Alan Skeoch

Month: April 2023

  • EPISODE 804 . RESCUING AND REBUILDING AN ANCIENT CART (did it come from Tutankamen’s tomb?)

    EPISODE 804    RESCUING AND REBUILDING AN ANCIENT CART (did it come from Tutankamen’s tomb?)


    alan skeoch

    april 22, 2032

    Rescue work with muscle and steel.  What is that thing?


    This ancient looking horse or ox cart looks like it was used to built a pyramid in Egypt
    or to haul rubble away from Tutankamen’s tomb.   Truth is it was built from bits and 
    pieces for a movie set  where we bought it not knowing that should we fail to movie it
    there would be a $500 charge as a dumping fee.  That shook me…shocked me to the
    core.  Thankfully our son came to the rescue with his big truck.

    The wheels and axle are very old indeed.    so large and heavy that only the bobcat
    could lift them.  When built originally? Not from the pyramid building time but certainly from
    the early 19th century.  Huge wooden hubs made when wagon building was a  skilled carpenter’s
    project.   

    So the cart will have a happy future I hope.  First a pair of shafts have
    to be attached and the cart must be stored In a barn or drive shed. 

    Just getting it to our farm was a balancing act worthy of a thightrope walker as
    you can see.  Feather balanced.  What does that mean?  It means if a feather was
    added to the load then the cart would fall and like Humpty Dumpty never to be
    put together again.  An overstatement.  But I did have to be very careful.

    alan



















    Sent from my iPhone


  • EPISODE 802 THE SPEECH THAT WAS NEVER GIVEN…. REFLECTIONS ON FOSSILS ON RATTRAY MARSH SHINGLE BEACH, PART 1

    EPISODE 802  THE SPEECH THAT WAS NEVER GIVEN

    NOTICE OF ANNIVERSARY:  800 STORIES

      I HAVE NOW WRITTEN OVER 800 STORIES SINCE FEB. 27, 2020 WHEN COVID 19 PUT
    THE WHOLE WORLD ON FIRE    EIGHT HUNDRED STORIES!!  AMAZES ME.
    I HAVE TRIED TO WRITE  A STORY EVERY DAY.  WHY?  TO ENTERTAIN READERS SOME
    OF WHOM BECAME SHUT INS AS THE PANDEMIC SPREAD LIKE A DEADLY WILDFIRE.

    JUST WRITING THE STORIES HAS MADE ME AWARE OF MY GOOD FORTUNE IN LIFE.
    TEDDY ROOSEVENT URGED PEOPLE TO ‘GET ACTION: DO THINGS’. I THOUGHT THIS WAS
    GOOD ADVICE WHEN I READ IT BACK IN 1953.  I HAVE BEEN A LUCKY MAN. LOTS OF ACTION.

    MUCH OF THIS LUCK HAS  TO BE ATTRIBUTED TO MY WIFE MARJORIE WTH WHOM I
    HAVE  SHARED SO MANY ADVENTURES.

    ON THE EVENING OF FEBRUARY 29, I WAS ASKED TO DELIVER A SPEECH ON
    INVASIVE SPECIES IN THE GREAT LAKES.  WE HAD 100 GUESTS AT THE STONEHOOKER
    BREWERY IN PORT CREDIT.   MY SPEECH WAS PLANNED TO BE 30 TO 40 MINUTES LONG .
    THAT SPEECH WAS NEVER DELIVERED BECAUSE MARJORIE TOOK 21 MINUTES TO
    INTRODUCE ME.  IN EFFECT SHE BECAME THE SPEAKER.  PART WAY THROUGH HER
    INTRODUCTION SHE KNOCKED A WINE BOTTLE OFF THE LECTERN.  IT SHATTERED
    ON THE CEMENT FLOOR.  BUT MARJORIE NEVER STOPPED.  A FRIEND, SHAYMUS, 
    GATHERED UP THE BOTTLE FRAGMENTS AS MARJORIE CONTINUED TO SPEAK.
    OUR SON ANDREW RAISED HIS ARM AND POINTED AT HIS WATCH.  MARJORIE DID
    NOT STOP. SHE HAD PRACTISED HER SPEECH AND WAS HELL BENT FOR ELECTION 
    TO DELIVER IT. THE AUDIENCE ENJOYED HER SO MUCH THAT I TAILORED MY SPEECH
    FROM 40 MINUTES TO 10 MINUTES…WHICH SATISFIED THE AUDIENCE.  WHAT A JOY
    IT WAS  TO LISTEN TO HER.  HOW MANY HUSBANDS HAVE HAD THEIR WIVES DO SUCH
    ?

    THE NEXT DAY, MARCH 1, 2020 COVID 19 BEGAN TO SPREAD AROUND THE WORLD
    KILLING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS.

