Alan Skeoch

Author: terraviva

  • FORTHCOMING EPISODES…A NOTE

    special note July 2020
    Shortly I will be sending some episodes on the summer of1960 that might help to make the Irish episodes fit better. The language may be a little rough at times because working at the bottom of an abandoned Elliott Lake uranium mine was rough and dangerous as were the men I worked with. Amusing. Informative. True.
    Originally I had planned an Episode dealing with mining Cages…and lack of cages as in Knockmahon. That story will come as well.
    The surprising note I received from Dan Dwan whose family still lives in Knockmahon and who knows the men who were part of my 1960 team has kindled my imagination. You will find the stories interesting as well I hope.
    We are still in lockdown..isolation due to Covid 19 so my captive audience…you…may need the relief of the stories Things could be worse. You could be down 2,000 feet in a uranium mine where the count was 292 …high radiation. Or, as my assistant Harry expressed it….”What the fuck are we doing down here?”
    alan

  • HOW TO BUILD A GARDEN THAT REALLY PRODUCES FOOD…RUBBER TIRES AND BLACK PLASTIC SHEETING

    MID  JULY 2020

    SO FAR OUR GARDEN HAS PRODUCED ONE ZUCCHINI AND SOME  VERY SMALL ONIONS BUT ACROSS
    THE ROAD….

    ANDY’S GARDEN ON THE OTHER HAND  HAS PRODUCED LOADS OF BEETS, GARIC ONIONS,  CORSN IN THE TASSEL
    STAGE, SQUASH LUMPS AND  CAULIFLOWERS, ETC…AND
    LOTS MORE COMING.  HIS SECRET IS USING OLD RUBBER TIRES TO HOLD DOWN THICK PLASTIC
    SHEETING IN WHICH THERE ARE SMALL INCISIONS.   THE WEEDS CANNOT DESTROY THE GARDEN.

    WOULD HIS GARDEN  EVER MAKE PHOTOS IN THE HIGH END GARDENERS GLORY BOOK?

    alan skeoch
    july 16, 2020


  • EPISODE 83: AT TALE OF TWO GARDENS IN PANDEMIC YEAR…CITY GARDEN AND COUNTRY GARDEN JULY 15, 2020

    EPISODE 83   A TALE OF TWO GARDENS IN THE PANDEMIC  YEAR 2020

    COVID 19:  THE PANDEMIC  HAS  CHANGED THE WORLD…BUT WE REMAIN LUCKY AND ALONE

    WHAT HAVE WE BEEN DOING IN OUR ISOLATION?   WELL WE HAVE BEEN GARDEINING AND
    FEEL VERY LUCKY  TO BE ABLE TO DO SO  MARJORIE IS THE BETTER GARDENER AS YOU WILL
    NO DOUBT NOTICE.  MY JOB IS TO FIGHT OFF THE WEEDS.   ONE PICTURE SHOWS HOW OUR
    WEEDS  CAN OUT COMPETE OUR CORN…SEE IF YOU  CAN  FIND  IT.   WOODY HAS BEEN
    INCLUDED  JUST FOR FUN.


    1)  OUR COUNTRY GARDEN…JULY 15, 2020

    . USING PLASTIC CONTAINERS TO TRY AND DISCOURAGE THE WEEDS…SO FAR
    ALL WE HAVE  PRODUCED IS ONE ZUCCHINI.  





    THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE WEEDS OUT COMPETE THE CORN AND
    PUMPKIN PATCH.   WEEDS USUALLY WIN.  LATER IN THE FALL WE WILL SEE
    IF ANY PUMPKINS SURVIVED.   WHY NOT GET IN THERE AND WEED THE PATCH?
    MY EXCUSE  IS SIMPLE…MAYBE THERE ARE BLACK LEGGD  TICKS JUST WAITING
    FOR MY BARE LEGS.   AN EXCUSE.


    THE MILKWEED  PLANTS ARE NOW SIX  FEET HIGH AND HAVE ATTRACTED  TWO MONARCH  BUTTERFLIES.  I HOPE THEY ARE
    HUSBAND AND WIFE AND HAVE LEFT THEIR PROGENY TO WOLF  DOWN THE MILKWEED.   


    WE HAVE FOUR LARGE PONDS ON MY GRANDFATHER’S FROMER FARM.  HE DRAINED THEM AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.
    WE HAVE DONE THE  REVERSE.  THANKS TO COVID19 WE HAVE CLEARED SOME OF THE LAND  AROUND
    ONE OF OUR PONDS THAT HAS BEEN LOST TO SIGHT FOR A COUPLE  OF  DECADES.  WHEN IT WAS EXCAVATED
    OVER 20 YEARS AGO, THE HUGE EXCAVATING MACHINE HIT QUICK SAND  AND SLOWLY SANK.   TO RESCUE
    THE EXCAVATOR WAS  AN  IMMENSE TASK.  IMAGINE WHAT THIS  POND  WOULD LOOK LIKE WITH THE WRECK
    OF AN EXCAVATOR IN THE MIDDLE…PERHAPS JUST THE NECK REVEALED.

