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EPISODE 812 RANDOM PICTURES FROM THE KILNER FARM SALE , APRIL 29,2023

EPISODE 812    RANDOM PICTURES FROM THE KILNER FARM SALE , APRIL 29,2023


alan skeoch
april 29, 2023



AN AUCTION SALE IS A GAMBLE

Auction sales are a gamble for the seller. Particularly farm sales.  The sun could shine or rain could fall.
On April 29 there was no sun….some rain….lots of mud.   But there were also plenty of bidders who
came hell or high water.  On sunny days a goodly part of the crowd have not come to bid but rather they
have assembled for the sun and the entertainment.  So what you see in these pictures are the real hard
core bidders.  Of which I am a member.

Doug Donaldson was the auctioneer and one of his daughters caught the bidder numbers. Bill Brooks 
acted as helper and motor mechanic.   No animals left on the farm except for a couple of cats one
of which was pregnant.  Ian Kilner had a mystery sign nailed to his farm wagon….”Don’t 
criticize farmers with your mouth open.”  (open to interpretation)

The saddest part of the sale was the arrival of a large scrap iron truck.  Some of these things…these gems… will
not be seen again.  I was tempted to buy the Massey Harris combine just for old times sake but curbed
my enthusiasm.  It sold for $800…I fear it was destined for the scrap truck.

What did we buy?  Perhaps I should not say ‘we’….it was me.  Pile of lumber with planks 16 feet long, a wood mounted drill 
press, a pile of chisels, a ladder, two old toolboxes (one filled with used screws and washers rather than the treasures
expected), a fogging machine (for what purpose?), a rake for Marjorie, 2 jacks, 2 large wide flat boards redolent of manure
and time (for future wooden quilts), a 1963 Farmall row crop tractor in running condition  and other things best forgotten.
If you are about to say something negative about my bidding save your breath.  It is an addiction.

Marjorie arrived with Woody our dog just as Doug Donaldson said “Sold” and accepted my bid for the
Farmall tractor.   No hostile comment from her, she is familiar with idiosyncratic bidding. Tractor was purring like
the cats hidden away in the barn.  I will not reveal the price.

Here are some faces and a random collection of what could be purchased.

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EPISODE 811 PERSONAL FAREWELL TO GORDON LIGHTFOOT…IN THE EARLY MORNING RAIN

EPISODE 811   PERSONAL FAREWELL TO GORDON LIGHTFOOT


alan skeoch
may 2, 2023

In 1960 I was a prospector in search of magnetic anomalies in he Yukon Territory,   Three months growth of beard that was reddish
as my fathers.  In mid September I was heading home and ‘missed my loved one so’.  Gordon Lightfoot captured my feelings
that lonely day when I sat on the ground at the mountain fringed airport in Juneau, Alaska.  Yes, it was an ‘EARLY MORNING RAIN’ 
that day.

“Big 707 set to go, but I’m stuck here on the ground with no place to go”  Gordon Lighffoots’ song titled
‘In the early Morning Rain’ is pressed indelibly in my brain .  So firmly that total recall brings back
the images of mid September 1960 when I was standing behind the chain link fence of the airport
at Juneau, Alaska.   Yes, I do believe it was even raining that memorable day in my life as Iwatched
‘Big 707’s’ takeoff and land.  The landing and takeoff strip was short as Jneau was hemmed in by
mountains so jet planes had to use extra power each time.

For the past three months I had been conducting elector-magnetic mining surveys for Huntech
at various sites in he Yukon Territory for $400 a month, money destined to pay my U. of T fees 
in my graduating year.  Marjorie and I were engaged to be married but had been separated for the
duration of the Yukon job.  I longed to get home but at the same time I wanted to get the fulll
experience of the magical Yukon gold rush days of the 1890’s.   So my exit from the Yukon
was an indirect route from Mayo Landing to Whitehorse to Skagway to Juneau to Seattle to
Vanouver to Toronto.    The adventure plan.

I was alone.  Travelling alone.  Loneliness.  My budget?  Scraping the bottom of barrel as I planned 
to cover the costs by cashing in my direct flight return to Toronto from Whitehorse which was
covered by Huntech.  Meals were to be cold pork and beans direct from the cans.  Lodging
was flop house kind.  Transport by bus to Whitehorse and the magical White Pass Railway to
the dead end at Skagway then whatever I could find to travel by boat to Juneau.