    TODAY,  APRIL 20 2023, EIGHT HUNDRED STORIES LATER COVID 19 IS STILL PRESENT.
    SO I WOULD LIKE TO PRESENT THE SPEECH I NEVER GAVE IN  CHUNKS….IN SHORT
    STORIES SOME OF WHICH YOU MIGHT KNOW BUT OTHERS THAT MIGHT
    CATCH YOUR INTEREST.

    SEVERAL PEOPLE HAVE ASKED IF I AM WRITING  BOOK.  I AM NOT. A BOOK DEMANDS
    TOO MUCH TIME.  LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR THAT.  MY STORIES ARE SHORT…TAKING
    JUST A LITTLE LONGER THAN IT TAKES FOR A WINE BOTTLE TO FALL FROM A LECTERN
    AND SHATTER..    THEY CAN ALL BE FOUND ON THE INTERNET TITLED ‘ALAN’S OEUVRE’
    (ALAN’S WORKS) THANKS TO DIRK TOWNSEND.  OR SIMPLY ‘ALAN SKEOCH.CA’

    SOMETIMES THE LANGUAGE IS A LITTLE COARSE…SOMETIMES PERSONAL…SOMETIMES
    ISSUE ORIENTED…WHATEVER!  JOHN WARDLE HAS PUBLISHED EACH STORY IN HIS
    DAILY JOURNAL, THE CASTLEFIELD INSTITUTE, WHJICH HONOURS JOHN RICKER WHO
    MOIVATED SO MANY OF US TO ENJOY THE STUDY OF HISTORY AND  TO JOIN TOGETHER
    IN THOUGHTFUL CONVERSATION ABOUT THE WORLD AROUND US. 

    THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORIES.  MY TARGET IS 1,000…WHILE MEMORY SERVES.


    ALAN SKEOCH
    APRL 20, 2023

    EPISODE 802   REFLECTIONS ON FOSSILS ON RATTRAY MARSH SHINGLE BEACH,  PART 1


    alanskeoch


    PART ONE

    alan



    Marjorie  Skeoch with Jack, our grandson, on the wondrous shingle beach
    at the outlet of the Rattray Marsh in Mississauga.



    alan skeoch
    March  11, 2020

    “Let’s take a walk, Marjorie,

          “Why?”

          “pretend we are in a time machine…and can go back in time.”
    “Where?”
    “There is a shingle beach AT the Rattray Marsh…good place to start.




    (Note, the Rattray Marsh is one of the wonders  of the City of Mississauga,  It slumbers behind  a rock  strewn beach of Lake Ontario.  The southwest quadrant of
    Mississauga…almost approachable….definitely unforgettable.)


           “This Shingle Beach is one of the marvels of Mississauga…strewn with small flat slabs of water washed shale.”

    “Wouldn’t a  sand  beach be more charming?”
    “Not at all…no story obvious in grains of sand….but this shingle beach can be read like a book.”
    “Easy to trip and fall here.”
    “Right…if you do trip and fall you will find yourself among interesting company.”
    “Piles of flat stones.”
    “Piles of blue shale….”

    “Do you know how old these pieces of shale are?”
    “I don’t even know what shale is”



    “Shale was once mud…pressed by the  weight of untold piles of mud…heavy…so much so
    that this ancient mud became sedimentary rock called shale.
    “Our city, Mississauga, sits on top of a vast expanse of ancient mud…for that matter the ancient mud
    once ground and dried became the cement that holds up all the buildings in Mississauga.
    And for seventy years, 1850 to 1920, slabs  of this  shale were pried up by crowbars right from
    the shingle beach where we are standing, pried up in great slabs, manhandled onto schooners and  sailed
    to Toronto as the foundations of all the great buildings of the time.”
    “Do you mean the Stonehookers?”


    The History of Stonehookers in Mississauga — Modern ...


    EPISODE 320 STONEHOOKING WAS A BRUTAL PROFESSION – Alan Skeoch

    Stonehooking was a brutal profession.   Today, now that the stonehookers are gone
    and their ships are rotting hulks at the bottom of Lake Ontario or ground into sawdust or
    charcoal by the passage of time and neglect, there is a tendency to romanticize what
    was near the  bottom of occupations Canadians  chose in the 19th and early 20th century.
    Just imagine spending your work day wading in water lifting slabs of stone with crowbar
    and a hooked rake…piling the stone on a small flat bottomed scow…transferring tons
    of stone to a schooner…sailing to Toronto three times a week with 9 to 18 tons of stone
    …piling the stone on a rotting pier with raw sewage bubbling up…then getting $10 to $15
    …and  sailing back to Port Credit with a return load of horse manure.  Toronto was a city
    with thousands of horses on the streets in 1900.  

