Arlo's Podcast, Life So Far
Mark of the Beast coming soon. Who will take it and who will not. Biggest eternal decision one can make in this world.
Arlo's Podcast, Life So Far
Tales of the Land: Exploring the Heartfelt Bonds of Family, Animals, and Rural Adventures
After witnessing the profound bond between my uncle and his hunting dog, I began to explore what makes the relationship between humans and animals so remarkable. From heartwarming tales of loyalty and companionship to personal reflections on the deep connection we share with our furry friends, this episode is a heartfelt journey. Recounting my time on the farm, I share stories of Sparky, a clever and dependable horse whose antics left an indelible mark on my childhood. These experiences underscore the unique ways animals enrich our lives and offer unwavering allegiance.
Join me on a nostalgic trip to the countryside, where youthful adventures were the norm and resourcefulness was a way of life. Imagine chasing horses bareback through the trees and witnessing my father's ingenuity as he transformed an old lodge into our family home. In these stories, you'll meet Tony, the mischievous wonder horse, and experience the quirky charm of rural life, with its colorful characters and resilient spirit. It's a tribute to the creativity and determination that come with making a life on the land.
Reflecting on the lessons of unconditional love and unwavering support from family, I recount an adventurous and somewhat chaotic tractor escapade. Despite mechanical mishaps and youthful determination, the silent understanding and forgiveness from my father left a lasting impression. These memories reveal the quiet dynamics of family love that often go unspoken but are deeply felt. Through this episode, gratitude shines through for the parental support that shaped my journey, reminding us all of the cherished bonds that define our lives.
Well, good evening. It's Arlo Johnson and we're in British Columbia at 725, november the 12th Kind of cool, but it's not bad. It's about 45 degrees Fahrenheit and, you know, getting pretty close to the middle of November, pretty good, days are getting shorter. I mean, I didn't realize they were getting much shorter, but they just seem to fly that way. You know, when you think it's only a month and a half until the days start to get longer, we're past something. Then it'll be past the middle of the year again, or no end of the year. I guess. Middle of the year again, no end of the year. I guess I apologize for clearing my throat all the time. It's terrible. I try to keep it down as much as I can. I was going to hopefully talk about something different, the oh, I don't know.
Speaker 1:The thing is it's hard to understand sometimes about what happens in this world between people and the difference between ordinary people and a man and his dog, or a woman and his dog. A dog's allegiance to his master, I guess you'd call it, because I think that's what he considers it to be is completely different than generally. You know, man to man or whatever. There's some pretty good ones, but the actual level of totality that a dog gives to its master is just about unbelievable. I mean it's it is such a rare thing that it's just them that does this, basically just them animal that will do that. They hold their human master, leader, whatever owner, in such high regard for an animal to understand I mean it's like 100% dedication to that person Just total Everything, their life, whatever, and the joy that is built into them to do this. They love doing this. They can't contain themselves sometimes and that's a hard thing to figure out how God could have put such a love or a respect or honor into an animal. There's a lot of people go overboard on animals too. They go to the point where they consider them better than humans, which sometimes they actually do and are, but they still are not that. They are still an animal and they have to be considered an animal at all times. But if you're honest about it and faithful about it, you would be very faithful to that animal, to that dog, and very fair gentle, true, because he has a hundred percent in your service. His whole being is to please you, to do what you want him to do, and he tries his best to try to understand that. That's why sometimes a real, real big bond between a man and his dog, a woman and his dog too, but it seems like a man and his dog, a woman and his dog too, but it seems like a man and his dog happens a little more, especially if it's an outdoor dog. And well, I shouldn't say that I mean indoor dogs too, those dogs that people have.
