EPISODE 780 “BEST YOU NOT USE THE WORD ’SHEENY’. ALAN…IT IS AN INSULT” (MY DISCOVERY OF WESTERN NOVELS)
alan skeoch
march 2023
6411f3e530cee.html
EPISODE 779 CURLING WHERE NO ONE WILL EVER CURL AGAIN, GRENADIER POND
EPISODE 779 CURLING WHERE NO ONE WILL EVER CURL AGAIN, GRENADIER POND
alan skeoch
March 2023
Grenadier Pond, High Park, West Toronto, January 30, 1993,…wearing a Russian Afghan
War field hat, ancient Canadian Buffalo Coat, What were we doing? Throwing 40 pound
curling rocks just to test the ice ?
That was 1993
Dateline March 13, 2023
Global warming and the Insurance Industry have combined to ensure that the event described
below will never happen again. What event? Curling on Grenadier pond, (High Park, West Toronto)…
the Grand Curling Match of 1993 organized by the High Park Curling Club. AT least I think the
event will never be replicated.
Grenadier Pond is large and deep. Rumour has it that British troops drowned there in 1812 when they
tried to get their artillery across the pond as they fled from American invaders. Hence the name “Grenadier”
Pond . Untrue. Never happened. Although there may be a kernel of truth in the legend. People have
fallen through the ice and are drowned on ponds and lakes every year.
Al White was one of the Grand Match organizers I knew. There were many others but I knew Al White best. How did he ever persuade the HPC club insurers that
it was possible for a hundred curlers and a pipe band to throw 40 pound stones back and forth
across the winter ice? Maybe he did not tell the insurance company.
This curling match was one of the great experiences of my life. There were no winners. And no one died.
My favourite picture…that stone weighs 44 pounds. The day was cold and snow began to fall. No now left the ice. The curling ws hopeless.
The curling stone, or rock, is made of dense polished granite from Ailsa Craig, Scotland, and in the Olympics, each rock weighs 19.1 kg (44 lbs). The bottom of the stone is concave so that only the outside ring, called the running band, is in contact with the ice.Feb 7, 2023
Grand Match, Grenadier Pond, High Park Curling Club Jan 3o, 1993
EPISODE 155 THE GRAND MATCH OF CURLING…ON THE ICE BENEATH WHICH THE GRENADIERS WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE DROWNED
THE Schneller Team entry in the High Park Curling Club GRAND MATCH 1993 celebrating 80 years of fine curling. Left to right: Mike Dent, Alan Skeoch,
Dave Snyder , Brad Schneller (skip).
alan skeoch
Oct. 2020
Dateline: Winter 1993
Occasion: HIGH PARK CURLING CLUB GRAND MATCH
Location: Grenadier Pond, Toronto
Danger: Would the ice support 64 curling jteams
with their stones?
THE GRAND MATCH, HIGH PARK CRLING CLUB, 1993
The telephone rang as the winter wind blew.
“Hi, Alan, I have an adventure for you.”
“Great Brad, spill it out.”
Brad Schneller was almost breathless…excited.
“Let’s get a curling team together for the Grand Match”
“What Grand Match?”
“The HighPark Curling Club is 80 years old this winter…planning a
special competition on Grenadier Pond…let’s enter a team.”
“Did you say the Grand Match would be on Grenadier Pond?”
“Yes.”
“How many teams?”
“64 Curling Teams”
“That’s a lot of people on ice that could be thin.”
“Lucky this is a bad winter…I figure there will be more
than 300 people out on the ice when pipers and Fort York guards are included.”
“Remember what happened to the Grenadiers in 1812?”
“I’m not sure that really happened, Alan…the drowning of the Grenadiers is a myth I think.”’
“According to the story the soldiers were retreating from Fort York hauling their cannons
with them…that’s a lot of weight.”
“About as much as 300 curlers?”
“Right.”
“Didn’t you do a dive last summer to see if there were cannons at the bottom of the pond?
“We did…a CBC radio story…Kevin and Andy did the diving while Christopher Thomas and
I were in a rowboat.”
“Well…the result?”
“Andy reported ‘Dad, I shoved my arm deep in the mud at the bottom…right up to my elbow…no cannons yet.”
It was a stupid idea. Dangerous.”
“If we all break through the ice…there will be a lot of curling stones down there
for future divers.”
“Ice collapse is Not likely this year…been dreadfully cold winter…ice as thick and tough as old concrete.”
“And now a snowstorm is coming.”
