EPISODE 876 iIN THE BEGINNING…SKY WOMAN FELL FROM THE CLOUDS…
alan skeoch
Sept. 29 2023
NOTE: THE story of Sky Woman fascinated me . Why? Because her rescue was done by
the creatures on earth. There exists harmony between humans and all living things
in this creation story. Seems a nicer CREATION STORY than Adam and Eve.
SKY WOMAN
An excerpt from a book you will never read
titled YOUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND, a book I wrote in the hope
it would improve young Canadians understanding of our native people.
The book never got that chance.
“Where did we come from?”
“How did we get here?”
“What was the FIRST CAUSE?
“Can something be created from nothing?”
Questions such as these have bedevilled thinking people . These questions do not seem
to have bedevilled non-thikeers as much. So I write this for thinkers.
When I wrote YOUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND some time ago the trigger mechanism in
my brain was the Turtle legend common to many aboriginal peoples in eastern North America.
It is a story…a legend….a myth…a ‘belief’ that makes more sense than Adam and Eve
because the story is in harmony with other living creatures on planet earth.
Initially, like Adam and Eve, the ‘giant Turtle’ story was told orallly and therefore changed a
little with each telling. But the essence never changed, The story was recorded in print after the arrival of Europeans.
Relatively recently.
No doubt my version differs from other versions. So be it. I write this as if it was told tome by a wise
aboriginal leader. A woman.
IN THE BEGINNING
“In the beginning” the earth was covered in water. There was no land.
The gods lived in peace abed the clouds with covered the earth.
One day a tree fell over and poked a hole one clouds.
Sky Woman was curious and she peeked through the hole at the watery
earth below. She leaned over too far and fell through the hole in the clouds.
She was falling faster and faster when a loon saw her. The loon flew under and
Sky Woman landed on the loon’s back.
She was heavy and the loon cried out to the creatures below for help lest Sky Woman drown.
The Great Turtle told the Loon to ‘let Sky Woman land on my back’
But the back of the turtle was too small so the turtle gathered all the
living creatures in the watery world for a conference.
“Sky Woman needs more space.”
And so the water animals…the loon, goose, beaver, otter and muskrat began to dive
down deep in the water world. ‘They tried to reach the muddy bottom
They tried often but failed. Then the lowliest of the water animals, the
muskrat, made one last effort. The muskrat dived deep…too deep
to keep alive ….but, in the muskrat’s last living act clutch a paw of
mud which was carried to the top of the water.
The other water animals opened the muscrat’s paw where it
clutched a ball of mud. “What should we do?” they asked.
Then the wise old turtle said. “Press the mud on the edge of my
body.” And when they did so the mud began to grow larger
an larger unitil the back of the turtle became the land we know
today.
WHERE DID OTHER HUMANS ORIGNATE?
Sky Woman was piegnant when she fell. In time she bore two
sons. The sons did not like each other. One son was good
and one was bad. They fought bitterly and the bad son
nearly killed the good son. Both lived
As might be expected various speakers in an oral society
would make changes But the essence of the story is still intact
-a water covered plant
-gods living above the clouds
-a fall through a hole in the clouds
-Sky Woman falling
-rescue by a loon or a goose
—haven provided by the Great Turtle
-need for living space
-all animals attempt to get mud
– most fail
-lowly muskrat succeeds
-mud multiplies to become land in the watery world’
-Sky Woman was pregnant and had two sons
-one son was good, the other was evil
-they fight
STORIES OF CREATION ALL ORIIGINATED AS ORAL STORIES TOLD OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
EVENTUALLY THEY WERE TRANSCRIBED AS WITH THE BOOK OF GENESIS AROUND 500 BC
OR IN THE TIME OF NOAH…
AND THE ABORIGINAL CREATION STOIES TRASCRIBED BY EUROPENS IN HE 19TH CENTURY.