Speaker 1:I remember my uncle, for instance. He was kind of a rough guy but he had hunting dogs. He had greyhounds. He'd hunt coyotes with greyhounds in the wintertime and he had a blue kind of a dog. I don't know what make it was or whatever, but it was just about fur, was just about partially blue, like a stripe of blue around his neck and white going down the front and whatever. And I forget what he called him again, but anyway I forget. I shouldn't remember that. Anyway, when the dog died he was beside himself. He just hated losing that dog. He dug a hole in the manure pile. He had a big high manure pile. He had a big high manure pile and he couldn't bear to go and bury him there. He had to get someone else to do it. So he got someone to come and bury Buster or Blue or something like that Old Blue and he went to town. He didn't come back for three days. He just went to town and he got drunk. He couldn't stand losing his dog Three days later. That dog was and him were so close that it was like his best friend died very best friend. So that's something that is kind of strange between humans and animals.
Speaker 1:I mean, I remember growing up that we had some big perchant horses. One was called Sparky and the other was called King. Sparky was he was actually the biggest, in a way just slightly bigger, but he was more muscular and whatever, and he was absolutely smart. King was a terrible horse because he had to be. He was balky. If he had to pull a heavy load he'd pull a little and then he'd jump back and Sparky would end up having to pull the whole thing himself and Sparky would hate it. He'd get mad at him. But anyway, sparky was one of a kind, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1:I remember we grew up playing around him, over him, under him, and he was big. We had to climb up on things to get on top of him, and I remember, you know, we'd go to town and we might forget to close the gate down by the water tank. It went out to the pasture. We'd come home. Sparky would be standing in the gate, wouldn't let anybody go out horses, cows, anyone and we farmed with horses for a long time. We had about 20 horses we were farming with and we were farming. This was a pretty big farm and it was flat as can be.
Speaker 1:And when we were plowing we'd start at like 8, 30, 9 o'clock in the morning and we wouldn't stop at noon. We'd go right through till 2 o'clock and then Sparky would just stop Dead on 2 o'clock. He wouldn't go any farther. He wanted to go in and get his feed and water and whatever, get in the cool of the barn at 2 o'clock and that's what it had to be every day, from about 9 to 2, about 4, 5, 6 hours. No, it would be about 5 hours, no more than that. He just refused and he knew exactly when it was. He'd also stop at 10 o'clock in the morning and look around to see where his sugar lumps were, because every morning he had to have a couple of sugar lumps and he liked them sugar lumps. But he knew, like he knew to the minute, he'd stop right on the dot each time and we had to break horses every spring to break new colts and stuff.
Speaker 1:And what Dad would do is he'd wait until it was raining and muddy as heck and he'd take the colt out and he'd get it harnessed and it'd be jumping and kicking and whatever be jumping and kicking and whatever. And anyway he'd get it harnessed and he'd get it hooked up to a wagon in the mud with Sparky. That was the training day. Then it could be raining or whatever else. It went out on the road, a muddy road, slippery road, so the colt couldn't get a good grip on anything slipping and sliding in the mud. And if the colt acted up too much, sparky would reach over, grab him by the neck behind his head and shove him down right into the mud. He'd shove him right down and he'd scare him so bad that the colt would just stand there and just shake, hardly dare to move. But he didn't jump around and kick around anymore. That was it Turn around, go back home, walking very carefully, right along, if not, you know. And that was the training deal and that was breaking horses. That's how he did it. He just did it.
Speaker 1:I terribly, in a terrible resource. Very good and I felt sad for dad when he had to settle up. He didn't want to, but finally this guy came and wanted to buy them so he sold the team to him and it was like selling, selling his children, you know, just hard to do. Yeah, that's, that's how things were, are. Sometimes we get so attached, can't get that attached to a tractor or truck, you know, no, I don't think so. I mean you might like it but you wouldn't get attached like that.
Speaker 1:I made a big difference in the farming. Farming changed a lot from basically you could say, from living things to mechanical things. The first tractors were they were. I grew up driving them and they were rough and they were hard to drive and the steering was so poor and steel wheels in the front the front wheels were kind of didn't have as much weight on them as it should. When you tried to turn in the soft ground, like after you've been plowing or something, and tried to turn around to go back again, it would go and, go and go, hard to turn, take a big circle to turn, especially if it went uphill a little, went downhill a little. It worked better. Then a big change to when we got a tractor rubber, tire rubber, tire tractor. You know big difference, big, big difference. What a jump, what a jump in. You know machinery and mechanical things, huge jump.