    I INCLUDED  ANGUS MCECHERN’S OLD HAY LOADER TO HELP YOU VISUALIZE WHAT THIS LAND  WAS LIKE  WHEN
    IT WAS A FIELD OF TIMOTHY HAY AND  ERIC, RONNIE, ANGUS AND I STOOD ON THE HAY WAGON WHILE THE LOOSE
    HAY TUMBLED ONTO US AS WE TRIED TO STOW IT.   ANGUS  PULLED OUR CARAVAN … TRACTOR, HAY WAGON, HAY LOADER …
    OVER BESIDE THE WILD CHOKECHERRIES FOR US TO EAT IF  WE GRABBED  THEM FAST.

    ALAN SKEOCH
    JULY 15, 2020


    A FEW YEARS AGO I USED THIS OPEN SPACE TO BURN WOODEN  TRASH.
    MARJORIE MADE ME CONVERT THE SPACE TO GRASS.  I AM NOT SURE
    THAT WAS A GOOD  IDEA BUT DID IT ANYWAY.  YOU BE THE JUDGE.


    2)  OUR CITY GARDEN … PLANTED  AND  NURSED BY MARJORIE      JULY 25, 2020



    ALAN SKEOCH’
    JULY 15, 2020

    P>S>    I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN IRELAND…MORE EPISODES COMING NOW THAT
    DAN DWAN HAS REACHED ACROSS THE ATLANTIC TO TOUCH  BASE WITH ME.
    BARNEY DWAN IS ALIVE AND WELL…REMEMBER HIM?  MY RIGHT HAND  MAN
    IN 1960 WHO I CALLED  BANDY BECAUSE OF THE IRISH  ACCENT.



    Sent from my iPhone

  • EPISODE 82 BUNMAHON 1960 … A STARTLING LETTER RECIEVED JULY 16, 2020

    EPISODE 82    BUNMAHON 2960…A STARTLING LETTER RECEIVED JULY 16, 2020



    NOTE:  OUT OF THE BLUE…out of the internet I mean,..I just received a letter from Dan Dwan, a relative of my right hand man  Barney Dwan in Ireland in 1960. He
    found the Bunmahon stories on the Internet.   Amazing.  wonderful.   Sixty years ago. So  I am sending him a bunch of pictures.  IN addition  one of the stories  I never sent to others…i.e.
    my Irish date with Rena Casey.   

    There are periods  in our lives that are frozen in our memories…and  once warmed up those memories return ins such graphic  detail
    that they must seem to others as fabricated.   That is why the pictures are so important…they establish that my memory has recorded
    that summer of  1960 quite accurately.

    DAN  DWAN.

    HI Dan…here  is a  pile of pics…most of which  I  used.

    Maybe you can with help of Barney identify some of the characters in Kirwin’s pub.

    Send  pic of yourself  and  Barney…I  will tie them into the final entires

    (I called him Bandy for weeks which
    made the crew laugh…and then they started to call him Bandy…followed by hoops of
    laughter that confused me for a while.  Barney just grinned.  His  Irish accent had confused me.)

    One story I have not told  and will do  so now…i.e.  the date I had with Rena Casey…entirely platonic as
    she was just a nice person who walked on the cliffs  and  seemed  interested in me.   A replica  of Maureen O’Hara.  I Rented
    an old van from Mr.s Kennedy…wreck…drove to Tramore to see a movie and then home. The
    car stopped suddenly part way home which i think alarmed Rena…certainly alarmed  me…got the
    crank and got it started again.  We were both nervous.  I still remember the spot on the Tramore road
    where the breakdown occurred…a dark place in the shadow of the Copper Cliffs of Tankardstown
    I think.  What must have been going through her mind?  The car was at fault …not me.

    Then a day or so later Mrs. Kennedy said

     “Master Skeoch, the Casey’s bought a new studio couch”
    “So?”
    “Just informing you there may be expectations.”  (Mrs. Kennedy did not approve)

    I never spoke with Rena  again as I feared hurting her feelings…I liked her as a person
    not as  a conquest.   And  I was  certainly influenced by the Quiet Man…John Wayne and Maureen
    O’Hara romance.  A romantic at heart.  I was more frightened by the ‘studio couch’ than 
    crawling through the abandoned mine adits and shafts.  Years later, in 1965, Mrs. Kennedy told
    me Rean had moved  to London, married  with three kids.  Good for her.

