Alan Skeoch

Year: 2020

  • EPISODE 139 PUTTING THE BEES TO SLEEP FOR THE WINTER

    EPISODE 139    PUTTNG THE BEES TO SLEEP FOR THE WINTER


    alan  skeoch
    Oct. 12,2020

    Andrew’s bees need  tender loving  care at this time of year.  They
    are getting  ready  for a  long sleep and their home needs  to be
    winterize and a surplus food supply of sugar and  water needs to
    be available.


    Late fall colours  are holding just so the bees can remember how glorious their nectar collecting days have been.
    Once Andrew gets them sealed  of for the winter they may peak out occasionally … at their peril


    Andrew has decided to let the bees keep their honey this year.  New Bees…new home…new country.

    “Tate this Dad”  … he scooped spoonful of honey with his bee knife.
    “Terrific…can i have another shot?”

    At that moment a bee stung poor Norman on the ass.  He took off like a bat out of
    hell for home.   The honey tasting was  forgotten.




  • EPISODE 138 HAY LOADER AND BILL BROOKS MAY 2018 and Angus McEchern



    Begin forwarded message:


    From: SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
    Subject: Fwd: HAY LOADER AND BILL BROOKS MAY 2018 and Angus McEchern
    Date: May 30, 2018 at 9:33:59 PM EDT
    To: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>




    Begin forwarded message:


      EPISODE 138 



    THE HAY LOADER…INVENTED1895….REPAIRED AMD MADE FUNCTIONAL 2018

    alan skeoch
    Oct. 2020


     Setting:July Day, sunny day, beautiful day…year 1950, age 12

    “Well, boys, today we have work to do.  Hop on the wagon with a hay fork, each  of  you.”
    “Where are we going, Angus?”
    “Loading hay…cured perfectly by the sun…”Make hay  while the sun shines,” and old saying…true saying”
    “Anything special we should know?”
    “Nothing.  Just don’t stab each other or fall off the wagon as the load builds  up.”
    “How can we fork hay from the field  if we are on the hay wagon?”
    “No  need to do that.   See that machine in the hay  field.  Called a hay  loader.  it does most
    of the tough work after it gets hitched to the back  of the wagon. “
    “What do  we do?”
    “You will soon see.  There all hitched.  I will drive down the windrows with the tractor.  Don’t look
    at me or you will be smothered in hay.”

    And  away we went.  Hay came off the ground  with wire tines…moved  up the elevator and dumped
    on us  with a steady  stream.  We forked as fast as  we could…piling the loose hay as  neat as possible
    but it just kept coming and we began to stand higher and higher until Angus stopped and unhitched
    the hay loader.  Then we rode the load to the barn.  Angus  McEchern  knew how much hay he
    would need to feed the cattle and  horses over the winter.  He still kept a team  of  horses for old
    times sake.  He loved is animals more than money.The new hay  smelled  like the finest after shave lotion that dad  used or perfume.
    Timothy hay  with clover interspersed.

    Once unloaded in the mow, we headed back to the field  and rehitched the loader  starting the
    job all over again.  We were as dry as  popcorn farts by the third load so Angus  had a special
    surprise.

    “I’m going to get close to the fence row.  Park your forks and  get your hands ready.  Chokecherries
    …grab a few fistsful.  You  might like the taste.  Spit out the stones.”

    Chokecherries are an acquired taste.  Awful at first.  Makes the mouth pucker up.   Dry as an empty
    dipper.   Then they begin to taste good.  Angus swung by the chokecherry bushes several  times.
    We grabbed and  gobbled…and  spit out the cherry stones.  “You  boys should pick a basket of
    the cherries  for your mom…make terrific jam.  Do that after we get the hay in the barn.”  And so  
    the day went by.  Hay just kept coming from the gaping top mouth of the hay loader. Kept coming
    and  we kept forking.