“Nothing stops the bagpipes so we should not feel intimidated…let’s throw some rocks…find
a team willing to play. A lot of people trying to clean the ice with their brooms…
sort of hopeless for real curling.’
“Suppose we get Mike Dent to lie down and use him and his coonskin coat as a sweeping machine.”
“How?”
“You grab his feet, I’ll grab his arms…now walk … see we are clearing a sheet. How do you feel Mike?”
“Just keep my coonskin closed…otherwise I will turn into a block of ice. Pull…pull.”
“Any help with the game?”
“Not much…snow keeps coming.”
“Throw your rock, Brad.”’
“Just throw, forget about the fine tuning…most rocks do not even get to the other end.”
“Let’s refine the game…forget about accuracy…see how brute strength works…wind up with
a big back swing and then rifle the rock down the ice.”
“See who can throw the rock the farthest…forget about real curling.”
“When the rock hits the ice, it echoes.”
“Hits like a cannonball.”
“Let go, Mike…let go!”
“Holy Samoley, Mike did not let go and threw the rock with all his might…he flew with the
rock…parallel to the ice.”
“Here come Ed Werench…top curler of 1993…looks sceptical…not exactly optimum conditions…he wans
to meet the so called ice maker.”
“This is turning into a wonderful afternoon…a real celebration for the High Park Curling Club…
an event that I wish we could duplicate each year.”
“i think the insurance companies would put an end to that idea.”
episode 779 POET, EDNA JACQUES….as told to mr by LOUISA FREEMAN, my grandmother
episode 778 POET, EDNA JACQUES….as often sent to me by LOUISA FREEMAN, my grandmother
alan skeoch
march 9, 2023
Fwd: EPISODE 779 LATEST WOOD QUILT interpretation BARN IN ARISDORF SWITZERLAND
Begin forwarded message:
From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>Subject: EPISODE 779 LATEST WOOD QUILT interpretation BARN IN ARISDORF SWITZERLANDDate: March 10, 2023 at 10:54:39 AM ESTTo: john Wardle <jwardle@rogers.com>, Marjorie Skeoch <marjorieskeoch@gmail.com>
EPISODE 779 LATEST WOOD QUILT interpretation BARN IN ARISDORF SWITZERLANDalan skeochmarch 10, 2023
Well all the pieces have fallen into place. Some time has passed since Martin Leuthi and I admired thisold barn in the village of Arisdorf, near Basel, Switzerland.“Martin, I would like to make a wooden quilt patterned after that barn.”“Look closer, Alan,the farmer is discarding his fanning mill…perched on his harvest wagon now.”“Really? Throwing it out?“Looks that way to me, let’s ask.”Yes, it was being tossed. The mill was old, perhaps early 19th century. Odd construction. Long likea snake as opposed to Canadian fanning mills that are compact like a ground hog. We took the millapart and carefully packed the moving parts as cabin luggage for the flight to Toronto. Abandoned thelong sideboards whichI planned to replace but have no done. That was 20 years ago. The plansare still in my shop. Never to be replicated.So this wood quilt is dedicated to the memory that Martin and I share Without his fluency in Swiss Germanit is unlikely anything would have been done. Swiss farmers are not exactly the ‘hail fellow, well met’ kindof people. Understandable. Imagine driving up a farm lane in Ontario to inspect farm trash and thenhave the nerve to ask if you could buy (or have) some ancient machine.So while the snowstorms have been raging outside my workshop this February and March, I havebeen reliving….recreating….a moment in my lifetime the I treasure.THE SWISS BARNOver the past few years I have been gathering wooden pieces…scrap wood…that could be shapedinto a memory. Unsophisticated. I am neither an artist nor an architect. Just a folk art enthusiastlike Maudie ,,,see the Netflix film, MAUD, that will help you understand folk art and either hate it or love it.The only barn I ever made collapsed into kindling wood four weeks after I thought it waswonderful.This Ep[isode has been sent as a testimonial to the good times Martin and I shared while admiringthat Arisdorf barn so long ago. What you see is an impression…not a reality. DIMENSIONS
about 4’ x 2’. Built without commercial purpose. Built because I wanted to build it I am not soliciting
criticism nor potential market. If I did either of these, there would be no joy.
alan skeoch’
EPISODE 778 COUNTRY ROADS IN WINTER…TOO SOON FORGOTTEN
EPISODE 778 COUNTRY ROADS IN WINTER…TOO SOON FORGOTTEN
alan skeoch
march 9, 2023
There is a solemn beauty when driving Canadian country roads when hostile winds blow in winter
time. How you green. Soon the winter will be gone and spring will be popping up all over. So here’s
my toast to the winter of 2022 and 2023.
