The Grindstone Cowboys play in Portland
July 31, 2011
For film of Saturday’s Sail-past and Salute, check
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PpShfEo6zQ
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Saturday I sat at a picnic table in Hanna Park in Portland while a group of us listened to a very laid-back concert by a group of musicians who call themselves The Grindstone Cowboys. To say these guys and ladies are good is like saying Buzz Boles’s honey is sweet. The event was the second annual Portland on the Rideau Historical Society Sail-past and Salute in celebration of the life of Admiral Kingsmill.
One fellow didn’t seem to be playing an instrument or singing, so I drew him aside for a word. He introduced himself as David Bearman, summer resident of Grindstone Island. “The Cowboys are an eclectic collection of musicians who turn up at the Island on long weekends to make music.” I asked about his role as patron of this obviously talented group.
“It’s a very extended family, though not one is a blood relative of mine. I provide wine and cheese.” He pointed to the inscription on his T-shirt: “Three things that age well: cheese, scotch, and ‘King’ David.”
The group slipped from “Hallelujah” to “Folsom Prison Blues,” and the kid playing violin by ear didn’t miss a note. Somebody behind the tree worked some mellow riffs out of a harmonica.
What struck me about this group of musicians was the ease with which they and younger family members contributed to the songs from their small circle of chairs under a tree. There is way too much talent and technique here for a garage band. “King” David admitted that several of the members are professional musicians on their way to the Canadian Guitar Festival this weekend in Kingston.
Bearman supports the Historical Society’s work, partly because his summer residence was the home of Admiral Kingsmill, so he has brought the band in each year to provide music for the tribute.
He told me the group’s next gig is at the Corn Festival on Sunday at Wendy’s Market, near Lyndhurst. Bearman warmed to the subject. “Wendy’s Market has a special event on the last Sunday of each month during market season, with musicians, artisans, farmers and chefs invited along for a party at a farm on a dirt road between Morton and Lyndhurst.” He encouraged me to find out more and write a column about Wendy and her operation.
By now they were doing a sing-along version of “I’ll Fly Away” and we stopped to listen to the remarkably clear alto of one of the seated group members. Then the lead guitarist finished off with a squeaky rendition of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”
There’s certainly no predicting the songs the Grindstone Cowboys will perform. On their website they offer a number of original cuts like “Sam McGee,” as well as spirited covers of “Thunder Road” and “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” I hadn’t realized how much all of these songs rely upon their instrumental interludes.
The Grindstone Cowboys are highly competent musicians with a penchant for anonymity through corny pseudonyms. If you get a chance to catch them in concert, they’re well worth a listen. You can also find samples of their work online, especially on CBC3.
It’s an open secret that noted guitarist David Barrett plays steel guitar for the group.
Then Buzz Boles took me aside to show off a treasure the Portland on the Rideau Historial Society has just unearthed. Sim Scovil, grandfather of the recently departed Tom Scovil, revived his grandfather’s store on the waterfront in 1924, serving the Portland community and summer residents until his retirement due to ill health in 1967. Sim made a practice of mailing out to his customers spring and fall greetings consisting of poems he had written and a few personal notes.
Buzz told me they were delighted this week to receive a scrapbook containing a dozen or so of these poems from Frances Quattrochi in Smiths Falls. By interpolation they believe there should be between sixty and eighty titles out there, and they would very much appreciate access to any that readers might have. They want to put together a book of Sims’s work.
If you have or can get access to any of Mr. Scovil’s poems, please contact Doug Good or Buzz Boles, or email prhs@live.ca. Have a look also at http://portlandontario.com.
FALL, 1942 by Sim Scovil
DON’T FORGET THE SOLDIERS’ MAIL
When the troops are busy training,
And perhaps it has been raining,
When discomfort seems the order of the day;
Then a parcel or a letter
Makes a soldier somewhat better,
For he knows he’s not forgotten, though away.
It’s a joyful, gladsome feeling
O’er his senses quickly stealing
As he’ll recognize the old familiar hand;
Like a miser with his treasure,
He’ll gloat o’er it at his leisure,
With a simple joy not hard to understand.
This link never should be broken,
For to him it’s just a token
Of a loving friend who’s ever in his mind;
And he’ll do his duty gaily
For his heart’s uplifted daily
By the thoughtfulness of those he’s left behind.
To you who were able to come to the Lake this summer, thanks for everything. For you who missed the Rideau this season, well, better luck in 1943.
SIM SCOVIL
Drive-by Ice Reports
November 26, 2008
March 20, 2009: We finished sheeting the dock in Newboro this morning, and none too soon. Yesterday’s task was to haul 150 2 X 6″ planks across 100′ of ice to the dock frame. Walking was generally solid in the open, but we had to build a bridge of planks near shore. Beneath the piles the ice was weak in some places, non-existent in others. A cutoff from a 3 X 14″ pine plank went right through apparently solid ice when it was dropped about three feet and hit on a corner. Nevertheless, the ice held out long enough for us to complete the dock.
