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Silent combat on a Boeing 777

SILENT COMBAT ON A  BOEING 777

alan skeoch
July 24, 2018
“Our seats  are in there?”
“Fine, let me get up.”
New Premium Economy seats go on Air Canada route from ...Air Canada 777 Interior Pictures to Pin on Pinterest ...
Two matronly looking  British ladies would be my seat mates from  London, England  to Toronto, Ontario…a 7 hour flight.  Marjorie and  I had aisle seats. The plane was  packed, every seat taken…up to 400 people can be crammed into the Air Canada  Boeing 777.  Certainly  more than  300 on board today, Hence the term ‘flying  sardine can’ has been a popular moniker for the
Air Canada Boeing 777.  Would  our trip be crowded  but pleasant…or crowded and  living hell?
Certainly  crowded.
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EUREKA! ONE LONE LEOPARD FROG FOUND JULY 8, 2018

EUJREKA!  ONE LONE LEOPARD  FROG!   JLY  8, 2018,

(farm pond, fifth line, erin twp. wellington county)
VERY hot today.  Should be a good day  for frogs to get out of the farm pond
and  limber up there tongues  for fly catching.  That would assume  there are
any frogs left in our 9 acres  of ponds.  There were none visible last week
although there was thing of pollywog movement beneath the floating corpses
of last years bull rushes.
Not much sign of life as I circled  the pond, and  then there it was  … a quite
mature leopard front.  Not moving.  Watching  me with a single bulbous
eyes.  But alive and  healthy.
I hope he or she is not spotted  by the eagle eyes of blue heron whose stiletto beak spears frogs and fish  and anything that moves.
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HUGE WALNUT TREE: PLANTED BY ALAN SKEOCH (supposedly)

OUR GRAND  WALNUT TREE
LOCATION. location, location.  the driving force in real estate valuation. Location was  also  the  driving force in the success  of this walnut tree on fifth line of  Erin Two.

My grandmother, Louisa  Freeman,  always  said  that this  walnut tree was planted by me (alan  skeoch).  In terms of achievements

in life,  the walnut tree stands out.    It was  located  right beside the old farm back house and  about 30 feet from the hand dug well. You can  see  the well  pump handle just to the left of our truck.  The back house was  located  in the shadowy area and was quite a pleasant reading  room because grandma  decorated  it with old  calendars and news  clippings.
Granddad, Edward Freeman, had  a huge rhubarb patch exactly where the truck sits.  From that patch he made gallons and gallons  of rhubarb wine much to the chagrin of his Temperance neighbours.   After he died, Eric and I tried to replicate the wine but ended up with a  soupy mess of wormy barm which  when bottled took a few weeks  to gather enough pressure to detonate.
BAM! BAM! BAM!  Shards of glass and foam and  worms and goop all  over our cellar.
What an unholy mess that was.
The walnut tree now massively overshadows the rhubarb patch.
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MOCK WEDDING OF ALAN AND MARJORIE SKEOCH IN SUMMER OF 1963

OUR MOCK  WEDDING SUMMER 1963
(Fifth Line, Erin  Township,  Wellington  County)
alan skeoch
july 2018

This  may seem  like a strange  picture but it was one of the touching  events of our marriage.    Uncle  Frank Freeman dressed up as  the bride (i.e. Marjorie) and  it looks like young Christopher Peers was the groom.  (i.e. alan) Not sure about that as  the groom might have been  Aunt Lucinda Freeman.

All our kith and  kin on the Freeman side  were gathered at Uncle Frank and
Aunt Lucinda’s  farm  on the Fifth Line  of Erin Township and  the Mock Wedding proceeded.
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PORT CREDIT FISH DERBY JUN 24, 2018

PORT CREDIT FISHING DERBY
JUNE 24, 2018
alan skeoch
June 24, 2018
(Excuse the mention of Skeoch family in story…too many of
them,  I  know that…including  dog Woody.  There are people
here whose names  I  could  not record…particularly the two
young boys who caught the big fish.)
The  best fishing in Ontario is not located in some  pristine lake hidden away in the dense coniferous  forests  of Ontario.  Nope!  Not there! The best
fishing is  just a  couple of  kilometres out from Port Credit in Lake Ontario.  Deep down, 200 feet or more, there is  a large school of  salmon feasting on
alewives and  others.  Salmon that grow to be huge.  Salmon that a few fishermen compete each year to see who can catch the biggest of these
predators.
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This is a TICK SUMMER…WHICH TICKS ME OFF


GETTING TICKED OFF…BY ANOTHER PAIR OF BLOOD SUCKING TICKS

alan skeoch
June 2018


Now, just how big are ticks?




