Alan Skeoch

Author: Alan Skeoch

  • ALASKAN JOB….NOT THAT GLORIOUS…BEAST OF BURDEN 1959

    BEAST OF BURDEN:  DOWNSIDE OF THE ALASKAN  JOB

    We had almost 24 hours of sunshine on the Alaskan job which  was great for my partner Bill Morrison because he loved fishing and the stream below our campsite was filled with salmon fighting their way upstream to lay their eggs. Huge fish…so large Bill could not even hold them up to measure them.  He needed no bait as the salmon were not eating.  Just hook them and drag them to shore.  They only wanted to Lay their eggs and die.  Brutal end  to their lives but a bonanza for Kodiak bears and fishermen like Bill.
    “Alan, maybe Dr. Paterson was not completely honest about hour job up here.”
    “Got me a US green card as a special person with special knowledge.”
    “But there is another aspect to he job beyond Getting the Numbers.”
    “Like?”
    “Like carrying me here and there when I want to go fishing.”
    “Carrying?”
    “Cannot get my leather boots wet…”
    “Do you mean part of my job description is being a Beast of Burden?”
    “Don’t sound so indignant…accept my assurance that your job description involves aiding fishing.”
    “Is that in writing?”
    “No, Dr. Paterson…Norm…did not put it in writing.”
    “Damn!”
    “Now turn around, I want to fish on the other side today.”
    alan skeoch, March  2018 (pic from 1959)

  • Alan Skeoch … All worldly possessions YUKON JOB 1962

    DUBLIN GULCH CAMP, YUKON TERRITORY, 1962
    NOW THIS IS REALLY SILLY…(found in old 35 mm slide)
    alan  skeoch
    March 2018

    Readers  come in all sorts … interested and bored,  large and small, old and young, critical and open-minded, full of evil thoughts and just plain joyful. Which are you?

    Some readers  might be interested  in this small corner of the universe  in the summer of 1962.   Either Delete this silliness or consider it a game.  It’s a game….see what you can find.

  • FLY CAMP…FROM PARADISE LODGE…YES PARADISE

    WHAT ARE THOSE  WHITE THINGS IN THE STEW POT?

    WE used canoes and a Cessna float plane on a fly camp west of Paradise Lodge … somewhere west of Paradise Lodge in that great wild boreal  forest that rolls  from

    Sault Ste Marie to Manitoba and beyond. Of course we did not get that far for we were not ‘coureurs de bois.’ We were just a bunch of 20 somethings doing a job that few people really wanted.   Oh sure, lots of people wished they had a job like this.  Lots of people wish they could roll back the time clock and become some kid of adventurer.  But if the chance ever comes,  most Canadians would turn it down.
    Take this  campsite.

  • Dinners 1) Mississauga 2) Yukon NOT QUITE THE SAME BUT BOTH DELIGHTFUL

    Dateline:  Mississauga in  March 2018, and Yukon Territory in summer 1961

    Tonight we celebrated our daughter in law Julie’s birthday at a fancy and fine Italian restaurant in Mississauga. All the trimmings…real knives, forks, spoon, bruschetta, wine, beer, spaghetti with shrimp, Irish coffee…in short THE WORKS.  Happy birthday, julie.  I have a recipe for you below.

    Then I came home and was combing through my mining days pictures, now converted to digital.  And what to my wondering eyes did appear but a supper in the bush.  Candlelight, dinner in a  washbasin (double duty), a bed made of balsam poles  and a bit of luxury with a real mattress.  This was the only job where a  real mattress was provided.  Never had  one that summer so do not know how this fellow, Bill Dunn, got this one.  Stole it probably, he was good  tat that kind of ting.  And he is all dressed for a fancy meal in long John;s…then ready for bed  after a basin full of slop.
    I am amazed at the number of people who wish they had the adventures that came with mining exploration.  Maybe this picture will change minds.

  • IRELAND 1960: “COW IN THE MINE,…OR SO I WAS TOLD.”

    Note:  Only sending this to a few friends…sounds too self-obsessed…too much about me…too silly…but true hence the pictures.  I cannot believe that Barney and I took such risks  but we did.  Sense of immortality reserved for risk taking males when they are 22years old.  Article is too long for casual reading so I know some of you will press delete.  Good.  Do it. Why did I write this?  Because my former boss, Dr. Paterson  is writing a book about geophysical prospecting in the 1950’s and  he wanted  some material that gives a little twist on the job.  I sent him one short article.  Then I wrote this whopper.

     IRELAND, 1960:  “COW IN MINE,…OR SO I WAS TOLD.”

    alan skeoch
    March  2018

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    (more…)