All the way serenaded by my memory edition of Gordon lightfoot’s Early Morning Rain.   Memory
became reality at that chain link fence as big  Boeing 707’s laboured to clear the mountains.
I was booked on one of those flights that day.  No extra money for hotel or food or transport.
I had get out.  No money left.  “So I sat there on the ground’ with no back up plan.

498 707 Stock Photos - Free & Royalty-Free Stock Photos from Dreamstime
Juneau aerial view


Mt. Juneau, Juneau Alaska
LYRICS:  IN THE EARLY MORNING RAIN (Gordon Lightfoot)
In the early morning rain with a dollar in my handWith an aching in my heart and my pockets full of sandI’m a long way from home, Lord, I miss my loved ones soIn the early morning rain with no place to go
Out on runway number nine a big 707 set to goAnd, I’m stuck here in the grass where the pavement never growsNow, the liquor tasted good and the women all were fastWell, there she goes, my friend, she’ll be rolling down at last
Hear the mighty engines roar, see the silver wing on highShe’s away and westward bound, far above the clouds she’ll fly
There the morning rain don’t fall and the sun always shinesShe’ll be flying over my home in about three hours time
This old airport’s got me down, it’s no earthly good to meAnd I’m stuck here on the ground as cold and drunk as I can beYou can’t jump a jet plane like you can a freight trainSo, I’d best be on my way in the early morning rain
You can’t jump a jet plane like you can a freight trainSo, I’d best be on my way in the early morning rain

Gordon Lightfoot


So the song and the setting came together in the Long Term 
storage part of my brain.
With each word of Gordon’s lyrics images of that Juneau airport on a rain
swept morning with a Big Boeing 707 set to go.  I would soon be on my
way alone and eastward bound but at that magical moment I was
‘along way from home, Lord, and missed my loved ones so in the
early morning ran with no place to go.’  

‘So, I’ best be on my way in the early morning rain.’

alan skeoch

P>S>  Just getting to Whitehorse had been an adventure.  Mayo Landing is
a tiny community on the Stewar River.  The only way out was by bus sometime
around mid night.  The bus driver did not show up with his bus.  Had to be
awakened but his cabin was surrounded by sled dogs.  How was i to get 
out in time to reach Pelly Crossing and the bus to Whitehorse?  “Just take the
bus, keys are usually in the ignition”, suggested one of my mining associates
…”happens all the time”.  

So I did.  Never drove a bus before in my life but door was open, key in ignition.
‘ Vrroom ‘, I was on my way in the blackness of a Yukon night.  I even picked
up a few passengers at the Hotel and then threaded my way carefully on the 
near empty highway to the Yukon River junction point.  Parked the bus and
as the sun rose boarded the southbound bus to Whitehorse.

   I was on my way.I  Gordon Lightfoot seems to have felt as I  did when he
wrote Early Morning Rain.

Marjorie, mom and dad were there to greet me.  Later, mom and Marjorie pinned me to the ground and cut off my red beard. I was home.

alan
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EPISODE 809 1963 FARMALL TRCTOR TO THE RESCUE….APRIL 30, 2023

EPISODE 809      1963 FARMALL TRACTOR TO THE RESCUE….APRIL 30, 2023


alan skeoch
april 30, 2023

Sometimes good things happen when least expected.  Who could possibly expect
a tractor built in 1963, a Farmall Row Crop tractor. would be capable of  rescue in
 a sea of mud  on a rainy day on April 30, 2023.   The tractor is 60 years old. Long past her prime.
A large iron bin had been put in place for obsolete equipment.   The scrap man waited.

This is a  feel good story.

Sequence of events

1)  A rain swept day with heavy fog.  Lots of mud at the farm sale of
Elizabeth Kilner and her husband  at their farm near Ballinafad, Ontario.



2)  Among the farm equipment was the Row Crop Farmall Tractor which
had been repainted sometime in the past.  It looked fine…better than fine.



3)  Mechanic Bill Brooks pushed the ignition button and immediately The Farmalll  began to OOMPA OOMPA THEN VAROOM.
Purred like a kitten.
“She’s been reliable ever since we bought her back in 1963….allways starts.  It has a block heater for winter days.”


4)  Auctioneer Doug Donaldson opened with his sales pitch.  “Runs perfectly, who will give me $2,000…Start me then, your choice.”
Someone opened at $500 then the bidding got serious  Jumped in $50 chunks…$100 chunks.   Until finally I could not resist
and shouted a couple of bids.   I bought her  (You can only guess at the price..I am not telling you.)



