Author: terraviva

alan skeoch

June 2021

EPISODE 358     WHAT DO SEE HERE?  AN IMAGINATION EXERCISE

FOUR POINTS OF VIEW

“WHAT do you see here?”

(All four of us are looking at a big piece of driftwood)

THE SEAL: “I see a nice sun deck where I can stretch out.”

ANDREW   “I see a great fish zooming through the surf..”

KEVIN  “I see a rocket being wheeled to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.”

“What do you see dad?”

ALAN: ” I see your mother in a skimpy bathing suit…smiling.”

ALL:  “Get serous, how could you possibly see Mom in a skimpy bathing suit in that piece of driftwood?

ALAN  “I alway see your mom in  a skimpy bathing suit no matter what I look at.”

alan skeoch

June 2021

POST SCRIPT TO READERS:  What do you see there?

alan skeoch

June 2021

EPISODE 358     WHAT DO SEE HERE?  AN IMAGINATION EXERCISE

FOUR POINTS OF VIEW

“WHAT do you see here?”

(All four of us are looking at a big piece of driftwood)

THE SEAL: “I see a nice sun deck where I can stretch out.”

ANDREW   “I see a great fish zooming through the surf..”

KEVIN  “I see a rocket being wheeled to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.”

“What do you see dad?”

ALAN: ” I see your mother in a skimpy bathing suit…smiling.”

ALL:  “Get serous, how could you possibly see Mom in a skimpy bathing suit in that piece of driftwood?

ALAN  “I alway see your mom in  a skimpy bathing suit no matter what I look at.”

alan skeoch

June 2021

POST SCRIPT TO READERS:  What do you see there?

alan skeoch

June 4, 2021

“OK boys, we have Now driven more than halfway across Canada and it is time

to find out why.”

“Awwww, dad, you sound too much like a school teacher….this is summer holidays.”

“Your are right….I am going to shut up.   Let’s go mountain climbing.”

“Sounds great.”

“How about right here…we will just park the truck and climb to the snow line…way up there.”

“Can you and mom do that…and the dogs.”

“You bet.”

And so we climbed through a Talus slope …broken rock … held in place for now but not forever.  And away above us was the snow line.  Steep enough to lose footing.

No one anywhere around  and far below was the Jasper highway…more and more distant with each footfall.  The boys tumbled in the snow followed 

by Tara, our coonhound, and Maxie .. a stray we rescued as it was about to be shot.  just the right amount of danger.  

The slope of the mountain was about 45 degrees.  It was a wonder that we did not trigger

an avalanche.   

“Dad, looks what we found!”

“What?”

“Piles and piles of fossils….rocks are loaded with them.”

“You must be kidding…”

“Look…look….”

“Well, I’ll be damned.  You are right…fossils….”

“How did they get here, dad?”

“weird…I thought fossils like these were sea  creattures…things that lived at the bottom 

of the sea.”

“How did they get up here, dad…up on the top of the Rocky mountains?”

“I have no idea…maybe some tourists…”

“Don’t be silly, dad…how did these fossils get up here?”

“Must be some explanation.”

“Dad, how did they get there?”

“I thought this was our summer holidays, boys.?  Cut the school teacher stuff…”

“Dad, we are going to find out.”

“When you do, be sure and tell me.”

“I wonder what these fossils looked like when they were alive?”

“Find that out for me too…Meanwhile let’s have some fun.”

“Fun?”

“A snowball fight in the middle of August…”

(And I winged a nice round snowball at the boys.)

Those of you reading this story must know all  the answers.  Maybe

one or two of you can even identify the fossils.

alan skeoch

NOTE:  I HOPE  THESE PICS MAKE SENSE…GIVE AN IMPRESSION OF THE

IMPORTANCE OF THE FREEMAN FARM AS ALL OF US TOOK OUR HUMAN JOURNEY

alan skeoch

June 3, 2021

THE TERM HARDSCRABBLE FARM WAS INVENTED TO DESCRIBE OUR FAMILY

FARM IN THE DAYS WHEN MAKING A LIVING FARMING WAS VERY DIFFICULT.

TODAY IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE ON A 25 ACRE FARM LIKE THIS…ALL SWAMPS

AND STONEY FIELDS.   BUT GRANDMA LOUISA FREEMAN AND GRANDPA

EDWARD FREEMAN MANAGED TO MAKE A LIVING AND RAISE TWO CHILDREN.

…AND ENJOY THEIR LIVES.

