Like a sepia-toned photo that fades over time, the passing of those born and raised here in Dunvegan weakens the link to our community’s past.Last week, our hamlet lost another life-long resident: Eileen Campbell. She died peacefully at the Glengarry Memorial Hospital on Monday, July 2, 2018 with family by her side. As those who knew her well will tell you, Eileen was more of a “behind the scenes” kind of person. About the most public display of her talents was her role as musical accompanist at the Kenyon Presbyterian Church in Dunvegan.
Eileen was born on September 12th, 1931. She was the fifth of six children born to Bella MacCrimmon and Donald Hugh MacIntosh from Skye. She was very proud of the fact the home farm on Skye Road is still in the MacIntosh family today. And it wasn’t that long ago that Eileen went to see the new barn being built there.
Eileen and her late husband Allistairwere both born in the Dunvegan area and, no doubt, their paths crossed many times. They were married on November 8, 1952 at the Presbyterian Manse in Dunvegan and set up home at the Campbell farm at the top of the hill on County Road 24, west of the crossroads. Allistairhad inherited the property when his father passed away in 1945. Together, Eileen and Allistairfarmed for almost 50 years. They also found time to raise four children: Richard who now lives in Calgary, Brian and Myrna both of whom reside in Dunvegan, and Lorna who settled in Alexandria.
I asked Eileen’s four offspring what their fondest memory was of their mother. They replied, “If we had to pick one, it would be the Christmas dinners she made when everyone was together. It would be a two or three-day process, starting off by making buns and then baking pies for the dinner.”
I am very grateful for the information the family supplied. Their generosity in this time of sorrow is much appreciated. I’m sure I speak for the entire community when I express our sincere condolences.
Save the dates
Dunvegan’s Glengarry Pioneer Museum has two major events planned for July: a nine-day art exhibition… and an outdoor Celtic music concert. While I will explore each of these in more detail in a future column, I wanted to bring them to your attention so you could “save the dates” as today’s bon vivants are so fond of saying.
From July 21stto July 29th, nearly forty local artists will be on exhibit at the Dunvegan museum. The Glengarry Artists’ Collective, a non-profit association of local artists, glass workers, writers, musicians and the like are curating the exhibition. While I’m not entirely clear what they mean, I’m told that the Collective’s objective is to make art a living asset in our area. The exhibit’s official opening, or “vernissage” in art-speak, will be on Saturday, July 21stfrom 1:00 to 4:00 PM. All are welcome to meet the artists, view their works and partake in a few refreshments.
The second date to mark on your calendar is Thursday, July 26th at 7:00 PM. That’s when the museum is hosting the latest in its fresh air musical concert series: “Tartans at Twilight.” The two-hour performance will feature a group known as Agincourtplaying Celtic music from Scotland, Ireland, Brittany and Québec. Masters of traditional Celtic instruments, they will perform rousing jigs and reels, evocative airs, and catchy folk songs. The concert will be held on the museum grounds… or under the pavilion, in the case of rain.
More information on both events will be forthcoming in this space, in the fullness of time. Or, if you’re not into delayed gratification, you can go to the museum’s web site… GlengarryPioneerMuseum.ca.
Wheel before the ewe
There’s no denying last weekend’s “A Stitch in Time” event at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum was very well received. The exhibits were excellent, the demonstrations were fascinating and the weather, while hot, was still marvelous. The only fly in the ointment was the attendance. Or relative lack thereof. An event like this takes a huge amount of volunteer time and to end up with a crowd that can be counted on the hands and toes of seven or eight people is a bit of a letdown.
Contrast this to the annual New York State Sheep and Wool Festival at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, New York. What started out as a bred-ewe show and sale in the 1970s has now grown into a celebration of fibre that attracts well over 10,000 visitors annually and has organizers turning away potential vendors because the demand is so great. True, the Rhinebeck festival has been around for nearly 50 years, as compared to five years for the one in Dunvegan. But I see one other major difference between the two events, and that is “focus.”
From its inception, the emphasis of the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival has been on the raw product: wool and the creatures that provide it. Over time, wool producers and the crafts people who use it have come to see the gathering as a key marketplace. And this, in turn, has attracted all the other things… from a woolens fashion show, a lamb cook-off and lessons in making cornhusk dolls to a hay bale maze for kids and hundreds of other participants. In other words, Rhinebeck put the ewe before the (spinning) wheel and the formula clicked. If local shepherds and fleece growers in our neck of the woods want a comparable outlet, they are going to have to get involved.
A gator’s tale… continued
Last week, I ran out of space when describing an illuminating road trip I took with Dunvegan’s (and one of Canada’s) leading expert on asphalt: Donaldson MacLeod
When I left you, I was about to explore the topic of “chip seal” roads… the ersatz pavement that dreams of being hot-mix asphalt. Also known as bituminous surface treatment or BST, this less-costly paving technique is reserved for roads with less traffic, i.e., concession roads. BST is what the Township uses when irate citizens demand their road be paved… only to discover they traded dust control for increased traffic speeds.
What is a “chip seal” road? Well, it starts with the existing gravel road surface on to which a layer of bitumen is sprayed. This bitumen iscovered with aggregate and then packed down firmly with a steamroller to help embed the aggregate into the bitumen.
How does a BST surface differ from asphaltpavement? Asphalt is produced in a plant that heats and mixes bitumen,aggregate and sand into a composite mixture. This hot mixture is then quickly transported to where the road is being laid.
In the case of a chip seal road though, the bitumen and aggregate are applied one after the other, right on the job site. One limitation of this technique is that a BST surface is nowhere near as thick as asphalt pavement. It’s typically only about 1” thick. Consequently, it has a shorter life span in our harsh climate and is less resistant to wear and tear from garbage trucks, milk transports and school buses.
BST can also be used to prolong the life of an asphalt-paved highway by sealing single and gator transverse, longitudinal wheel track, and centre line cracks. This provides temporarily protection against further deterioration from water and frost damage.
As we headed home along Dunvegan Road, we stopped frequently to access the condition our own ribbon of asphalt. And in the process, Donaldson introduced me to the subjective “science” of road ride scoring whereby the bumps and thumps we lay people experience are rated on a scale of 0 (impassable) to 10 (the silky smoothness of fresh-laid asphalt).
How does our resident pavement expert rate Dunvegan Road in terms of single and gator cracks, ruts, raveling and road ride? Not well. But you already knew that. The real questions are: what comes next — a BST topcoat or fresh asphalt — and when?
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