5)  Marjorie and Elizabeth were not too interested in what happened next.  They talked about 
cats and the forthcoming arrival of kittens.  Woody showed no interest at all.


6)  Then, a day later,  Andrew Skeoch arrived to move the Farmall to our farm.  The rain kept coming.  
The field became a morass of mud in places.


7)  Out of the fog and the rain came a farmer who was in trouble.  His truck was stuck in 
the mud.  No one around but us and the Formal.  “Could you drag me to the road.?”
And that was when the Farmall, at age 60, did an heroic thing by hauling his truck from 
a muddy hole to 32 sideroad..



8) After that Andrew and the Farmall headed up the Fifth line  bouncing from pot hole to pot hole.  Rain kept coming but both Andrew and
the Farmall felt good








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EPISODE 807 Part 3: Speech that was never given ORDOVECIAN FOSSILS….NAUTILOIDS AND CRNOIDS


NOTE:  I CUT OST OF THIS SECTION…HERE IS A FRAGMENT….TRYING TO
DO TOO MUCH AND FAILING.



EPISODE 808    ORODOVICIAN SHALE….ANCIENT CREATURES ONCE LIVED HERE

PART 3    THE SPEECH THAT WAS NEVER GIVEN

alan skeoch
APRIL 27  2023


Strange things out there': Inside Lake Ontario's 'Bermuda Triangle' | Globalnews.caBuilt in Canada, captured by the Americans, the figurehead of the USS Scourge is of Britain’s greatest naval leader Lord Admiral Nelson.lifeasahuman.com/files/2013/08/Scourge-figHd_c-650×511.jpg 650w, lifeasahuman.com/files/2013/08/Scourge-figHd_c-600×471.jpg 600w, lifeasahuman.com/files/2013/08/Scourge-figHd_c.jpg 1450w” sizes=”(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px”>USS Hamilton’s figurehead of the Roman goddess of the hunt Diana.lifeasahuman.com/files/2013/08/FH-Hamilton_c-650×511.jpg 650w, lifeasahuman.com/files/2013/08/FH-Hamilton_c-600×471.jpg 600w, lifeasahuman.com/files/2013/08/FH-Hamilton_c.jpg 1450w” sizes=”(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px”>
The wreck above is a fake that was beached near Vineland for many years. It is a mood piece.  The carvings are real ….from the Scourge and the Hamilton warships…
sunk in a storm during  the war of 1812 


The bottom of Lake Ontario is littered with the wrecks of old schooners of which Scourge
and the Hamilton (war of 1812) are the most famous because both Schooners sit upright in 88 metres of 
water at he west end of Lake Ontario.  They are a museum that we will never see but
they are there for us to imagine.   They sit on a bed of Ordovician shale in which fossils
of ancient life are imbedded.


North America's Inland Sea - HubPages
Millions of years ago NORTH AMERICA was two large islands…between the islands was an Inland Sea some 500 feet deep



“There was no land as we know it today as soil and plants…all above the water was just bare granite and volcanic islands…maybe a little bit of algae growing where
the rock met the seas.  Noting else.  No trees, no plants, no grass and certainly no flowers.  But the sea
was  full of  life.  Some places the sea bottoms was carpeted with crinoids.”
“How do  you know?”
“because some of these pieces of  shale have crinoid fossils so thick that the shale is hard to find. At some
point whole populations of crinoids died another bodies  settled into the mud only to be changed by chemical
action over millions of years into he fossils we can find littered here and there on this  shingle beach.”

“What did they eat?”
“Nautiloids  were predators.  They ate other creatures, especially little trilobites. The inland sea tamed with life.

Prehistoric Animals - Nautiloid and Helicoprion Beautiful Sea Creatures, Deep Sea Creatures, Wale, Extinct Animals, Prehistoric Creatures, Beautiful Fish, Fauna, Ocean Life, Creature Design
A Nautillus…descendent of the Ordovician nautalloids that lived 450 million years ago



“Most nautiloids did not survive the five great extinctions that devastated living things on our planet.   Most but not all.
One nautallus can still be found in the deep tropical waters of the Asian Pacific Ocean.  Not easy to find for it dives into
the dark depths of the ocean in day time and only rises to kill when the moon does.  A scary but beautiful creature.”



