Alan Skeoch

Year: 2021

  • EPISODE 394 LOVED TO EAT THEM EVEN IF LEAVES, BARK, TWIGS, PITS WERE POISON TO CATTLE AND HORSES

    EPISODE 384 LOVED TO EAT THEM EVEN IF EAVES, BARK, TWIGS, PITS WERE POISONOUS (I did not know they were poison until yesterday…70 years later)
    alan skeoch July 21, 2021
    Today my story will be late…i.e. evening.
    Why? Big load returning from a movie set. But let me send this teaser. Every threshing season when we were small was a time of hard labour for all generations. As kids we had various jobs one of which was rearranging ‘stukes’ of bound bundles of grain on the hay wagon. This was a bit tricky in that we were armed with pitchforks and had to move fast. We did this labour on the Townsend farm, the Freeman farm and the McEchern farm. All Wellington County farms. Angus McEchern always steered to the fencerow occasionally so we could feast while working.
    QUESTION: WHAT were we eating? Full story coming.

  • EPISODE 393 BACK TO SQUARE BAILS…DID YOU NOTICE? JULY 20, 2021


    EPISODE 393    BACK TO SQUARE BAILS…DID YOU NOTICE ?

    alan skeoch
    july 20 2021


    SUDDENLY MACHINES RATTLED THE SILENCE OF A COUNTRY ROAD

    The nice thing about an empty road is the chance to look around as I’m driving.  Today there was more action
    in the grain field than on the road…so I slowed down, stopped, slipped into reverse and backed up

    Something a little surprising was happening…took me a few minutes to figure it out.
    SO I backed up and recorded the movement.  A whole lot of machinery…new.   And
    operated by one man.

    But that was not the point…there was something else at work in my brain.

    And it seemed I was not alone.   There was a white half ton truck nearby.  The driver must have been as fascinated
    as I was.  Too fascinated for he ended up in deep trouble as you will see at the end of this story.






    Coming straight down the windrow of loose straw after the combine had got the good stuff…winter wheat or barley.






    Massey Ferguson tractor…once made in Toronto but no longer so.


    AHAH!  This is a new version of an old machine.   Back to square bails with a difference.   No need for a stacker…one man’s job
    is gone with this self stacker…when the load is full it is plopped down in the field for a tractor with a front end pick up.

    Years ago we were the loaders.  The bailer would shoot the bound bails at us and we had to stack them 
    quickly on the wagon.   As I  remember there were three of us doing the job.  We had to move fast.  Occasionally someone
    would grab the bail by one string…snap the twine and a shower of loose straw would wreck our system.  “Push the bastard off…I mean
    the broken bail…not you guys.”

    The big round bailers are still working most fields.  Problem with them is storage…wrapped in heavy plastic tarps….hundreds of 
    these sheets of plastic.  Terrible waste.  “Why not store the round bails in the barns..most of which are empty?”

    Simple answer…round bails roll….push out the barns support beams. And the round bails are hard to get in and out
    of Ontario bank barns.   Have you ever tried to lift a round bail?  Can’t be done.  Square bails are human friendly …can be lifted. Round bails are
    inhuman…cannot be lifted.    


    So the whole job of bailing straw can now be done by one man…or woman.








    Just a bit farther down the fifth line I met a guy who also must
    have been rubber necking his way north on this bright summer day.
    Seems he missed the road perhaps while watching the combine at work.
    But I do not know how he could miss the road…just guessing he was rubber 
    necking.

  • EPISODE 392 JUST IN CASE YOU ARE INTERESTED…TABLES ( sort of tables )

    EPISODE 392     JUST IN CASE YOU ARE INTERESTED…


    alan skeoch
    July 20. 2021

    The phone rang early this morning.
    “Alan, I have some tables you might want to purchase.”
    “What kind?
    “I will send a picture.”

    And so she did.  I am not interested but maybe someone
    who gets my episodes might have room for them in an apartment
    or condo…or maybe in their five ton truck.

    If so, let me know…I will forward the info.

    alan

    P.S.  Just a thought.  Old man Trump has not quite finished his
    border wall…maybe these would help if covered with barbed wire.

    IMG_1144.JPG

  • Episode 391 MOTION PICTURE TREASURES…(beaten and bashed like all of us)

    FILMING IS BIG BUSINESS IN TORONTO…HERE IS ONE REASON WHY


    EPISODE 391     MOTION PICTURE SET DRESSING TREASURES (matter of opinion)


    alan skeoch
    july 2021



    Good news came up the farm laneway in the form of a 5 ton truck sent
    loaded with gifts from Michael V.   Treasures ,really.  So here are
    some pictures and a few questions to which the only answer is “GOOD!”

    “ALAN, we need set dressing for a factory in ruins…”
    GOOD
    “MARJORIE, we need some things for village in 1950’s…i.e. oil storage tanks…iron wheels.”
    GOOD
    “ALAN, we need some things for a back alley in a tough city.”
    GOOD
    “MARJORIE, we need some things for a ship yard in ruins…1930’s rusty…broken…forgotten”
    GOOD
    “ALAN  we need a disaster scene dressing”
    GOOD
    “MARJORIE, The setting is a scrap yard.”
    GOOD
    “ALAN, we need rusty things left on a desert island in 1944.
    GOOD

    “MARJORIE, I would not have this stuff on our lot.”
    GOOD
    “ALAN, This is ridiculous…junk”
    GOOD
    “MARJORIE, there is no place to keep this stuff.”
    GOOD
    “ALAN, we need a fake sunflower,,blooming in a junk yard.”
    GOOD
    “MARJORIE we need a guy in short pants …goof/”
    GOOD
    ALAN. I would not allow this stuff..”
    GOOD

    THANKFULLY few people know the secret of good set
    dressing.  Do you really want to know? Good set dressing
    must be beaten and twisted, torn and paint chipped, weathered and
    dying.  Why?  Because then and only then does a motion picture
    set capture the human condition. I’m talking about serious drama…
    not the fluffy stuff.  Take a close look around the real world.

    alan


  • EPISODE 390 “PLANTING A SUN FLOWER THAT WILL NEVER DIE” (With help from Bill Brooks)

    EPISODE 390   “PLANTING A SUN FLOWER THAT WILL NEVER DIE” (with help from Bill Brooks)


    alan skeoch
    July 20, 2021



    “Bill, could you help me get this sunflower ready to survive the winter…to survive many winters?”
    “Expect I can”
    “After you get the road grader done.”
    “Might just do the sunflower first.””
    (Bill never said I look like a water melon but he must have
    thought that…instead he got working on the sun flower.)


    “This potato digger needs a new home…are you interested?”
    “Bill, Marjorie will be thrilled…”
    “I’ll drop it on the lawn in front of your farm house tomorrow….along
    with the sunflower.”




    “NOW I might just get back to the road grader…”