Alan Skeoch

Month: February 2024

  • JOHN CALDER SAW MILL AND THRESHING MACH INE AT WORK…MASSEYHARRIS BEAMS

    EPISODE   1,020  JOHN AND ELEANOR CALDER — BUILT A SAWMILL FROM PARTS 


    alan skeoch
    dec 8, 2023


    Note: This story is about the Calder family aw mill.   Your task is to separate threshing 
    from sawing….the Calders did both. 

    John and Eleanor Calder were a remarkable couple, Hard to know where to start their story
    because they could do things thst would intimidate people like me and possibly you,

    ‘What  is all that scrap iron beside the barn John?”
    “I am going to build a sawmill, Alan…got all the pieces here.”

    John and Eleanor were a perfect match…fitted hand and glove.
    They decided to build their own house after a fire converted nearly all their
    possessions into ash.  I remember John’s burnt hands after he reached through a burning 
    window to rescue some silverware and pottery.

    AFTER THE FIRE ‘MAKNG DO’ WITH WHAT REMAINED

    “We will just have to make do with what remains’”
    “What remains?”
    “Lots.”
    “Like the dairy herd was untouched and the barn and the sheep…and our family…no
    deaths in the fire.
    so we began to build our dream house.
     I rescued this sawmill from scrap iron dealers.   We have trees
    …lots of them….and we have stones,,,lots of them.  Enough to build a two storey field stone house,  I have a plan,”
    P{lan””
    “The stones are free but lumber costs money.   I need my own saw mill to cut costs”
    ‘
    JOHN AND ELEANOR CALDER WITH HELP OF CHILDREN  JAMES, DOUGLAS AND 


    ANNE BUILT A STONE HOUSE THAT BECAME A FEATURE STORY IN NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES  i,e  HARROWSMITH



    The brand new stone house about to receive lumber from
     the saw Mill


    ENTER  OUR FMILY


          when we  discovered   the Calder saw mill.  We had been collecting white pine beams from                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        the demolition of the Massey Harris factory in west Toronto.  The pictures below show how the beams became nice lumber.

    Today the saw mill has been abandoned for two decades 

    OUR LUMBER AWAITS A NEED

    CIBC

    alan

    P.S>   Eleanor was born to Frank Townsend and Elizabeth Skeoch, dad’s sister




  • EPISODE 1,019 HOW TO BECOME A COVER GIRL

    EPISODE  1,019    HOW TO BECOME A COVER GIRL


    alan skeoch
    feb 23, 2024

    PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM  1982

    PARKDALE  COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE  



    “Mr  Skeoch would like some students to stick around the
    school tomorrow afternoon around 3.30.  A book 
    publisher has hired a photographer to take a picture 
    of our students on the cover of a book he has written.  Here is 
    your chance to be famous.”

    The reaction was amusing.
     

     Parkdale students milled around the photographer who seemed to know
    what he wanted.  Namely students not teachers.  Took about 40 minute then he was gone 
    I never saw the results until the publication was done.

    What a surprise!   A cover that wrapped around the whole book.   Most interesting
    was the cover girl…the dominant feature.   students were dressed casually….blue jeans and sweaters,   One girl came to school in her best dress, an eye catcher with polka dots on a white base…new shoes, black leotards,  She was stunning.

    And it was no surprise her image dominated the book cover.  I do not remember
    her name unfortunately  Perhaps an ex student if PCI will recognize her.

    Instructions
    1) Do not look at the camera
    2) Would the young lady in polka dots dots seem to be reading the book.
    3) Would the rest of you be in conversation 
    (It was no accident that the final cover was representative of the Canadian 
    population)

    Every time I see this cover I am reminded of those halcyon days when 
    I taught high school,  There is no job like it.  To see adolescents become adults.

    Citizen X (as I call her) seemed to be just like all the other students
    until she saw her chance to be something else…a cover girl.

  • EPISODE 118 NONE OF MY BUSINESS — “THE SHOPPING CART AND HOMELESS MAN.”

    EPISODE 118     NONE OF MY BUSINESS — “THE SHOPPING CART AND

    HOMELESS MAN.”

    alan skeoch
    Feb. 19, 2024


    Most people walked by the man and his loaded ‘borrowed’ 
    shopping  Cart loaded with who knows what.  EVERY person that
    passed by in 20 minuted ignored him. You too?I only saw him load
    one item…a soda or beer can which he crushed flat and pitch in 
    the black milk crate.   Beer can ?  Worth 10 cents. What can ten cents buy?
    Soda can, worth nothing.  

