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EPISODE 828 COYOTE…ALMOST INVISIBLE AT HIGH NOON

EPISODE 828    COYOTE…ALMOST INVISIBLE AT HIGH NOON


alan skeoch
May 30, 2023


We live in a frantic intersection of raw QEW and Hurontario highways in Misissauga.  
Currently the throughways are being ripped apart  for an  LRT.

Within a stones throw of the construction is one of the places where coyotes feel at home.  They have taken 
ownership of a several acre woodland.   And they are not afraid to show their ownership…their lack of 
fear. Our dog Woody smells coyote spoor when I cannot see anything.

   I could see nothing that was alivedown the back of
lot where an ancient dump rake rests.  Nothing. Noting Nothing. Woody knew better.
Evenutually the coyote slipped from the woodland camouflage into the daylight.

No intention of running away.  Daring Woody to dig under the fence. Hungry.


Back to being invisible in an instant.  If your eyes are good
you can see him or her beside the left wheel of the dump rake.  I think, but not sure.

In the small wilderness park a male and female coyote are raising three or four pups.
Playful stage right now.  Woody is now aware that coyotes prefer food to play. Dangerous  should
he venture down the back of our lot.  He learned that the hard way when he
slipped through the gate and joined a coyote a while ago.   Not a playful moment.
The coyote took a bite out of Woody’s backside.  Food. Woody skedaddled back home fast.

Do not expect to see the coyotes.  They are smart.  They move around seeking, rabbits, garbage.Softly from place to place.
Itinerent.   They are not stupid.   Why do they seem to prefer urban places to rural places?
Food I believe.  Not as many cats around here as their once were.Coyotes are not a big danger
to Woody  Little dogs are more edible

I like the coyotes.  Not everyone does.
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EPISODE 827 IMAGINATION AND A STUMP FENCE

EPISODE 827   IMAGINATIoN AND A STUMP FENCE


alan skeoch
may 27, 2023

What do you see here?


There is more to a stump fence than meets the eye. However you will need a dash of imagination.
Maybe a dollop of abstract thinking.   Maybe it is possible to see things in a stump fence that 
do not exist except in our minds.    A stump fence is a kind of wooden 
Rorschach test…(an ink block test).

Long long ago I remember sitting in Runnymede Presbyterian church when Dr. McQueen
gave his regular children sermon.   He always did this before the adult sermon.  I could 
enjoy those sermons because he used stump fences as triggers for presenting big ideas.

. “This week 
I found this piece of a stump fence that looked like a woodpecker hunting for hidden
grubs.”   

IMAGINARY LESSON FROM A STUMP FENCE

“This week we have a woodpecker in search
of food…a listener…a searcher for something unseen….a hard worker whose life depends on 
the ability to pound out holes in search of treasure.  Some humans do that every day.
Work can be hard.  Hard work, however, often leads to treasure.   A good book can do that.
I read one the other day titled Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.   You would like that book.
…presents big ideas that should concern us all.  Like the dangers of pesticides.”

All this from a chunk of a stump fence.  yes.  Imagination is wonderful.  Use it.

CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING IMAGINARY IN THESE STUMPS?

DID you notice the sea otter about to be engulfed by big wave?


I see a young sea otter…or is it a duck?
…Marjorie saw a mongoose.


alligator or snake about to eat a yellow flower


coiled python with head hidden


gaping mouth of the child python found
on a root about 20 feet away from  the body…that
is one big Pythonl


FIND THE TINY HAND!

Tiny hand reading out to greet.   Can you find the hand in the original pic? I bet you cannot!




alan    may 28,2023

(I SAW A TINY HAND REACHING OUT IN GREETING….does that mean anything?


POST SCRIPT:  RORSCHACH TEST

The Rorschach test is a projective psychological test in which subjects’ perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person’s personality characteristics and emotional functioning.

Rorschach test - Wikipedia
How does the Rorschach inkblot test work? - Damion Searls
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EPISODE 825 WHT WE BOUGHT OR BARGAINED..SET SALE MAY 2023 MATTHEW BOLTON, MRTIN BUDD

EPISODE 825     WHAT WE BOUGHT OR BARGAINED..SET SALE MAY 2023  MATTHEW BOLTON, MRTIN BUDD

alan skeoch 
May 26, 2023

Some Of our friends are ‘downsizing’.   Moving from large homes to smaller condominiums or
apartments.  We are going in the opposite direction…’upsizing’ for the movie industry.  Doubt
very much that any reader will feel envious.   Some may even be rather shocked.
In order to upsize for these two five ton truckloads my nephew Robert Skeoch and i spent
a whole day reducing our collection and hauling a lot of things to the dump.  Some had
to be rescued later when a movie set wanted things we had decreed superfluous.


