EPISODE 595 STONEY FARM…LEGACY OF THE ICE AGE
alan skeoch
June 2022
As I have said many times, “Our best crop is stones…they come up every year”
SOMETIMES forced labour was used to control this unwanted…unloved..stone crop. In this case Ron Saunders brought
his back hoe Excavator to clear out the old pond which was really a swamp in front of the old barn on the Freeman farm. We planned a bigger pond
after my jerry built barn replacement had collapsed into a pile of rubble.
The project seemed like a good idea to everyone except for dad, Arnold Red Skeoch, who announced to all and sundry
that the whole project was “goddamned stupid waste of time and money”/ Dad often spoke in opposite. If he said something
was goddamn stupid then he might mean it was interesting.
Here is what the same site looks like today….June 9, 2022. Time has a habit of totally changing landscapes. Rest assured, however, that the
stones are still there just under the surface. Stones are pushed up by the first each year…they look like hard mushrooms in springtime and play havoc
with the blade of the John Deere mower.
This is Arnold Red Skeoch smoking a White Owl Invincible … amused at the pond project.
These are the unpaid labourers who were dragooned into picking stones. DAvid, Kevin, Andrew and Robert Skeoch. (Skeoch boys, bottom to top)
Hidden photo taken of the labour crew.
Marjorie, Deana, Mom (Elsie Freeman))
The pile of lumber is the ruin of my first (and only) effort at barn building. My barn stood
for about two months then collapsed .