Vehicles on the ice now in this area? Crazy.
Would I still walk on it? Yes, with precautions against falling through.
March 4, 2009: We’ve spent the last two days driving pilings for my friend’s new dock on Newboro Lake. The ice is strong and thick out from shore, though I put a foot through at one point as I moved from the sloping ice on shore to the flat part. Water levels seem to have dropped steadily over the last two weeks. We had to deal with top water on the ice because a neighbouring boathouse’s bubbler seems to come on in mid-afternoon, pumping its flow onto the ice above. Nevertheless we were able to work with three tractors and a couple of trucks on the ice in fairly close proximity and there was no sign of movement in the ice. Two of the posts we sank partially the day before were frozen so solidly into the ice that we couldn’t break them out today, even though we pounded on them repeatedly with the bucket of an 85 hp tractor. Unless we had left the piles on bedrock the afternoon before and not realized it, the grip of the ice on those 5 1/2″ steel posts remains a mystery.
February 20, 2009: Newboro Lake shows consistent, thick, hard ice anywhere that I have drilled a hole over the last two weeks. This can change quickly, but at the moment I feel comfortable driving my truck on familiar sections of the lake. Last week I explored Clear Lake and the Scott Island bays of Newboro Lake with my Utility Vehicle, and found the same ice depth wherever I drilled. I’ve seen open water in the middle of Clear and up into the Elbow too often for me to trust the ice in the current, though.
February 9, 2009: Yesterday’s attempt to fish on Newboro Lake left everyone with very wet feet, due to the six inches of slush which covered the harbour area. Only one determined crew drove their SUV out to an ice shack. A brief jaunt onto The Big Rideau at Portland showed that the crust of new ice over the slush was only about an inch deep. I retreated to shore as soon as it cracked under my 1000-pound vehicle.
February 6, 2009: A drive around to ice fishing hotspots today yielded discouraging news. According to snowmobilers Brad and Danny Wilson of Chaffey’s Locks, virtually no lakes are currently travelable away from plowed tracks because of slush and deep snow. I drilled two holes on Newboro Lake and one on The Big Rideau and all showed ice deeper than 24″, but the snow accumulation is such that only snowmobiles can travel freely, and they are at great risk of getting mired in patches of slush. While driving on a plowed track on Newboro Lake today I felt my truck wobbling in a manner consistent with a vehicle on very thin ice — I must have passed over a large puddle of slush beneath a crust of hard ice. Surely enough, I soon came upon the tracks of a previous vehicle which had broken through the thin ice into the slush below, but presumably had had enough momentum to regain the surface. I parked close to shore and walked part-way back to the danger zone to drill a hole, but I hit only solid ice where I drilled. The Big Rideau seemed solid on its well-established ice roads, but I didn’t go off them. There were no fish. Neither were there any recent tracks on Indian or Rock Lakes, save for some foot traffic close to the cottages on Rock. Buck and Devil Lakes, as well, have virtually no tracks from traffic. A lone cross country skier set out onto Devil Lake without difficulty.
JANUARY 27, 2007: I spoke to a snowmobiler today who claimed to have recently hit 90 miles per hour on Upper Beverley Lake on good snow conditions. He heard that a party traveling the Upper Rideau got into ten inches of slush above the ice, though. That got my attention.
JANUARY 25, 2009: From the Rideau Ferry Bridge I noticed a lot of ice fishing activity on the Lower Rideau out off Knoad’s Point, so I continued on to Beveridge Lockstation to check for access to the lake. The messages on shore were ambivalent: a road has been plowed to leave a bare-ice route out onto the lake, but a sign posted where the snowmobiles go on said, “Open water in middle: keep to the eastern part of the bay.” The message wasn’t dated, but was well written and in good condition.
On the other side of the Rideau Ferry Bridge I saw a road plowed out onto the main part of the Lower Rideau. There were no tracks of any sort running beneath the bridge with its currents, though.
I noticed at Port Elmsley and again at Chaffey’s Locks yesterday that they’re running a lot of water at the moment. My heart was in my mouth as I watched three nimrods on snowmobiles crossing very close to the open water on Opinicon Lake. Ski Doos and wintering swans definitely should not mix.
JANUARY 19, 2009: To judge by the vehicular activity on The Big Rideau now there must be lots of ice. I haven’t drilled a hole lately, but before the frigid week just ended I found just over a foot of ice in a sheltered bay on Newboro Lake.
Google seems to prefer this article’s address to the one I’ve kept updated. Sorry.
December 26, 2008 The Big Rideau and Otter Lake are frozen as far as I can see from the road, but I haven’t seen any tracks on the ice. Generally there’s lots of evidence of movement around the edges of the harbours, but not this year.
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I encourage you to post your observations. Be sure to identify the location from which you have observed the lake or river in question.
the Walnut Diary 