BOOK OF GENESIS
Genesis 1:1 forms the basis for the Judeo-Christian doctrine of creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo) and some scholars still support this reading,[5] but most scholars agree that on strictly linguistic and exegetical grounds, this is not the preferred option,[6][7][8] and that the authors of Genesis 1, writing around 500–400 BCE,
Most of the myths from this region were first transcribed by ethnologists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These sources were collected from Native American elders who still had strong connections to the traditions of their ancestors. They may be considered the most authentic surviving records of the ancient stories, and thus form the basis of the descriptions below.[2][better source needed]
Northeast (Southeastern Canada and Northeastern US, including the Great Lakes)
From the full moon fell Nokomis – from The Story of Hiawatha, 1910[3]
Myths from this region feature female deities, such as the creator, Big Turtle;[4][5] and First Mother, from whose body grew the first corn and tobacco.[6] The two great divine culture heroes are Glooskap[7][8] and Manabus.[9]
Other stories explore the complex relationships between animals and human beings. Some myths were originally recited as verse narratives.[7]
When did the strap stop being used in schools in Toronto?
By 1979, the York and North York School Boards had joined Toronto in banning the strap, but in the early 1980s it was still permitted in Scarborough, Etobicoke, East York, Peel, York Region, the Metropolitan Separate School Board, and virtually everywhere else in the province. Elsewhere in Canada, the tide turned towards abolition in the 1990s.
THE STRAP
I got the strap once. At least I think I got the strap. Was it my imagination or did it really happen? I am not sure but have
a clear memory of waiting in the principals’ office for him to deliver a whack on my hand with a leather strap that looked like
a thing dad used to sharpen his razor in days before Gillette Blue Blades made the razer strap obsolete,
Memory
“I sm sitting on a wood office chair outside the principal’s office in Runnymede pubic school . Toronto. Nervous.
Not exactly sure what I have done. I was To be strapped though. Likely because I vaulted over the school fence in a kind of somersault. Or maybe
because I was late for school because it was garbage day and there were always good things to find like the
western novel Frontier Doctor which was jammed in my back pocket
“Well, son, stretch out your right hand.”
“I’m left handed.”
“Then stretch out your left hand.”
(I should have shut up.)
“I am going to hit you once wit this strap. Do not move your hand.”
(Good idea…I must move my hand. Do not want to be hit. Wait until
strap coming downward…..then..”
Damn!
“You moved your hand. I hiT my own knee”
My memory ends there. I remember he was mad but do not remember
him actually hitting me. If he did then the blow was not memorable. Hitting his
own knee was memorable. No laugh..no snicker…no tears.
Afraid he would double the punishment. But he did not. Did this really happen?
My brain says i t did. The same brain had said Santa Calus was not real years ago
The same brain that told me to sit down most of the day..that way no-one would notice
that the ass was torn out of my pats. My back pocket had hooked on the fence
and tore a gap revealing y underwear or my bare ass.
Those were the days in late 1940’s and early 1950’s
when strapping kids was considered essential. Belevers in the strap really believed that
to “spare the rod was to spoil the child.” A good whack on the hand was important somehow.
Seemed a bit deranged to me.
Our family did not believe in strapping. My dad was a big tough tire builder. Strong
as an ox. But he did not believe in disciplining Eric and me. Never touched us
He was prepared, however, to defend us from the dangers of the outside world.
One illustration ? A lady followed us home from school one day. We were with our
friends…big Red Stevenson Billy and Bobby Rankin, Brian Hetheirngton…and had
been using pea shooters all the way home. Especially this one woman’s dining
room window which was in range. No ill will to her just fired the beans because i was in range.
The window glass got a shower of hard white beans
rather than soft green peas.
So there she was. Folowing us. We lived closest to the school so got the visitor…the woman.
Dad was working the night shift at Dunlop Tire. He was home only because there
were no horses running at Dufferin track that day. The doorbell rang and dad
lumbered down to the main floor. Opened the door….
“Your boys have been firing white beans at my window!”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Your boys…”
“Listen and listen closely Get your goddamn self off my verandah
and bugger off homel”
“But…(splutter splutter)
Dad closed the door, lumbered back u the stairs, ignored Eric and me, and
went to bed…night shift. We had a one bedroom house. Eric and I slept there
at night. Dad did on night shifts but normally dad had the front-room couch
mom the dining room couch We were a close knit family. Loved each other but
never said so Did not need to say that nor to get kissy assy with hugs.