If you need help to truly enjoy thi winter travelogue then get help from John Denver….”Almost heaven…country roads”
sung by John Denver…easy to find on the internet…..easy.
Come, take a ride with Marjorie and me … today …before the memory fades.
Almost heaven, West VirginiaBlue ridge mountains, Shenandoah riverLife is old there, older than the treesYounger than the mountains, growin’ like a breeze
Country roads, take me homeTo the place I belongWest Virginia, mountain mommaTake me home, country roads
All my memories, gather ’round herMiner’s lady, stranger to blue waterDark and dusty, painted on the skyMisty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye
Country roads, take me homeTo the place I belongWest Virginia, mountain mommaTake me home, country roads
I hear her voice, in the mornin’ hour she calls meThe radio reminds me of my home far awayDrivin’ down the road I get a feelin’That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday
Country roads, take me homeTo the place I belongWest Virginia, mountain mommaTake me home, country roads
Country roads, take me homeTo the place I belongWest Virginia, mountain mommaTake me home, country roads
Take me home, (down) country roadsTake me home, (down) country roads
EPISODE 666 GIBRALTAR SCHOOL, FIFTH LINE, ESQUESING TWP, HALTON COUNTY…near Limehousel
Begin forwarded message:
From: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch1@gmail.com>Date: March 7, 2023 at 1:09:08 PM EST
EPISODE 777 GIBRALTAR SCHOOL…NEAR VILLAGE OF LIMEHOUSE, FIFTH LINE, ESQUESING TWP. HALTON COUNTYalan skeochmarch 2023Hardly a typical country schoolhouse. Gibraltar School must at one time been surrounded bysmal farms , perhaps a village….enough people to provide for a stone built school …two stories high.Now in 2023 Gibraltar School has been totally renovated as a private home but the renoVationsdid not change the appearance of the old school house. Behind the school is the Niagara Escarpment.MY NOMINATION: PRETTIEST 19TH CENTURY ONTARIO SCHOOLHOUSE
COMMENTS
1) WHY was a second storey built on a school with less than 20 students ? Did teacher live there? Usually in the 19th and early 20th century the
teacher lived on a nearby farm. And, by the way, the teacher was expected to be a paragon of virtue.
2) Why was the school so well built…stone building.
3) Why was the school built a mile from the village of Limehouse. Isolated. Lucky because the village of Limehouse caught fire
and most buildings were lost.
4) Why has this one room school survived when dozens, probably hundreds have not? (recently restored as a private home)
5) All the school records were lost when water damaged! Well, not all, because years ago I found some records
that put flesh and blood into the life of Gibraltar School…found on internet after following digital trails for a few days. Must find again
because those records made the school come alive.
6) Wy was school named Gibraltar? 19th century British victory in Napoleonic Wars…and subsequent mass emigration
to Canada…I assume.
This is the road where the school sits….empty … some farms ,,,straight ahed is the quaint village of Limehouse
where the new school exists and thrives.
1948 Class, Miss Jean Ruddell )teacher)
1944 – woodshed or stable in back of school
PaintIng of A meeting with school trustees, by Robert Harris
..19TH century,
Note: Much more to this story … perhaps I will find records.
alan
EPISODE 757 MAMMOTH TUSK FOUND IN DUBLIN GULCH AFTER OVERBURDEN WASHED AWAY 1961 (and story of my mammoth molar tooth )
EPISODE 757 MAMMOTH TUSK FOUND IN DUBLIN GULCH AFTER OVERBURDEN WASHED AWAY 1961
alan skeoch march 2023
I just found this photo among pictures taken in 1961 in Dublin Gulch , Yukon territory. This is the claim being hydraulically washed to bed rock by Jack Acheson and his crew. The tusk of a mammoth is clearly visible even to the point of the indentation in the mud where it has rested for 10,000 years or so.
Jack hired me to do a small seismic survey over his claim just to see how much mud and gravel he would have to wash away to get to the gold lodged in folds in the bedrock. Ugly looking overburden as you can see. Likely sediment from an ancient river that washed the dead mammoth in pieces to where Jack found the tusk.
I am not sure if it is legal to keep these tusks. See what you can find about that question.
Jack had a number of these tusks leaning against his Yukon cabin. The bones and tusks and teeth when found were all in a jumble…no intact skeleton. Likely the mammoth died some distant away and had been carried to this resting place in the slurry of mud.