- Crinoid fossil… Is it pathetic that I knew what this was before I read it? Stu… Crinoid fossil… Is it pathetic that I knew what this was before I read it? Crystals Minerals, Rocks And Minerals, Crinoid Fossil, Dinosaur Fossils, Extinct Animals, Prehistoric Creatures, Ammonite, Archaeology, Earth Science

“The creature that seems to have been very common 450 million years ago,  Crinoids looked like plants.
As a matter of fact some called them ‘sea lilliies’.  But they were animals.  At the bottom of their long neck (spine if you will),
crinoids had root like feet that anchored them to the bottom of the ancient seas.  At the top of their long necks
was a bunch of tentacles that waved in  the ocean currents grabbing plankton and other bits of edible things
that drifted  by.  The plankton was taken by the tentacle and dropped or placed  in the crinoid mouth at the tentacle base.
The food was chewed and the good parts were kept.  The rejected parts were spit  out.   A crinoid had  a mouth and
a rectum in the same place.”
“Could they move?”
“Yes, slowly the feet moved from stone to stone.”
“Were they common?”
“Very common…they lived  in  great  clusters wherever plankton moved on ocean subterranean currents.”
“And if current changed they walked to a better spot, right?  How big were they?”
“The fossils I have found that look like crinoids are quite small but I read somewhere that the crinoids could
be as much as 140 feet long. 


alan
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EPISODE 807 DEATH OF THE STONEHOOKER PINTA AND HER CREW…AND THOUGHT OF SHALE BENEATH MISSISSAUGA SHORELINE, STORY 2




EPISODE 807    SAD FATE OF THE PINTA….A STONEHOOKER FOUNDERS OFF MERIGOLD POINT

alan skeoch




Small stone slabs and large stone slabs artfully arranged.



Stonemasons working on the building of the Victoria Museum early 1900's | by Ross Dunn


Stonemasons working on big slabs of stone.  THe slabs from Port Credit were much smaller …they had to be lifted by hand





The History of Stonehookers in Mississauga — Modern Mississauga MediaThe History of Stonehookers in Mississauga — Modern Mississauga MediaEPISODE 318 stonehooking….schooner days..thE LITHOPHONE…WALTER NAISH…ANCHOR NNOT ATTACHED…ICE JAM BREAKS…POT CREDIT MEN TRY TO FND THE LITHOPHONE – Alan Skeoch


PART TWO OF “SPEECH THAT WAS NEVER GIVEN


THE FATE OF THE PINTA, STONEHOOKER

Stonehooking was a dirty business and the income was marginal.   Stonehookers earned about $10 to $15 for a toise of stone slabs…about
the same size as a chord of wood but one hell of a lot heavier.  Just for the sake of readers that  are unfamiliar with stonehooking, let’s pretend
you are joining the crew of the “Pinty”, a stonehooker whose wreck mayu still be found in deep water off Marigold Point where it foundered in 1882

“What is expected of me?”
“Never heard of stonehooking ?”
“No…but I need money”
“You won’t get rich stonehooking.”
“What am I to do?”
“lift stone slabs … shale slabs”
“Where are they found?”
“Three places…Easiest slabs are in shallow water close to shore.
Jump in the water and use an iron bar to loosen the slabs then dump them
into the scow.   Then row out to the Pinta … pile them in  the hold or just pile them
on the deck even though that makes the Pinta a little too top heavy unless we are careful.”
“You said the slabs can be found in three places.””
“The other two places are more difficult.   Sometimes slabs can be
found on  shore where the bedrock surfaces.   Easy to get the stone there but we often
have to be sneaky about it.  Some farmers threaten with shotguns.The farmers hate us 
because the stone protects their farm land.
When we get those slabs out the waves smash inland. Erode the land.   The graveyard west of Port Credit was
undermined and coffins swept out to open water.  Or so I heard. Best to have someone climb the mast
to ensure no farmer in sight then we rush in and grab the slabs in the scow.  “
“Sounds like fun. “
“May sound funny but not so.  The slabs are heavy and getting slabs from shore is now illegal but
we do it anyway.”
“And the third way to get slabs? 
“Deep water stonehooking.  Blind dragging with a stone rake.  Like fishing only a damnsite more
difficult.  We drag a hook like thing that hooks slabs that we cannot see.  Then we have
this ’stone rake’ which gets under the invisible slab ….loosens it…then we lift it from 
the bedrock to the schooner or the small flat bottomed scow.  “
“Sounds tough.”
“One easy way to get slabs is by wading in shallow water.   Easy in summer but hell in
the cold weather.  “
“Are the slabs heavy?”
“Most times they are.  Bigger the slab the better the ’noise”….Buyers want lots of
the big slabs “
“Why?”
“For foundations .  Toronto is booming….need lots of slabs.”
“Dirty work ….to much lifting. “
“How many times?”
“Count the times.  Imagine one slab.  First lift it from Lake Ontario into the scow….then from the 
scow to the schooner deck or hold….then from the schooner to the Totonto pier …then, often
from the pier to wagon haul by a tema of horses.   … get to hate that slab.”
“Sail back to port Credit empty”
“Hard to sail a schooner the it’s empty so we fill the hold for the return trip”
“Fill it with?”
“Horse manure.  Toronto streets and berms are full pop horse manure….thousands of horses.”
“I wondered why the “Pinty” smelled odd?”
“Port Credit farmers want horse manure.  Smells better than pig manure.  Actually I like
the smell.”
“Manure is easier on the schooner than slabs of shale.   Thos slabs crack the wooden deck
and do great damage in he hold.   That’s why so many stonehookers look like they are on
their last legs.”
“Easy to see a stonehooker from a distance?”
“How?”
“The sails are paired so often that it’s hard to find a piece of original canvas.  Mended
often.   Not a pretty sight.”
“Why wold a schooner owner do stonehooking then?”
“Despertation.   No other way to make a living.   Lots of schooners available cheap…some
beautiful schooners end up as bedraggled stonehookers.”
“Why?”
“The schooners are obsolete.  The age of sail is over.   Internal combustion engines have taken over.  Moe=re reliable
than sailing.
“Enough talk … now get to work lifting slabs.  Take off your shirt and shoes.  Here’s a crowbar.
You can take your pans of as well if you wish.  We need to get a shipload today.”
“Were you joking about the coffins?”
“Nope.”