ALAN SKEOCH                                                             ALAN  SKEOCH AND ARNOLD ‘RED’ SKEOCH

THIS IS ELSIE (FREEMAN) SKEOCH WITH GRANDSON KEVIN.  SHE WAS THE PERSON THAT INHERITED THE FARM  IN 1958 AND MANAGED

TO PAY THE  TAXES AND THE UPKEEP AFTER GRANDMA AND GRANDPA DIED.  HOW SHE DID THAT IS A MYSTERY, FOR EVERY PENNY

SHE EARNED WAS DONE WITH A SEWING MACHINE .. MUCH OF THE TIME IN SWEATSHOPS.   A GREAT WOMAN…OUR MOTHER.

DAD’S MONEY WENT TO FEED HORSES AT RACETRACKS ACROSS ONTARIO AND NEW YORK STATE.  MOM WAS MUCH MORE CAREFUL.

DAD WAS ONE OF THE GREAT CHARACTERS OF THIS WORLD.  LOVABLE BUT IRRESPONSIBLE.   THEIR MARRIAGE WAS A GOOD ONE.

MY BROTHER ERIC AND I WERE CITY BOYS REALLY BUT THE FREEMAN FARM

WAS ALWAYS A PLACE WHERE WE WOULD BE WELCOMED…INDEED , A

PLACE WHERE WE WERE WANTED.   ANYTIME.  A SECOND HOME.

alan skeoch

may 31. 2021

EDWARD FREEMAN, my grandfather bought this 25 acre farm shortly before World War I started.

He did not have much money having been burned out of his log cabin home near Krugerdorf  in

Northern Ontario.   Not many people would want the farm.  Ages ago an ice sheet covered Ontario.

Beneath the ice was solid rock.  Between the ice and the rock was rubble…millions, billions of stones, all sizes, rounded imperfectly…

great heaps of unsorted rubble was ground then left in heaps as the ice retreated.  Along with the

rubble the glacier hollowed out several places on the farm which became wetlands until the farmers

arrived and attempted to drain the wetlands.   Ed Freeman was successful…partly.  He reduced

the wetlands but at least 6 swamps could not be completely drained.  He piled the rocks in heaps.

Since we took over the farm we have reversed the process and expanded the wetlands so that the farm

today no longer looks like a farm.  It looks much as it must have looked when the ice retreated.

POND #1: ONLY POND LEFT ON FARM IN 1958…AND MUCH SMALLER…ANDREW AND I BUILT A SMALL DAM THAT

RAISED THE WATER LEVEL.  THIS POND IS ABOUT 6  ACRES .

This has been a life long job…getting back the wetlands.  A job appreciated by at least one great snapping turtle, a large cluster of painted turtles,

families of Canada Geese, one couple of wood ducks, wild turkeys and deer that we rarely see and coyotes who leave their scat laden with rabbit fur

on the cedar clad forest that surrounds he pond.  The trail gives access to the only field left on the farm.  My flax field.  But this year it will

be mostly sweet clover if all goes well.   Why clover?  Andrew is raising bees.

Hopefully, given time, the frogs, leaches, sticklebacks, snakes …the great pyramid of pond life will be reestablished.  Right now the small

creatures are low in number…but present.

Lots of birds…this year wild canaries seem more than usual.  No bobolinks though.  The ravens and crows are present …deadly to the

young song birds nesting efforts.  And high above hover the turkey vultures searching for dead things.

 POND #2: WAS A HAYFIELD UNTIL WE HIRED RON SAUNDERS TO EXCAVATE…NOW OUR DEEPEST POND

POND #3  WAS A WET PART OF THE BARN YARD UNTIL RON SAUNDERS EXCAVATED.  WHEN EXCAVATED THE POND WAS SOON

FILLED WITH A DOZEN CHILDREN LAUGHING AND DIVING FROM A WOODEN RAFT AND LATER MARJORIE AND VALERIE TOOK

A NUDE SWIM WHILE I WAS WORKING NOT TOO FAR AWAY.  WATER ATTRACTS ALL KINDS OF WILD LIFE.

POND #4 WAS A HIDDEN SHALLOW SWAMP UNTIL JIM SANDERSON BROUGHT HIS BIG EXCAVATOR…AND THE MACHINE SANK

INTO THE QUICKSAND OF AN ANCIENT BEACH…TO GET IT OUT REQUIRED MANY MACHINES AND A RAFT MADE OF BIG TREES…

THE END RESULT WAS A HOME FOR AN AGED BEAVER…POND REMAINED HIDDEN UNTIL THIS YEAR, 2021, WHEN THE BRUSH HAS BEEN

CLEARED.

SO WE HAVE RECREATED A WETLAND.  AMAZING HOW MANY CREATURES THANK US FOR OUR LABOUR.

MAYBE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE WHAT THE FARM LOOKED LIKE WHEN EDWARD AND LOUISA FREEMAN ARRIVED IN 1914.

COMING IN ANOTHER EPISODE

alan skeoch