     My girlfriend in Canada at the time, Marjorie Hughes, later became my wife and  we returned to
    Bonmahon with my brother in 1965…and also  later in the century.  Both of our sons and both
    of our daughters  in law have been to bunmahon…passing through.  The place lives in many
    memories.

     I found the people of Bunmahon fascinating
    and loved  our regular pints at Kirwin’s…loved the banter…the stories…the sprays of
    Holy Water thrown at me on Sundays.  No  Irish hostility…no nastiness…just good  times.

    Hunting Technical and Exploration Services trusted me to do  the job.  That was flattering 
    and I worked  hard lest I let them down.  I hoped the project wold help  Bunmahon.  It did
    not but the later publicity pushed  by historian Des Cowman certainly did…now called the CopperTrail.

    My  company in Canada wondered why I hired  so many people.  They were paid so  little
    that I tried my best to get a little money in their hands.   And the Irish cattle herds justified
    the extra expense.  So many  cattle chewed  up our lines that I thought the local milk
    would be copper coloured.    We needed men to patrol our base line.  Even  then the
    cattle got the wire and  regurgitated  it in the fields in balls the size of baseballs.   Many farmers
    hated me I think…demanded  compensation.  I do not know if they were ever paid although
    they should have been.

     For the life of me I could not
    understand how they could afford those pints of  Guinness….dinner in a glass as they say…
    We dared not start to buy rounds fearing our employees  at Kirwin’s would feel duty bound
    to reciprocate.

    As a stupid gesture, I gave each man a pack of cigarettes on paydays…I did  not know that
    Wild Woodbine cigarettes… were the cheapest of cheap tobacco.  I think I even gave out chocolate 
    bars just for fun.   My company never complained.   My boss will get this letter as well as you.
    He once described me as  precocious which I have found  amusing.



    alan skeoch
    July  2020

    P.S.  Send  a couple of pics.











  • EPISODE 82: Bees



    Begin forwarded message:


    From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
    Subject: Bees
    Date: July 3, 2020 at 9:48:16 PM EDT
    To: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>


    BEES AND  BEEKEEPING…AND THOSE  CLOUDS

    alan skeoch

    July 4, 2020

    There is a long trail winding…lifetime trail.

    I was  a  failure as  a beekeeper many years ago.  Decades ago, At the Parker Pettit farm sale I bought all
    his old bee hives and then proceeded to learn beekeeping.   The old hives were
    contaminated and my days as a beekeeper ended  when I had to set the hives  afire. 
    Sad. Guilty.  

    Today our son Andrew, now a big man, has taken up beekeeping thanks to the advice
    of Russ  Vanstone, my lifetime friend.   New hives, new bees, new place with shelter
    and fields of flowers at different stages.   

    Some say that certain skills ‘skip a generation’…i..e our children become more
    like our parents than like ourselves.   Certain truth there in this case.  Only in this
    case the skip went back two generations to his great grandfather, Edward  Freeman, 
    who could do  anything he set his mind to do.  Great wealth never fell his way
    but happiness did.  He was a contented man.

    These are going to be happy bees.  Just wait until you see where they are
    living.   And then lose yourself in those ‘Jone Mitchell’ Clouds.

    alan skeoch


































    “What a  great day for dreaming…;puts 

    me in mind that snippet from John Lennon’s

    song  Imagine.

    You may say I’m a dreamer
    But I’m not the only one
    I hope someday you’ll join us


















    CLOUDS NEVER GET IN MY WAY


    The Joni Mitchell lyrics to her song Clouds have a negative thrust 
    as  the song unfolds.  I prefer the first four lines….the angel hair, ice
    cream  castles, feather canyons.  I spend a lot of time looking at clouds
    and interpreting  the shapes on summer days.  I will always  look
    at clouds  that way. 

     “Alan, keep your eyes on the road and stop seeing
    things that are not there.”  
    “But they are there, Marjorie…look at those clouds…they speak to us
    of things that only our imagination can  let loose…like those three
    puppies at the dining room table over there in the sky.”
    “And the old man smoking a pipe.”
    “And the full bodied woman over there.”
    “And the house lost in a snowstorm.”
    “And the huge honey bee loaded with nectar and pollen on tis legs
    heading back to the hive.”

    “You are better than I am at seeing things that are not really
    anyplace other than your mind, Marjorie. “

    “Let’s just stop the car…pull off this empty road…
    and see what our minds  can see in this wonderful sky
    on this wonderful summer day.” 

    Rows and floes of angel hair
    And ice cream castles in the air
    And feather canyons everywhere
    I’ve looked at clouds that way









    Do you want something to do?

      Take a load  off your feet and  see what you can

    find in these clouds.










    alan skeoch

    July 4, 2020











    Sent from my iPhone