(Alan Skeoch, imaginary conversation between an apprentice stonehooker and an old hand.
Aboard the Pinty on that fateful day the ship went down.  All hands drowned or froze to death.}


1900 Fieldstone Foundation Mortar Questions : r/stonemasonry

Foundation of 19th century house built of field stone rather than blue shale.



THE SINKING OF THE PINTY IN 1882 — ALL CREW DROWNED EXCEPT ONE MAN WHO FROZE TO DEATH
(article below was from Schooner Days)

The Pinta, commonly known as the “Pinty,” was a scow, built for S. H. Cotton at Port Nelson in 1869, She was 58 feet on deck, 14 feet 4 inches beam, and 4 feet 8 inches deep, … Her end was tragic. Coming down from Oakville one cold morning, with a nor’west wind hoofing her along, she tried to go about and stand in for the land off Marigold’s Point, the wind following its usual practice at that point by hauling to the north.

The Pinta had a big barndoor centreboard. The box was open slotted and came above the deck. The board was new and buoyant. It should have been ballasted until it was sufficiently waterlogged to sink of its own weight. When the snow squall struck the Pinta she luffed and got in irons, and as she lost way her board rose so high in the box that it caught the foreboom and would not let the foresail come over. That doomed her. A second puff caught her canvas aback and rolled her over. Men who were shingling a barn on Marigold’s Point saw her in trouble. She was blotted out by the snow flurry. When it disappeared she had disappeared too.
“She was loaded too deep, ” said Captain Block. “I guess her hatches just filled when she tried to go about.” All hands were lost, although one man managed to get into the scow towing astern. The offshore wind carried him across the lake and the scow was picked up on the beach at Winona, his frozen body jammed under the thwarts.
From Port Credit harbor, a tug was seen going up the lake in a futile attempt to render assistance. It was the Mixer, a Toronto boat owned by Frank Jackman. And Port Credit
sailors still curse the well meant action of the men on Marigold’s Point, who saw the disaster and hastened word to Toronto, when the schooner Morning Star, sound and almost new, with Abe Block and half a dozen others right there to handle her, lay at the dock in Port Credit ready to put out at a minute’s notice hours nearer the disaster in those pre-telephone times.
It was not until next day that word of the foundering of the “Pinty” reached Port Credit. The victims of the tragedy were William and Joseph Quinn of Oakville, brothers of the owner, Capt. James Quinn, and Bus Howell. Capt. Jas. Quinn and Capt. Mark Blow had left the Pinta some time before her fatal voyage. Oakville sailors had begged the younger mariners not to make a start, for the north wind threatened snow before they left.
Twenty years later, in 1902, the Wood Duck sailed over the sunken wreck of the Pinta off Marigold’s Point. Her fatal centreboard box was still discernible down in the clear green water amid the remains 


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EPISODE 805 ANDREW AND HIS BEES….NEARLY GOT ME….ANGRY BEE YARD


EPISODE 805    ANDREW SKEOCH AND HIS BEES…NEARLY GOT ME BUT I OUTRAN THEM

alan skeoch
April 24, 2023


If you plan to raise bees then be prepared to get bitten.  Bees can be unforgiving if disturbed.
Andrew was fully protected and cautioned me “The bees are going to be angry so do not
get too close.” They got me.