    That was one grand  day.  Never forgotten.  Just the one day…only a few hours really.  But
    the day  got lodged in my brain forever.

    Decades later…perhaps 40 years later or longer…I bought that hay loader after Angus  died.
    And  hauled  it to our farm where it stood by the cedar grove for another 20 years or so.…
     festooned with bittersweet vines helped along by two
    poplar trees growing through it.  A shame.  So this  year, spring 2020, we cleared  the vines and
    ousted the trees  by t heir roots.  The result?  Look below.


    The Hay Loader was invented in 1895 as a labour saving machine that would pick up hay that had  been dried by the sun and
    deliver the hay to a couple of men or women standing on  a  hay wagon pulled by a team of horses or a tractor.   What labour
    is  saved?    Tossing cured  hay onto a  hay  wagon meant working against gravity.  Tiring.   A hay loader worked with gravity
    by dumping the cured hay directly on to the wagon and therefore farmers just had to catch the stream  of hay and place forks  full
    neatly on the wagon bed.  A lot more hay could be loaded with a lot less effort.
     
    More of the story to come…as told and shown by Bill Brooks…below.









    That is not the end of the story….Back in 2018, Bill Brooks called me up.


    “HAY LOADER REBORN AND READY  TO GO.”

    alan skeoch
    May 2018

    “Well,  young fellow,  you should see  what I’ve just rebuilt”
    “Must be something ancient, Bill.”
    ‘Drop by the  shop today if you can.”


    Bill Brooks and  his  wife Leah own a machine shop not far from our farm.  Bill loves  old machines…more than he

    loves profits.  He had just restored a hay loader that had been snapped  up by  a Mennonite family north of Kitchener.
    Before he delivered the hay loader he wanted me to see it.   I was  flattered.




    This is  Angus  McEchern with one of his pet Hereford steers.  That story is coming next

    if I can get the time.



    alan skeoch
    Oct. 12, 2020

  • EPISODE 138 THANKSGIVING…PUMPKIN PIE TIME

    EPISODE 138     THANKSGIVING…PUMPKING PIE TIME


    alan skeoch
    Oct. 10, 2020

    Thanksgiving this year is like no other in all our lives.  Covid 19 takes the joy … the smile…and
    hides it behind a mask.  The trees … the swamp … the sky …all  seem to know that the season
    of change is upon us.

    Cheer up…Marjorie has made two PUMPKIN pies… which  we thought would  be eaten in
    isolation then Andy and Jack  drove in the lane and everything changed. The trees got
    a little brighter.  The pumpkin pie a little sweeter.  Even Woody got a taste as he
    waited patiently to lick the dishes.

    But most of my readers  do not know Andy and Jack.  So here is
    a challenge for you.  Enjoy the colours for sure.  But see if you
    can identify the machines.  What is the job they did  on 19th century
    farms.

    These machines  of the past were once the pride and joy of young farm 
    families…




    “Alan, I do not like this Covid 19.  It is ruining thanksgiving.  We usually have all kinds of  people
    up here…with a 150 pound turkey (or thereabouts)…to day there is just you, me and Woody.

    “MARJORIE, Look closely at Woody .  He senses someone he knows is coming.  Look at his posture.
    We will not be alone, Marjorie.   But please do not tell  whoever Woody senses that you have
    made a pumpkin pie.   I want the whole damn thing.”

    “Oh, Alan…it’s Andy and  Jack  “

    “Do not tell me they look hungry….”




    WILD GRAPES ARE READY.  SMALL AND SWEET.  CANADIAN…ONTARIO… WILD  GRAPE ROOT STOCKS RESCUED THE ENTIRE
    FRENCH WINE INDUSTRY WHEN A BLIGHT HIT THEIR ROOT STOCKS.   NOT MANY PEOPLE KNOW THAT.