I never told dad about the strap. Afraid he would go down to school and punch the shit out of
the principal who already had a sore knee.
When Marjorie and I had Kevin and Andrew we followed the same pattern
but les dramatically. Certainly no strapping. Makes me shiver to even
think of that. The closest i ever sae to discipline was quietly saying:I was disappointed’
to kevin or Andrew for some minor indiscretion. And the boy began to cry. Maybe
words hurt more than a strap. But I am not convinced.
If you beilong to the ‘SPARE THE ROD OR SPOIL THE CHILD’ parental generation
Namng apple varieties was once a common thing to do since apples do not
replace themselves from apple seeds. I wuold like to call this wild apple
‘RED STREAK’ but that is the name of one of the most famous apple
varieties in the 19th century. What should I name my…MY?…apple tree?
There’s only one tree in the whole world like it. It grows in our TANGLED
ORCHARD on abandoned land. Tastes good…easy to eat. Might make
good apple sauce. Think of a name as you read this story.
WHEN grandma and grandpa Freeman stopped farming they let their 25 are farm return
to nature graduallly. The first invaders were wild apple trees…a complete wild
orchard that looked like a bad hair day.’’’
When the Freemans stopped farming around 1950 … the wild apple orchard took over the land which delighted Angus McEchern’s Hereford cattle who
loved apples. They pushed down the rail fence with ease.
The cattle ate the windfalls….some in advanced decay This was not good. While apples are not
poisonous, but their seeds are bad news. Those tiny black apples seeds contain a chemical that produces
CYANIDE. A seed or two will not kill but should a human being decide to chew 200 apple
seeds then call the dead wagon. What would they do to a cattle herd?
Our wild apple orchard is struggling to survive. The re’d pines are getting taller and which means less light reaches the
apple trees..
Here is how one apple tree manages to survive using a single branch which is loaded with a
a big green variety of apples red to be picked.
Small wild apples below..perhaps a crab[[;e/
Here (below) is the prize tree producing large yellow apples with decorative red streaks. In ten minutres I managed to
fill a pail and I hope Marjorie can do the real work of converting the apples into apple sauce. We need a name for
these apples? How about ‘Delight of the Forest”
The myth regarding cows and apples
You might have heard this myth. Cows that eat apples can get a bloated stomach and die. But that’s not what’s happening when your cattle feed on apples fallen on the ground or those that you offer them to diversify their diet.
So, if that’s not true, where does this myth come from? There is a small grain in this myth, which is that the cows can get a little bloated when eating apples. However, that happens only if they eat a lot of apples all of a sudden and for the first time in their lives.
Anything new that’s introduced to a cow’s diet can cause bloating. It is not only apples that can cause this side effect, but any other fruits and veggies that your cows may eat by accident or otherwise. As long as cows feed on fallen apples, they won’t run the risk of overeating.
They know what’s good for them and what isn’t and they won’t eat more than what they can digest. So, if you plan to introduce apples into your cows’ diet, do so gradually. And here’s another thing. Many cows love apples and will consider them treats.
NOTE: YOU CAN SEE THIS MACHINE IN OPERATION THIS WEEK END AT THE ANCASTER FAIR
FROM SEPTEMBER 21 TO SEPTEMER 25, 2023. DOMINIC MAY BE PRESENT. DO NOT DISTRACT HIM,
HE HAS IMPORTANT WORK TO DO.
EPISODE 880: ROBERT DOWNEY’S 1920 OR 1930 CORN COB SHUCKER…FEATURING 7 YEAR OLD DOMINIC DEBOER
alan skeoch
Sept. 18, 2023
Dominic DeBoer was a busy little boy, perhaps 7 years old. Dominic and his dad Joe DeBoer were very busy feeding cornstalks from
a farm wagon to Colin Fearman and Colin Tomlinson who were operating the McCormick Deerng Corn Shucker. A weird and wonderful
machine designed to shred corn stalks and shuck corn cobs onto a conveyor belt.
Dominic took the job very seriously. No time for small talk. The corn thresher was alive and a touch dangerous for a little boy lest his
hand got ingested. So Dominic took one stalk at a time and pitched it into the mouth of the machine. And what a beautiful machine it is.
