Alan Skeoch

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  • EPISODE 421 MONARCH BUTTERFLIES….SPECIAL MILKWEED GARDEN…DIRE PREDICTION


    EPISODE 421    MONARCH BUTTERFLIES….SPECIAL MILKWEED GARDEN…DIRE PREDICTION

    alan skeoch
    sept. 2, 2021

    Well, it’s that time of year again when we start to worry about the Monarch Butterflies.  Lots of

    doom and gloom…talk about these beautiful creatures facing extinction.  Let’s hope it’s

    just talk. 

    We are doing our part by leaving a good sized slice our garden exclusively for milk weed
    plants.  In the past no respectable farmer would do that because milk weed is toxic to 
    cattle.  Or so I am told.  I have never seen a cow munching milk weed.  They seem to 
    know plants.  All over North America eccentrics like Marjorie and me have little patches
    of milk weed.  Others,  using little thought, spread the insecticide Round Up. Deadly.

    And today there were two monarchs nosing about.  I hope laying eggs.  Eventual
    larvae who can munch they way through our dining area. 














    Milk weed gets a little ugly about now.  Other creatures chew at the leaves.  But

    Monarch larvae when and if they appear are obvious and systematic.  Big fat larvae 

    eventually appear.

    Big question
      How much time do they need to eventually emerge as Monarch butterflies.
    This is the beginning of Sept.  October comes fast as does the frost.  Is there
    enough time left?   Then they have the long flight to Mexico or part way there.




    Monarch Butterfly Population in 2020-21

    How would you go about counting North America’s monarch butterfly population? Scientists can’t count each and every butterfly. Instead they count the area of land occupied by the monarchs in their Mexican over-wintering habitat.  The 2020-2021 Monarch Butterfly Report below shows only 2.1 hectares, down from 6.05 hectares just 2 years ago. It’s one of the lowest acreage numbers for the winter population in 20 years. Entomologists believe that Monarch survival requires at least 15 acres of wintering butterflies annually. The situation is dire. Why is this happening?

    2020-2021 Monarch Butterfly Report | Monarch Watch

    Illegal Logging Is Increasing in Mexican Winter Habitat

    A dramatic increase in illegal logging in the Mexican over-wintering biosphere was reported this year.  Approximately 33 acres were lost, up from one acre of loss the year before. In addition problems with habitat loss in the U.S. persist due to the use of chemical insecticides, most notably Round Up.

    Monarch Butterfly Habitat in Mexico | 2020-2021 Monarch Butterfly Report
    These are the Transvolcanic Mountains in Mexico. For thousands of years (since the last ice age) monarch butterflies have taken refuge here during the winter. Unfortunately the area is being logged illegally, causing catastrophic destruction to monarch habitat. Vermont Woods Studios has partnered with the non-profit Forests for Monarchs to replant the area with native trees. The red arrows above point to plots we have reforested.


  • EPISODE 420 A “CASE” WITH A HAPPY ENDING…

    EPISODE 420     A ‘CASE’ WITH A HAPPY ENDING


    ala skeoch
    sept. 2021



    Now here is a short story about a little Case tractor.   Yes, it has a happy ending.   We need that in this
    day and age where unhappy endings are so often the ‘case’.  (Play on words).   

    Not long ago this tractor was a wreck..reached the end of its useful days.  Too small, way too small for
    farming.  Could barely pull a set of spring tooth harrows.  Set aside in a field or old drive shed. Then
    along came a mechanic.  Do not know who.  But he restored the Case perfectly…even new tires 
    … and a perfect paint job with decals applied as a finishing touch.  For some strange
    reason the little Case was put up for auction and i was able to buy it…then Son Andrew paid for it.
    The story does not end there.



    A movie art producer needed the little Case and sent “Al” from Transport to pick up the little Case and haul it to the city
    for a star role.  Big time production…perhaps award winning production.

    “Andrew, can you come up to the farm and load her.”  (“Her?”)
    “Sure, “

    And that is the happy ending.  I can’t say the name of the movie or much about the plot.  That is all secret
    stuff until the production is finished and on the screen.  At that time, you will be informed.

  • Fwd: EPISODE 419 TWO AMUSING LETTERS RE: LAUREL AND HARDY EPISODE 418 FROM GELN GREY AND BILL PROCIW



    Begin forwarded message:


    From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
    Subject: EPISODE 419 TWO AMUSING LETTERS RE: LAUREL AND HARDY EPISODE 418 FROM GELN GREY AND BILL PROCIW
    Date: August 29, 2021 at 7:28:38 PM EDT
    To: Bill Prociw <bill.prociw@gmail.com>, Glen Gray <glen.gray7@sympatico.ca>


    Glen and Bill….Can I send out your letters…they are  terrific.?

