I had bought derby hats
    at an antique market.  The seller insisted that mine had belonged to Sir Ernest
    MacMillan whose initialS were inside.   The derby hat looked good on the 
    pilot who was a laid back kind guy.  What a great pilot we had on that flight.

    ABSENT PHOTO 4:  Eric was busy proposing to the stewardess much to her amusement.
    I have a picture to prove it but wanted to keep this story brief.

    PCTURES TELL A STORY

    Each of the pictures below could be a story…should be a story…will be a story.