How can I describe the shredder and chucker? The image of a rusty octopus comes to mind. An octopus with three long legs of
varying length. The longest is the endless power belt….that hooks the tractor to the shredder. There is danger here so Colin and Dale
and Robert keep a close eye lest someone gets too close. People can lose an arm is they are stupid enough to touch the belt.
The other arms of the shredder are busy … one arm blows the shredded corn stalks into a pile in the field while the shortest arm
moves the clean cobs to a corn crib. Inside the octopus (i.e. shredder) razor sharp blades rip off the husks and chew the stalks into
bit sized chunjs,
Dominic never let his hands get close to the shredder. With two hands he hurled his con stalk into the mouth of the shredder….one
stalk at time while his dad hurled in a pile of stalks/
I had never seen a machine like this. And I hadd documented most farm machines The years fro 1850 to 1891 were great years
for mechanical investors. One invention paved the way to outher inventions. Hand operated corn sellers were common nachines
on 19th and 2th century hundred acre farms. But for shuckers and shredders were not common for goof reason. They
cost too much…$1600* ($29,000 today) …for farmers in those lean years of the late 1920’s and the Depression years of the 1930’s.
Far better to shuck corn by hand. Cheaper.
So this McComick Deering shucker is a rare find.
Enter Robert Downey, 38 year old mechanic who fell involve with ancient machines while working with his granddad when
his peers were more interested in cars, sports, clothes or drinking beer.
“How did you get interested in the old machines. diverting many of them from scrap yards ?”
I am 38 years old, born and raised just south of Caledonia, where I still reside. I am a licensed mechanic by trade and currently working at the Hamilton Airport fixing ground service equipment. I also do some farming and help Leanne’s family with the 4000 or so acres they do. I started working on things at a young age in my grandfather’s shop, Allan McBay, who was a Skid-Doo dealer, ag mechanic and farmer. I would spend all of my holidays and summers there working on equipment. At the time of his death, we counted all of the tractors, not including equipment and there were roughly 160 tractors. I got the “old iron bug” from him. Lol. All the way through high school my friends could not understand why I was always spending time at grandpas until one day they came up and took a tour through the barns, after that they understood and a few of them caught the “bug” themselves. I bought my first tractor, a 1949 Farmall H, when I was 17 and the first thing I did was take it to grandpas to get his seal of approval. After that it was just a tradition to get his seal of approval on all our tractors purchases. I was fortunate enough to end up with a farm girl who also caught the bug for old iron and she has since started collecting her own, however like Hatfield’s and McCoys, we have our fun battles as I come from an International Harvester family and she is a John Deere family. It is all in good fun, but at the end of the day we love all the old iron. We have a vast number of plows that we use in the fall to do plow days, the corn shredder, a corn binder, an old new holland baler with a mounted 2-cylinder Wisconsin engine and a few IH fast hitch attachments. My current project I have been working on is a 1976 IH Loadstar truck that I have put onto a newer truck chassis and plan on using to haul the old iron around on. I was also just lucky enough to retrieve my grandpa Downey’s 1947 International KB3 truck that will be on the restore list next.
Between Leanne, Dale, Colin, Joe, Dominic and myself we are pushing in the neighbourhood of 50 tractors in our little collection. the oldest being my 1938 McCormick Deering 10-20 on steel and the newest being my 1960 Farmall 560 diesel that I still do farm work with.
What is the buying power of $1600 in 1930?
$1,600 in 1930 has the same “purchasing power” or “buying power” as $29,064.72 in 2023. To get the total inflation rate for the 93 years between 1930 and 2023, we use the following formula: The average inflation rate of 3.17% has a compounding effect between 1930 and 2023
POST SCRPT: IT is easy for me to identify with Robert Downey even though I am 85 and he is 38. We share the same illines….OLD IRON.
He is the better man though. He is a mechanic. Whereas I am left handed and therefore handicapped since the world of machines is designed
for right handed people. I have other flaws. Optimism being one of them. Long ago when I was 38 I attended the Thompson farm sale near Cambridge.
There were five threshing machines in the sale. I bought them all rather than see them scrapped. Stupid thing to do. These machines need flat bed
trucks to move them so I hired Gordon Hume to help me do so. Two I gave to museums. One I sold at auction and the remainder are tucked away.