    THERE ARE VERY FEW SILOS MADE FROM FIELD STONES.   I HAVE ONLY SEEN TWO OFTHEM AND THIS IS MY FAVOURITE BUILT
    LONG AGO, AROUND1873 BY ANGUS  MCLEAN AND HIS SISTERS JEAN AND  JANET.   OUR SON ANDREW IS GOING TO RESCUE
    IT.  REPAIR.  ANGUS MCLEAN ONCE HAD A  BLACKSMITH SHOP RIGHT WHERE THAT BIG MAPLE STANDS.  

    ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION OR ARE YOU THINKING OF PUMPKIN PIE?
    THIS  IS OUR BIGGEST POND…NOW ALMOST BONE DRY DUE TO THE HOT SUMMER.  LUCKY WE EXCAVATED A DEEP
    SPOT FOR THE SNAPPING TURTLE TO HIDE FOR THE WINTER… 

    My brother and I actually worked with this machine.  Same one.  it belonged to Angus  McEchern.  I bought it for a few dollars
    just for the memories


    PAUL CARON, a friend  of ours, carefully crawled  close to this  turtle with his camera.  He got a great picture then
    discovered the turtle was made of cement.  I bet it fooled you as well.

    For those of you who have failed  my identification test…THIS  IS A  HORSE DRAWN HAY TEDDER…ONNCE UPON A TIME
    IT FLUFFED  UP NEW MOWN HAY SO THE HAY WOULD DRY FAST AND KEEP ITS NUTRIENTS.  THERE ARE NOT MANY OF
    THESE MACHINES  AROUND TODAY.  I HAVE TWO OF THEM.  THIS ONE HAD TWO TREES GROWING THROUGH IT. ANDY
    AND HIS CHAIN SAW LIBERATED IT.  


    You may wonder why I am not cutting the grass.  Not helping.  The answer is simple
    and  brilliant.  Marjorie does  not think I do a  good job.  Which is  true.  Avoiding that kind of 
    work is a  skill I have honed.

    alan skeoch
    Oct. 10, 2020

  • EPISODE 137 WHERE HAVE ALL THE GARTER SNAKES GONE?



    EPISODE  137   WHERE HAVE ALL OUR SNAKES GONE?

    Alan Skeoch
    Oct. 9, 2020

    Every year of my life I have met snakes in the summer time.  Garter snakes especially and the
    occasional milk snake.  Except this summer.   No one has been found staring at me in the
    barn or green house.   Usually they hide among the thousand flower pots I keep hap hazardly stacked
    but not this  year.

    A snake only scares me when I do not see the creature until I lift a flower pot or move a 
    tool box.  One day a couple of  years ago there were a whole bunch of garter snakes in
    the green house.  Lots of males, smaller than the females, but I was looking in the wrong place.
    I should have looked above my head where she was  stretched out…maybe just inches  from
    my head…watching me.  See if you can  find her here.

    How did garter snakes get their name?   Because they looked  like the garters that men
    once wore to hold their socks up?   Now who would do that.  My socks droop down.  Suppose
    I wrapped a garter snake around my sock just for fun.  Nope.  Cannot do that this year.

    Once I found a snake in my shoe.  Maybe it wanted to be a garter.

    Frogs are in short supply.  Endangered by disease and the Sixth mass extinciton.  With few 
    frogs there will have to be fewer snakes.  Sad bit true.   

    Our grandson, Jack, is a great snake catcher.  He does  not kill them…meets them eye to eye.
    His  dad once said that garter snakes  do not bite.  That was proved false when he caught a
    big one and it latched onto his finger.  Most garter snakes are small but one was once found
    that was five feet long.   

    How many garter snakes  are found in North America.  About one million.  I thought there were
    more.  One year we were visiiing Amherst Island and found garter snake balls in an old house
    foundation.  Garter snakes all wrapped up together for the winter or maybe they were copulating.
    Whups…I should not mention sex I suppose.   