How could I take that advice and at the same time put together a story?  Risks of
journalism were faced just to get this story.   In the end the bees found me and I had
to run like blazes to escape.  A couple landed on my skin but did not have time to bite…to sting.

I did know a little about bee keeping from my failing attempt at bee keeping many 
decades ago.  My failure may sound humourous but believe me it was not.  I became
as angry as the bees.

First , join us as we travel to the bee yard.  Over the fields, through the cedar bush,
Crossing our little bridge between two of the ponds, to arrive at the bee yard.

Angry bees 

Angry Marjorie…Angry Alan.

Be sure and read he closing story to this Episode.


E

DECADES AGO I GOT AS ANGRY AS MY BEES

FLASHBACK

To understand how to raise bees requires hands on experience.  So I asked a friend  (at the time a friend) to help me.
He was excellent.  Told me all the tricks…except for one trick.

“Alan, he dropped in to visit when you  were at school.”
“Why?”
“He chased me around the kitchen table…scared me.”
“You must be kidding.”
“No..I do not want him around our house any more.”

So I called him up and raised proper hell.   I was as angry as
my bees…moreso.   Never heard from him again.  That day 
ended my bee keeping..   I burned the hive at the back of
our home.  Had to do that anyway because it was an old
hive.  If you raise bees, used new hives.  Mine was infeced
with something called foul brood.   Deadly and dangerous
so the bee keeping experience ended.

Andrew is doing a better job than I could do anyway..

alan
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EPISODE 804 . RESCUING AND REBUILDING AN ANCIENT CART (did it come from Tutankamen’s tomb?)

EPISODE 804    RESCUING AND REBUILDING AN ANCIENT CART (did it come from Tutankamen’s tomb?)


alan skeoch

april 22, 2032

Rescue work with muscle and steel.  What is that thing?


This ancient looking horse or ox cart looks like it was used to built a pyramid in Egypt
or to haul rubble away from Tutankamen’s tomb.   Truth is it was built from bits and 
pieces for a movie set  where we bought it not knowing that should we fail to movie it
there would be a $500 charge as a dumping fee.  That shook me…shocked me to the
core.  Thankfully our son came to the rescue with his big truck.

The wheels and axle are very old indeed.    so large and heavy that only the bobcat
could lift them.  When built originally? Not from the pyramid building time but certainly from
the early 19th century.  Huge wooden hubs made when wagon building was a  skilled carpenter’s
project.   

So the cart will have a happy future I hope.  First a pair of shafts have
to be attached and the cart must be stored In a barn or drive shed. 

Just getting it to our farm was a balancing act worthy of a thightrope walker as
you can see.  Feather balanced.  What does that mean?  It means if a feather was
added to the load then the cart would fall and like Humpty Dumpty never to be
put together again.  An overstatement.  But I did have to be very careful.

alan



















Sent from my iPhone


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EPISODE 802 THE SPEECH THAT WAS NEVER GIVEN…. REFLECTIONS ON FOSSILS ON RATTRAY MARSH SHINGLE BEACH, PART 1

EPISODE 802  THE SPEECH THAT WAS NEVER GIVEN

NOTICE OF ANNIVERSARY:  800 STORIES

  I HAVE NOW WRITTEN OVER 800 STORIES SINCE FEB. 27, 2020 WHEN COVID 19 PUT
THE WHOLE WORLD ON FIRE    EIGHT HUNDRED STORIES!!  AMAZES ME.
I HAVE TRIED TO WRITE  A STORY EVERY DAY.  WHY?  TO ENTERTAIN READERS SOME
OF WHOM BECAME SHUT INS AS THE PANDEMIC SPREAD LIKE A DEADLY WILDFIRE.

JUST WRITING THE STORIES HAS MADE ME AWARE OF MY GOOD FORTUNE IN LIFE.
TEDDY ROOSEVENT URGED PEOPLE TO ‘GET ACTION: DO THINGS’. I THOUGHT THIS WAS
GOOD ADVICE WHEN I READ IT BACK IN 1953.  I HAVE BEEN A LUCKY MAN. LOTS OF ACTION.