    EPISODE 419        TWO AMUSING LETTERS RE: LAUREL AND HARDY EPISODE 418 FROM GLEN GREY AND BILL PROCIW


    Stan and Oliver in the short Big Business (1929).
    REMEMBER THE EPISODE ABOUOT THE LITTLE SKEOCH MOTOR CAR COMPANY?   THIS CAR LOOKS SIMILAR.



    alan skeoch
    august 30,  2021

    I hesitated to write the episode about Laurel snd Hardy.  “Who would care?”
    “Many readers may never have heard of them.”  “Hardly big issues of our times.”
    “Boring…interior decorating””Slapstick humour is dated”

    Well  I was dead wrong.  Yesterday I received two fascinating letters from Glen Grey, stalwart member
    of our High Park Curling Team  and Bill Prociw who was a fellow teacher for decades at Parkdale Collegiate.

    The stories they tell are far better than what I wrote:

    BILL PROCIW

    Thanks Marjorie, for giving the BOYS a home.  I’m still a fan of their earlier movies.  The last one, Atoll K or Utopia is a stinker.

    My earliest memory of going to the movies was when I was pre-kindergarten age.   My mother took me to an evening movie at the Pix theatre on
     Ossington and Dundas, a short walk from our house on Crawford Street.  The movie was Swiss Miss,  a Laurel and Hardy flick.  What I remember was
     one of the late scenes in which the two had to transport a piano across a rope bridge over a deep canyon in the Alps.  There was a confrontation 
    with a gorilla on the other side of the piano and of course the rope bridge was bound to break over the canyon.
     It scared the bejesus out of me but I can’t remember if anything else came out of me.  I’m sure I thought about this scene many times before falling
     asleep in my bed- but not recently, though.
    Thanks for the memory,
    Bill

    GLEN GREY

    Alan,
    Several years ago we were in the Lake District of England and stumbled upon something that was so amazing, so unexpected and gave me great joy, no matter how the other three felt.I found a one pound note. No, no, no, we came upon a museum solely dedicated to no other than Laurel and Hardy. What in heavens name was it doing there? There was every conceivable memorabilia of the duo including a theatre that would play for us, since no one else was there, any of their movies. The middle aged man was keeping the museum going that his dad had started and had filled it with scads of Laurel and Hardy stuff. Posters, puppets, chewing gum wrappers, glasses, anything and everything that had their name in it. We sat and watched one movie short before moving on to our booked b&b. There was precious little to buy which was a shame. I was hoping for s big replica poster but no all I got was an 8 1/2X11 black and white picture that sums them up to a tee. I have it hanging in my living room where it is slightly hidden by a shelving unit but I can always see it from where I normally sit . They had dug a tunnel to escape from prison and in their usual manner had misjudged and wound up in the wardens office. The expressions on their faces, priceless ….. you couldn’t help but laugh at how stupid they were. It didn’t matter that they came up through floor boards and a carpet that might have clued in normal people.

    One movie short that tickled my fancy as a kid that I always remember when their names come up, was one where they had adjoining stores. One got mad at the other for something silly and marched into the others store while the other watched and ruined something. The other then marched back into the others store and ruined even more again while being watched. This went on for some till both stores were a total wreak without so much as either raising a hand in protest. Tit for tat was retribution enough no matter how much damage was sustained by either one. A quizzical look by the one being put upon without raising a finger I found so amusing as a kid. Thanks for the memories ( Laurel and Hardy not Bob Hope).gg




  • EPISODE 420 BLACK WALNUT TREE…ANS A LIRTLE MYSTERY

    EPISODE 420      BLACK WALNUT TREE AND A LITTLE MYSTERY


    alan skeoch
    August 2021

    This glorious Black Walnut tree stands where once the Freeman back house stood.
    Rich soil in other words.  My grandmother, Louisa Freeman, told me when I was
    a little squirt that I had planted the tree.  Maybe I stayed too long in the
    back house admiring alll the clippings pinned to the barnboard walls.  Many featured
    attractive girls promoting 1930’s cars.   It was the Cars the interested me….honestly.
    Well, maybe not so honest.  The girls were not difficult to  look at.  Did I drop walnuts
    down the back house hole?   Maybe.


    Pioneers coming from the United States…principally Mennonites…used walnut trees as the best guide to good
    land. ‘ The Trail of the Black Walnut”  is a book that says so.

    Black Walnut trees are quite vicious.  They exude a poison from their roots that kills any other tree that dares trespass
    on their land.   As you can see.   

    A few years ago I planted both a black walnut tree and an ‘axe handle tree’ (forgot the proper name) too close together. 
    They grew in harmony for a couple of decades until this year when the black walnut decided to kill its neighbour . And did so.

    Makes me feel a little guilty since I have been hurling black walnuts along the fencerows on t he fifth line. My idea of planting somewhat
    like Johny Appleseed…been doing so for
    years   That makes me feel responsible  for a few walnut groves on the Line.

    MYSTERY

    Why are our black walnut trees…  We have many….why are they not festooned with parasitic larvae like so
    many Fifth Line Walnuts trees are?  Maybe the reason is simple…i.e. Appreciation.