I never asked Jack what he did with these pieces but think he invited a museum scientist to come to his claim every year. Ownership of the find? I don’t know what the law said.
But I do know that Jack gave me this Mammoth tooth which was a great teaching prop until it was stolen by a student or teacher or visitor to Room 218 at Parkdale C. I. and now rests in some recreation room in Toronto. I only owned the tooth for one season.
So what is the difference between mammoth nd mastodon teeth. The animal looked the same. Right? Big difference. Mastodon teeth much like our teeth…chunky. Mammoth teeth were flaky looking…like a loaf of sliced bread. So the difference is obvious. Mammoths lived in a more hostile environment than mastodons. Like the Yukon 10,000 or 12,000 years ago.
When a mammoth wore down his or her two sets of teeth, it starved to death. I think we would starve to death as well with no teeth. Using this mammoth tooth as an implant…dental implant…seems unlikely but I will ask Dr. Lynas, my dentist. If possible I would need a bigger head.
alan skeoch March 5, 2023
EPISODE 756 FOREST IN A SNOWSTORM…LATEST WOOD QUILT (SENT AS TEST)
EPISODE 756 FOREST IN A SNOWSTORM…LATEST WOOD QUIT sent as a test
alan skeoch
march 4, 2-23
Latest wood quilt made in my shop. I am having computer trouble …main story will not send so have blanked
it and am sending this wood quilt as test. If you get it then I am back in production.
EPISODE 755 THE KAURI FORESTS OF NEW ZEALAND…ALMOST ALL GONE NOW….1,000 YEAR OLD TREES.
EPISODE 755 THE KAURI FORESTS OF NEW ZEALAND…ALMOST ALL GONE NOW….1,000 YEAR OLD TREES.
alan skeoch
March 1, 2023
Even veteran loggers had never seen trees like the Kauri trees of New Zealand. Ancient…some had been growing for
a thousand years and were so huge that it took 6 men with special extended cross cut saws to cut them down. The trees
were sacred to the Maori people who made canoes from Kauri trees. Europeans marvelled at the clean grain of these behemoths
from which they built their houses and cities.
Today there are only 500 Kauri trees surviving in protected reserves. And they are all threatened by an insidious monster.
It is not human beings that threaten those few surviving trees. The incurable and fatal ‘kauri dieback disease’ has been detected as a
slow killer of the giants. No cure yet. In an attempt to give scientists time to find a cure, human beings are no longer allowed to
visit the protected forest. “We can but hope that good will be the final goal of ill”, as Tennyson wrote and I quote lest you have forgotten.
Oh, yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final end of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood;
That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroy’d,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete;
That not a worm is cloven in vain;
That not a moth with vain desire
Is shrivell’d in a fruitless fire,
Or but subserves another’s gain.
Behold, we know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last—far off—at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring.
So runs my dream: but what am I?
An infant crying in the night:
An infant crying for the light:
And with no language but a cry.
(TENNYSON)
On our visit to New Zealand we made a short visit to the the outskirt forest. (I think beckon 1980’s) Taken there by distant relatives….very distant. The Freemans
and he Edwards families. Sadly We have lost contact with them due to the distractions of daily life. The only link that remains is this picture
and my middle name which is Edwards. They lived (or lived ) in Whangarei, North Island. relatives on my mothers side of the
family who migrated from Kington, Herefordshire at some time in the mid 19th century.
Mr. Edwards gave me a tiny block of a Kauri tree about the size of a small box of matches. It’s still around here ..somewhere.”
read on…the pictures will take your breath away. Perhaps make you cry.
alan
MY FAILURE: These are distant relatives of the Freemans and Edwards families. English on my mothers side of the family. They live or lived in Whangarie, North Island, Nw Zeldand.
The city with a hundred beaches. We visited then in mid 1980’s but lost contact. Like all Kiwis we met they were great hosts
and I regret we lost contact. It was this family that took us to the edge of a Kauri forest. My middle name is Edward which I Think is
a connection to the Edwards of New Zealand. But not sure.
Our Maori connection was much closer and so remembered more. Cousin Roy Skeoch did so much to be remembered as all family reading this Episode know so well.
His grave in Rotarura is so memorable. Perhaps Roberta Skeoch has a picture of her dad’s grave that I can share…so ornate.
Both our European and Maori relatives must lament the fate of the magnificent Kauri forests. Perhaps the next episode will feature the survivors.
alan skeoch
March 1, 2023
Kauri logging in Waitākere Ranges
Long ago the Waitākere Ranges were covered in ancient forests of huge kauri trees. Māori valued kauri because of its size and for its gum.