Speaker 1:I actually, when I grew up, I was about, I think, seven or eight years old, maybe eight, when the last steam engine came through in the fall with a pulling a big old thrashing machine, a big one, and if we'd come down the road and we were living on this farm quite a good sized farm I was over 300 acres and flat, flat, end-to-end farm, and I remember we were towards the end of the run they had, they had a big run. I think there was 20 teams, guys with, you know, two horse teams and a hay rack was called a team. That was a bundle team. They were the ones who hauled the bundles off the field into the crashing, big, crashing machine and it was big enough that they fed it from each side, just shoveling the big bundles in, just shoveling them in. And you know they had 20 teams, so they two at a time, going up just steady along the field.
Speaker 1:By the time they got loaded and whatever, it was time for them to get in again and the grain was coming pouring out of the machine and the straw pile was getting higher and higher. Sometimes it got horrendously high and the straw pile was getting higher and higher. Sometimes it got horrendously high. But the thrashing machine could throw it, you know, like 50 feet up in the air and then it could turn it and swing it. And I remember one fall I think that was the fall of the steam engine, the last year it came and Dad put him out in just I don't know about, I guess 150 yards away from the barn, 100 yards from the barn, out in the pasture, and he said here's where we'll put this big straw pile. And so he did, and that straw pile got bigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1:When they were all finished and they left, then I think, yes, then Dad turned the pigs out there, let the pigs go to that and they headed right for this straw pile. We didn't have fence around it or anything, just went right fence and they made their home in that straw pile. And they did. They chewed out tunnels in there, about three feet high in there, perfectly round tunnels all through it, going all over the place, like it would just curve and go through around out that side, come in in, go in again. And us kids just had a ball in there. That's one thing about it is pigs never, you know, do their dump or crap or anything in that where they sleep. So there was never any manure in there, none. We could run and play in there and we'd run into them. They'd get scared and turn around back and run the other way. But you know, that's different, that's different. Growing up like that, that's different. What kids would get to do that nowadays and we did that all winter. We played in there all winter. I mean, where could you find a warmer place and more fun to chase around and try to chase each other and we could hide on each other, go down this tunnel, go down that tunnel. That's some different memories.
Speaker 1:I guess it's funny how memories flood back. I mean it really is, you know, like I had a pony. Dad give me a little horse when I was six years old and it was a three-quarter horse. It was a full big horse or anything and not a small pony or anything. It was about a three-quarter horse and I swear he must have had some mule in him or something. He could be stubborn. I rode him to school for years and later on my sister rode on the back with me and the two of us would ride into school two and a half miles, yeah, about two and a half miles and that went on for a while. And later on I was riding him again because I was going to high school and I had to take a ride to Kapalak I think it was about three miles to catch a bus to go to high school. Start with, there was no bus. There was a grain truck with a canvas on top and we rode in the back and we had blankets over us and that was it, bouncing it down the road in the back of this truck. Finally, they got a bus and I had to ride my horse. I think it was about yeah, close to, I think it was pretty near three miles, and I had to feed and stuff. There in the corner I made a deal with this farmer that I could leave my horse there and feed him and then when I got out the bus in the afternoon I'd get on him and ride home. And uh, later on I just used a bicycle, I guess, and uh, so that went on for a while too. I had that horse for 26 years.
Speaker 1:Tony, the great wonder horse, tony, he drove me crazy. Sometimes he drove me crazy. Sometimes he would be out in the pasture and I'd go, tony, here, tony, come on, and he'd look at me and he'd wait till I come. I'd have a pail with a little bit of oats in it and shaking it and he'd hear that he liked the oats and he'd let me get just about to where I could put a rope around his neck or collar or something. And then he'd trot off and stand and look at me and just used to drive me. Oh, I'm going to get you, I'm going to get you. Then, finally, it was like, okay, and like he, if I fell off or something, he'd never leave. He'd just stand right there and he'd wait till I could get up. He wouldn't move. Perfectly good, that way, always Wouldn't leave me at all. Yeah, it was. Uh, I used to ride full gallop, chasing horses through the bush trees and I rode bareback all the time and I'd go full gallop through the trees and I don't know how the heck I did that without hitting something, but he did. He dodged through the trees and he'd chase the other horses. He'd just chase them, yeah.
