Alan Skeoch

Year: 2018

  • Tom Buckland’s last look at his barn Oct. 2018

    TOM BUCKLAND TAKES  A  LAST LOOK AT HIS BARN

    alan skeoch
    Oc.t 23, 2018
    I wish we could stop and  take a breath.  The pace of change is  just too  fast for me…and for lots  of others.  Fortunately I  had
    that chance to pause the other day when I caught Tom Buckland, alone on his seventh line farm which was   about to be turned
    over to a new owner.  And that new owner may not know what to do with the huge Buckland  barn because it needs  some rescue
    work on the stone foundation.    If other barns are any guide i expect the Buckland barnwill soon be gone…a  pile of splintered  beams
    and twisted roofing.  Not glorious any more.
    “Tom can we take a look at your barn from the threshing floor?”
    “Closed  it up for the farm sale…worried  someone would get hurt…”
    “Two of us are unlikely to have trouble…”
    “Sure  we can take a  look.”
    What was left unsaid?   You figure that out below.

  • Fwd: History of Parkdale

    So you seem to like stories about Parkdale…reflections

    Here are a few to add to your collection:

    THE YEAR WAS 1963
    THE PLACE WAS PARKDALE C.I.

    I think my dad was startled when it became apparent that both my brother and I were to become high school history teachers…both accepted jobs at Parkdale because of John Ricker and Evan Cruickshank.  Senior teachers…admirable teachers…real teachers.  

    “Alan, if you come to Parkdale Collegiate, you will never leave.”  Both John and Evan said the same thing which was odd.  And I thought false.  I mean, who stays in the same job for his or her entire adult life?  Lots of other things to do in this world.   Why would anyone stay at PCI for 35 years?  Well John and Evan were right.  I stayed at PCI for 35 years and am damn glad I did.  Just full of adventures:

    (more…)

  • 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.”

  • “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.”

  • 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.”