Alan Skeoch

Author: Alan Skeoch

  • episode 779 POET, EDNA JACQUES….as told to mr by LOUISA FREEMAN, my grandmother

    episode 778   POET, EDNA JACQUES….as often sent to me by LOUISA FREEMAN, my grandmother

    alan skeoch
    march 9, 2023


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  • Fwd: EPISODE 779 LATEST WOOD QUILT interpretation BARN IN ARISDORF SWITZERLAND



    Begin forwarded message:


    From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
    Subject: EPISODE 779 LATEST WOOD QUILT interpretation BARN IN ARISDORF SWITZERLAND
    Date: March 10, 2023 at 10:54:39 AM EST
    To: john Wardle <jwardle@rogers.com>, Marjorie Skeoch <marjorieskeoch@gmail.com>


    EPISODE 779     LATEST WOOD QUILT interpretation BARN IN ARISDORF SWITZERLAND


    alan skeoch
    march 10, 2023


    Well all the pieces have fallen into place.  Some time has passed since Martin Leuthi and I admired  this
    old barn in the village of Arisdorf, near Basel, Switzerland.

    “Martin,  I would like to make a wooden quilt patterned after that barn.”
    “Look closer, Alan,the farmer is discarding his fanning mill…perched on his harvest wagon now.”
    “Really?  Throwing  it out?
    “Looks that way to me, let’s ask.”

    Yes, it was being tossed.  The mill was old, perhaps early 19th century.  Odd construction.  Long like
    a snake as opposed to Canadian fanning mills that are compact like a ground hog.   We took the mill
    apart and carefully packed the moving parts as cabin  luggage for the flight to Toronto.  Abandoned the
    long sideboards whichI planned to replace but have no done. That was 20 years ago.  The plans
    are still in my shop. Never to be replicated.   

    So this wood quilt is dedicated to the memory that Martin and I share  Without his fluency in Swiss German
    it is unlikely anything would have been done.  Swiss farmers are not exactly the ‘hail fellow, well met’ kind
    of people.  Understandable.  Imagine driving up a farm lane in Ontario to inspect farm trash and then
    have the nerve to ask if you could buy (or have) some ancient machine.

    So while the snowstorms have been raging outside my workshop this February and March, I have
    been reliving….recreating….a moment in my lifetime the I treasure.

    THE SWISS BARN

    Over the past few years I have been gathering wooden pieces…scrap wood…that could be shaped
    into a memory.    Unsophisticated.  I am  neither an artist nor an architect.   Just a folk art enthusiast
    like Maudie ,,,see the Netflix film, MAUD,  that will help  you understand folk art and either hate it or love it.
    The only barn I  ever made collapsed into kindling wood four weeks after I thought it was 
    wonderful.  

    This Ep[isode has been sent as a testimonial to the good times Martin and I shared while admiring
    that Arisdorf barn so long ago. What you see is an impression…not a reality.  DIMENSIONS

    about 4’ x 2’.  Built without commercial purpose.  Built because I wanted to build it  I am not soliciting

    criticism nor potential market.  If I did either of these, there would be no joy.


    alan skeoch’





  • EPISODE 778 COUNTRY ROADS IN WINTER…TOO SOON FORGOTTEN

    EPISODE 778     COUNTRY ROADS IN WINTER…TOO SOON FORGOTTEN


    alan skeoch
    march 9, 2023



    There is a solemn beauty when driving  Canadian country roads when hostile winds blow in winter 
    time.  How you green.   Soon the winter will be gone and spring will be popping up all over.  So here’s
    my toast to the winter of 2022 and 2023.  

    If you need help to truly enjoy thi winter travelogue then get help from John Denver….”Almost heaven…country roads”
    sung by John Denver…easy to find on the internet…..easy.

    Come, take a ride with Marjorie and me … today …before the memory fades.



    Almost heaven, West VirginiaBlue ridge mountains, Shenandoah riverLife is old there, older than the treesYounger than the mountains, growin’ like a breeze
    Country roads, take me homeTo the place I belongWest Virginia, mountain mommaTake me home, country roads
    All my memories, gather ’round herMiner’s lady, stranger to blue waterDark and dusty, painted on the skyMisty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye
    Country roads, take me homeTo the place I belongWest Virginia, mountain mommaTake me home, country roads
    I hear her voice, in the mornin’ hour she calls meThe radio reminds me of my home far awayDrivin’ down the road I get a feelin’That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday
    Country roads, take me homeTo the place I belongWest Virginia, mountain mommaTake me home, country roads
    Country roads, take me homeTo the place I belongWest Virginia, mountain mommaTake me home, country roads
    Take me home, (down) country roadsTake me home, (down) country roads