MUCH OF THIS LUCK HAS  TO BE ATTRIBUTED TO MY WIFE MARJORIE WTH WHOM I
HAVE  SHARED SO MANY ADVENTURES.

ON THE EVENING OF FEBRUARY 29, I WAS ASKED TO DELIVER A SPEECH ON
INVASIVE SPECIES IN THE GREAT LAKES.  WE HAD 100 GUESTS AT THE STONEHOOKER
BREWERY IN PORT CREDIT.   MY SPEECH WAS PLANNED TO BE 30 TO 40 MINUTES LONG .
THAT SPEECH WAS NEVER DELIVERED BECAUSE MARJORIE TOOK 21 MINUTES TO
INTRODUCE ME.  IN EFFECT SHE BECAME THE SPEAKER.  PART WAY THROUGH HER
INTRODUCTION SHE KNOCKED A WINE BOTTLE OFF THE LECTERN.  IT SHATTERED
ON THE CEMENT FLOOR.  BUT MARJORIE NEVER STOPPED.  A FRIEND, SHAYMUS, 
GATHERED UP THE BOTTLE FRAGMENTS AS MARJORIE CONTINUED TO SPEAK.
OUR SON ANDREW RAISED HIS ARM AND POINTED AT HIS WATCH.  MARJORIE DID
NOT STOP. SHE HAD PRACTISED HER SPEECH AND WAS HELL BENT FOR ELECTION 
TO DELIVER IT. THE AUDIENCE ENJOYED HER SO MUCH THAT I TAILORED MY SPEECH
FROM 40 MINUTES TO 10 MINUTES…WHICH SATISFIED THE AUDIENCE.  WHAT A JOY
IT WAS  TO LISTEN TO HER.  HOW MANY HUSBANDS HAVE HAD THEIR WIVES DO SUCH
?

THE NEXT DAY, MARCH 1, 2020 COVID 19 BEGAN TO SPREAD AROUND THE WORLD
KILLING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS.

TODAY,  APRIL 20 2023, EIGHT HUNDRED STORIES LATER COVID 19 IS STILL PRESENT.
SO I WOULD LIKE TO PRESENT THE SPEECH I NEVER GAVE IN  CHUNKS….IN SHORT
STORIES SOME OF WHICH YOU MIGHT KNOW BUT OTHERS THAT MIGHT
CATCH YOUR INTEREST.

SEVERAL PEOPLE HAVE ASKED IF I AM WRITING  BOOK.  I AM NOT. A BOOK DEMANDS
TOO MUCH TIME.  LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR THAT.  MY STORIES ARE SHORT…TAKING
JUST A LITTLE LONGER THAN IT TAKES FOR A WINE BOTTLE TO FALL FROM A LECTERN
AND SHATTER..    THEY CAN ALL BE FOUND ON THE INTERNET TITLED ‘ALAN’S OEUVRE’
(ALAN’S WORKS) THANKS TO DIRK TOWNSEND.  OR SIMPLY ‘ALAN SKEOCH.CA’

SOMETIMES THE LANGUAGE IS A LITTLE COARSE…SOMETIMES PERSONAL…SOMETIMES
ISSUE ORIENTED…WHATEVER!  JOHN WARDLE HAS PUBLISHED EACH STORY IN HIS
DAILY JOURNAL, THE CASTLEFIELD INSTITUTE, WHJICH HONOURS JOHN RICKER WHO
MOIVATED SO MANY OF US TO ENJOY THE STUDY OF HISTORY AND  TO JOIN TOGETHER
IN THOUGHTFUL CONVERSATION ABOUT THE WORLD AROUND US. 

THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORIES.  MY TARGET IS 1,000…WHILE MEMORY SERVES.


ALAN SKEOCH
APRL 20, 2023

EPISODE 802   REFLECTIONS ON FOSSILS ON RATTRAY MARSH SHINGLE BEACH,  PART 1


alanskeoch


PART ONE

alan



Marjorie  Skeoch with Jack, our grandson, on the wondrous shingle beach
at the outlet of the Rattray Marsh in Mississauga.



alan skeoch
March  11, 2020

“Let’s take a walk, Marjorie,

      “Why?”

      “pretend we are in a time machine…and can go back in time.”
“Where?”
“There is a shingle beach AT the Rattray Marsh…good place to start.




(Note, the Rattray Marsh is one of the wonders  of the City of Mississauga,  It slumbers behind  a rock  strewn beach of Lake Ontario.  The southwest quadrant of
Mississauga…almost approachable….definitely unforgettable.)


