Month: March 2023

alan skeoch

March 31, 2023

Something was wrong.   Distant vista had changed…so far away it was hardly noticeable.

But something had changed.   

Got out my Canon camera….pushed telephoto…and discovered that Angus McEachern’s

barn hd been morally wounded in the windstorm.

No one could possibly repair the damage.  Who could climb up that high with heavy wood beams

and planks and then 4 x 8 floor sheets of corrugated iron.   Even the articulated buckets on Hydro trucks

could do nothing.

So now our vista will be rather nasty as we watch the rest of the barn eventually collapse..might take

a year or so.  But it will happen.

I have a happier story coming about happier days in and around  this barn.

alan

alan skeoch

March 28,2023

The day began with sun and ended as bleak and dark as a Victorian novel.

I was alone at the farm slogging through snowdrifts that collapsed inward

with each footfall.   Instead of getting warmer the day was getting colder.

Nothing was being achieved.

Until I lifted  the lid of a sap pail hanging on a young maple tree.

The pail was full and overflowing.   My mouth was dry.   So I was

able to squeeze my head  into the sap pail and like a butterfly I unfold my

proboscis and ingest the pure clear sap .  Sweet as a baby’s-breath.

Cool…so cool.

Small things can  give great pleasure..

Andrew’s evaporator is state of the art….the sap boiled down from 40 to 1 comes out a light brown colour

When I did the boiling down 40 years ago, my maple syrup was as black as the night sky   Why?  because system I used was

one big black sap pan.  Open… on top of  blazing pile of wood…Lots of smoke and lots of ash.  Black syrup.   No wonder

no one wanted the stuff.  I still have 1 quart around somewhere,   Even I won’t touch it.  Another reason for rejection

was lead soldered sap pails.  Lead poisoning.   It was a good thing it was rejected.

Now join me….dip your tongue in this clear male sap.  Close our eyes.   

I am told that some entrepreneur is now selling ‘maple water’….maple sap.  Check your supermarket.

alan

The face in the shadows ?  My brother Eric.

EPISODE 786    BEAUTY IS IN EYE OFTHE BEHOLDER…TRACTOR GRAVEYARD  MARCH 25, 2023

alan skeoch

march 27 2023

The autumn leaves are long forgotten now.  The joy we found in those autumn leaves need not be forgotten, however.

My favourite factor graveyard shows off best when framed in snow and ice. 

There was a time a few years ago..decades ago…when the graveyard of dead and long forgotten tractors could

be found in every town, village or hamlet of Southern Ontario.  I loved the sight of these machines.  Especially if

they showed the wear of time as this tractor graveyard clearly does.  Some readers may not agree.  No matter there

is lots of room on this earth for people whose eye for beauty differs.   ‘Bealjty is in the eye of the beholder, as you

may know.    Best I not say where this tractor graveyard is located.   The owner may not want a troop of admirers

who would get in the way of resuscitating a near dead tractor.

The owners has welcomed me so often that I hope he and she will not be offended.  One gravestone belongs to

me.  See if you can find a blacksmith forge in the yard.  That’s mine and may be brought back to life.

And Notice a new addition … a new gravestone maybe.  See if you can spot a well drilling rig that has just

arrived.  Perhaps not dead.  Perhaps just in need of a transfusion.

Places like this have had a deep affect on our lives…Marjorie, Andrew, Kevin and I have all been struck by

such pictures..  In my case I applied for sabbatical leave from Parkdale Collegiate long ago. And we spent a 

wonderful year researching and writing “Technology and Change in 19th century Ontario Agriculture” at

the University of Toronto.  My M.A. I was accepted in three departments of the university,…History with Dr. JMS Careless,

Fine Arts with Dr.Don  Webster, and Engineering with a bunch of engineering profs.   The end result was a 300 page

tome that is on file several places….even the New York Historical Society in Cooperstown and Black Creek pioneer Village.

I am not sure everyone who touched the 300 page creation actually read it.  Doubt that happened.  

alan

Below is a test…Test?  See how you react to these photos.  No.  I will not tell you where the tractor graveyard is located.

Perhaps you can find a similar art collection somewhere near you.

alan skeoch

march 2023

THE fire that started in the kitchen of the Trafalgar Golf Club did not kill golfing.  The fire happened on the evening 

of Augsut 15, 2017 when no one was around.  The fire was not considered  “suspicious”.   But the The  Ontario Fire Marshal’s office

was investigating.    

 I noticed

golfers still enjoying themselves on the immaculate course in October 2023.   Golfing had survived.

Then this month… March, 2023 …..chain saws began felling the trees until they were gone.  The grand trees that sheltered

each golfing green were suddenly butchered  and the greens were bulldozed into piles of soil destined for removal.

What the Trafalgar golf an country club looked like last summer….and at the end of October 2022

(see below)

What the golf course looks like today….see below

alan skeoch

March 25, 2023

A python is a snake that crushes its victims in a slow death as its body Curls tighter and tighter.

We have….had…a python like plant in our garden for at least 30 years.  A cute plant that is

supposed to flower in brilliant hanging purple blossoms.  Never happened.  Each year we

waited. No flowers.  But slowly and silently the WISTERIA tightened its grip on our outdoor 

lamp post….twisted coils reaching ever upward until a tendril clamped on our electricity line sit looped in

from the street.   Seemed light at first.  But the light grip became a twisting chokehold that

got heavier and heavier…longer and longer as the tendrils crept towards our house.  Once there

the python (wisteria) pierced the house wall pulled off the eavestrough and got so heavy that

the power line sagged to the point we feared it would break.

If the power line snapped then a live and very dangerous electric cable would fall

directty on to our car and truck in the lane.  Som  living thing could get killed and it would

not be the wisteria.  I got a 15 foot length of 2 x 8 to push up the wires.   Actually aiding 

and abetting the wisteria.   The eavestrough nails popped out.  Then A black squirrel family

found comfortable home beneath our roof.  

This was bad news.  What to do?

RESCUE CREW ARRIVES….BIG TIME.

I sent an urgent note via email to our electricity provider, Alectra Utilities, and overnight

action was taken.  Bill Campbell and his two man crew arrived with a wisteria fighter.

The truck must ave cost $150,000 or more.  A huge thing with an articulated bucket

that could put a man above our tree canopy….high above the wisteiria.   The wisteria fighter

had weapons.  Special chain saw, heavy duty wire cutters, hammers, etc.   

So we were able to kill the wisteria we think.  But the root remans and will likely seek

to not out tendrils this spring.   I am not a violent man so i have given Marjorie a 

heavy duty brush cutter to snip off  the tendrils.

If necessary I will call Bill Campbell and his crew again.  Cheerfu bunch.

How do  I know they are cheerful?   By one side comment. 

“Glad to see you came to do battle with the wisteria python.”

“Take an hour or two but  we will get it”

“I will try to stay out of your hair,”  I said to Billl

“That will be easy,” hollered one of the crew.

“Why?”

“Because Bill doesn’t have any hair.”

Sure enough when Bill took of his hard hat there were only a few tendrils of hair.

Just the right man to wage a war against the wisteria python.

alan

Not my problem any more.

We have hired this bull dog to keep wisteria in check….vicious