{"id":3695,"date":"2019-10-06T21:44:12","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T01:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=3695"},"modified":"2019-10-06T21:50:41","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T01:50:41","slug":"oct-6-2019-seasnons-change-find-woody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=3695","title":{"rendered":"Oct 6, 2019…SEASNONS CHANGE: FIND WOODY"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SUNDAY OCTOBER 6, 2019<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cFIND WOODY\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Woody decided to go for a walk today.  I joined him.<\/div>\n
Amazing what happens when the leaves begin to turn<\/div>\n
and  cool weather  decends.  As you search for Woody<\/div>\n
there a few  other things to see.  And at the end there<\/div>\n
is something unique and wonderful<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
This giant walnut tree was planted  by me according to my grandmother<\/div>\n
It stands where once the outhouse stood.  And today  we have<\/div>\n
more than a dozen walnut trees on the farm\u2026loved and hated.<\/div>\n

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There are no apples  similar to these\u2026NONE.  <\/div>\n

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The wild grape vines have spread across the trees\u2026loaded  with tiny grapes.  Historic for sure.  It was Ontarion wild  grape vines<\/div>\n
that saved  the French wine industry\u2026vines like these.   Maybe Marjorie can make some wild  grape jelly.   All the fancy<\/div>\n
wine growers have totally neglected these grapes\u2026business opportunity for someone<\/div>\n

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A few weeks  ago we had lots of  chestnuts peeling back their thorny skin.  today there are none and the <\/div>\n
chestnut leaves are curling’<\/div>\n

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That little wood  barn was once on the farm where J.S. Wloodsworth was born in Etobicoke.  We had<\/div>\n
it moved  up to our farm.  (J.S. Woodsworth the  founder of the C.C.F, which became the N.D.P.)<\/div>\n
Not everyone knows that.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
See those shaggy mane mushrooms.  Caught at the right time \u2026 before they turn to ink \u2026and fried<\/div>\n
up with butter and salt and  pepper\u2026taste delicious\u2026taste like pepper,  salt and butter.  Left to <\/div>\n
themselves these  beautiful mushrooms turn into a puddle of gross looking  black muck\u2026only<\/div>\n
eat the  new ones like the little fellow on the left.<\/div>\n

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We have a late crop of flax\u2026best crop.  Planted by our son Andy.  A lot better than my flax  field\u2026embarrassing.<\/div>\n
Flax is the only crop on our farm that ever makes  money.  How it does this is  a  trade secret.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The big pond  is waiting for the ducks  flying south\u2026a  flock  of them arrive  every fall and  gabble away to <\/div>\n
themselves.    Our farm was  rejected by real farmers.  Who wants a farm  dominated by a huge  7 acre pond<\/div>\n
that takes 25% of the  farm?   Grandma and grandad  did.  They had  no choice really.  No money.  They<\/div>\n
came to love  their patch of land as do we.<\/div>\n

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This forest trail was once the hill that led to the harvest floor of granddad\u2019s barn.  <\/div>\n

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The green ball is a walnut.  Size of  baseball\u2026.loved by little red squirrels.  Pionneer farmers moving into Ontario looked for <\/div>\n
walnut trees for the indicated good land.    That couldn\u2019t be  true.  Our land  is  worse than  poor\u2026fit only for wild  things\u2026plants  and<\/div>\n
animals.  And Woody.   Best crop is stones.<\/div>\n

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This yellowish orange looking mushroom  seems to gather things on its sticky surface\u2026bugs.  <\/div>\n
Must be carnivorous.<\/div>\n

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Look  at those apples\u2026think about them<\/div>\n

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The front pond is  now full of a  kind of green split weed\u2026forgot the name.  Under here lives<\/div>\n
one of our big snapping turtles.   I floated that old  bedstead  for him or her to get a little sun<\/div>\n
before diving into the muddy bottom for the winter.  <\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
Wild asters pick  a place to live. they have minds of their own\u2026as does the milk weed.  Two weeks ago a lone Monarch caterpillar was <\/div>\n
feeding  here.  Now  gone \u2026 not enough time to go through the life cycle.  Thankfully there seem to be<\/div>\n
more  Monarchs heading south this year but not our little fellow.   Our milk weed  patch was  once our best garden<\/div>\n
but we surrendered it to the weed.   Real farmers hate milkweed\u2026taints  the milk.<\/div>\n

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Yes,that is Woody.  He is always near even when I  can\u2019t see  him.  And when I call and call and call I often  <\/div>\n
turn around  to find him there.  Do dogs laugh?  You know, I think they do for every time I do this lost calling<\/div>\n
routine he often  shoves his wet nose into my hand.<\/div>\n

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OK.. here is the big surprise.  Startled me really.  I was moving fence  rails  from roadside to field when what should appear in front of<\/div>\n
my nose but these two apple\u2026red streaked.  Delightful.   I had no idea the scraggly old  wile apple tree was capable  of  such<\/div>\n
beauty.  \u201cMust be wormy.\u201d  I thought but only every tenth had  worms.  Did you know that there is no apple tree in the whole wide<\/div>\n
world like these.   Apple seeds never  produce  the same apples.   Each seed produces  a  new apple variety.  To get the same<\/div>\n
apples grafting is necessary\u2026cuttings are  rooted.  Orchards are built with cuttings.   Our wild apple  tree has  no kindred.<\/div>\n
It is alone,,,will never be replicated unless we decide to do so  Most wild  apple trees are not much use compared to the domestic<\/div>\n
varieties.  Hell, they do  not even   have a  name for tis apple.  THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN.  Let\u2019s name the apple\u2026male<\/div>\n
or female names accepted.  How  about Freeman for we found it on the Freeman  farm and  wild apples are \u2018\u2019free,  man!\u201d<\/div>\n
Tasteless joke. Names.  Could call it the Alan  apple tree \u2026 really vain to  do that.  Or the  Morgan\u2026or the  Angus\u2026or the<\/div>\n
Woody.   Now there is an idea.  Not many apple varieties,  probably none, have been named after a dog.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Oct. 6, 219<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
P>S>   See the pail of  apples in this story\u2026all from that special tree.<\/div>\n

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PPS   We cannot call the apple \u2018Red Streak\u2019 because that apple variety if the founding  apple<\/div>\n
of the British  Cider industry.  If you like english cider\u2026then you owe it to that single<\/div>\n
apple variety that was grafted  and grafted  and grafted.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUNDAY OCTOBER 6, 2019 \u201cFIND WOODY\u201d Woody decided to go for a walk today.  I joined him. Amazing what happens when the leaves begin to turn and  cool weather  decends.  As you search for Woody there a few  other things to see.  And at the end there is something unique and wonderful This giant walnut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3695","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}