    IMAGINE THIS MAN IS YOU…your cart.
    Answer the questions.

    Be specific  if you can

    What ’is in the cart?
    where do you sleep tonight? (temp -7 and sinking)
    What do you eat?   Where?
    Do you have friends?
    Where do you wash?
    Where do you relieve yourself?
    How did you become homeless”?
    Is there any danger in Being homeless?
    What do you do about  a tooth ache?

    NONE OF MY BUSINESS~ RIGHT?

  • Fwd: EPISODE 1,017 RESCUING OUR HOUSE…A RAILING IS BETTER THAN A MOVE




    Note:  Such a trivial thing,,,a hand rail,,,,maybe trivial to  you but to us
    it could be a saviour.


    EPISODE 1,017    RESCUING OUR HOUSE…A RAILING BETTER THAN A MOVE


    alan skeoch
    feb. 15, 2024
    pictures by marjorie

    SUDDENLY our whole way of
    life was in jeopardy…all due to a knee operation 
    thst was supposed to be successful.

    We love our house that now sits among megahouses but once, not long ago say 200 years ago, was hidden away in a white pine forest where the indigenous
    Misissauga people lived.   

    When we came here in1968 there were dozens of trees and shrubs thriving as the land gently sloped down to a babbling brook (Mary Fix Creek) where wild things thrived….. Today a  coyote family has mated and await the rival of pups.  Maybe they are already here.  So wild is our 55’ x 400’  lot  thst we have fenced off a fragment to protect Woody, our dog, snd Chelsea Bun, our kitten (she is howling in her ‘heat’ this moment  so has become a cat I surmise.
      Survival of pets is doubtful without the fence.

    SHANGRI-LA IS SHAKEN BY KNEE SURGERY

    Lucky us!  We feel lucky to have this fragment of wilderness.  At least we did
    until December 12 when I had knee surgery.  Suddenly alll we held dear was torn away.

    “Alan, you must do the exercises if you expect walk again.”
    “But something has gone wrong.  My knee will not straighten as it should.  I need
    a walker just to move from kitchen to bathroom.  My balance is gone. I am a totem pole about to collapse.  Should I dare to do a walkabout.  A prisoner. 
    Maybe time to think about moving ..downsizing as they say.

    Which gets me  to our story for today.  Marjorie called in an Occupational Therapist
    who made a tub  full of changes that once acted upon would make our house livable once more.  Hand rails for the shower, rubber mats for bathroom floor, Handles to hold …………..



    “You will need a handrail along the stairs.  Urgently needed.  How do you get from the 
    first to the second floor?”
    “I crawl like a lobster grasping anything that looks rooted. “
    “Have you ever fallen?”
    “Yes! When I let go of the walker and reached for the stairs.  Toppled like a whirling dervish.
    Sliced my hands on a tinware fox and cut my skull on a fireplace duck.  Lots of blood.”
    “How did you get help??]”
    “Marjorie was asleep so I had to drag myself upstairs.  Left a bloody trail for her to cleanup.  How do people living alone manage?”
    “They have great difficulty,”
    (What would I do if Marjorie were not there?)
     
    “You need  the wall railing immediately.”
    “We have lived here for over 60 years and never thought of that.”

    THE CREATION OF OUR WALL RAILING
    Andrew came to the rescue.   







    Imagine yourself with one leg that will not share the weight with the
    other leg.  People feel sorry for you…that is hard to handle…nice
    but I want to walk like other people.  What an arrogant person I have
    become.   Wishing I was perfect physically when there are so many
    people with worse afflictions. 

    alan skeoch


  • EPISODE 1’015 : ribbon of ice skating in Port Credit = OUR OWN YELLOW BRICK ROAD

    EPISODE 1’015  :  ribbon of ice skating in Port Credit 


    alan skeoch
    feb. 11, 2023


    Brand new ice skating track in Memorial park, Port Credit courtesy of Councillor 
    Stephen Dasko and City of Mississauga. ..and many others.  Open to all. Just in time

    Remember the Yellow Brick Road and Judy Garland?  Well this is  an Ice Blue Track built for you
    on artificial  ice on the west bank of the Credit River.  Free.  No Tin man, Straw Man or
    Friendly Lion…or Judy Garland.  Imagine that.

    alan