  • EPISODE 666 GIBRALTAR SCHOOL, FIFTH LINE, ESQUESING TWP, HALTON COUNTY…near Limehousel



    Begin forwarded message:


    From: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch1@gmail.com>
    Date: March 7, 2023 at 1:09:08 PM EST


    EPISODE 777      GIBRALTAR SCHOOL…NEAR VILLAGE OF LIMEHOUSE, FIFTH LINE, ESQUESING TWP.  HALTON COUNTY


    alan skeoch
    march 2023

    Hardly a typical country schoolhouse.   Gibraltar School must at one time been surrounded by
    smal farms , perhaps a village….enough people to provide for a stone built school …two stories high.
    Now in 2023 Gibraltar School has been totally renovated as a private home but the renoVations
    did not change the appearance of the old school house.  Behind the school is the Niagara Escarpment.

    MY NOMINATION:  PRETTIEST 19TH CENTURY ONTARIO SCHOOLHOUSE

    The two-storey stone School Section #9, known as Gibraltar is on the 5th Line. The second storey was added to the 1862 building in 1875.
     It was closed from 1891 until 1954.



    COMMENTS

    1)  WHY was a second storey built on a school with less than 20 students ?  Did teacher live there?  Usually in the 19th and early 20th century the  
    teacher lived on a nearby farm.    And, by the way, the teacher was expected to be a paragon of virtue.

    2) Why was the school so well built…stone building.

    3) Why was the school built a mile from the village of Limehouse. Isolated.  Lucky because the village of Limehouse caught fire
    and most buildings were lost.

    4) Why has this one room school survived when dozens, probably hundreds have not?   (recently restored as a private home)

    5) All the school records were lost when water damaged!  Well, not all, because years ago I found some records
    that put flesh and blood into the life of Gibraltar School…found on internet after following digital trails for a few days.  Must find again
    because those records made the school come alive.

    6) Wy was school named Gibraltar?   19th century British victory in Napoleonic Wars…and subsequent mass emigration
    to Canada…I assume.



    This is the road where the school sits….empty … some farms ,,,straight ahed is the quaint village of Limehouse

    where the new school exists and thrives.


    Gibraltar School House SS#9

    Gibraltar School Students

    1948 Class,  Miss Jean Ruddell )teacher)



    SS #9 Gibraltar School
    1944 – woodshed or stable in back of school
    PaintIng of A meeting with school trustees, by Robert Harris
    ..19TH century, 

    Note:  Much more to this story … perhaps I will find records.

    alan

  • EPISODE 757 MAMMOTH TUSK FOUND IN DUBLIN GULCH AFTER OVERBURDEN WASHED AWAY 1961 (and story of my mammoth molar tooth )

    EPISODE 757 MAMMOTH TUSK FOUND IN DUBLIN GULCH AFTER OVERBURDEN WASHED AWAY 1961
    alan skeoch march 2023
    {CAPTION}

    I just found this photo among pictures taken in 1961 in Dublin Gulch , Yukon territory. This is the claim being hydraulically washed to bed rock by Jack Acheson and his crew. The tusk of a mammoth is clearly visible even to the point of the indentation in the mud where it has rested for 10,000 years or so.
    Jack hired me to do a small seismic survey over his claim just to see how much mud and gravel he would have to wash away to get to the gold lodged in folds in the bedrock. Ugly looking overburden as you can see. Likely sediment from an ancient river that washed the dead mammoth in pieces to where Jack found the tusk.
    I am not sure if it is legal to keep these tusks. See what you can find about that question.
    {CAPTION}

    Jack had a number of these tusks leaning against his Yukon cabin. The bones and tusks and teeth when found were all in a jumble…no intact skeleton. Likely the mammoth died some distant away and had been carried to this resting place in the slurry of mud.
    I never asked Jack what he did with these pieces but think he invited a museum scientist to come to his claim every year. Ownership of the find? I don’t know what the law said.
    But I do know that Jack gave me this Mammoth tooth which was a great teaching prop until it was stolen by a student or teacher or visitor to Room 218 at Parkdale C. I. and now rests in some recreation room in Toronto. I only owned the tooth for one season.
    {CAPTION}

    So what is the difference between mammoth nd mastodon teeth. The animal looked the same. Right? Big difference. Mastodon teeth much like our teeth…chunky. Mammoth teeth were flaky looking…like a loaf of sliced bread. So the difference is obvious. Mammoths lived in a more hostile environment than mastodons. Like the Yukon 10,000 or 12,000 years ago.
    When a mammoth wore down his or her two sets of teeth, it starved to death. I think we would starve to death as well with no teeth. Using this mammoth tooth as an implant…dental implant…seems unlikely but I will ask Dr. Lynas, my dentist. If possible I would need a bigger head.
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    alan skeoch March 5, 2023