Alan Skeoch

Month: June 2018

  • 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.

  • 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!!

  • ARE WE SEEING THE FIRST SIGNS OF THE SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION OF EARTHLY LIFE FORMS?

    THERE HAVE  BEEN FIVE MASS EXTINCTIONS OF LIVING CREATURES ON  EARTH

    …MANY SCIENTISTS THINK WE ARE NOW IN THE MIDST OF THE SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION

  • 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.  

    (more…)

  • 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.