Kauri are tall and straight and the giant trees were perfect for building waka, boats and settlers’ homes. The work involved in the logging of the kauri forests was documented by photographers, both professional and amateur. By 1900 most of the kauri forests had been cut down. Only a few patches remained.
In more recent times, the incurable and fatal kauri dieback disease has severly impacted kauri forests. Te Kawerau ā Maki, the tangata whenua (people of the land) of Waitākere in Auckland, have placed a rāhui over the entire Waitākere forest (Te Wao Nui o Tiriwa). For the health of the forest, they are asking people to stay away from the bush. The rāhui gives scientists time to develop a solution, and time for the forest to heal.
A large part of Jack Diamond’s extensive research on all things West was focused on the logging industry in the Ranges, he gathered images from every source available to him over the long years of his dedicated work on the history of Auckland’s West.
The images here are a tiny selection from Jack’s huge collection of photographs.
 |
| Ref: Photographer unknown. Giant kauri tree, Nihotupu, 52 feet circumference. 1890s. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-08F-05174. |
Giant kauri trees were always special enough to be photographed, well before digital or even old-fashioned film cameras were invented, when equipment was quite large and processing the images was quite a task! The tree in this photo is just under 16 metres in circumference. Three men are sitting on top of part of the root system, which is above the ground, of the large mature tree in the Nihotupu bush of the Waitākere Ranges.
 |
| Ref: Charles Thomas Spearpoint. Kauri log and workers in Mander and Bradley’s bush. 1898. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-08D-05589-1. |
Can you imagine how much hard labour it took for this group of bush workers from Mander and Bradley’s Mill to load this enormous kauri log onto the bogie on the mill tramway?
The photo was taken in the Nihotupu valley, in the late 1800s. There were no cranes or bulldozers, or helicopters. A big traction engine may have been used to haul the log out. It must have been quite a feat to get it to this point.
 |
| Ref: Photographer unknown. Pit sawing in the bush up Huia Stream. 1922. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-07D-00329. |
In the early days bushmen and sawyers worked long, hard, back breaking hours. This log is almost 11 metres long and 1.2 metres thick and these men are cutting it by hand!
Pit sawing was the simplest way to produce planks for quickly building huts and dams in the bush. It was also a cheap way to make use of a small stand of trees. A long saw with a handle at each end was used, one man above, and one man below. Two experienced sawyers could produce planks almost as accurately as a machine!
Read more about the purpose of this particular pit sawing operation by clicking on the link to the image.
 |
| Ref: Photographer unknown. Bullocks on a corduroy road. c1920. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-01D-04506. |
A quick and cheap way of making a serviceable path through wet, soft bush soil was to make a corduroy road. In this photo lengths of logs have been cut and laid to create a durable surface for the bullock team to pull heavy logs from the logging site to the mill tramway.
Corduroy roads were built for military purposes too.
 |
| Ref: Photographer unknown. Piha Tramway, lower section ofthe Piha incline. 1916. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-04C-00016-2. |
Piha Mill was established at the junction of Glen Esk and Piha streams, but an efficient way of getting the timber from the mill was required for getting over the 900 foot hill to Karekare and then on to the Whatipu Wharf. At the top of this impressively steep rail track was a hauler engine that would pull a load of sawn timber up from the Piha Mill, over the top, and lower it down a similarly steep incline to the Karekare side.
Find more information on the Piha Hill and its track in The Piha Tramway by David Lowe.
 |
| Ref: Louis Marusich. Piha Tramway engine and log on bogie. 1920. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-04C-03802-1. |
Built in 1873 this A196 steam engine was purchased to accompany ‘Sandfly’ on the Piha Mill logging tramway around 1914. It worked the Piha-Anawhata section of the track. ‘Sandfly’ worked in the other direction from Karekare to Whatipu. It appears it was never named like the little ‘Sandfly’ locomotive, which acquired its name after arriving on the coast and working on rail tracks across the Karekare sand. ‘Sandfly’ even had its own name plate.
Would you like to read more? Click here to request a book about the Piha Tramway.
 |
| Ref: Photographer unknown. Log on trailer in Station Road, Henderson. c1926. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-14M-04438. |
Henderson in the 1920s was a very different looking place! This tough little truck and trailer look barely adequate for the job of transporting this huge log through Henderson in 1926. Perhaps the driver parked outside the Ozich Buildings in Station Road (now Railside Ave) to pick up his boots or have a cup of tea?