Speaker 1:Another thing is I remember when this old guy with a top hat, lower hat came driving this buggy, kind of a two-wheeled buggy, and he was driving this big stallion, usually a big white or dappled stallion, and the stallion was so, so charged up, kind of like, you know, snorting and kind of bouncing sideways down the road. And that was this stallion. He came around to service the mares we had and I thought, oh my gosh, and he had this whip on the driving this big stallion, a little fat guy with a bowler hat on, and I thought, man, what kind of a job is this? But anyway, he came around and that's what they did and that thing that got me is that stallion was so, so charged up, with his snorting and bouncing and just going down the road kind of sideways and, you know, kind of sweating and but he was just so full of testosterone or something I don't know. Yeah, yes, total. We used to sneak around at the back of the barn and watch the things that. Oh, wow, let's see, gotta wait for it.
Speaker 1:When we moved from this one farm that we were renting and Dad bought a farm about five miles to the north of where we were, half section, 328 acre farm, no buildings, no, nothing, no. Well, no, nothing, no buildings, no, nothing, no well, no nothing. And, as it turned out, what my dad had done was clear off a little site next to the road sort of, and a farm site, you know, and bush and whatever cleared it off. And he had bought this lodge, a big hall lodge, down by the lake McElhon Lake. It was called Abasa Lodge, it was a big dance floor, huge dance floor, and at the back, across the back of it, was his lean-to kitchen and he bought it because they were shutting it down, they weren't gonna have it anymore. So he bought it and he went there and he half, and then he removed the lean-to kitchen at the back off it. Now that was going to be what half of it was going to be the house and the other half was going to be the bar. That's what he did, and and he waited until November or something like that, I think it was. I remember right.
Speaker 1:And he had tractors and whatever and he had huge, big skids. I don't know where he got these long enough skids, but he had them and he put this hall, half of this hall, and he'd brace up the end that he had them. And he put this hall, half of this hall and he'd brace up the end that he had kind of cut and put it on there and he was skidding it down the road. He cut wires and stuff and went across fields and and he skidded that thing about four miles four miles I think and he skidded it over hills and whatever and right into our yard, pulled one part down below for the barn, took the skids, took it back loaded, actually had these big jacks he had big moving jacks and he lifted this other half of the hull up and put these skids under it again and braced the ends and he had one tractor in front and one behind because it could start sliding and go and he pulled the second part up and he left that up at the front by the closer to the road. That was going to be the house. Then he went back and he got this back end leaned to that was the kitchen and he pulled that up there and put it below the house, between the house and the barn, and then had to build the end on that. That was where we lived While all this other building had to go on. We lived in that Five people, three kids, father and mother, and all in one room.
Speaker 1:Front part was like a kitchen, back part was a bedroom. There was about three beds in there, double beds, two double beds, and I don't know where there was another one. Yeah, and later on that was turned into a chicken house. It was a good size chicken house, but anyway, he finally got a basement dug for the house and with horses it was all with horses and what's called a slip. You had to hang on to it. Two horses pulled it and you kind of dug in the ground and finally filled up a little and then you'd push down on it and it would slide up and then you'd go a ways and tip it up and it would dump it out, go back, do it again and again, and again until you got this eight foot basement. It was a full eight foot basement.
Speaker 1:Then he had to hire carpenters and he had one main carpenter who was going to build house. So first thing he had to do was frame the basement all by hand, no plywood or nothing. It had to be all you know, chip lap and two befores and whatever, and bracing. He had to do that. And then we held rock, all kinds of rock, and put it, put in the frame, into the you know, into the forms, so it's just full of rock. And then we poured the concrete in there and it the rocks were big enough that the concrete would just run through all around the rocks and form and that was a pretty skookum basement. I think it was eight inches and and eight feet deep and then that was sticking out of the ground like two or three feet, I think close to three feet. And then he had this half-hall sitting at one end and it was built up on skids and whatever till. It was absolutely level with this concrete basement that had been poured.
