{"id":8212,"date":"2021-03-18T14:42:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T18:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8212"},"modified":"2021-04-15T06:35:44","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T10:35:44","slug":"episode-286massey-ferguson-demolition-the-john-calder-saw-mill-bellwood-ontrio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8212","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 286MASSEY FERGUSON DEMOLITION THE JOHN CALDER SAW MILL, BELLWOOD, ONTRIO"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE  286    MASSEY FERGUSON DEMOLITION        THE JOHN CALDER SAWMILL,  BELLWOOD, ONTARIO<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March  2021<\/div>\n

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\u201cAlan, if you ever need some logs cut into planks, bring them up to the farm.\u201d<\/div>\n

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John did not have to ask twice.  On week ends i began moving my Massey Harris beams<\/div>\n
from Toronto to Bellwood.   And then the nice part happened.  I spent several days<\/div>\n
helping John convert old factory posts  into nice white pine planks which we then<\/div>\n
fed into his planer.  <\/div>\n

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Saw dust and wood chips  peppered the air and on some days the wood chip shower<\/div>\n
was interspersed with snow flakes.  It was  \u2018the best of times\u2019.  Unforgettable. <\/div>\n

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Especially when the milling was halted for a few hours so the lambing could be assisted if<\/div>\n
a ewe needed help getting the little lamb into the open air.  Then there was  milking time<\/div>\n
which took precedence over everything.  The Holstein herd had to be milked on s<\/div>\n
a regular schedule.   The Calder\/Townsend herd bellowed at milking time.  Painfull.  Could<\/div>\n
not be delayed.  Seven days a week job.   Imagine trying to tend a flock of sheep, a dairy herd and a saw mill<\/div>\n
all on the same day.<\/div>\n

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John had his flock of sheep.  Eleanor had her herd of cattle.  There lives were contained within that framework<\/div>\n
from which there was no desire to escape. Morning, day, and night labour.   No time to waste?  Not quite true for there were <\/div>\n
hours in the daytime when the saw mill could be put into operation.   Those were my moments.<\/div>\n

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Some Massey Harris beams ready for the saw mill after we made sure there<\/div>\n
wer no nails.   Jus one nail could damage the saw blade.   Most small saw mills<\/div>\n
will not accept used wood beams\u2026nor will they accept logs from city trees<\/div>\n
lest there be a fence bolt or worse buried in the log.<\/div>\n

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The wood grain streaks, along with blemishes from long gone branching points, made the southern pitch<\/div>\n
pine planks, in my mind, an imaginary terrain of farm fields freshly furrowed but interrupted by granite <\/div>\n
boulders pushed down here by glaciers that towered above the land pushed and pushing those stones.  <\/div>\n

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John had other jobs than mine such as this gargantuan piece.  John was  not a man to waste things.   Even the towering skeletal<\/div>\n
dead elms on his farm were worth salvaging.   Once put through his saw mill the spoliated elm planks had a beauty all their own.<\/div>\n
John used these planks with their ghostly markings to clothe the interior walls of the stone house he had almost completed.<\/div>\n

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I am not sure why John is threatening to eat here.  <\/div>\n

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END:  THE JOHN CALDER SAW MILL, BELLWOOD, ONTARIO.<\/div>\n

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NEXT:   EPISODE 287:   WHAT THE CALDER FAMILY WERE DOING OTHER THAN SAWING WOOD<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 2021<\/div>\n

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SAMPLES OF WOOD QUILTS MADE FROM WOOD SCRAPS<\/div>\n

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Post Script   Just a couple of my Wooden Quilts to remind readers that there<\/div>\n
was an end use of some of this rescued lumber.  Small bits and pieces captured<\/div>\n
my imagination so often.  It began with a crumpled sections of snow fence on Uncle <\/div>\n
Norman\u2019s farm.  Each piece of distressed lath looked like a dark and foreboding<\/div>\n
sky.   A little polishing with the belt sander and shaping with the band saw and… \u2018Presto\u2019… the <\/div>\n
busted  snow fence pieces became something real.<\/div>\n

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I made this one in remembrance of an attack on John Calder\u2019s sheep by \u2018pet\u2019 dogs\u2026story <\/div>\n
coming in an Episode<\/div>\n

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These large pictures now hang above fireplace at home and on wall at farm<\/div>\n

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This is an old school near Thornbury\u2026 enclosed in a white pine forest.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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EPISODE  286    MASSEY FERGUSON DEMOLITION        THE JOHN CALDER SAWMILL,  BELLWOOD, ONTARIO alan skeoch March  2021 \u201cAlan, if you ever need some logs cut into planks, bring them up to the farm.\u201d John did not have to ask twice.  On week ends i began moving my Massey Harris beams from Toronto to […]<\/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-8212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8212","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=8212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}