    Our uncle John Skeoch, Saskatchewan  farmer, had to abandon his  stone stone house on the 
    prairies because garter snakes had taken over beginning with the foundation field  stone
    gaps and ending up in the kitchen coffee cups.   Snakes  eye to eye with us in the kitchen.
    Seemed  like more than a million must exist.  But that was forty years ago.  Today there
    seem to be no snakes  in our flower pots.  


    Killing snakes happens.  Especially snakes that carry venom that will kill humans.   Like rattle snakes.  Years  ago, Dr. Norm Patterson, geophysicisit, nearly sent
    me to Arizona on a mining job.  Lots of rattlers down there.  So I read a  couple of snake books.  What should I do  if bitten or if a friend got bitten.
    “Suck out the blood”  Imagine that.  How would I suck out the blood of my own leg?  How much blood?   How could  I do  that to a fellow worker?

    No problem.  The next day Norm said he had changed his mind and sent me to Southern Ireland for the summer.  There are no snakes
    in Ireland.  Another crew was  sent to Arizona.   I said nothing to them about rattle snakes.

    We do  have rattlesnakes in Ontario  They are protected.  Our son Andrew has tried to discourage his son Jack from catching Ontario rattlers.

    That light green grass snake is startling in colour but invisible in the grass.

    Marjorie once caught a big garter snake with an equally large frog halfway down its throat.  She pulled out the frog and it hopped away.  The
    snake was not amused.   Why tell you this?  Because it is Marjorie’s birthday today.  What has her birthday got to do with snakes. Nothing.
    Just making the point that Marjorie, our son Andrew and his  son Jack love snakes.  And that love may save a few snakes  from the snake
    killers.  

    alan skeoch
    Oct. 9, 2020

  • EPISODE 136 THE LITTLE SKEOCH OF1921…IS NEARLY REBUILT…NOW RUNNING

    EPISODE 136     THE LITTLE SKEOCH ABOUT TO BE  REBORN…thanks to a group of men who had a dream
    and the collecive skills to build a lost car.

    alan skeoch
    Oct. 2020

    Thanks to Geoff Allison and his friends the Little Skeoch is about to be reborn.  What a surprise.  Even Covid 19
    cannot stop these fellows.   They have had  help from donors of course but the prize…the little Skeoch…is their’s.

    Yestereday when I sent out Episode 135 I sent a copy to Geoff but did not expect such a response because
    the newspaper said  Scotland  was in lockdown due to Covid 19.   Well the virus has slowed things down
    but the little Skeoch is now running.  If you read  Geoff’s letter below and follow his instructions  you will
    be able to see the little car zipping from one garage to another.   The men have even been able to 
    determine the lovely deep red colour of the 1920 Skeoch.   

    Geoff has  given me permission to reprint his letter

    April 2019 – First milestone ups the pace

    On Oct 7, 2020, at 7:37 AM, Geoff Allison


    Good morning Alan,


    Sorry to hear of your sad loss, I hope your son is coping especially with the pandemic on top.