Speaker 1:And what he did was he built planks and they were sitting in this. These planks were sitting on skids and whatever else all shimmed up, so they were perfectly level with not level. They were like six inches lower, exactly because he had all these cylinders from engines with a piston in it and then he used those as a roller. Oh no, he didn't know there was no pistons in a milk. He used the pet, that's, the rollers. They were heavy and strong enough that they could be rolled. Only had lots of them. I don't know how many under each side had to be like 10 or 12 rollers on each side.
Speaker 1:And what he did was I don't know how he pushed it, but he'd push it along and he'd put a crowbar through these cylinders and just adjust them and steer it. He could steer it exactly the way he wanted and steered it right on top of the concrete, kept going all the way and when he got to the end he stopped exactly, exactly, exactly when it was completely right over the top and square. Then he jacked them up and he had, uh, braces or skid wheels inside the basement and he lift, lifted that, took the cylinders out and then he let it down with these jacks just straight down. I thought that was a pretty smart deal. It came down exactly right in the corners, exactly. I had to give him real credit for that. You know, there's no two ways about it. He did a good job of that.
Speaker 1:He didn't have to do that with the barn. The barn just, I think he had. Yeah, we had a footing port around it and the barn was set on that and the one end was built in, again closed off, with doors in it, and we had an actual loft in the ceiling up because it was that high. It was high, it could be a loft. Down below we had cattle, horses, pigs, barn door, big barn door on one end, and well, it was barn door on each end, because I'd go through there with a stone boat and haul manure, drive through there with a little tractor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could tell you a story about that. That's when you're 14 years old and you don't listen, you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, I might as well tell you that they decided that they had to go to town Saturday. It was Saturday and it was decided that I was going to stay home and clean the barn. I was about 14. And the last thing Dad said okay, you use the tractor to pull a stone bowl in there and pull the manure out and dump it out by the slough. But he says, don't go too close to the water in the slough because he'll try to tip it off, because he don't want to shovel it off and if you do that you're liable to slide in with the tractor and everything and it'll be all stuck. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway, I went there, loaded up the manure, piled it on, got on the tractor it was a small Alice Chalmer tractor went out and thought well, I think we'll just see if we can get along pretty close to the edge here and kind of tip it. That way it'd be easier for me to. I got along the edge and the manure was too soft, too close to the water and the tractor just sank to the right and right out into the slough and the manure and the water and everything. I couldn't get it out of there. I had to. Went to the house and I thought now what am I going to do? I was 14.
Speaker 1:We had a big heart part. We used that for braking and we'd plowed with it and whatever. It was a big old two-cylinder boom boom, boom, boom boom thing and big cylinders and you know pretty strong tractor. The only thing was it was horrible to drive because it would have like a one and a half turns of play in it. Go this way, go that way.
Speaker 1:And anyway I thought to myself I gotta get a big. I got to get a big cable. We've got a big cable. I'm going to take this big cable and I'm going to go in behind the barn on the other side of the slough through this bush and you turn around and get the cable across the water, hook it up to the Alice Chalmer and pull the Alice Chalmer right through the slough out to the other end. I said, well, it'll pull it through.
Speaker 1:And I thought, oh so, anyway, I knew how to start this old hard bar. You had to open the pet cocks on it and a big flywheel. You had to turn this flywheel and get these big cylinders going and I had to prime it with distillate little cups on top. And this, what I meant it was a magneto that would kick a real big spark in there and I'd flick it and flick it and finally boom, boom, boom, way it goes.
Speaker 1:I closed these petcocks off and let it idle for a minute and I thought, okay, I can't let it run this very long without water. I've got to get to the water tank and this, this will take about 40 gallons of water. So I got up close to the water tank and I'm looking and that's you. That's too far away, I can't reach that far. I got to get a little closer, so I'm pushing on the clutch a little bit and all of a sudden the clutch grabs a little too much and the tractor rolls ahead about three feet. It rolls three feet and right into the tank.
