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WHO WANTS a vintage COMBINE HARVESTER… Running order $500 (BRYAN MARSHALL FARM SALE OCT. 13, 2018)

(I like to put  a little test in my stories just to discover who really reads the stories…I suspect most
people just zip through the pictures and press delete.  The test:  Who bought the Clipper Fanning mill?)
Note: The following dialogue is just me talking to myself but based on the experience.
BARGAIN…IF ANYONE HAS  ROOM FOR IT

(Vintage International combine harvester, perhaps 91 model 1970)

alan skeoch
Oct. 13, 2018
ar Bryan Marshall farm sale
Fifth line south of Milton
(circa  1970 International Harvester / McCormick 91 combine harvester)
“Combine looks like it just  from the Showroom floor.”
“Too small for today’s fields…half a  century ago it was
a prize machine.”
“Not anymore.”
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“HORSES WERE BETTER THAN TRACTORS” (LET ME TELL YOU WHY)

HORSES WERE BETTER THAN TRACTORS

(LET ME TELL YOU WHY)
alan skeoch
august 2018
PLOWING IS AS ANCIENT AS CIVILIZATION…MAYBE 6,000 YEARS OLD
“This painting on  an Egyptian tomb shows a farmer encouraging two skinny cows to pull a  tiny stir plow.”
“Stir plow?”
“Yep…early plows were really just tough tree roots  fashioned  to a dull point.”
“How could that plow cut sod?”
“It couldn’t.   Ancient plowmen  only plowed easy fields…no sod…closest thing to bare ground.”
“Bare ground doesn’t grow much  food.”
“You got that right…world population was small…farmers just tilled the tops of  the  hills where a stir plough
would work.”
“Do you mean those  rich fertile valleys  were just left  to the weeds.?”
“Think so.  No doubt some poor sap was trying to grow wheat among the  weeds.”
“Must have been good healthy work.”
“Bad joke.   Most people died young…35 would be old.  Do  you believe that?”
“Nope.   You are like  Trump and  make up a lot of  bull shit.”
“Take  it for what it’s worth.”
‘I’ve got better things to do than read  your drivel, Alan.”
“Bugger off and do it then.”
“Just kidding…”
“Human  beings in western  Europe came down off the tips of the hills  when the  medieval two furrow  wheeled plow was invented.”
“More food”
“Fat people started to appear in large numbers.”
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PLOWING MATCH … DEATH OF A TRACTOR…Cucumber Ordeal

BY ACCIDENT, WE FOUND A PLOWING MATCH

(AND MET QUEENS OF THE FURROW)
alan skeoch
august 24, 2018
“What’s  going on?”
“Looks like a time warp…those tractors date back to the 1950’s and 1960’s…”
“Why  so  many on one field?”
“And  why pull two morrow  plows…obsolete as the pocket watch.”
“And three of the plowmen are not men at all…three women…”
“Special women…they are the QUEENS OF  THE FURROW.”
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Monarch Butterfly sightings, life cycle

MONARCH  BUTTERFLY:
HOW DOES THE FOURTH GENERATION KNOW IT MUST FLY TO MEXICO?
(A MYSTERY)
alan  skeoch
August   2018
MONARCH  BUTTERFLY REPORT
OUR HOPE FOR SURVIVAL RESTS WITH THE FOURTH GENERATION
Alan  skeoch
August 20, 2018
The world is  in trouble.  We all know that.  And the trouble is  right before our eyes.  No frogs, No snakes,  No  bobolinks, No leeches, No  Killdeers.   Let me change that.  yes, I did  find
a  couple of Leopard frogs in our 7 acres  of ponds this year (2018).  No doubt there are more but decades ago there  were hundreds, thousands maybe.  And  last year we had  garter  snakes
procreating in our green house.  The big female had lots of suitors…seemed to be in every crate of  flower pots.  None so far this year. And the ponds  had  lots of leeches.  None for past few years.  Have not seen
a  bobolink or a killdeer for decades.  What to do ?  What to do?   Are we really in the midst of the sixth extinction of life on our planet? Will the polar regions  melt and  raise the oceans high enough
to drown our ocean cities.  Will the climate change so radically  that lives of little creatures  will be lost forever?  Is it true that 95% of the living creatures on earth are human beings and  their domestic animals.  The wild  creatures have been reduced to 5%.
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HORSES AT FRITH MANOR (including BEANIE)

HORSES AT FRITH MANOR ON A  SUMMER  DAY  IN 2018

(If you love horses, you will love these pics and  stories)
FOUR STORIES … INCOMPLETE  STORIES
alan  Skeoch
August 2018
Our granddaughter Nolan  Skeoch  is a  horsewoman.  Proven  by the great swaths of time she  spends at Frith Manor grooming, riding,  jumping, bedding, wheeling  carts of  horse  manure, talking to horses (and occasionally  people).
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“HORSES NEED SHOES”” Story of Josh Twomey, Farrier

HORSES NEED SHOES  JUST LIKE  YOU DO
(Josh Twomey…FARRIER)
alan skeoch
august 2018
No good reason why a city bred  person would  want to read  this story.  Unless the reader is curious and likes to see and read  something extraordinary.
This  is  a  story about Josh  Twomey…a  farrier.   Josh spends his days  motoring from horse stable to horse stable across Southern  England in his truck which is  loaded  with brand  new shoes  for horses.  And  he has  a tub full of  cast off  horseshoes  which  he gives to kids  who watch him.  Blacksmith are supposed to be older men with big  beards and  tobacco  stained  teeth, gnarled  hands, perhaps  bad  limps.  Limping  caused a kick from a horse who did not like nails  pounded  into his or her foot.    Surprise.  Josh is  24 years old  and has been shoeing  horses since he was sixteen.  He has a smile that goes from ear to ear.  And  the confidence that horses understand.   He does  not limp.
On a hot July afternoon, we  watched Josh  at  work as  he shod Nolan Skeoch’s  horse , Mello.
Josh Twomeys…Farrier   (Blacksmith)
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THERE’S A HOLEIN THE FENCE.” Graveyard … Strangest wilderness ever St. Pancras…

“THERE’S  A HOLE IN THE FENCE…”

STRANGEST GRAVEYARD I HAVE EVER SEEN

(Worth a read.  Really.  Strangest place in North London with a history going back to the Roman Emperor Diocletian )
alan skeoch
August 2018
“LOOK, there’s a hole  in the fence.”
“Seems creepy.”
“Come on, see  where it leads.”
“Gravestones covered in Ivy.”
“It’s  a  graveyard…a forgotten  graveyard.”
“Creepy, Alan, a place where  weirdo’s could hide.”
“No sign of a  living person.”
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HOW TO MAKE GUM…FIRST INVEST $200,000 IN A GOOD COMBINE HARVESTER

RECIPE: HOW  TO MAKE  GUM

(First, buy a  $200,000 combine harvester  then read my instructions below)
alan skeoch
August 2, 2018
“Want of  make your own gum, Marjorie?”
“Better things to do with my time…like  cleaning house.”
“Sit down, I’ll show you how to make good gum.”
“Sometimes I wonder about your  sanity,  Alan.”
‘Best gum is  home made gum.”
“Gum?”
“Just pay attention…this is a lost art…something that every farm girl  and boy new how to do  years ago….making their own Gum.  Do not lose this historic moment.