    END PART ONE:  STONEHOOKING 1900

    PART TWO:  THE SAD FATE OF THE PINTA, SUNK WITH ALL HANDS NEAR MARIGOLD POINT, PORT CREDIT



  • Fwd: EPISODE 800 NIAGARA ESCARPMENT….WINDOW OF TIME



    Begin forwarded message:


    From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
    Subject: EPISODE 800 NIAGARA ESCARPMENT….WINDOW OF TIME
    Date: April 19, 2023 at 9:00:54 AM EDT
    To: John Wardle <john.t.wardle@gmail.com>



    Note: something has gone wrong with my computer…problem unsolved

    EPISODE 799    WHAT DOES THIS PILE OF ROCK SAY?


    alan skeoch
    April 17, 2023



    We descended through the Niagara Escarpment to the QEW

    WHAT DO WE KNOW

    1)  The Niagara Escarpment we know today is the result of geological processes that began more than 450 million years ago when the limestones, dolostones, shales, and sandstones of the Escarpment’s bedrock were formed.


    2) 
    The rock layers of the Niagara Escarpment date from the upper Ordovician (445 million year ago) to the lower Silurian era (420 million years ago); a period of 25 million years.

    3) Escarpments are formed by one of two processes: erosion and faulting. Erosion creates an escarpment by wearing away rock through wind or water. One side of an escarpment may be eroded more than the other side. The result of this unequal erosion is a transition zone from one type of sedimentary rock to another
    4)Today the Niagara Escarpment region is a rich mosaic of forests, farms, wetlands, lakes, recreational areas, the Bruce Trail and quarries together with villages, towns and cities. It features over 100 sites of geological significance, including many in which fossils of the Silurian and Ordovician Periods are preser.
    5)  According to a new report prepared by a team of international scientists, deep-sea remains of ancient corals could be used to understand carbon dioxide in the oceans, both past and present. The report, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, uses coral fossils as a sort of time machine to investigate the rise of carbon dioxide and its role in ending the last ice age.
    LOTS OF INFORMATION ABOUT OUR NIAGARA ESCARPMENT
    MAKES ME THINK ABOUT THW SHORT WINDOW OF TIME THAT WE HAVE BEEN AROUND
     Look at the layers of limestone in the pictures.   This layering began 475 million years ago when our living space was covered with water.   How long have we been here?  Measured in hundreds of thousands perhaps but only couple of thousand as civilizations

    alan





  • EPISODE 800 FARMER ANDREW SKEOCH WITH FRIENDS….THREE FRIENDS

    EPISODE 801    FARMER ANDREW SKEOCH WITH THREE FRIENDS

    alan skeoch
    april 19, 2023


    NOTE:   I AM having computer trouble….probably because I do not trust all the unsolicited Rogers emails from Rogers…they ask me to act quickly and push their button which is a red flag to me..i.el scam..…some might be legitimate and I am ignoring them.

    The result ?   Lots of things for me to learn and a severe disruption in my STORY A DAY plan…currently at 800 stories

    alan

  • EPISODE 796 NOT JUST MEDICAL MARIJUANA…WHERE ARE THE TULIPS?

    EPISODE 796    NOT JUST MEDICAL MARIJUANA…WHERE ARE THE TULIPS?”

    alan skeoch
    APRIL 15, 2023

    “ALAN, I want you to help me find a tulip farm…somewhere south west of Hamilton.”
    “I don’t want to find a tulip farm, Marjorie…do not give a sweet goddamn about tulips.”
    “I am the gardening convenor for our retired reachers…just want to scout out tulips
    and need your help.”
    “Beautiful spring day…better things to do.”
    “
    ALAN, I Need your help as navigator…not asking much.”

    So we took Highway 20, southwest from Binbrook. And a weird thing happened.


    NO TULIPS….WASTE OF OUR TIME

    “Marjorie there are no tulips in this village of Fenwick…”
    “Let’s just ask someone…”
    “Tulip farm?  Well, someone grows tulips way back in that field…hardly a tulip farm.”
    “wasted the whole day in a god forsaken trip to nowhere.”
    “Tulips are not up yet..too early.”

    Then a very strange thing happened as often occurs on our pointless kinds of trips.

    “Marjorie, there is something odd about this huge greenhouse complex.”
    “Odd?”
    “Yes, why does a greenhouse need 8 foot chain link fencing…brand  new fencing…no sign of any pansy plants.”
    “Odd?”
    “And why are there cameras at every building.  No one ever steels pansies or tulip bulbs.  This is a strange place.”



    “And look at the signage…All visitors must sign in at the gatekeepers office.”
    “Why would we have to sign in just to buy a geranium or box of pansies?”