Speaker 1:And this was a wooden stave tank with iron rods going around it. It just collapsed it in and the water just poured out of there and I thought, oh, I can't do anything about that, let's have it now. I better get a five-gallon can of pale and quickly put water in this tractor. So I scooped it up, got it in there, got the tractor, the tank was there, half broken down, half. There was only maybe eight inches of water left in it. And so I'm going to go around the house.
Speaker 1:But below the house and we had big poplar trees I mean, they were like a foot and a half big. They were big and there was other trees called bengalium. They were bigger, yet they were like a foot and a half, 18 inches or something. Big trees all through there, but they were far enough apart I could drive between them, or I thought I could. Anyway, I got it going, got the cable on and I still haven't given up and I start heading through these trees to get down to the other side so I can get it turned around by the slew and pull the tractor through.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I'm standing and I'm going through there with a clutch in one hand and the steering wheel in the other, and I'm going through, you know, a little at a time, trying to get around these trees, and I finally got, so I had two. It was a tight, pretty tight deal to go through. It rolled ahead and I was trying to steer and I couldn't steer good enough and the right front wheel hit the big tree and broke the axle right off. The tractor just went down on the right side like that and I thought, ah, I've had it. Now I've really had it. And I don't know if you can understand that kind of a feeling Total failure. And it all started with me doing what I shouldn't have done. That even made it worse. So I went in the house and I just sat at the kitchen table and waited. I thought, well, nothing I can do.
Speaker 1:About 4.30, the old 29-inch head rolled into the yard and they got out and for some reason dad didn't come in right away. He looked around and he, he couldn't. He. The tractor was missing, as you can just see. It was missing and he thought where the heck's going on? Here goes walking around, he looks towards the tank. He can see the tank is smashed in. Oh, and he started to look at what was going on and he's just shaking his head. Finally, he walks down to the barn and he looks behind the barn and here's the Alice Chalmers sitting in the sloop, oh my God. He looks to the left and he looks through the big trees and he can see the heart part sitting in the trees, bent over on one side, with the axle broke.
Speaker 1:And I just sat in the house and I waited. He stayed out for quite a while. He walked around and around the yard, around and around. Finally he came in, he sat down. He didn't look at me or anything, but he just come in, sat down. I think he had coffee or whatever and I'm waiting, thinking well, when the heck is the shoe going to drop here? And I waited, nothing. He never said nothing, not a nothing.
Speaker 1:So that went on that night and I thought, well, what the heck? You know, how is he gonna fix it? I don't know. I got a little school tomorrow morning and I don't know. And I forget after that, like that. I think I kind of blanked it out of my mind. I was so disgusted with myself. Anyway, he never once in my life ever said anything to me about that. A few days later he had the tractor back up, fixed, somehow, he had the tank put back together and he had gotten the tractor out of there. I had no idea how he got him out of there, but he got it all back to shape again and never said a word to me. Never said a word.
Speaker 1:That happened to me all my life. That's how he treated me in my whole life as his son. I never heard one cross word ever. He treated me like I was a prince or something and I couldn't understand it. He treated me like like I was a prince or something and I couldn't understand it. Sometimes he'd be sitting and he'd just be looking at me and I'd think what, what's going on? It made me uncomfortable actually, but it wasn't like if it was for me, it's't like. If it was for me, it's just like automatic. Whatever Arlo wants.
Speaker 1:And you know how two people could treat their son like that all their life is hard to believe. But they did. They were just like well, like I said, they just like they idolized me or something, thought the Sun set on me. It really bothered me. They were so supportive of me that it was unbelievable. But anyway, that went on all the time I was home Afterwards, when I was married, and everything else else. If they come to visit. It was just, you know, if we came out to the farm, it was what can we do for you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I, you know, at the time I didn't appreciate it all that much because I got so used to it, but later on I started to realize how they honored me. I couldn't really believe it, but anyway, that's the parents I had on this planet. I could never have got anything better, never. Money couldn't have bought it, nothing. So I'm going to leave it at that now and I'm going to say that I'm grateful. I'm really grateful that I have parents like that. Nothing but good memories from them. Nothing, just good memories. I just hope that they're. I just hope that, hope that they're going to be okay, and that's all we're going to talk about tonight, I believe. So God bless you and we'll see you later.