We have  learned a hard lesson.  We cannot provide al things to all movies.   So our collection comes under the headline of ‘period’ items.  Some
things are even abused.  No self respecting movie script seems to want brand new set dressing.  A little or a lot of abuse makes a movie seem real.  Life
is that way.  Imperfect. Abused by the human hand.  Used .. neglected.  Broken and forgotten.  Such things are valued highly by set buyers.  “There
is no fake aging process that replicates the ravage of time.”  Painters and carpenters can do a good job making a brand new chair and table look old
and abused. But time and neglect do a better job.

A n obsolete three furrow plow abandoned in a fence row for half a century cannot look shiny and fit for the showroom floor. A crate which is supposed to
be weathered and broken cannot show the new heads of Robertson screws.  Get the idea?



The cast iron machine on the left looked good to me.  I have no idea of its purpose .  But it looks good…Fading paint make it look  better. If you know the machine then drop a note to me. Cast iron with a pulley that connected to a  motor of some kind.  Pretty.


There is an exception to every rule.  The ammunition crates above , sort of military looking. do look new and should be so if the 40 of them
are part of a war themed movie.    We bought all 40.  We had a gut feeling they will be wanted.  Of course we could be wrong.  Some of the
things we hauled to the dump had never been wanted by a set buyer.  

 Even raccoons and Opposums and squirrels had avoided them.  One winter 
a large grey owl took up residence in our barn.  That discouraged other creatures thankfully.


Marjorie provided home made pizza for the crew.    Now that is unusual … moreso than anything else in these pictures.


Posted on

Fwd: EPISODE 823 ALAN, WE ARE CLEARING THE MOVIE SET”



Begin forwarded message:


From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
Subject: Fwd: EPISODE 822 ALAN, WE ARE CLEARING THE MOVIE SET”
Date: May 26, 2023 at 12:13:42 PM EDT
To: Paul Caron <bumpa36@rogers.com>, Matthew Bolton <matthew.c.bolton@gmail.com>


I ASSUME THIS STORY IS SAFE TO SEND OUT….AVOIDS PROBLEMS WITH SET….NO NAMES, NO DETAIL PICS OF SET


I HAVE EVERYTHING STOWED AWAY EXCEPT FOR CRATES…..SEEMS YOU GUYS ARE VER BUSY…NO NEED TO RESPOND

ALAN.

Begin forwarded message:


EPISODE 823   “ALAN, WE ARE CLEARING THE MOVIE SET”


alan skeoch
may 21, 2023


Marjorie found the only living plant in the whole 5 square km movie set


WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A MOVIE SHUTS DOWN?  DEMOLITION AND  DISPERSAL

Martin and Matthew called us one morning a few days ago.

“Perhaps you and Marjorie might be interested in some of the things we had for the movie.”(name of movie withheld)
“Sure thing.”
“We’ll send a limousine around to pick you up.”
“We can drive “
“The set is hard to find even though it covered 5 square kilometres of buildings. Best we pick
you up. The place has security people.  You know what movie  making entails. Secrecy.”

NOTE:  This story avoids specifics.  All pictures of the movie set … i.e. the village that was constructed
has been deleted.   So the privacy of movie making has been respected.  There is still
much to see.  


A stretched limousine picked us up. The driver, John,
said we had him for the day.  And it took a full day….two huge locations,  a sound stAge and an open air site.

Why were we treated so well?  Because some of the things we rented to them needed to be eye balled.

And some tHings were for sale.

The site was hidden behind wall after wall of gigantic 53 foot long shipping containers piled on top
of each other.  There was a gate house and a security guard.  John had clearance.  We felt like royalty.



Martin Budd made us feel special…as did Matthew Bolton, set director.



The studio was bigger than a football field.  Largely empty except for piles of things that caught our eyes. “Al, look what we have saved for you?” 
Take a guess.



The crew in the set department…some of them. “Do you want coffee…perhaps some macaroons?”   



Hard to believe how  five Km set location could be hidden behind these walls of shipping containers.   
some machines were already doing the demolition of the set.   




What did we buy?  Try to guess…the next Episode will tell you. 
(EPISODE 825)  Here are some of the piles of set dressing that were up for sale.  Except for the carts which are being saved
should there  be another  series of episodes.   Movie sites are kept secret until the stories are ready for public viewing so I have been careful to keep the complete set secret.  While we were
there  the buildings were being chewed into tiny pieces by a couple of excavators and the rubble hauled away to a dump site.  Here today, gone tomorrow.


