{"id":23753,"date":"2023-04-02T12:18:28","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T16:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=23753"},"modified":"2023-04-02T12:19:58","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T16:19:58","slug":"fwd-angus-mceachern-with-his-pet-cattle-just-before-he-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=23753","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: ANGUS McEACHERN WITH HIS PET CATTLE…JUST BEFORE HE DIED"},"content":{"rendered":"

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From: <\/b><\/span>ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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Subject: <\/b><\/span>ANGUS McEACHERN WITH HIS PET CATTLE…JUST BEFORE HE DIED<\/b>
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Date: <\/b><\/span>April 2, 2023 at 12:00:19 PM EDT
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To: <\/b><\/span>john Wardle <jwardle@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>, Marjorie Skeoch <marjorieskeoch@gmail.com<\/a><\/a>>
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EPISODE 790    ANGUS WAS A NEIGHBOUR \u2014MUCH MORE THAN THAT, A CARING FRIEND<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
April 2, 2023<\/div>\n

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Angus McEachern \u2014his barn in the distance when it was intact <\/div>\n

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Mom often said that Marjorie and I named our first born, after my favourite stuffed toy\u2026.a \u2019teddy’  bear that <\/div>\n
I slept with as a child.   Partly true and partly false.   The stuffed toy  was called \u2018Angus\u201d but the name<\/div>\n
chosen was certainly not fictional.   Angus was a real person.  The kind of person that makes an<\/div>\n
indelible mark among the neurons of a child\u2019s brain.<\/div>\n

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Angus McEachern watched over my  grandparents, Ted and Louisa Freeman.   His farm fence was  a joint fence.<\/div>\n

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\u201cYour Granddad owns the first and last half. We own the middle\u201d  <\/div>\n

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Angus kept an eye on the whole fence lest his herd of cattle got in among the wild apple<\/div>\n
trees on the Freeman farm.<\/div>\n

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Angus cared for the Freemans When they reached an age that they <\/div>\n
could no longer handle their small 25 cre farm.  Angus McEchern  picked up <\/div>\n
the slack.  Helped  grandma and granddad overcome the problems of aging. <\/div>\n

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 In those  days<\/div>\n
of the 1940\u2019S and 1950\u2019s Angus often wheeled his tractor in behind the Freeman farm house and cut enough fire wood<\/div>\n
to cover the winter months.    <\/div>\n

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When a hole in the rail fence allowed  Angus\u2019s cattle to break through and gobble their way through the piles of<\/div>\n
wild apples.  Really nasty danger of Bloat which could kill.  Angus fixed the fence.   When the icicles began to form inside the Freeman farm house<\/div>\n
Angus often dropped  by  just to see that grandma and grandpa had safely retreated into the front room where<\/div>\n
the wood stove was belting out life saving heat.  <\/div>\n

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As a child and young adolescent my brother and inoiticed this.<\/div>\n

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Time moves forward.  Eventually grandma and grandpa Freeman passed on.   And Angus got older.<\/div>\n
Eric and I got older as well.  Became grown ups,  albeit grudgingly.<\/div>\n

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One day in early fall, around 1980,  I  got word that Angus was selling his Hereford herd of beef cattle.<\/div>\n
It was a sunday. I Walked down the fifth line and up the maple tree lane to see Angus.  I know this<\/div>\n
was  tough time for him.  And knew it would get worse.   Angus pulled up  a couple of stools in his woodshed and we spent a couple <\/div>\n
of hours sipping Scotch whisky from a bottle hidden away among the split maple.  Seems to<\/div>\n
me the bottle came from the Isle of Islay.  the Scottish island from which the McEcherns emigrated <\/div>\n
in the early 19th century.  I think They were Scottish hand loom weavers displaced by the steam driven<\/div>\n
 mills of the  industrial revolution.<\/div>\n

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I will never forget that afternoon because it was the last time we talked.  The following Wednesday<\/div>\n
the auctioneer arrived to auction off the McEchern herd of Herefords.    Angus died before the <\/div>\n
auction.    He was torn by the necessity of the auction and the fate of his beloved cattle.<\/div>\n

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\u201cLet\u2019s go up to the barn, Alan, I want you to meet some friends of mine.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Angus was lame so the effort to reach the barn was not easy.  So he fired ups his John Deere tractor <\/div>\n
and idled  along beside me as we headed for the barn.<\/div>\n

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\u201cthese are my babies,  Alan\u201d<\/div>\n

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Angus could name each one.  Rubbed<\/div>\n
a neck on one \u2026.scratched the forehead of another\u2026rested his ar across the<\/div>\n
back of another.   <\/div>\n

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\u201cFeeding time\u2026..they know that.\u201d<\/div>\n

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There was much they did to know.<\/div>\n

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I do not want to say anything else about that afternoon.  I hope you can peruse the photos and<\/div>\n
feel as choked up as I did.<\/div>\n

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alan<\/div>\n

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POSTSCRIPT:  Special Note to my cousin Ted: LEST I FORGET!   ANGUS was not alone.  Others helped  Grandma and Grandpa through the last years<\/div>\n
of their lives.   Their son Frank Freeman, his wife Lucinda and their son Ted were just as caring as Angus. Moreso which I will record later.<\/div>\n
My mother, Elsie Freeman, also did much to help her mother and father from money earned in the <\/div>\n
sweatshops of the needle trades.  Every second week end she went back to the taking Eric and I along.<\/div>\n
Dad helped  a bit but he had racetracks to support as well.  <\/div>\n

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Our little section of the Fifth line, Erin Township,  was settled by Scots.  The land was not terrific.<\/div>\n
Lots of rocks which land agents felt Scots could handle.<\/div>\n

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Jean and Janet McLean farmed across the road and dropped by often as did Janet MacDonald<\/div>\n
who had her own farm to run as well.  Both these farms were operated by women who took<\/div>\n
time to help Grandma and Grandpa Freeman.  None were wealthy.  All tried to live off farmland<\/div>\n
that was really a terminal moraine where an ancient ice monster dumped gravel and boulders and<\/div>\n
a touch of top soil.<\/div>\n

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There may have been anti-English prejudice when the Freeman moved into their farm surrounded<\/div>\n
by Scots.  But that did not last long.<\/div>\n

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Angus was not alone\u2026.lots of welcoming thoughtful people around<\/div>\n

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alan<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n


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Begin forwarded message: From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com> Subject: ANGUS McEACHERN WITH HIS PET CATTLE…JUST BEFORE HE DIED Date: April 2, 2023 at 12:00:19 PM EDT To: john Wardle <jwardle@rogers.com>, Marjorie Skeoch <marjorieskeoch@gmail.com> EPISODE 790    ANGUS WAS A NEIGHBOUR \u2014MUCH MORE THAN THAT, A CARING FRIEND alan skeoch April 2, 2023 Angus McEachern \u2014his barn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}