    ONE LARGE SAD FACT

    While Marjorie and I agree on most things, we differ on black walnut trees.  She fins the wheelbarrow loads
    of walnuts a pain in the butt.  They ‘thwack’ her lawn mower brutally.  And they attract the goddamn red
    squirrels who spend a lot of time trying to figure way to chew their way into the farm house where they can
    pile up a winter supply of walnuts as they do in the barn.  Then they chew them into tiny bits that are strewn everywhere
    and when the black outer casings get wet the stains are permanent.   Not nice. Walnuts even have a paint named after them.
    Walnut stain. I made a pail of it a while ago…stained everything the goop touched including my hands.

  • EPISODE 418 REMEMBER LAUREL AND HARDY? THEY LIVE AT THE FARM.

    EPISODE 419     A VISIT WITH LAUREL AND HARDY at the Skeoch farm house   August 29,2021

    alan skeoch
    august  29 , 2021


    NOTE:  BY pure good fortune and being at the right place at
    the right time, Marjorie received Laurel and Hardy the other day.
    They now have a new home.  Who are Laurel and Hardy?
    see postscript.


    REMEMBER LAUREL AND HARDY?  THEY NOW LIVE AT OUR FARM.


    “Olie, what are we doing way up here?”
    “Looking for s safe place; Stan…like you said.”
    ‘What did I say””
    “You said this is s madhouse and we had to find a safe place.”



    “You think this is safe, Stan…what if we fall?”
    “Don’t think about that…just look around…this is our best place…out of harm’s way.”
    “What is there to harm us?”
    “Oliver….just take a look behind your back.”
    “Do you mean the big bird.”
    “That bird has a stiletto beak designed to kill little things like us.”





    “And look beside us.”
    “That’s a porcupine crawling over…quills like needles.”
    “Stan the porcupine can climb….”
    “Yes, but he is too fat to get by the ceiling lights.

    “Ollie…see that tiger down there?
    “Makes me shake”
    “He would finish us off in one gulp.”




    “Couldn’t we jump down on that horse and get the hell out of here?”
    “Don’t be so stupid Oliver…that is a merry go round horse…it just runs in circles.”




    “The fox is no help…it looks as sacred as we do.”


    “Oliver…there is a penguin down there…big one.”
    “No help, Stan.”
    “Why?”
    “Penguins can only waddle…never get away with him…or is it her.”



    “That big rooster Stan…he could help.”
    “Roosters have only one thing on their minds, Ollie?
    “What’s that , Stan?”
    “Their hens…as many as they can get.”


    “Stan, our only hope is Marjorie…she may want to dust us.”
    “And give us our freedom?”


    “True… but she will just put us back ump here…where we are safe.”


    “Marjorie…must we stay up on that besm?”
    “Afraid so…safest place in the house for you boys.”
    “But we are famous”
    “Fame fades withe the summer sun….very few people
    even remember how funny you boys were in the 1920’s 
    and 1930’s.”
    “Wrong, Marjorie…everyone remembers us.”
    “Bet $5 I am right and you are wrong.”

    “Well, Ollie, back up on the beam …”
    “Reckon you are right.”


    WHO WERE LAUREL AND HARDY?

    Laurel and Hardy were a comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). From the late 1920s to the mid-1940s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy’s pompous bully.[1][2] Their signature theme song, known as “The Cuckoo Song”, “Ku-Ku”, or “The Dance of the Cuckoos” (by Hollywood composer T. Marvin Hatley) was heard over their films’ opening credits, and became as emblematic of them as their bowler hats.
    Prior to emerging as a team, both had well-established film careers. Laurel had acted in over 50 films, and worked as a writer and director, while Hardy was in more than 250 productions. Both had also appeared in The Lucky Dog (1921), but were not teamed at the time. They first appeared together in a short film in 1926, when they signed separate contracts with the Hal Roach film studio.[3] They officially became a team in 1927 when they appeared in the silent short Putting Pants on Philip. They remained with Roach until 1940, and then appeared in eight B movie comedies for 20th Century Foxand Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1941 to 1945.[4] After finishing their film commitments at the end of 1944, they concentrated on performing stage shows, and embarked on a music hall tour of England, Ireland and Scotland.[4] They made their last film in 1950, a French-Italian co-production called Atoll K.
    They appeared as a team in 107 films, starring in 32 short silent films, 40 short sound films, and 23 full-length feature films. They also made 12 guest or cameo appearances, including in the Galaxy of Stars promotional film of 1936.[5] On December 1, 1954, they made their sole American television appearance, when they were surprised and interviewed by Ralph Edwards on his live NBC-TV program This Is Your Life. Since the 1930s, their works have been released in numerous theatrical reissues, television revivals, 8-mm and 16-mm home movies, feature-film compilations, and home videos. In 2005, they were voted the seventh-greatest comedy act of all time by a UK poll of professional comedians.[6] The official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society is The Sons of the Desert, after a fictitious fraternal society in the film of the same name.