“Alan, I found another tick on my leg?”
“Are you sure?”
“Saved it…here take  a look.”
‘Last night I felt a little  bump on your shoulder, let’s take  a look”
“ANOTHER TICK!!”
‘Get the tweezers, I’ll pull him of gently…make sure his head does not detach.”
“There, got  him.”
“Are  you sure?”
“Who can be  sure?  Ticks are so small at the beginning of their blood lust”
“Need  a magnifying glass…and even then  hard to spot.”
“Does he  have a head  or not?”
“Not sure.”
“Are you sure that little speck is a tick?”
“No, can’t be sure until it gets bloated…but not going to wait.”
“Maybe some of  our friends will be interested…and cautious.”
“Remember how a tick  got Bob Root and he then contracted  lemma disease…nearly did  him in.”
“Seems a  bad year for ticks…you have picked up three…one was dangerous…needed antibiotics.”
“How   come you get them and I don’t?”
“Could be explained  by the fact you wear shorts and I tend to wear long pants…”
“But you had shorts on yesterday  as well as  me.”
“Right.  Maybe my skin is  thicker and ticks have trouble latching oer skin”
“Must be  located  in a place where  I walk…and you don’t walk.”
“But where?”
“now that is  a question I cannot answer…wish  I could.”

EVIDENCE IN PICTURES


Take a close look  at this copy of  the Star…I was reading it when we pulled  the tick from Marjorie’s shoulder…SEE IF  YOU CAN  FIND THE TICK!


YOU failed, right?  Now look again…the tick  is that little dot barely visible  above the letter B.   Now see if you can find it on the full page of the Star.  Hint: Bottom left hand side
WE  are  quite sure it is a tick…not 100% sure…but the way  the black  dot was attached  to the flesh seemed  odd…like a tick.



Tick in Close-up Free Stock Photo - Public Domain Pictures

The scar…treated  with an iodine solution  Marjorie got from the doctor after her first Tick bite.  She  will have to watch  to see if there is an infection…a round bull’s eye infection around the
bite.   Not likely in this  case.   Often people do  not know they have a tick buried in their skin…at least not until the tick fills  up  with blood and becomes the size of  a pumpkin seed only fatter and an
ugly fleshy grey in appearance.  When  one of these is found get rid of  it carefully…tweezers squeezed where the head of the tick has fastened itself…then pull gently but firmly to make sure
the tick releases its hold.  A sharp pull will snap  the  head off  and  that is  dangerous.  This tick never  got a chance to bloat with blood.  The picture of the  bloated tick is  a public  domain
picture.

If in doubt, see  a doctor.

Where are those ticks living?  We have no idea but fields of  tall grass are popular with ticks so do  not try to start our old W6 International Tractor which is up to its belly in tall grass.
It won’t start anyway…too much dirt in the gas tank.  Discovered after spending a bit of money getting everything else working.  Being bitten by  a tick would just “tick me off” all the more.

alan skeoch
June  2018

P.S.  The wild  daisies are in full bloom right now.  I hope this tick story does not prevent you from picking a bouquet of them!!
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Fwd: Screenshot 2018-06-05 at 8.57.00 PM

Al,

Do you remember this?

 

Al,
Do you remember this?

Thanks Nick
DUFFERIN RACETRACK: CRUCIBLE  OF LEARNING
alan skeoch
June 2018

Crystal clear memory…terrific  photograph.  Dufferin racetrack…add a couple of  hundred men in battered fedoras rushing through the gates as if their life depended on the horses and hot walkers, now the place is Dufferin Mall. Boring.  

Continue reading “Fwd: Screenshot 2018-06-05 at 8.57.00 PM”

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Baby raccoon beside the gravel road:

“LET HIM ALONE, ALAN”  (said a voice  from within)
alan skeoch
June

I caught the flicker of  movement on the gravel fringe of the Fifth Line just below our farm. A little ball of something that looked  alive but barely so. Moving in jerks and starts.    So  I braked  and  backed up.

A baby racoon was  trying to get nourishment from  some scrap of  food.  It was alone and certainly not in the best of  health.  The back  legs were wet…perhaps from wading through the swamp but also perhaps from something more sinister.