    The pandemic closed our Shed in March, and the lockdown rules in Scotland, being the most stringent in the UK, mean that we are unlikely to re-open before April 2021. We are trying to keep our previously active members in touch with each other via email, telephone and video conferencing. We have also managed to move some of the Shed activities to individual’s homes so they can progress their projects within isolation/distancing rules. More than half our members have managed to keep projects such as 3D printing face masks, engraving, bicycle and engine refurbishment alive – and the biggest of these re-locations was the Skeoch. I recommend our Skeoch webpage https://dalbeattiemensshed.co.uk/skeoch to you for a brief history of how the project has progressed. We moved the car and workshop equipment out in June, primarily to improve the health and wellbeing of one of our members with advanced Parkinson’s. Since that time the project has accelerated almost to completion.  Apart from some minor adjustments the vehicle [less hood(canopy) and radiator badge] is finished awaiting space in a paint shop for finish painting – see the September update on our website. I am re-scheming the unveiling of the finished car as our original intentions have been crushed by the pandemic. We were hoping to display the car at the 2021 Scottish Motor Show, 100 years after it’s first exhibition there in February 1921 – but the Show will not run in 2021. Our reserve intention was to display the car in the Glasgow Transport Museum  thus keeping the launch near to where James Skeoch’s daughter resides, and close to an airport for people wishing to fly in – the museums are closed for the foreseeable future too. At present it’s looking like a triple launch: we will display the car in the picture window of Paterson ATV [ https://www.patersonatv.co.uk/] for a couple of weeks after completion for Dalbeattie townsfolk; I am working with the Chief Executive of the Scottish Motor Trade Association [SMTA own the Scottish Motor Show], to put together a multipage article for their trade magazine [https://content.yudu.com/web/fiqy/0A4403c/autoretailerissue02/html/index.html] aiming for the February 2021 edition; and finally I am working with the organisers of the RHS,  Royal Highland Show, [https://www.whatsoninedinburgh.co.uk/event/084117-royal-highland-show-2021/] to see if we can display the Skeoch on the Dumfries & Galloway stand in June 2021. The RHS is held adjacent to Edinburgh airport so is close to Glasgow and James Skeoch’s daughter as well as being convenient for anyone flying in.

    Picking up on a couple of items in your 132-4 newsletters 
    You were chasing Skeoch heritage in Bute. Before our Shed closed for the pandemic we had a visit from a relative of one of our members who has gaelic as is his first language, and the Skeoch name was discussed. The visitor reminded us that in Scots gaelic the root ‘ach’ means from, and Skeoch is probably a corruption of Sgitheanach meaning from Skye! Just a thought.
    I liked your pictures in 132 – I toured NE USA and SE Canada with my daughter in August 2019 and spent some time in Toronto, we enjoyed the scenery but it was not as colorful as your photos. My daughter returned to Toronto with 2 of her colleagues in October 2019 too. My annual break with my daughter this year was Nashville, Memphis, Natchez and New Orleans in September but that was cancelled due to the pandemic.

    Good to hear from you again, stay well

    Geoff




    A piece of software discovered by Dave Higginbottom designed to colourise old monochrome photos has revealed more detail on a profile picture of the Skeoch (see image) and revises our understanding of the tyre and coachwork finishes.

    William Kennedy offered to share the proceeds of his 9th June 2019 Orroland Gardens open day earlier this year, giving us a target date for having a rolling chassis to display. Planning this event has galvanised fundraising, procurement and build activity.

    Both the engine and gearbox restorations have been completed to the limit of parts available, along with a part 1920s B&B carburettor donated by Keith Dennison. This puts pressure on procuring springs and wheels which, as major cost items, in turn puts pressure on fundraising.

    The second tranche of Dalbeattie Rotary’s donation gives us the confidence to order springs from Jones Springs (Engineering) Ltd of Wednesbury, and wheels from Barrie Brown of Windygates, Fife.

    Later in the month Keith and Chris Dennison visit to donate a beautifully restored magneto. Work on the chassis concentrates on finishing, dressing, mounting and aligning the pedal, brake and countershafts.


    Good old-fashioned fabrication skills resolved two of the our ongoing build difficulties – a new hand built starting handle & support bracket is now robust enough for repeated use; and a process of hand beating long louvres into bonnet side panels was developed using a profiled concave die machined by Donald. Coachwork progressed with the fabrication of rear wings and front wings (inner and outer). Work started on the upholstery, rubber flooring and windscreen support frame.

    An oil leak appeared during tuning and adjusting engine controls which will probably require engine removal and rebuild to resolve. We are still looking for a better carburettor which is configured so that the fuel supply line doesn’t run too close to the exhaust.


    The full story is unfolding step by step.  I hope you feel the same escitement we feel.  It is almost too hard to believe.

    July 2020 – Two steps forward, one step back