       “This Shingle Beach is one of the marvels of Mississauga…strewn with small flat slabs of water washed shale.”

“Wouldn’t a  sand  beach be more charming?”
“Not at all…no story obvious in grains of sand….but this shingle beach can be read like a book.”
“Easy to trip and fall here.”
“Right…if you do trip and fall you will find yourself among interesting company.”
“Piles of flat stones.”
“Piles of blue shale….”

“Do you know how old these pieces of shale are?”
“I don’t even know what shale is”



“Shale was once mud…pressed by the  weight of untold piles of mud…heavy…so much so
that this ancient mud became sedimentary rock called shale.
“Our city, Mississauga, sits on top of a vast expanse of ancient mud…for that matter the ancient mud
once ground and dried became the cement that holds up all the buildings in Mississauga.
And for seventy years, 1850 to 1920, slabs  of this  shale were pried up by crowbars right from
the shingle beach where we are standing, pried up in great slabs, manhandled onto schooners and  sailed
to Toronto as the foundations of all the great buildings of the time.”
“Do you mean the Stonehookers?”


The History of Stonehookers in Mississauga — Modern ...


EPISODE 320 STONEHOOKING WAS A BRUTAL PROFESSION – Alan Skeoch

Stonehooking was a brutal profession.   Today, now that the stonehookers are gone
and their ships are rotting hulks at the bottom of Lake Ontario or ground into sawdust or
charcoal by the passage of time and neglect, there is a tendency to romanticize what
was near the  bottom of occupations Canadians  chose in the 19th and early 20th century.
Just imagine spending your work day wading in water lifting slabs of stone with crowbar
and a hooked rake…piling the stone on a small flat bottomed scow…transferring tons
of stone to a schooner…sailing to Toronto three times a week with 9 to 18 tons of stone
…piling the stone on a rotting pier with raw sewage bubbling up…then getting $10 to $15
…and  sailing back to Port Credit with a return load of horse manure.  Toronto was a city
with thousands of horses on the streets in 1900.  

END PART ONE:  STONEHOOKING 1900

PART TWO:  THE SAD FATE OF THE PINTA, SUNK WITH ALL HANDS NEAR MARIGOLD POINT, PORT CREDIT



Posted on

Fwd: EPISODE 800 NIAGARA ESCARPMENT….WINDOW OF TIME



Begin forwarded message:


From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
Subject: EPISODE 800 NIAGARA ESCARPMENT….WINDOW OF TIME
Date: April 19, 2023 at 9:00:54 AM EDT
To: John Wardle <john.t.wardle@gmail.com>



Note: something has gone wrong with my computer…problem unsolved

EPISODE 799    WHAT DOES THIS PILE OF ROCK SAY?


alan skeoch
April 17, 2023



We descended through the Niagara Escarpment to the QEW

WHAT DO WE KNOW

1)  The Niagara Escarpment we know today is the result of geological processes that began more than 450 million years ago when the limestones, dolostones, shales, and sandstones of the Escarpment’s bedrock were formed.


2) 
The rock layers of the Niagara Escarpment date from the upper Ordovician (445 million year ago) to the lower Silurian era (420 million years ago); a period of 25 million years.

3) Escarpments are formed by one of two processes: erosion and faulting. Erosion creates an escarpment by wearing away rock through wind or water. One side of an escarpment may be eroded more than the other side. The result of this unequal erosion is a transition zone from one type of sedimentary rock to another
4)Today the Niagara Escarpment region is a rich mosaic of forests, farms, wetlands, lakes, recreational areas, the Bruce Trail and quarries together with villages, towns and cities. It features over 100 sites of geological significance, including many in which fossils of the Silurian and Ordovician Periods are preser.
5)  According to a new report prepared by a team of international scientists, deep-sea remains of ancient corals could be used to understand carbon dioxide in the oceans, both past and present. The report, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, uses coral fossils as a sort of time machine to investigate the rise of carbon dioxide and its role in ending the last ice age.
LOTS OF INFORMATION ABOUT OUR NIAGARA ESCARPMENT
MAKES ME THINK ABOUT THW SHORT WINDOW OF TIME THAT WE HAVE BEEN AROUND
 Look at the layers of limestone in the pictures.   This layering began 475 million years ago when our living space was covered with water.   How long have we been here?  Measured in hundreds of thousands perhaps but only couple of thousand as civilizations

alan