Alan Skeoch

BOARD GAMES!  HOW  JUVENILE!   Well, that may be so, but Marjorie  and  I play  about 20 games a week.  So  farm I have been  a winner of most but Marjorie  is catching up.  When she does, the  game will end.  Sore loser.   The kitchen of the farm house is about 9 degrees…cold.  Has been  so  ever since we moved  the wood  stove to the scrap yard and converted to central  heating.  Who can  afford central heating?  Grandma and  Grandpa  Freeman lived in this single room all winter…so cold in the rest of the house that there  were always icicles  and frost on the furniture.  They made do…probably played Chinese  checkers as well.   The checker board is home  made.

This was  a bitterly cold  day…wind blowing icy air…Kevin and Andy  helped me load some ‘diamond quality’ set and prop material  for the Movie ANNE (of Green Gables)…Marjorie arrived in the barn to finish off the job.  Note Kevin holding  our recent acquisition, a playground  horse on a huge spring.   I had a scrap  yard spring welded  to an aluminium horse… by Bill Brooks  down the  road, just in case  you have a similar wedding planned for two  pieces that would  otherwise be called junk.   If you need  to understand the sheer joy of this venture then consult  the famous  ‘Acres of Diamonds’ speech, one of the most famous speeches ever made.

PS  Try walking in winter with your toes  exposed then you might understand  how I  felt wearing my big plastic Boot that is supposed to help  my torn Achilles tendon.  The Boot was not designed for winter walking.  Toes were  ready to be snapped  off and put in a fine drink by evening.  Fine drink? Sure,  Like that Dawson  City speciality.  Never heard of  it?  Do a  search.