    STOP — PLEASE SIGN IN WITH SECURITY

    “Why would we need security clearance to buy pansies, geraniums or sheep manure.”
    “This is a strange place.”
    “And why is no one here…empty picnic tables….locked security gate.”
    “And  a small sign that says “no jewelry on the premises”
    “That’s weird….do the owners  expect criminals?”
    “Seems so.”


    “And why all those security cameras”

    So we asked a lady walking by.

    “Our village, FENWICK,  became famous in a way.  few years ago a bunch of investors
    built this place”
    “Why?””
    “Cannabis became legal….medical maijuana.  Suddenly Fenwick  had a  big industry where
    285 people were employed.”
    “I remember that.  Pot became legal under government controls.”
    “A lot of people thought they could get rich.  Heard that billons were poured into
    places like this one in Fenwick.”
    “If Cannabis is legal, why is this huge place closed?”

    That question had a simple answer.Appparently a disgruntled employee became a whistle blower.  The Fenwick greenhouses were not just
    producing medical marijuana.   Government inspectors raided the place and found undeclared marijuana hidden away … to be sold to 
    illegal dope pedlars.  The Fenwick greenhouses have been locked ever since.  (  A surprise inspection by federal regulators in June 2019 uncovered 5,200 kilograms of unlicensed cannabis at the facility.)

    Investors in this company saw their share value drop to a fraction of a cent a share.  Bankruptcy followed.  

    “The whole place…acres and acres of top of the line greenhouses and a packaging plant are up for sale.  But no buyers.   

    The Fenwick company…which has several names…has no buyers.   Nobody can afford to raise pansies and geraniums on a high
    tech place like this.   So 285 people are now unemployed and a bunch of investors have had their wealth wiped out.

    Apparently this has happened across the province of Ontario where the get rich scheme of producing medical marijuana has turned
    from a dream into  nightmare.

    THE TULIP FARM

    What about the tulip farm we were searching for?   Directly across the road from the mariguana grow op, there is a broken down
    5 ton truck sinking into the mud.  And far in the distance behind the truck there is a tulip farm.   Closed right now.   But a week or
    so from now the tulip grower will welcome visitors at $18 a visit.   And visitors wil get a few tulip bulbs as an incentive
    to pay  a visit.



    “Marjorie,  Is your group of retired teachers still interested?”
    “”Probably.”
    “Cost us about $80 in gas to get here…a lot of money for nothing.”
    “Not for nothing Alan…you discovered a greAt story “
    “You mean the Grow Op?
    “For sure”
    “Reminds me of the great truth in the business world.”
    “What?”
    “If the investment sounds too good to be true…then it probably is.”

    “Do you think all those security cameras recorded our visit?”
    “We used their parking lot to turn around.”
    “And our white van has no signage.”

    POST SCRPT

    1)  ONE CANNABIS GROWER SAID TO CTV:  says he has another three years on his lease. With a rent of $6,000 per month, he admits that “bankruptcy may be the only way to get out of here.” He spent nearly $300,000 on his retail store, with his family lending him the bulk of the money.

    “Licensing cost me $10,000 for this location. Then I had all my renovations, that was about $150,000. Then I had rent and operating costs, that’s $60,000. Then I had an inventory of $50,000. So, we’re already at $280,000, and that’s not including payroll for employees and overhead like that,” Kostanyan told CTV National News.


    2)  Fenwick Grow Op  investors in March, 2022, they were issued common shares at a price of approximate $0.009 per share, implying that 10,000 shares had a value of $90.

    3) There is some evidence of potential therapeutic uses for cannabis or its component chemicals (cannabinoids) and many Canadians report using cannabis for medical purposes for health problems such as chronic pain, nausea/vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy, and spasticity with multiple sclerosis. While cannabis can be used by some people for their health problems, determining whether cannabis is appropriate to treat an individual’s symptoms is best made through a discussion with a health care practitioner.

    Health Canada has information for health care professionals and for authorized patients on the use of cannabis and cannabinoids for medical purposes. This includes information on potential therapeutic uses, dosing, warnings, and adverse effects. For more 


    4) Although the exact underlying mechanism is still largely unknown, in some people, cannabis use increases the risk of developing mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. This is particularly true for those who:
    • start using cannabis at a young age
    • use cannabis frequently (daily or almost every day)
    • have a personal or family history of schizophrenia

    Youth are especially vulnerable to the effects of cannabis, as research shows the brain is not fully developed until around age 25. This is because THC, the substance which gives the “high” in cannabis, affects the same machinery in the brain that directs brain development

    You should also be aware that the use of higher potency cannabis products has also been associated with a greater risk of developing schizophrenia. Stopping or reducing cannabis use has been shown to improve outcomes; however, some health effects may not be fully reversible even when cannabis use stops.