 



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STUMP FENCES — 25 CENTS PER STUMP…’UGLY AS A STUMP FENCE”


EPISODE 822    “UGLY AS A STUMP FENCE” 
 
alan skeoch
May 23, 2023

NOTE TO READERS…SORRY FOR DELAY, COMPUTER ROUBLE

“UGLY AS A STUMP FENCE”…expression coined in 19th century

EUREKA….WE FOUND A STUMP FENCE , MAY 25, 2023….SIXTH LINE

Marjorie Likes to deviate en route to the farm.  Takes longer.  I prefer the fastest direct route
and complain when she finds a new road.   But not today.  We cut up the sixth line from Steeles
and lo and behold discovered the remains of a stump fence.  Skeletons from the distant past.
Deep distant past.  Stump fences were common  a century ago.  Survivors of the onerous
task of clearing land by new immigrants,  Pioneer farms were not pretty.  Before a crop could be
grown the old growth forests had to be cleared.  Doing so was simple but ugly.  Farmers 
with axes cut the living bark from the towering white pine, oaks and maples.  Without bark
the trees died.  That took time…perhaps a year of two.  So pioneer farms were covered with
the skeletons of dead trees.   Some were useful and were squared into beams for barns.  Most
however were not. 

So they stood like dead soldiers.  Or fell and were butchered trunk from root. 
Even then they were not moved.  They had imbedded earth and could not be lifted
easily.  Farmers had to wait years…yes years….until the roots dried out and the imbedded earth
fell away.  Then they could be hauled to fence rows to form fields.    Mass of roots faced out
and trunks faced in.   Today there are still survivors of these root fences…some nearly 200
years old.   And today root fences are considered charming.  When they were constructed by
farmers with oxen or horses the root fences seem to have been considered ugly, hence
the expression “ugly as a stump fence” .




In 1850 stop Clearing was a business.  Huge triangle root lifters were centred over the cropses then oxen or horses were
used with the help of chin toilet the stumps.  profitable at 25 cents  a root.l  Twenty five cents!  A  dollar in 1850 was worth $39 in our
terms.  Stop pulling was a good business.   Farmers often had to wait until they could afford to hire
a stump [uller.

FAR RIGHT ENGRAVING BY W.J. BENNETT, 1787-1844


Mrs. Anna Jameson’s described a girdled forest she saw on the main road between Hamilton and Branford. “[For] a space of about three miles, bordered entirely on each side by dead trees, which had been artificially blasted by fire or girdling. It was a ghastly forest of tall white spectres, strangely contrasting with the glowing luxurious foliage all around…Without exactly believing the assertion of the old philosopher, that a tree feels the first stroke of the axe, I know I never witness nor hear that first stroke without a shudder; and as yet I cannot look on with indifference, far less share the Canadian’s exultation, when these huge oaks, these umbrageous elms and stately pines, are lying prostrate, lopped of all their hours, and piled in heaps with the brushwood, to be fired,—or burned down to a charred and blackened fragment,—or standing leafless, sapless, seared, ghastly, having ben ‘girdled’ and left to perish.” (Anna Jameson: Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada, 1838, Vol. II, pp. 102-3)




File:Photograph of Stump Fence Around Fields on a Farm Near White Cloud, Michigan - NARA - 2129273.jpgupload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Photograph_of_Stump_Fence_Around_Fields_on_a_Farm_Near_White_Cloud%2C_Michigan_-_NARA_-_2129273.jpg?20121002084120 2x” data-file-width=”1383″ data-file-height=”1077″ class=””>

AUGUST 1941, 

The stump or root fences on the Corner road remind me of fossil remains of mastodons, etc., exhumed and bleached in sun and rain.
— Henry David Thoreau, Journal (July 19, 1851)

Both photos: “A New England stump fence,” ca. 1890-1901, by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

I had heard of  ‘stumperies,’ but not of stump fences (sometimes called root fences), however now I’ve learned that . . .

[s]tump fences, as their name implies, were made by dragging the stumps of trees to the edge of a field and placing them side by side, with their interlacing roots facing outward and their trunks inward. In the days when “ugly as a stump fence” was a simile in common usage, the stump fence had its critics, but in 1837 one observer called it “a singular fence…needing no mending, and lasting the ‘for ever’ of this world.” “The devil himself couldn’t move a stump fence,” farmers used to say, an opinion borne out by the fact that stump fences well over a hundred years old can still be seen in parts of Canada and in the Midwest.

Stumps were often the product of the first clearing of the land, but stump fences didn’t appear in the first generation of a settlement’s fences because stumps need to sit in the ground for six to ten years before they are loose enough to be pulled out and hauled away. Extracting even a loosened stump was never easy; it required oxen and strong chains, something that many settlers lacked at first. In the 1800s, stump pulling would become a cash business and one way that a man could make a good living. Twenty-five cents a stump was the standard price in 1850 when men operating such mechanical stump pullers as the “Portable Goliath,” “The Little Giant,” and “Roger’s Patent Extractor” could extract from twenty to fifty stumps a day.