Marjorie did not criticize my foolishness.
she knows my illness is incurable. Robert Downey would have done the same.
One good result was that the largest of the threshers was accepted by Riverdale Farm in the heart of Toronto and when Godeon Hume moved up Palriament Street
with the behemoth, David Shatsky, then host of Radio Noon, happened to notice. He was curious. And his curiosity led to my decade long ‘CBC radio
career. I was able to become a radio journalist delivering 5 to 10 minute stories to a radio audience. Left anded people are often dreamers…story tellers.
But they are not mechanics. Love the romance of the corn shucker but I could never do what Robert has done.
I have the wreck of a corn binder on our farm. “Robert, if you are listening, I will give it to you as a parts machine if you want it. It is a pathetic pile of old iron
in our red pine forest. Think twice before you accept tis offer.”
SORRY IF OUR ABSENCE HAS MEANT YOU HAVE NO BED TIME STORY.
EPISODE 876 MARJORIE FINDS A PUFF BALL…AND WE ATE IT
alan skeoch
SEPTEBER 13, 2032
“ALAN, LOOK WHAT I FOUND.”
“ GIANT PUFF BALL…WHERE WAS IT?
“IN THE DITCH…DO YOU THINK IT ’S EDIBLE?”
WE ATE AFEW SKICES IF THIS PUFF BALL
Puff ball mushrooms are very strange. They appear suddenly almost anywhere and
grow immense in short time. And they are edilble but be careful. They are only
edible when very young,,,,when all white. Totally white inside and spongy.
OLD PUFF BALLS LOOK LIKE UGLY VOMIT
No one in their right mind would eve eat an old puffball because they look sick…ugly
internal contents become sickly green … the colour of fresh vomit. Even a
complete fool would not touch a mature puffball. If it is kicked like football
a cloud of spores burst forth. Old puff balls are ghastly.
But young puff balls are as pretty as fresh bread. And look like fresh bread.
They can be sliced like fresh bread using a good sharp bread knife. Use a gentle saw like action.
Peel the thin rubber like crust and the puff ball is ready for the frying pan..
Easiest way to eat a puff ball is to put some butter in the frying pan, then add the slices
of the puff ball. Sprinkle with salt nd pepper. Garlic salt is best…gives best flavour.
Fry until both sides are golden brown or even darker brown.
Then eat the slices like you would French Toast or pan cakes.
What do they taste like? Rather bland. Very bland.
Today Marjorie’s puff ball tased like garlic salt.
alan
Note: Mushroom hunting is tricky.. Some mushrooms are good. Some are bad…very bad.
Fresh puff balls are really good. Old puff balls are disgusting. It’s easy to tell the difference.
SOME OTHER PUFF BALL RECIPES.
You can also cook up large slices of puffball and freeze them to use as the base for wonderful gluten-free pizzas (see below). Or try the convenience of breading the raw puffball with the parmigiana breading below and freeze them. Pull them out later, fry them and bake them for a quick pre-prepared dinner. Puffball Fries freeze up equally well. Pull them out of the freezer and in 15 minutes you’ll have crispy fries to dip in your favourite sauce – a great appetizer or snack.
Cooked puffball has a texture kind of like tofu, but more soft and melting (a bit like a sugarless marshmallow). You can use puffball just like you would tofu and most other mushrooms in recipes. I still have so many ways I’d like to try it, so I hope I find some puffballs again next year.
Try puffball some of these ways:
diced, sauteed, and added to any pasta sauce
raw, cubed in salads
diced, sauteed, then tossed in with chives and beaten eggs as you scramble them
cut slices, dip them in a mixture of equal parts soy sauce and water, plus a dash of sriracha or hot sauce, then pan-fry them in butter or oil until brown
cubes, strips, or slices, breaded and fried
grill or fry thick slabs and use them as a meatless burger on a bun with toppings
toss them in with stir fries
sauté cubes of puffball with onions, peppers, tomatoes, and Italian seasoning
use thin slices of sauteed puffball instead of pasta in lasagna
Which is easiest discipline or leverage?
